Last week, the Guardian broke the news that in the run-up to the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, the CIA used a vaccination campaign as a ruse to get DNA evidence from the al-Qaeda leader’s kids. With help from a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, they set up clinics in two neighborhoods, delivering doses of the Hepatitis B …
What Comes After the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process?
An Italian philosopher once remarked that moments when “the old is dying and the new cannot be born” are marked by a “great variety of morbid symptoms”. Watching the machinations of the Obama Administration and its allies, the Palestinian leadership and its rivals, and the Israeli government ahead of a planned U.N. vote on …
China Sees Red After the Dalai Lama Visits Obama
President Barack Obama’s interactions with the Dalai Lama have always been an awkward dance. Meeting with a fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, especially one as widely recognized and respected as Tenzin Gyatso, would seem to be the sort of thing Obama would welcome. In the U.S. political scene the Tibetan spiritual leader is the …
China’s Religious War: Cardinal Zen Talks Beijing and the Vatican
For the third time in a year, China has declared war on the Vatican, according to one preeminent Cardinal. The Chinese government-sanctioned Catholic Church ordained Joseph Huang Bingzhang as a Catholic bishop July 14 in the city of Shantou, in southern Guangdong province. The move was made despite the express opposition of the Pope. …
Cover Story: How Murdoch Will Struggle to Preserve His Influence
The tabloid saga gripping Britain — a tangled tale of criminality and corruption, of politicians in thrall to the power of the press and of police in the press’s pay — has elements of farce but even more of tragedy. Take Graham Foulkes, whose 22-year-old son David was one of 52 people killed by suicide bombers in London six years …
Couch Potato Briefing: Harry Potter Special
This week’s Global Spin round-up of rental movies to watch this weekend takes its cues from the release of the last Harry Potter film — here are five flicks from around the world all steeped in their own magic.
Kiki’s Delivery Service
Hayao Miyazaki is a veritable …
Third Time Lucky? Murdoch Finally Accepts U.K. Chief Exec’s Resignation As FBI Launches News Corp. Investigation
In an affair that intrigues and baffles, perhaps the most puzzling question was this: why on earth was Britain’s highest-ranking redhead after Prince Harry still clinging on to her job at the helm of News International, News Corporation’s London-based subsidiary—and why did Rupert Murdoch seem so determined to keep her there? Those …
America or China? The World Has Already Decided Who’s No. 1
Who’s the world’s new superpower? China, according to a poll by Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, which surveyed more than 27,000 people globally:
In 15 of 22 nations, the balance of opinion is that China either will replace or already has replaced the U.S. as the world’s leading superpower…This especially is
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Is the CIA Helping Run a Secret Prison in Somalia?
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 …
Guatemala’s Kaibiles: A Notorious Commando Unit Wrapped Up in Central America’s Drug War
In Guatemala’s northern Petén department, May 14, 2011, felt a lot like December 6, 1982. In May, on the Los Cocos ranch near La Libertad, 27 campesinos were slaughtered and decapitated by henchmen of a bloodthirsty Mexican drug cartel, the Zetas – whose ranks include former Guatemalan army commandos known as Los Kaibiles. …
The Saga of Bibi Aisha Is a Reminder of What We Owe Afghanistan, and What It Owes to Itself
The revelation that the only man ever arrested in connection to the brutal maiming of Afghan teen Bibi Aisha has been set freea mere six months after being taken into custody should not come as a surprise. Dismay and frustration, to be sure. But given the current state of justice in Afghanistan, not to mention official disregard …
From the Magazine: The Rise of Moderate Islam
As we wait for the Salafi leader Kamal Habib at the Cairo Journalists’ Union, a sudden panic comes over me. I’ve just noticed that my translator, Shahira Amin, an Egyptian journalist, is wearing a sleeveless top and that her hair is uncovered. In my experience, Salafis, adherents of a very strict school of Islam, take a dim view of such …
Poll Finds Palestinians Disenchanted with Hamas, Iran and the Peace Process
Palestinians are trudging down the same long road as Israelis. Yes, they want peace. No, they don’t think the other side will play ball. So for now their priority is private life: Getting food on the table and keeping the kids safe. That, at least, is the picture painted by a new survey of 1,010 Palestinians interviewed face to …