Contrary to the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates during the recent debates, new leader of the US Central Command Gen. David Petraeus provides us with some straight talk and analysis about the Afghanistan conflict and possible strategies for success. However, his position is still political and politics seep through at times, especially regarding whether or not […]
Islamabad, Pakistan – For Pakistan, moments of success have been few in the fight in its northwestern tribal area against members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. But with militants there carrying out increasingly brazen attacks in Pakistan's cities, and stirring trouble in Afghanistan , prompting the United States to pressure Pakistan to act , […]
A suicide bomber killed 15 people and wounded a Pakistani opposition politician on Monday in the latest attack to underscore the threat posed by Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants. The attacker blew himself up in a crowd of people at the house of Rashid Akbar Nowani, a minority Shiite MP from the party of former premier […]
An Nahar daily reported that Israel may withdraw from the Ghajar village by November 21. If that is true, then March 14 will have more ammunition in the upcoming campaign against Hizballah. Israel should withdraw from the Shebaa farms and the hills around, just to let Hizballah without its liberation pretenses. Let the people of […]
Some of Robert Mugabe's avaricious henchmen realize that they had better get while the getting is good. Invasions of white-owned farms appear to be on the upswing, presumably because a legitimate power-sharing agreement will bring with it the end to the free lunch for that tiny minority that has enriched itself through its connections with […]
LONDON, Oct 4: MQM chief Altaf Hussain has made an impassioned appeal to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to forget and forgive and join hands with the PPP-led coalition government to steer the ship of the nation out of troubled waters. Speaking at a function to celebrate his 55th birth day on Friday, Mr Hussain […]
Kgalema Mothlante will have his work cut out for him over the course of the next few months. He will have to stanch the exodus from the ANC, including the increasing likelihood that a breakaway faction will form a new party. He will have to placate Zuma's most ardent supporters, such as the vocal elements […]
Zimbabweans have seen so much over the years that wariness comes more naturally to most of them than optimism. IRIN reports on the short joyride from joy to cynicism that characterizes Zimbabwe as the negotiations for a unity government that even if successful will be a long time in alleviating the ZANU-PF-imposed suffering of the masses. There […]
Facebook users in the UAE voice concern that Internet Service Providers in the Emirates will begin blocking Facebook in whole or in part.
Nathan Brown wrote a policy brief for the Carnegie Endowment's Foreign Policy for the Next President series on the ways a McCain/Palin or Obama/Biden administration can cultivate a foundation in Israel and in Palestine for the ever-elusive two-state solution.
The Department of Defense recently committed to spending $300 million in four years on a pro-Coalition information campaign in Iraq. This campaign will not necessarily appropriately label its broadcasts, leaflets and articles as “Made in the USA”. They took this decision based on the idea that taking responsibility for our own propaganda would undermine said […]
Two suspected U.S. missile strikes Friday on villages close to the border with Afghanistan killed at least 12 people, most of them militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said. American forces recently ramped up cross-border operations against Taliban and al-Qaida militants in Pakistan's border zone with Afghanistan ‚ a region considered a likely hiding place for Osama […]
A US strike on a Pakistani village near the Afghan border has killed at least nine people including suspected foreign militants, Pakistani sources say. Initial reports said at least 20 people had died when an unmanned aircraft (drone) fired on the village in North Waziristan region. But officials later talked of between nine and 12 […]
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters that Washington should not discriminate between South Asia's two nuclear armed nations. Pakistan has long opposed efforts by the US administration to push through the deal with India. Critics warned that approving it could lead to a regional nuclear arms race. The US deal with India, which was […]
The Los Angeles Times has a piece today on the conflict between the younger, more liberal generation and the older, more conservative generation in Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. They interview bloggers Mustafa Naggar and Abd el-Monem Mahmoud, author of the blog “Ana Ikhwan“, both disaffected Brotherhood members disappointed by the religious rigidity of Egypt's main opposition […]