An Interesting Snapshot of Indian Public Opinion
June 24, 2010 5 min. read

The annual Global Attitudes Survey released last week offers a fascinating snapshot of how Indians presently see their place in the world and their dealings with other leading countries.

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HUJI Leader Blames BNP in 2004 Sylhet Bomb Attack
June 24, 2010 1 min. read

The incarcerated leader of Harkatal Jihad al Islam (HUJI), Mufti Abdul Hannan has implicated members of the BNP  in a 2004 grenade attack against members of the Awami League. When asked whether they were guilty of the charges brought against them, Hannan, his brother and a deputy claimed they were innocent.  Instead, they claimed local […]

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Peep the PanOrient
June 22, 2010 1 min. read

Hot on the heels of WSJ’s Real Time Japan comes PanOrient News, a new Japan-themed internet service. According to its launch announcement: “PanOrient News is a collaboration between Shingetsu Institute Executive DirectorMichael Penn and the company’s founder, Khaldon Azhari, aiming to challenge the frail grip of the existing English-language news services in Japan with an […]

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Noy Noy, Corruption Pays, and Vietnam in the Dragon's Shadow
June 22, 2010 4 min. read

Cambodia: Corruption and illiberalism pays according to an article running at the Asian Times.  The author believes that Cambodian foreign aid has continued to increase, despite Hun Sen’s continued political oppression of the opposition, due to the West’s fear that any decline in aid flows would create a void that will most certainly filled by […]

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P.M. Alleges BNP Involved With Saving War Criminals
June 22, 2010 3 min. read

I’ll try to pull together some news and analysis in one post.  It might strike, you, the reader, as odd that the days news gets separated into digestible chunks, when the foodstuff is run through and through with rough hewn complexity and inter-related dependence. This has everything to do with the news business model, of […]

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ISI and Afghan Insurgency: Implications for India-Pakistan Relations
June 21, 2010 5 min. read

Matt Waldman in a recently published Paper, “The Sun is in the Sky: the Relationship between Pakistan’s ISI and Afghan Insurgents” explores the extent of the ISI’s links and support to the problem of Afghan insurgency. Though Matt accepts that several endogenous factors are responsible for the emergence and sustenance of the Taliban, his interviews with […]

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Grameen Bank Shows Steepest Dip in Loan Delinquency In Reported History
June 19, 2010 3 min. read

David Roodman, a scholar at the Center for Global Development has been studying Microfinance for a while now. His work on loan repayment at the Grameen Bank has been an excellent, transparent source where any interested reader can see the latest finding and writing in the much-balleyhooed microfinance business model. His latest writing on Grameen […]

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BNP Backed Manjur Alam Wins Chittagong Mayor's Office
June 18, 2010 2 min. read

While even the international media had gotten in on the mainstream narrative that Manjur, the BNP backed candidate would lose the Chittagong Mayoral election, he won out in the last count–and by an impressive, incontestable 95,528 votes. Mr. Mohammed Manjur Alam polled 479, 145 to the Awami League candidate, Mr. ABM Mohiudddin Chowdhury’s 383617 votes. […]

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The Outsourcing Issue Returns
June 17, 2010 6 min. read

India’s rise will generate contradictory pressures on U.S. policymakers. Those in Washington who warily eye the expansion of Chinese power in Asia will welcome the strategic counterweight of a stronger India. But officials will also have to contend with a growing number of Americans who view the country as an economic rival. How Washington handles these cross-currents will be a fascinating balancing act.

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Parties Satisfied as Chittagong Polling Ends Peacefully
June 17, 2010 1 min. read

The hotly contested election in Chittagong, intensely barked about, has ended peacefully. The BNP backed candidate, expected to lose to his Awami League backed opponent, has claimed to be broadly satisfied with the polling process. Apart from some minor instances of irregularities— that, if verified, would not mount to much–the polling on Thursday was widely […]

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Devastating Landslides and Mudslides in Chittagong Predicted, Dead Estimated
June 17, 2010 2 min. read

Just like Haiti’s Port au Prince, large portions of Bangladesh’s major cities are liable to be washed away in some coastal, rain soaked incident.   The throng of people in Chittagong live in cramped spaces, in rough hewn, corrugated, unconstructed huts in that hilly city, like millions others lived in Port au Prince. And like […]

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