Over a phone call, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered her support to Grameen Bank founder Dr. Md. Yunus. State Department spokesperson Phillip J. Crowley said that “Secretary Clinton spoke yesterday with Dr Muhammad Yunus and expressed support for the independence of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.” It’s not just that Mrs. Clinton offered […]
The Great People’s Day, conceived by a handful of Azerbaijani opposition figures as a country-wide day of symbolic protests and local rallies, was held as scheduled on 11 March, and was for the most part a non-event. Arrests took place as soon as protesters assembled in various locations, although reportedly one group managed to march […]
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ pointed critique of NATO’s run toward the exits in Afghanistan was a much needed corrective to all the lead laden diplomatic talk in Brussels, Washington D.C. and Kabul. (You can find a complete transcript of his remarks here.) The war is a strategic draw nearly 10 years out; leaving now, […]
An 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit the the northeastern coast of Japan earlier today and triggered a 10 meter tsunami that has killed hundreds of people with the death toll expected to rise. Tsunami warnings are in place for several countries including Indonesia, the Philippines and the U.S. west coast. More details on southeast Asian countries […]
A magnitude-8.8 earthquake hit off the coast of Japan near Miyagi prefecture at 2:46 p.m. local time today (a little over an hour ago), followed by a 7.4-magnitude aftershock about 30 minutes later. The earthquake triggered a 13-foot tsunami that wiped out cars along Miyagi’s coast. Much of Japan’s northeast coast has been affected. Live […]
On Wednesday, at a memorial service for former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, current Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decried the settlers “price tag” policy, a nebulous strategy which seeks to inflict violence and/or damage to neighboring Palestinians and their property. “I am certain Begin would have expressed grief and shock regarding this same small and […]
The Horn of Africa is one of the most complex and conflicted regions of the world. Each of the countries of the Horn—Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Sudan—suffers from protracted political strife, arising from local and national grievance, identity politics and regional inter-state rivalries. The ongoing crisis in Darfur, the rise of the Union of […]
NATO and Afghan forces killed President Hamid Karzai’s cousin, one Yar Mohammed Karzai, 60 years old, during a night raid against suspected Taliban commanders. NATO and Afghan forces searched the village of Karz, the ancestral home of the Karzai clan and detained Farid Karzai, Yar Mohammed’s son’ under suspicions that he was a Taliban commander. […]
Charlie Rose put together an excellent conversation panel on General David Petraeus’ upcoming testimony to Congress. It features Retired General Jack Keane, columnist David Ignatius and James Shinn, a former policy maker, now academic at Princeton. The talk is lively, important, and perhaps most importantly, well worth your time. Please find the entire conversation here.
The United Nations accused Israel of kidnapping a Palestinian engineer while in Ukraine, with his wife contending that the abduction occurred to hinder work at an electrical plant in the Gaza Strip. According to Ynet: Abu Sisi’s Ukrainian wife, Veronika, 32, alleges the Israeli secret service Mossad carried out the abduction in order to sabotage […]
This week the White House announced that Gary Locke, current Secretary at the U.S. Department of Commerce would success outgoing U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, who is stepping down to possibly run for president. Mr. Locke is one of the two first ever Chinese-Americans to serve in the Cabinet, and is well known and […]
This week, both Denmark and Britain upgraded the status of the delegation of their Palestinian representatives. Both European nations moved their delegations from the third-ranked “general delegation” up to “mission.” While this means very little on the ground, it is a sign of warming relations between parties. And that is not all. Denmark and Britain […]
Yesterday, King Mohammed VI of Morocco gave a groundbreaking speech in which he proposed substantial constitutional reforms. What’s even more interesting is that the proposed reforms were not a knee-jerk reaction to the recent protests in Morocco, but rather the follow-up from several initiatives the King introduced over the last couple of years. Check the […]
There are many positive conclusions to draw from the fact that six prominent Kenyans will face charges before the International Criminal Court (ICC) from their roles in fomenting violence during the country’s post election crisis in 2007-2008. Accountability has been all too rare in these sorts of circumstances across the continent, which his given men […]
Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Ryuichi Doi admitted Wednesday to signing a declaration that Japan should give up claims to the Liancourt Rocks during a visit to South Korea in February. The Liancourt Rocks are a group of two islets and 35 rocks in the Sea of Japan about halfway between Japan and Korea. They […]