Dissident troops have moved into Madagascar’s capital city, Antananarivo. Given the role that the military is beginning to play in the country’s crisis, the emergence of an oppositional force within the military seems to me to spell potential disaster. At the heart of the current crisis is the ongoing power struggle between President Marc Ravalomanana […]
Israel’s lead negotiatior with Hamas over the prisoner swap deal, Ofer Dekel, returned to Israel and may have secured the basis for a deal for the release of abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for 450 Hamas prisoners currently held in Israel. The sticking-point on the negotiations reamins whether to deport some of the […]
Prepared for new stimulus measures China is prepared to issue new stimulus measures if necessary, Premier Wen Jiabao said on a press conference. Apart from the RMB 4 trillion stimulus package and additional tax cuts of as much as RMB 600 billion, China has prepared plans to cope with more economic difficulties. Mr. Wen repeated […]
WASHINGTON: The United States seems eager not to criticise the Zardari government for its crackdown on opposition activists, although it also wants to appear neutral in the Zardari-Sharif imbroglio. On the judicial dispute, the United States still seems unwilling to support the demand for the restoration of judges despite a change of government in […]
Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan — Police overwhelmed anti-government protesters Thursday in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, arresting opposition leaders and preventing several hundred lawyers and activists from leaving for a planned demonstration in Islamabad. The government of President Asif Ali Zardari contends that public gatherings could serve as a focal point for terrorists and otherwise endanger […]
ISLAMABAD – With each image of police dragging demonstrators into vans, and each announcement of protest rallies banned, more and more Pakistanis are saying the same thing: We’ve seen this before. The fledgling civilian government’s crackdown on opposition parties and activist lawyers behind calls for a mass protest march on the capital is hitting many […]
Britain and the US are trying to broker a compromise between Pakistan’s two major political parties as confrontation threatens to push the country towards collapse. For the past two days British and American officials have been involved in intense mediation between President Asif Ali Zardari’s government and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif. London and Washington are […]
LAHORE, Pakistan, March 12 — Police wielding long batons dragged anti-government demonstrators into black vans Thursday at a highway toll plaza outside the southern city of Karachi, where several thousand people were attempting to join a caravan heading for the capital, Islamabad, for a mass protest this weekend. In a second day and night of […]
RAIWIND, Pakistan — In an effort to defuse the Pakistani political crisis, the American ambassador, Anne W. Patterson, traveled to see the opposition leader Nawaz Sharif to urge him to reconcile with Pakistan’s president, Mr. Sharif said. Later on Thursday, the Obama administration’s special envoy to Pakistan, Richard C. Holbrooke, spoke by video conference call […]
KARACHI, Mar 12 (IPS) – Barely a year after being elected, the Pakistan government faces a political storm involving a street agitation spearheaded by lawyers and opposition political parties allied with religious parties. Lurking on the sidelines is an army unused to civilian command even as religious militants create havoc around the country. None of […]
What human rights? Activists say that the ruling regimes in Central Asia deny their citizens basic freedoms, like freedom of the press or assembly. I have always thought that that is beyond the point. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are considered part of the top 8 most repressive in the world. I believe them. Religious freedom is routinely […]
Today the American Congress held hearings on the drug violence that is increasingly spilling over from Mexico to the US. The big proposal put forth by the Department of Homeland Security was to deploy the National Guard on the US-Mexico border to stemt the tide of violence. Read more here. Recently the Woodrow Wilson Center […]
At the “New Chances and New Responsibilities in the Arctic Region” conference currently underway in Berlin, the European Commission’s representative for Fisheries and Maritime Opportunities outlined the EU’s objectives in the Arctic. In his speech (transcript here, in English), entitled “Opportunities and responsibilities in the Arctic Region: the European Union’s perspective,” Joe Borg reiterated the […]
Iran is in the news, this of course is no surprise, but what is worth noting is that it involves US-Iranian cooperation in Afghanistan. After the fall the Taliban, which involved US-Iran partnering up in small, but significant ways, there has not been a healthy or productive relationship between the states regarding the stability and […]
Some unabashedly pro-Israel proponents in Washington successfully orchestrated a multi-pronged defense of their own interests through a 21st century witch hunt while, with the same strike, potentially weakening the security of the United States. Since the publication of President Barack Obama’s intention of appointing Ambassador Charles ‘Chas’ Freeman to head the National Intelligence Council, pro-Israel […]