The popular uprising against Syria’s brutal regime that appears to be evolving towards full-blown civil war is of course serious business—deadly serious, as the reported 1,110 lives claimed in nearly three months of clashes demonstrate. But it’s also become a major source of head scratching among international observers. Whether …
M.F. Husain, India’s Picasso, Dies in Exile
It’s a great tragedy that a man whose life’s work seemed such a direct reflection of India’s diversity and vibrancy died far from his homeland, made a pariah by narrow-minded religious bigots. On June 9, Maqbool Fida Husain, India’s most famous modern artist, dubbed the South Asian nation’s “Picasso,” succumbed to a heart attack in a …
Swift Justice in Murder that Stirred Anger in China
One month after a traffic fatality touched off widespread protests in the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, a court has sentenced a coal truck driver to death for running over and killing an ethnic Mongolian herder. The rapid trial and sentencing showed the speed with which Chinese authorities have moved to tamp down unrest in …
Another FIFA Fiasco: Iran Women Banned from Olympic Qualifier Over Headscarves
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this week joined the chorus of critics blasting soccer’s governing body, lashing out at FIFA for banning the Iranian women’s national team from an Olympic qualifier on account of their headscarves. The team forfeited the qualifier against Jordan last Friday because they would not play without their …
NATO Hopes to Pass the Buck in Libya, But May Not Be Able to Hand Off Responsibility
“We do not see a lead role for NATO in Libya once this crisis is over,” the organization’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday. “We see the United Nations playing a lead role in the post-Gaddafi, post-conflict scenario.” He urged the international body to begin planning to take charge of a transition in …
Celebrity Yoga Guru Has Indian Politics Knotted Up in Twists
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd_xY5n-7_E]
Hunger strikes in India — a country, incidentally, where millions go hungry every day — are time-tested political tactics to get attention. They’re nothing new in the world’s largest democracy and remain frequently effective. But no fast in recent memory has been quite as …
Jacques Chirac’s Presidential Memoir: A Sarkozy Smack-Down
So much for locking his lips and throwing away the key. Just four years after leaving the Elysée with a pledge to never, ever comment on his successor and erstwhile foe Nicolas Sarkozy, former French President Jacques Chirac is now dishing some less than flattering views on France’s current head of state—and only 11 months ahead of …
Refugee Case Highlights Global Plight of Ahmadi Muslims
Almost 100 Pakistani refugees, including dozens of children and a month-old infant, were freed from a Thai immigration prison on Monday, after a rights group put up a $150,000 bond for their release. The men, women and children, all members of Ahmadiya, a minority Muslim sect, were detained in police raids between December and …
Latin America’s Race to the Middle: Has Humala Renounced Chávez?
This was written by Tim Padgett with Girish Gupta in Caracas
For the past five years, Peru’s economy has had one of the most remarkable runs in Latin America. With the exception of recession-smothered 2009, the Andes nation has generated annual economic growth above 7% and as high as 10%. But even so, a third of Peruvians still live …
Raising the Heat on Gaddafi, NATO Concerns Turn to the Day After He Goes
NATO’s daylight bombing of Tripoli on Tuesday appears to be part of an effort to bring the Libya conflict to a crescendo that topples Muammar Gaddafi: French and British ground attack helicopters have also been deployed in the effort to force the collapse of the regime, and new mediation efforts are afoot — with even the previously …
In Saudi Arabia, Lingerie Reveals All
Majid wants to show me a negligee. Its on sale, and comes with a racy black and red striped thong. When I demur, he eagerly shows me a frilly lace concoction in yellow and tells me that it matches a bra that is also on sale. Quickly he jets a look at my figure, enveloped in a voluminous black abaya and ventures a guess. “D cup?” He …
Something’s Rotten in Europe
TIME’s Leo Cendrowicz writes from Brussels about what the controversy — and hysteria — over E.coli in vegetable produce is doing to the already fraying bonds of the European Union.
Originally the authorities in Hamburg identified the source of the outbreak as Spanish cucumbers. This was not only incorrect but led to an acrimonious
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Should South Korea Scrap Its Mandatory Military Service?
Writing for Time.com, Steve Finch reports from the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas on how the guardians of the South are reconsidering a six decades-old policy of mandatory military service.
Disputes over the nation’s mandatory military service — a policy that has been in place for the full 63 years of the country’s
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