Japan’s Pain —Bill Powell has the latest on the nuclear situation; Michael Schuman weighs in on the global economic impact of the disaster; LightBox showcases pictures of the aftermath.
Bad Times in Bahrain — In a dispatch form Manama, Karen Leigh shows how the country is caught between Iran and Saudi Arabia; On Global Spin, Aryn …
Because what’s Obama going to do, after all – impose sanctions and stop importing oil? Saudi Arabia’s decision to send troops to Bahrain to help the monarchs next door crush a democratic rebellion is a barely disguised slap in the face to the Obama Administration, and further evidence of Washington’s diminished influence over Middle East …
Captain Yokoyama knows all about nuclear hazards. The Hiroshima native’s great-uncles and great-aunts were killed by the American atomic bomb that leveled the Japanese city at the end of the World War II. Yet here he was in the town of Natori, little more than 50 km from the site of the Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was damaged by …
The specter of a full-blown nuclear disaster loomed over Japan on Tuesday morning after the third reactor explosion in four days occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant just after 6AM. By noon, employees were scrambling to contain a fire in another reactor, and reports were trickling in that radiation had been detected in …
It’s the question that always makes me cringe. “Where are you from?” asks the taxi driver/shopkeeper/doorman/interviewee. I don’t lie, but in Pakistan or the Middle East I know that answering “American” can sometimes be met with a fusillade of angry observations about the evils of America’s foreign policy. Until recently, …
Nuclear Fallout — Hannah Beech reflects on how Japan copes with tragedy; Krista Mahr meets tsunami survivors; Bill Powell has the latest on the situation unfolding at Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
Prelude to a Proxy War? — With Saudi troops deployed in majority Shi’ite Bahrain, Iran issues a stern condemnation.
Requesting …
Muammar Gaddafi blamed a coalition of drugs, alcohol and Osama bin Laden for inciting Libyan youth to reject his dictatorial rule. Somewhat more credible commentators, including my colleague Bobby Ghosh, warn that the collapse of the Yemeni regime could boost the AQ affiliate Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, yet such concerns have done …
India overtook China to become the world’s leading arms importer, according to the Stockholm Peace and Research Initiative (SIPRI), a Swedish think tank that monitors international weapons sales. Between 2006-2010, India received 9% of global arms transfers, the most for any nation, with the vast majority of those imports (82%) coming …
The Indian newspaper The Hindu has published an absorbing, multi-story Wikileaks package today about 5,100 diplomatic cables covering everything from India-Pakistan relations after the November 2008 terror attacks to the end of the Sri Lankan civil war and influence-peddling in Nepal. There are also some revealing behind-the-scenes …
The problem with the West imposing a “no-fly zone” over Libya — and the problem of Libya’s revolution itself — was highlighted in Monday’s bizarre request by the rebel leadership for Western powers to assassinate Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. That demand, which rebel leaders in Benghazi said their representatives had made when meeting on …
Natural disasters set off a wave of charitable giving from all over the world: but just as inevitably, they bring out all manner of fraudsters looking to cash in on global sympathy.
How do you tell if the charity soliciting your dollars for Japan is on the level? The FBI has a timely press release with useful ways to avoid dodgy …
Tomeo Suguwara leans into the hill, carrying a large, empty straw basket. Behind him, a few houses are left where a neighborhood used to be. For the third day in a row, the farmer has been feeding a calf he found wandering around the detritus of people’s kitchens and bedrooms after the tsunami swept through this village in Kesennuma. …
Japanese is one of those languages that is full of untranslatable words that define a unique culture. Gaman is one of them. It means something like the art of endurance, with a good dose of stoicism and resiliency mixed in. Gaman is what Japan in the wake of the killer earthquake and tsunami has displayed in abundance.
To riff on …
