The ICC Cricket World Cup is now underway on the Indian sub-continent. Cricket’s quadrennial showcase will almost certainly reveal the standard haves-versus-have nots division in world cricket, which, while arguably the world’s second most popular sport, does not go especially deep in terms of world-class teams. There are likely nine sides that see themselves as […]
On Sunday, February 20, 2011 Iranians will take to the streets to hold anti-government demonstrations to commemorate the death of two protesters killed during an earlier demonstration on Monday, February 14th. Emboldened by the success of revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, and the unfolding of events in neighboring Persian Gulf states, the Iranian opposition sees an […]
Viewer Discretion is Advised: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwnUQcKXmMM&feature=player_embedded&skipcontrinter=1
Last April, an Egyptian court sentenced 22 alleged members of a Hizballah cell to prison for spying and planning attacks on tourist sites. The leader of the cell was Sami Shehab, a.k.a. Mohammed Yousef Mansoor. Hizballah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah publically confirmed that Mr. Shehab was a Hizballah operative, but he denied the men […]
The following piece was written by Norman L. Epstein, a Toronto-based Emergency physician and human rights activist While oxygen sustains life, freedom enhances its quality. The Arab awakening breathes fresh hope that such freedom may emerge from the suffocating and brutal dictatorships in the Middle East. Nobody knows for certain what kind of political system […]
We’ve been continuing to struggle with shenanigans here at the FPA Blogs but hopefully all has been set right. Recently Britain’s National Archives has put on its web page “Africa Through a Lens,” “a set of thousands of images taken from a broader photographic collection of Foreign and Commonwealth Office images.” The collection provides a […]
Large-scale anti-government demonstrations are planned for Sunday, February 20 to remember the deaths of two protesters considered by Iranians to be martyrs of Iran’s Green Movement. The two were killed during an earlier demonstration on Monday in clashes with the Basiji militias. The Iranian government cracked down ruthlessly on the Monday demonstrations. Large turnout is expected […]
Although the U.S. is an Arctic nation, it’s about to spend the next two years without a heavy icebreaker. The Coast Guard recently confirmed that the Polar Sea will be decommissioned this year, with her crew being transferred to the Polar Star. The latter boat will be undergoing repairs until 2013, leaving the U.S. without […]
The International Monetary Fund is worried about Afghanistan‘s economy . The under-reported, though devastating charges of fraud and malfeasance that surround the September 2010 run on Kabul Bank threaten to bring down the nascent Afghan banking sector. However, the fiasco has also had wide-ranging political effects in Afghanistan and within U.S. and NATO diplomatic circles—even if […]
In his budget proposal for 2012, President Obama has proposed $3.1 billion in aid to Pakistan. The aid is spread across various parts and will be provided partly under the five year Kerry-Lugar-Berman initiative and Oversees Contingency Operations (OCO). This proposal comes even as the two countries stand-off over the Raymond Davis affair and the […]
In January 2011, Uzbekistan’s president Islam Karimov made a controversial visit to Brussels and met with both E.U. and NATO officials creating somewhat of an uproar among human rights activists. His European visit drew attention and sharp criticism towards renewed Western engagement with a state that violates human rights and personal freedoms, remains corrupt, brutally […]
EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, has her detractors. For clarities sake, let it be said that this blogger is not one of them. For sure, the EU’s foreign policy, which Ashton is head of, is far from optimal. It lacks both coherence and clout, in particular when it comes to the “hard” security and […]
On the Joy Behar show, Helen Thomas defended her blatantly anti-Semitic remarks telling Jews to leave Israel and go back to Germany and Poland where six million of their ancestors were systematically murdered based solely on their religious beliefs. Thomas makes the ignorant remarks that Jews were no longer persecuted after World War II and […]
STRATFOR recently released a report challenging the oft-invoked statistic that 90% of firearms seized in Mexico come from the U.S. To be clear, the statistic is derived from a 2008 GAO report compiled on data reported to the ATF. Of the roughly 30,000 weapons seized in Mexico, information was reported to the ATF on only […]
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu proposed a sweeping economic package late last week to appease criticisms that his government assists the rich more than the struggling middle class, although the reforms really represent his effort to retain power after the next round of elections that will be held in 2013 at the latest. The recent […]