The presidents of Syria and Lebanon are scheduled to meet next Tuesday in Damascus to discuss the relationship between the two neighbors, as well as how recent developments in the region might affect them. Meetings between Lebanese and Syrian leaders are growing more commonplace, as their once frosty relations continues to thaw at a steady […]
This is an update to an earlier blog post concerning the Burmese Junta’s nuclear ambitions and the aid it might be receiving from North Korea. Last year, the Japan Times ran an article on this topic, now Al-Jazeera has aired an investigative report. In the strategic footsteps of North Korea, Myanmar’s leaders are also building […]
Group B, projected order of finish (top two, in bold, to advance): Argentina, Nigeria, Greece, South Korea. Comments: This is a pretty strong group with no real weak sibling but with each team having weaknesses.Any of these teams could advance. Any could finish bottom of the group. Argentina is led by a hero and madman […]
After 25 years and an alleged human toll of 25,000, an Indian court today convicted seven former Union Carbide (UC) officials of negligence for their role in the Bhopal gas tragedy. The former employees, all of them Indian, were sentenced to two years in prison and fined more than $2,200 each. The verdict has enraged […]
Using data from population surveys from 1982 to 2005, an international group of researchers estimated that in Bangladesh, losing a mother implies that a child has about a 25% chance of reaching 10 years of age. The numbers speak for themselves. Those who did not lose their mothers had an 89% chance of reaching the […]
The travel that will culminate in my arrival in South Africa just hours before the Bafana Bafana-Mexico game starts today, though I should be able to write fairly regularly. I leave you with three World Cup-related questions to ponder: Does C’ote d’Ivoire need Didier Drogba to step in again to prevent the country from descending […]
European governments and economic experts have spent the last two months trying to reassure the rest of the world that Greece and the Eurozone would not become the Global Financial Crisis-Part Deux. One Trillion dollars or Euros, however it is counted, has not been the silver bullet that would kill the fears of economic troubles […]
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heads to Peru today for the meetings of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States, which will be held in Lima. Her trip will also include stops in Ecuador, Colombia and Barbados, and she’ll already be back in the States on June 10 (Thursday). The trip has nothing to […]
In the run-up to the World Cup I am going to try to preview each of the groups. I leave for Johannesburg (via Addis Ababa) on Wednesday, so things might get a bit hectic. Each preview will be brief and soon enough you’ll likely be able to mock me for being very, very wrong. Most […]
Jamaat-e-Islami has hitched up with the BNP again and has endorsed the much bandied program of strikes and protests against the sitting government. Jamaat has agreed to join the June 9th sit-in and has promised full-throated support of the planned late June “peoples” strike. Though the ostensible reason that a Jamaat spokesperson offered was “to […]
The government of Bangladesh has decided to unblock Facebook access. Even though the government has been more militantly aggressive with its stance on critical media projects and outlets, this outcome was inevitable. Facebook has no interest in witnessing more Muslim majority countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan block access to tens of millions of users–really, […]
The Daily Star reports that a little more than half the funds allocated for the annual budget has been spent in the nine months of the current fiscal year. The reason? The government had lower subsidy and interest payments this fiscal year than was projected. The Daily Star fails to report the reason why this […]
What is an EU diplomat? So far the term has covered a wide scope of diplomats of European origin. It can mean a European Commission official (the only truly European institution), a European Council official or even a diplomat from one of the member states. This state of affairs has been marked by the so-called […]
This week’s New York Times travel section includes six South Africans providing advice for visitors to five different cities.
In a show of opposition to the Israeli government and the blockade on the Gaza Strip, thousands of protesters gathered in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square last night. We were driving around the area and there was some traffic congestion and we know something was afoot. However, the 15,000 protesters were barely a blip on the radar and […]