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Pakistan Bans Facebook

Pakistan Bans Facebook

Last month’s episode of South Park brought together religious leaders — known as the “Super Best Friends.” This group included Jesus, Buddha, Krishna and Moses was the Prophet Mohammed, who was hidden for most of the episode in a U-haul truck. Then, Mohammed appeared… dressed in a bear costume. The campaign (mentioned below) was to show solidarity […]

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A Warm Welcome

Hey there!  Salam!  Shalom!  My name is April and I welcome you to this revamped Foreign Policy Association blog dedicated to Middle East Media.  I know I always want to know WHO bloggers really are… so please check out my “Blogger Profile” on the right hand menu of this screen. Regarding this blog: discussion  through […]

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Iran: Great Powers Collide

Iran: Great Powers Collide

This is a guest post by Patrick Frost, a Senior Blogger at FPA: In the past couple days, the world’s great powers have been busy courting and challenging the Middle East’s prospective regional power, Iran. To most people’s surprise, the leaders of Turkey and Brazil reached an agreement with Tehran to transport and hold about […]

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Is China really getting tough?

This week one of China’s former richest men, Huang Guangyu of Chinese appliance giant Gome Electronics, was sentenced to 14 years in jail for bribery and insider dealing. This follows rejection of the appeal of former Rio Tinto executives, who some believed had received unreasonably harsh sentences for bribing so-far unnamed government officials. Is China […]

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The Kurdistan Situation

The Kurdistan Situation

Will the departure of U.S. forces derail recent development success? Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s Kurdish population faced policies of genocide, forced assimilation, and ethnic cleansing. That changed after 2003 when Kurds emerged as a leading democratic force in the new Iraq. For several years, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has been a model of successful […]

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New Blog Coming Soon

Welcome to the Foreignpolicyblogs.com blog, the latest addition to the Foreign Policy Blogs network.

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The Opposite of Build

As the New York Times reported earlier this week, the Hold-Build part of Clear-Hold-Build is not going so well for the U.S. in Marja.  The local population has not been cooperating with the U.S. effort to capture Taliban forces out of fear of being on the receiving end of the Taliban’s vengeance.  As a result, […]

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U.S. Leading Economic Indicators Improving

U.S. Leading Economic Indicators Improving

With last week’s welcomed news of robust jobs growth, and yesterday’s announcement that consumer prices fell in April for the first time in 13 months as energy prices tumbled and high unemployment limited the private sector’s ability to raise prices.

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Dead Zones

Dead Zones

Here, courtesy of NASA, is a look at two Gulf of Mexico dead zones:  one well established, as a consequence of runoff  (manure, fertilizer, wastewater treatment plant effluent, etc.) from the breadbasket of the US, and the other in the making, from BP’s disastrous well blowout.

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No silver bullets

I am currently reading the Millennium Villages 2008 Annual Report.  Here’s some food for thought: The MVP (Millennium Villages Project) is highlighting the value and feasibility of integrated community-based investments, rather than the one-by-one investment strategies too often deployed in rural areas.  Because of budgetary limitations, donors and NGOs too often search for a single […]

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China Delivers on Iran Sanctions

China owed the world one on Iran, for reasons explored in a previous post, and today it delivered, joining the United States, Russia, France and the UK in agreeing to draft sanctions. If adopted by the full UN Security Council, the sanctions will authorize members to board ships entering or leaving Iran, to search for […]

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GailForce: What Now Iran?

After apparent heavy behind the scenes maneuverings, the Iranian nuclear situation heated up again this week.  Both the United States and Iran came up with separate announcements presenting new actions/solutions designed to end the nuclear standoff.  Yesterday Iran announced it had signed an agreement brokered by Brazil and Turkey.  According to the BBC news the […]

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Emerging Markets Round-Up

Emerging Markets Round-Up

A synopsis of market-moving news and developments in the Emerging Markets.

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The Spill, The Bill and the EPA's Will

As someone who follows global climate issues for a living, the past month has been a whirlwind of incremental progress, speculation and literal explosions.  Following the daily – make that hourly –  ticker has been valuable in understanding the current climate position of the U.S. and the direction things are heading in 2010. The Issues […]

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Mapping human resources for health

Mapping human resources for health

Continuing our journey through the health systems lingo, consider these images, courtesy of World Mapper, which map the world based on the numbers.  We commonly use these images at the organization where I work to underscore the disparity of human resources for health in the regions of the world where the disease burden is greatest. Total […]

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