One American woman’s personal battle to turn back the tide on the Taliban Sonia Nassery Cole commands a room no matter what the size, and it’s for a good cause. Cole, who has both Afghan and American citizenship, is founder and CEO of the Afghanistan World Foundation (AWF). The non-profit organization works to assist the […]
I’ve been trying to catch up on news and events after being away for the Memorial Day holiday weekend, and it appears that North Korea’s provocative nuclear test and subsequent missile launches are high on the agenda. This video from the UK’s Telegraph shows President Obama responding to the recent nuclear test: President Obama reaffirmed […]
The presidents of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan met in Tehran on Sunday to discuss shared challenges and how the countries could work together to address regional issues. President Hamid Karzai, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and President Asif Ali Zardari agreed to jointly tackle extremism, terrorism and drug trafficking. Although largely devoid of specific measures, the summit […]
A noteworthy group of photojournalists gathered at photo agency VII’s Brooklyn studio last week. The small group represented some of the cream of photojournalists that had gathered in NYC for the recent New York Photo Festival. Among them were Gary Knight and Ashley Gilbertson. Also on hand was Tim Hetherington, whose notable photo installation “Sleeping […]
North Korea performed a nuclear test this weekend which, according to various seismic tests, amounted to a blast of somewhere between 4 and 20 kilotons (possibly larger than the US’ bombing of Hiroshima in 1945). The significance of the test cannot be discounted, as Pyongyang’s 2006 blast was a mere 1 kt. With increased missile […]
First the child is led into a small holding room. She waits. Her mother is visibly shocked, the stressed lines of her face and swollen eyes awash in tears. An hour or two pass; a television is stuck on one channel as the incessant rabble of another world enters the surreal shock of her horror. […]
There’s a characteristically comprehensive special report on energy in today’s “Financial Times,” a series of interesting articles, mostly on the state of play of fossil fuels. There’s also a great guest column from Jeremy Leggett the founder of Solarcentury, a provider of “intelligent generation.” Nota bene: According to Leggett, “In 2008, for the first time, […]
Tuesday, May 26 New York Press Club Penthouse 330 West 42nd Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues) Cocktail reception: 6:30 PM Program begins: 7:00 PM From the New York Press Club: Press Club members, working press, security professionals and interested parties are invited to anevening reception and remarks on the State of Cyberspace in America by special guest, […]
206. On Friday, Manmohan Singh was sworn in as India’s prime minister. Mr. Singh is the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to office after serving a full five-year term. The Congress Party unexpectedly romped to victory by a big margin in the world’s largest exercise in democracy. Instead of an unwieldy and […]
A Hezbollah-affiliated website recently cited the remarks of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad on upcoming parliamentary elections in Lebanon. According to the website, Ahmedinejad voiced his opinion that if the Lebanese opposition, in which Hezbollah is a key player, makes significant gains, a “new front” will emerge to the benefit of the ‘resistance.’ He is also […]
Nigerian militants from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) claimed to attack several pipelines of oil companies including Chevron yesterday, shitting in 100,000 barrels of crude a day. The attacks come in response as Nigerian forces over the past two weeks began a major operation against the rebel group. MEND claims […]
My mom just drew my attention to what might be the greatest defense arms music video ever made. Earlier this year, Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems decided to celebrate the strengthening of India-Israel military ties and the virtues of its products in song and dance. In this Israeli video, a man decked out in a […]
This documentary is unique in its approach because it provides what director Barbet Schroeder calls a self portrait of one of the most interesting leaders in modern times, Uganda’s Idi Amin. It shows how disarmingly charming Amin was. In fact it is hard to reconcile the almost childlike behavior of Amin with the fact that […]
Here’s coverage on the recent blocking of Facebook in Iran. “Iran has blocked its citizens from accessing the social networking site Facebook as the country prepares for next month’s presidential election. Supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, a leading reformist candidate, suggested on Sunday that the move was aimed at reducing opposition to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the […]
I’m out of town and so all I’ve got time to offer today is a note on a pretty good bit of political analysis on the cap-and-trade and energy bill from the “NY Times” today. I think that Tim Wirth, who leads the United Nations Foundation, always good for a good quote, has a salient […]