This weekend, the liberal think tank INDEM issued a new warning that the country was headed towards a ‘developmental dictatorship’. But Russia wasn't in the mood: it was mourning Muslim Magomayev. Magomayev was the original Soviet mega-star. Throughout the 1970s, he routinely filled stadiums and garnered scores of hysterical groupies, not an easy feat […]
Beqaa valley is renowned world wide. Not for touristic purposes mind you. Its for drugs and weapons smuggling. Months ago the government said that a large part of the poppy cultures were destroyed. A trip to the Beqaa will prove otherwise. I did not read any statistics on the country's drug issue, but talking with […]
ISLAMABAD: Thirty-two percent of Pakistanis say they have cut down on food because of rising prices, a research group said on Friday. Soaring food prices and shortages of staples mean about 77 million of Pakistan's 160 million people are food insecure, a 28 percent increase over last year, according to United Nations World Food Programme […]
(of which I am one), the LA Times has a backgrounder. Livni has a two week extension on her coalition-building deadline, so we’ll need to continue following the coalition negotiations until Nov. 3.
Mohammad Raheem embraces his daughter after a spate of violence outside their Baghdad home, courtesy of the NYT's Baghdad Bureau.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan ‚ Two tribal elders lay stretched out in an orthopedic ward here last week, their plastered limbs and winces of pain grim evidence of the slaughter they survived when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the midst of their tribal gathering. These wounded men, and many others in the hospital, were supposed […]
Umer Chapra, Saudi economist and winner of the King Faisal International Prize for Islamic Studies, is quoted in the Arab News as saying that adopting the parameters of Islamic finance would protect the financial system from crises the nature of the current one in the future. Dr. Chapra was raised in Pakistan and received his […]
It appears that South Africa's parliament is set to dissolve the Scorpions, the high-profile independent police organization that has been the source of so much controversy since its inception. The Scorpions have been behind many of the investigations into Jacob Zuma's various alleged indiscretions, so the timing of the decision should come as a surprise […]
On October 16, The Committee of 100 and George Mason University sponsored a debate between advisors to the McCain and Obama campaigns on the topic of: A Framework for U.S. Policy toward China: Positions of the Presidential Candidates at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Moderator: Kathy Chen, Editor and Assistant Washington Bureau Chief of […]
The release of the Waki Report in Kenya, which laid responsibility for post-election violence at the end of last year on a host of individuals and institutions, including the police, is fueling serious recriminations and resistance from some of the country's police agencies. Time and again in Africa it has been shown that police and […]
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that economic growth will slow and will be outpaced by inflation over the next year. There have been some tentative signs of political stabilization across the continent. Let's hope that economic instability does not fuel its political counterpart.
Continuing yesterday's thread, I would like to highlight one major aspect of progress in Afghanistan; the role of women in the workplace and in society as a whole. To do this I will showcase the stories of a few particular women, and unfortunately in their stories there is great suffering and too visible of signs […]
A suspected US air strike killed nine people at a religious school in north-west Pakistan, intelligence officials said today. It was claimed the school, on the outskirts of Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan region, had links to the Taliban. Four of those killed in the attack were found in the rubble […]
Pakistan plans to arm tens of thousands of anti-Taliban tribal fighters in its western border region in hopes — shared by the U.S. military — that the nascent militias can replicate the tribal “Awakening” movement that proved decisive in the battle against al-Qaeda in Iraq. The militias, called lashkars, will receive Chinese-made AK-47 assault rifles […]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) ‚ Pakistan sought help from the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday to avoid defaulting on billions of dollars in loans and to skirt a financial crisis brought on by high fuel prices, dwindling foreign investment and soaring militant violence. Pakistani officials had previously said that turning to the I.M.F. would be a […]