Pakistan won the T20 tournament in England defeating Sri Lanka in the finals. Congrats to the team and to the nation as this was no small victory. It was a very tough tournament and Pakistan’s team proved to be the very best in the end. As always, the team started slowly, lost couple of matches […]
Most English-speaking readers didn’t know about Ingushetia until this morning, when its president Yunus-Bek Yevkurov miraculously and barely survived a massive suicide bomb that nearly levelled a whole city block (lending added weight, if any were needed, to Russian officials’ traffic aversion). The headline grabbing stunt, on the anniversary of a bloody 2004 raid on […]
Amidst all the media intoxication with the Iran protests, you can count on Russia to deliver a well-advised downer. Sean at Sean’s Russia Blog helpfully provides a digested read of the press reactions to the post-election unrest. “Iran”, Sean writes, “only highlights the nadir of political change in Russia. “Perhaps,” Kolesnikov writes, “one of the […]
Greenland – posed to be a major player in the Arctic, with an estimated 8.9 billion barrels of oil in the East Greenland Rift – gained greater autonomy from Denmark on Sunday. Greenlanders are now legally a separate people from Danes, and Kalaallisut has become the official language. The New York Times covered the story […]
An op-ed in today’s New York Times condemns Jewish settlements in the West Bank for comparing their existence to Kibbutzim, small socialist collectives in Israel founded to help settle the countryside. Many Kibbutzim obtained funding from the government and praise for helping to expand the Jewish presence in Israel, with an added emphasis on settling […]
When the French Finance Minister says that the EU needs to cooperate with the US, that’s when you know the economic crisis is really devestating! Perhaps that’s a bit unfair to the French, as Ms. Christine Lagarde in part of the most pro-US Government in French history, under Americophile President Sarkozy. But it would also be unfair to […]
The Wall Street Journal published today an op-ed from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the future of the peace process. Amidst false claims regarding the success of Egypt as a peace broker, Mubarak asserts the need for Israel to make a few concessions while the Palestinians must obtain a unity government. The piece, and Egyptian stance […]
Good news – Pakistan won the T twenty tournament by defeating Sri Lanka in the final last night in England. Wow, what a match, and what a tournament for Pakistan. The country needed something big, something spectacular, and this victory did just that. It indeed boosted Pakistan’s moral and it is going to bring the […]
Check out this Council on Foreign Relations report on Winning the Information War in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The work analyzes both American and Taliban/Al Qaeda media usage and effectiveness. Here’s an Exerpt: With overwhelming firepower, Western armies rarely lose in combat to Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. But in the communications battle, the militants appear to […]
Generally when we think of Israel and discrimination, we consider the treatment of Arabs, Palestinians, and immigrant communities. However, a new restaurant opening up in Tel Aviv portrays quite the opposite sentiment. The new restaurant, founded by a group of vegan anarchist activists, aims to oppose any type of oppression, directed at human or animal. […]
Hizballah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah met Thursday night with Druze leader Walid Jumblatt to discuss the aftermath of the June 7 parliamentary elections. The apparent Shiite/Druze reconciliation comes nearly two weeks after Hizballah’s March 8 block failed to win a majority in parliament. Hizballah candidates had a solid showings in their districts, however, and its […]
Drug violence in Mexico has decreased this year, though gruesome narratives still dominate headlines. In the first quarter of 2009 deaths from drug violence dropped 25% compared the same period in 2008, thanks to the deployment of 50,000 troops to 18 anomic locales by President Calderón in February. The violence is shocking, but instructive—while the vast […]
Tomorrow I depart for a (nearly) three-week trip to South Africa. My blogging for the next few weeks will therefore involve some combination of reportage, essays, and something of a travel diary. I will try to post an essay daily, but of course this promise comes with the caveat that I need to have the […]
As Jon Stewart of the Daily Show said, the unwritten understanding between the US & Europe during the US elections was: We elect Obama, you love us again. A survey today in the Wall Street Journal shows that though this has generally true, the view of Europeans regarding the dominance of US culture is somewhat more nuanced. For example almost […]
In order to understand the influence of religion in legislation considered by the Knesset, take a look at an anti fur-importation bill intended to promote humane treatment of animals. The legislation would mandate one year prison sentences for any individual caught importing dog, cat, and rabbit fur. Proponents of the bill claim that some animals […]