This week the U.S. Senate voted 99-0 to ban future “gunwalker” operations like the Obama Administration’s “Fast and Furious” debacle. “Fast and Furious” was the well-intentioned but awfully executed program headed by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) in Arizona that let hundreds of …
Gaddafi’s Death Starts a Perilous Race for Power in Libya
The ignominious end of Col. Muammar Gaddafi may mark a milestone of liberation beyond the wildest dreams and prayers of his long-suffering people just a short year ago, but it also represents a huge headache for Libya’s fragile transitional rulers: Gone is the common enemy that bound together a diverse and often fractious coalition …
EXCLUSIVE: Mahmoud Abbas Will Offer Hamas Elections in January, Says Aide
When rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas agreed to bury the hatchet in Cairo , the reconciliation pact promised two things: New elections by May 2012, and a caretaker government of technocrats to run the Palestinian Authority until then. That was more than five months ago, and ever since the two sides have been jammed up on the …
Keeping Up with the Gaddafis: A Who’s Who of the Dictator’s Children
With the death of Muammar Gaddafi, TIME looks at the eight children (and one nephew who was adopted as a son) Gaddafi had groomed — to varying extents — to carry his perplexing, brutal legacy forward.
Even Facing Debt Crises, Europe’s Welfare Systems Aren’t (Necessarily) Doomed
Wanted to weigh in with an additional post on the good BBC News piece by Gavin Hewitt that I flagged yesterday. Its main thrust is French Socialist candidate François Hollande—and the European left in general—needs to come up with new solutions to the current economic crisis (and more broadly, compelling visions for the future) if …
“A Small Incident”: Echoes of China’s Tragic Yue Yue Case from Almost a Century Ago
In the week since Wang Yue, the two-year-old girl better known as Yue Yue, was hit by not one but two vans, then ignored by 18 people before finally being rescued by a scrap picker, the Chinese public has agonized over how such a thing could happen, how the suffering of a helpless innocent could be ignored by so many. Several …
Fashion Faux Pas: A Chinese School’s Plan to Force Underachieving Kids to Wear Special Kerchiefs Draws Ire
The Chinese Communist Party may not carry much ideological relevance these days, but millions of Chinese children still wear little red kerchiefs to elementary school. The trademark neckwear of the Young Pioneers—a mandatory Communist Youth League-sponsored program that teaches kids Party discipline—evokes the fighting spirit of …
Good for Hamas? Ramallah Residents Weigh-in on the Gilad Shalit Prisoner Exchange
Just how good for Hamas was the Gilad Shalit deal? A good place to inquire was downtown Ramallah, the West Bank city, just north of Jerusalem. It’s the main stronghold for Hamas’ rival faction, the secular Fatah party led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, popularly known as Abu Mazen. If Hamas is getting props around …
Why Israel’s Netanyahu May Prefer a Waltz With Hamas to a Tango With Abbas
Tuesday’s milestone prisoner exchange does not, repeat does not portend a new peace process between Israel and Hamas. Neither side is even seeking that goal: If the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unable to agree peace terms with the moderate President Mahmoud Abbas, it’s hardly about to seek a “grand bargain” to end …
Will Occupy Wall Street Reach One of the World’s Most Unequal Countries?
In India mass, non-violent protest is not only a founding national principle; it is a highly developed art form. Any journalist working here must quickly figure out the difference between a dharna (sit-down protest) and a bandh (a general strike), and learn the peculiar conventions of the “fast unto death”: every hunger strike must …
Recommended Reading: BBC’s Hewitt On The Sarko-Hollande Battle
For anyone who hasn’t done so yet, I suggest having a read of a very well-focused and evenly-argued story by Gavin Hewitt, Europe editor for BBC News, on the opportunities and challenges for power-seeking European leftist parties at the very moment when French Socialist candidate François Hollande looks like a decent bet to unseat …
Kenya Invades Somalia. Does It Get Any Dumber?
If the history of war teaches us anything, it’s that invading a foreign country is dicey. Storming across too many borders was the undoing of many of the world’s great conquerors, from Alexander the Great to Napoleon to the Nazis. The last few decades of US foreign policy – Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq – only underline how tricky …
French Legal Threat Against DSK Lifted, But Taint Remains
Less than a week after French prosecutors dropped their criminal investigation for attempted rape against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the woman who brought the charges against the former International Monetary Fund chief said Wednesday morning she won’t pursue her accusations further with a civil suit. The decision announced by writer …