During last week’s Songkran festival, three Thai teenagers danced topless in front of a crowd in central Bangkok. The footage was uploaded to the Internet and went viral, sparking a nation- and region-wide scandal. The police promised a crackdown and politicians denounced the incident as an affront to Thai culture and a national …
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Global Briefing April 20, 2011: History Lessons and Mission Creep
Mubarak’s Fate — Post-revolutionary Egypt is fascinated by the fate of the former president, his sons and their alleged cronies, reports Abigail Hauslohner from Cairo. But the question remains: what will justice look like?
Artists Under Siege — In an op-ed for the New York Times Salman Rushdie urges the international community to …
Will Facebook Censor for a Shot at the Chinese Market?
The story is headlined “Facebook Seeking Friends in the Beltway,” but one quote seemed destined to make the social-networking giant a few enemies. In a story today about Facebook’s efforts to expand its lobbying efforts in Washington, the Wall Street Journal quotes a lobbyist saying the company may censor some content
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With a Month to Leave, a Japanese Village Weighs Options
IITATEMURA — Spring got off to a something of a false start this year in Iitatemura. On Tuesday afternoon in the farming village in Fukushima prefecture, cherry blossom petals fell to the ground with flurries of snow. Roadside bursts of daffodils hung heavy under white slush, and fields of rice, flowers and strawberries, dusted in …
Global Briefing, April 19, 2011: Surprise, Surprise!
Rapprochement — The Economist notes the sudden silence on the notoriously deadly India-Bangladesh border. The neighbors still disagree on matters of trade, transportation and territory, but the drop in violence is good step forward, they say. Read TIME’s take on the border, here.
Revolving Doors— French strike craft pummeling …
Al Jazeera Correspondent Slams Chinese Coverage of Arab Uprisings
In recent years China has greatly expanded the global voice of its state-run media. The goal is to boost China’s image abroad and to counter the influence of Western media outlets, which some people believe are overly critical of China. In doing so China has looked to the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network as a model of how non-Western media …
Another Sunday, Another Crackdown in Beijing
For Beijing police, Sunday is hardly a day of rest. In February an online call for Sunday protests in major Chinese cities including the capital touched off a widespread detentions. This month a Beijing church has twice attempted to hold Sunday services outdoors, and both times its members were confronted by security personnel. While the …
Global Briefing, April 18, 2011: Bad Advice and Salty Humor
Colonial Legacies — Does Sarkozy’s push for military action in Ivory Coast and Libya constitute a return to the bad old days Françafrique? asks the New York Times.
Truth or Truthiness — The American television show 60 Minutes says they’ve found inconsistencies in Greg Mortenson’s AfPak memoir, Three Cups of Tea. The …
Global Briefing, April 15, 2011: Watch Dogs, Dictators and Moral Dilemmas
After Gaddafi— The strongman’s departure is not necessarily the end of the Libyan crisis, writes Aryn Baker in a dispatch from Tripoli. “Unless it is done right,” she says, “it might be just the beginning.”
Dictator Dilemmas — In an essay for AJE, Dani Rodrik mulls the ethics of advising the likes of Gaddafi and his sons. We …
Amid Corruption Scandal, China Slows its High-Speed Trains
When China’s railway minister was sacked in February amid allegations of widespread corruption, one immediate question was what effect it would have on his effort to build a world-class high-speed train system. The answer, it emerged this week, is that China’s sleek, white bullet trains are going to ease up on the throttle. Sheng …
Global Briefing, April 14, 2011: Dirty Words and Invisible Hands
War Crimes — The case against alleged WWII criminal John Demjanjuk could be derailed by a once-secret FBI report claiming the ID card used to prove he was a Nazi guard was actually forged, writes Tristana Moore from Berlin.
‘Moscow to Mecca’ — North Caucasus, a territory which stretches from the Black Sea to the Caspian, is in …
Iraq’s Assault on Camp Ashraf: The Tenuous Life of a Fringe Iranian Faction
Update: The U.N. reported on April 14 that 34 people were killed during the raid on Camp Ashraf last week.
Was ever there a stranger lot than the Mujahedin-e-Khalk Organization? Today its military arm stands braced for the worst in Camp Ashraf, a dusty military base tucked into a corner of a once-welcoming host nation, Iraq, that …
Why Egypt’s Generals Need Mubarak – as a Whipping Boy
The decision by Egypt’s current rulers to drag former President Hosni Mubarak and his sons into court next week to investigate allegations of corruption and abuses of power is certainly a crowd-pleaser: The demand for action against the leading lights of the ancien regime had been the key demand of the tens of thousands of protestors who …