An interesting exposé in The Nation, the left-of-center U.S. newsweekly, explores how the CIA has participated in the running of secret detention and interrogation centers in Somalia. The article’s author, Jeremy Scahill, claims the CIA mans an operation in a “sprawling walled compound” by Mogadishu’s airport and sends out …
Global Spin’s weekly guide to five rental movies that will bring you up to speed with with the past week’s global events. Compiled by Tony Karon and Ishaan Tharoor.
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Citizen Kane
Charles Foster Kane, the rapacious media baron relentlessly acquiring assets and starting wars …
Abdul Qadeer Khan is tired of being a scapegoat. The controversial father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb shared hi-tech secrets and equipment with a host of rogue regimes — including North Korea and Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya — earning himself international notoriety and a 2005 TIME magazine cover that dubbed him “the Merchant of …
Renowned as sites of great spirituality and stunning architecture, India’s myriad ancient temples draw tens of millions of devotees and tourists each year. But it’s been a long time since any of its many hallowed shrines were in the news for possessing something altogether more mundane: a vast golden treasure, worth approximately $22 …
As Greece withstands the second day of a 48-hour general strike shutting down much of the country, it’s worth considering the history of this radical, dramatic tactic. The pervasive feeling in the debt-ridden Mediterranean country seems to be a sense that something has altogether broken in their society. One middle-aged Greek told TIME …
If Egyptian strongman Sayed el-Essawy gets his way, he may be dead by this Saturday. In supposed honor of the start of the uprising against the dicatorship of Hosni Mubarak (Jan. 25), el-Essawy intends to take on a 600-lb lion June 25 and beat it, perhaps to death, with his own hands. It’s a showdown he claims will promote tourism in …
Adel al-Gazzar is possibly the last person who deserves to go from the frying pan into the fire. After losing a decade of his life to the cruel exigencies of the war on terror, the 46-year-old returned to his native Egypt for the first time last week, only to be seized by security officers and flung into jail upon arrival. Al-Gazzar had …
Your weekly installment of rental movies to watch this weekend that reflect news around the world. Presented by Ishaan Tharoor and Tony Karon
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Traveling Players
As hundreds of thousands of Greeks took to the streets this week to resist an economic austerity program they believe …
Libya-related chatter in the U.S. on Wednesday seemed to revolve around how the White House was going to wriggle away from stipulations of the War Powers Act — Swampland’s Jay Newton Small has the answer here. Evidently, the U.S. is acting in a “support” role, with no boots on the ground, and is “not engaged in any of the activities …
According to a report on CNN.com, NATO officials overseeing the aerial bombing campaign against the forces of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya could target positions nestled within an ancient complex of Roman ruins. Rebel sources claim that Gaddafi troops have stashed rocket launchers and other military equipment at the site of the ancient city …
First, let’s be clear: China and Vietnam are not about to go to war. But the current atmosphere of tensions, outlined by Beijing correspondent Austin Ramzy last week, leads one to wonder. On June 13, Vietnam conducted live-fire exercises off its coastal waters in the South China Sea. Vietnamese officials claimed the act had little to …
The New York Times claims the U.S. managed to turn around a North Korean ship, allegedly bound for Burma carrying weapons parts used to make missiles. The article, quoting anonymous American diplomats present at a meeting in Washington with dignitaries from a number of Southeast Asian governments, details how the American warship U.S.S. …
[youtube=http://youtu.be/Rx-nifsdD00] Warning: Video contains graphic footage.
A video of Pakistani paramilitary soldiers shooting an unarmed young man in Karachi and leaving him to bleed to death has stoked growing anger at the country’s military. Sarfaraz Shah was stopped by soldiers in the Sindh Rangers, an outfit of the army …
