President Mahmoud Abbas’ attempt to persuade the U.N. Security Council to admit a state of Palestine as a full member of the international body has, all too predictably, hit a wall. The technical U.N. committee to which the issue was referred , not surprisingly, failed to reach a consensus (because there’s no consensus among Council …
Greek Political Crisis Gets Animated
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Taiwan’s Next Media animators are on the case yet again. As Greece’s Socialists, led by outgoing Prime Minister George Papandreou, struggle to form a coalition government with the rival New Democrats, let this 1-minute primer set it all up for you. With …
Why China Is Right Not to Yield to Pressure on Iran
Following the dissemination of the IAEA’s latest report on Iran’s nuclear program, we’ve now entered the predictable phase of hand-waving uproar. Short of a genuine smoking gun, the IAEA report has still emboldened those who seek tough action on Tehran. Days of war talk in Israel have padded calls in the West for a far tougher …
Sarkozy to Obama: “I Cannot Bear Netanyahu. He’s a Liar.”
Despite the protective efforts of some of the courtlier members of the Fourth Estate, what the President of France said to the president of the United States about the Prime Minister of Israel was on front pages Wednesday, along with what the American president said in reply.
“I cannot bear Netanyahu. He’s a liar,” Nicolas Sarkozy …
U.N. Body Accuses Iran of Nuclear Weapons Research, But Can Military Action Stop Tehran?
The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog has finally lent its imprimatur to the suspicion that Iran is using its atomic energy program to put the means to build nuclear weapons within its reach. That’s the upshot of Tuesday’s report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Iran, making it the agency’s harshest finding yet on Iran’s …
Satirical Video Attacks the Military-Religious Complex in Pakistan
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The video above, posted by a band of 20-something Pakistani musicians in the country’s cultural capital Lahore, has become a viral hit in South Asia. “Aalu Anday” or “Potato and Eggs” starts innocently enough but soon launches into a tongue-in-cheek attack on the …
Boy Interrupted: At 31, Chinese Hoops Star Yao Ming Finally Begins His College Career
During its more than 100 years as one of China’s premier academic institutions, Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University has produced some notable alumni, ranging from former Chinese President Jiang Zemin to Qian Xuesen, an architect of China’s missile and space programs. Now, an even more famous student has joined the college’s …
Memo to Otto Pérez: Central America Needs Fewer Iron Fists and More Decent Cops
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s re-election victory on Sunday, November 6, is widely regarded as an affront to democracy in Central America, since his Sandinista allies on the Supreme Court twisted the Constitution into a pretzel so he could run for another term. But even though Nicaragua is under caudillo rule again, many …
Lessons for the Arab Spring from a Tiny Island Nation
With Tunisian elections just completed, Egypt’s parliamentary elections coming up and Libya veering into a dark new period, observers of the Arab Spring are wondering what will become of these revolutions once the euphoria subsides and the struggle over democracy grows apace.
There is one corner of South Asia where these questions …
France’s New Austerity Measures: Is It Too Late to Put Out the Fire?
French Prime Minister François Fillon unveiled another batch of debt-reduction measures Monday—and in so doing officially removed the word “austerity” from the blacklist of political correctness to which it had been banished. Instead Fillon rehabilitated the term as the weapon capable of preventing contagion of the euro zone …
To Help Dissident Artist Ai Weiwei Pay Tax Bill, His Supporters Try Microlending
Faced with a $2.4 million tax bill, Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei has begun to receive money from thousands of supporters in China—a surprising public rebuke to the official case against him. The campaign has drawn upon the large online following that Ai, 54, cultivated before his 81-day detention this spring. The …
Bracing for the Iran Nuclear Report: Will ‘Military Action’ Rhetoric Develop its Own Momentum?
If the proverbial “drumbeat” for war with Iran has grown more insistent in recent weeks, it’s about to turn into something akin to the opening bars of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man“. That’s because the International Atomic Energy Agency is expected, in a report on Iran’s nuclear program due for release early this week, to suggest that the …
Why the U.S. Should Drop the Embargo and Prop Up Cuban Homeowners
It wasn’t too surprising when Cuba announced on Thursday, Nov. 3, that people on the communist island may now buy and sell private homes. They can buy two, in fact – one in the city and one in the country, perhaps for those weekends when you just need to get away from your neighborhood’s Committee for the Defense of the …