Libyan Lament — In the besieged town of Bin Jawad, Abigail Hauslohner meets rebel fighters dismayed by the absence of allied planes. “Sarkozy betrayed us,” one says. “There are no planes,” says another.
Cricket’s Biggest Game — In an op-ed for the New York Times, Aakanksha Pande previews today’s India vs. Pakistan semi-final; …
Orator-in-Chief — Obama’s Libya speech was long on doctrine, but short on details, writes Michael Crowley on Swampland; On Global Spin, Tony Karon explains how the president aligned American and Arab goals.
Sizing Up Social Media — A new study, ‘Who Says What to Whom on Twitter,’ shows that a mere 20,000 Twitter users steal almost …
There is one cricket tradition on the Subcontinent that, unlike those dapper white v-neck sweaters, has endured into the 21st century: cricket diplomacy. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invited Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to attend tomorrow’s semi-final match in the Cricket World …
Broken Promises — TIME’s Krista Mahr meets evacuees in Yonezawa, a city of 90,000 about 60 miles west of the Fukushima plant. There, as elsewhere in Japan, anger is brewing about the handling of the nuclear crisis.
Solidarity — A group of 130 artists plan to boycott the $800 million Guggenheim museum being built in Abu Dhabi, …
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 …
Cheer Up, Mate —Foreign Policy responds to Fareed Zakaria’s cover story on American decline with an essay by Joseph Nye (of ‘soft power’ fame). Nye calls Zakaria’s account “gloomy” and argues that America still has lots to cheer about.
Imperial Expertise — In the National, historian Manan Ahmed argues that an army of overpaid …
In a sign of Pakistan’s increasing instability gunmen attacked and killed Pakistan’s minister for religious minorities earlier this morning. Shahbaz Bhatti, a member of Pakistan’s minority Christian community, had been vocal about Pakistan’s draconian anti-blasphemy laws. And he is not the first: in January, Salmaan Taseer, the …
On Swampland, TIME contributor Mark Benjamin blogs about the breakdown between Washington and Islamabad over the planned trial of Raymond Davis, a U.S. CIA agent responsible for the deaths of three Pakistanis in the city of Lahore. U.S. officials are frantically trying to broker a deal that will avoid a public trial in Pakistan. Benjamin …
The Latest on Libya — TIME writers ponder the possibility of American military intervention, wonder who is in charge and muster some thoughts on Gaddafi’s clothing.
Secret Service — The New Yorker asks if the Times was right to stay mum on Raymond David’s CIA ties.
Child Brides — The Economists ‘daily chart’ shows, quite …
Raymond Davis, meet Aaron DeHaven. Davis is the U.S. diplomat — or alleged CIA contractor, depending on which account you believe — arraigned on murder charges in Lahore, with Pakistan thus far unmoved by his claim of diplomatic immunity following a shooting incident that left two Pakistanis dead. DeHaven is a security contractor …
It has been fascinating to watch New Delhi’s reaction to the Raymond Davis case. For all the unknowns about the CIA’s contracted spy detained in Lahore on murder charges, Davis’ arrest, the U.S. reaction and the furious Pakistani backlash seem to have made it plain that the relationship between the CIA and ISI is broken, as Kathy …
