The reportage in the course of the day presents a slightly more nuanced take on the government shut down of the private Channel 1 television station. On the one hand, though the channel has gone through several iterations of leadership and journalistic talent, the news programming certainly was less frivolous than other outlets. On the […]
The last few days have seen significant uproar in the Indian parliament and media about the alleged wire-tapping of four senior politicians in India. The Outlook Magazine reported that telephones of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat and Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh were tapped by […]
The always provocative Ahmed Rashid has another worthwhile column in the Washington Post about the US and Karzai government negotiating with the Taliban that tangentially brought up an interesting issue: How would American voters react to American talks with the Taliban? This is obviously an important factor as there will inevitably be some form of […]
All is not lost in Russia. Though deprived of meaningful political democracy, its citizens can still vote with their wallets and cinema tickets. And their hearty rejection of “Burnt by the Sun 2”, Russia’s most expensive movie showed more than mere disgust at the laughably bad WWII ‘epic’ or the bloated vanity of its sycophant […]
The Awami League government has now shut down another television station in the span of less than six months. This is the second such censorious clamp-down since the Awami League returned to power in December 2008. This is a troubling move, for the official excuse for the revocation of the license to broadcast seems like a […]
Stories that have caught my eye in recent days: British journalist Andrew Jennings does not have much nice to say about FIFA and its dealings with South Africa for the World Cup. On the one hand, the people of Sudan appear to have re-elected President Omar al-Bashir. On the other hand, at least Southern Sudan […]
It appears that Zimbabwe and Iran are close to striking a deal in which Zimbabwe will share uranium with Iran in exchange for oil. Because there is no more cunning move than going from being a largely ignored pariah to engaging with a pariah that is on the west’s radar, which seems certain to double […]
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/YGvlwvB3O24″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] As Al Jazeera reports Iran’s football federation says it is sending a delegation to Fifa – the international football association – to urge the Geneva-based association to overturn its ban on the hijab. The ban effectively prohibits the Iranian women’s team from playing in the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore this August. Fifa says the dress contradicts […]
An interesting aspect of India’s defense strategy today is its focus on increasing its naval power, currently the fifth largest in the world. Last month, the Woodrow Wilson Center hosted a panel to discuss this “dramatic maritime transformation.” Within the next decade, the country plans to introduce 40 new warships and 400 new aircraft to […]
The Commerce Ministry of Bangladesh was set to lift a ban on public commercial import and exhibition of Indian films in Bangladeshi cinema theaters. That move will now be scrapped. The Commerce Minstry was set to lift a ban placed on exhibitions of Indian films in 1972 to nurture Bangladesh’s then nascent film industry. […]
National Security Advisor Gen. Jim Jones gave a rousing pro-Israel speech at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy last week, expressing the Obama administration’s continued support for Israel. Meanwhile, speculation continues to swirl that the White House’s has instigated a crisis in relations between the two countries, spurred in part by disagreements on settlements […]
Richard Samuels and Robert Madsen have a thoughtful piece on US-Japan relations in The National Interest, in which they push for a “limited liability partnership”: “a cooperative scheme in which Tokyo’s military role is scaled back significantly and the U.S. presence in Japan is rendered less onerous.” The strength of the article lies in its […]
As a consequence of a court decision last year – concluding that German constitutional law required more parliamentary oversight over EU decisions – the German Bundestag and Bundesrat are required to vote on the Icelandic bid for EU membership. The German parliament’s say on these matters make it unique among the parliaments of member states. […]
For those interested in the J Street vs. professor Alan Dershowitz debate that reached a climax earlier this year at the AIPAC conference, the feud has been elevated to new heights, with both groups chiming in to lambaste one another. Dershowitz threw the latest punch, alleging that J Street could no longer claim to be pro-Israel, noting […]
Malaysia: PM Najib Razak has launched an economic reform initiative, the New Economic Model (NEM), which is geared to transform Malaysia into a developed nation by 2020. The problem with this lofty goal is that Malaysia is currently facing ascending competition, a marked decrease in foreign direct investment (FDI), and the fact that this reform […]