The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled today that both Thailand and Cambodia should pull their troops out from the site of an ancient Hindu temple and establish a demilitarized zone around its ruins in order to facilitate negotiations to finally end the long-standing spat between the two countries. The 11-5 ruling from the judges […]
Dear Comrade Readers, FPA Russia Blog will be back shortly, once its author returns/recovers from his Wedding! (Who said unpaid blogging about Kremlin machinations and Western hypocrisy isn’t the surest way to a girl’s heart?) If Mr Nikitin manages to successfully avoid detention at various border posts, he will return on the week of the […]
The international community has been involved in Afghanistan since 2001 as a consequence of the 9/11 attacks on U.S. soil. By 2003, NATO took control of the ISAF and expanded its operations across all Afghanistan. Likewise, the Europeans have been involved in Afghanistan through several types of missions. On one side, Europeans have contributed to […]
One way to spot a dictatorship is by its leader’s personality cult. Central Asia is a region of more than 4 million square kilometers and a population of 62 million inhabitants rife with authoritarianism, despotism, and the cult of personality reminiscent of the Soviet times. Not too long ago, I wrote about Central Asian dictators, […]
State minister in charge of handling the nuclear accident, Goshi Hosono, said that the first phase to bring the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant under control was completed as scheduled on Sunday. Hosono said, “We believe Step 1 of stably cooling (the reactors) and eliminating risks of a hydrogen explosion has been achieved.” According […]
Japan and other pro-whaling nations walked out of the International Whaling Commission’s annual talks in Jersey Thursday in protest of a proposal to create a symbolic whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic. Delegates from Japan and Iceland, as well as a number of Caribbean and African nations that totally allegedly receive payoffs to vote in […]
While researching my last post about the record-high poverty rate in Japan, I came across a title for a 2008 BBC documentary entitled Japan: A Story of Love and Hate. The film follows a 58-year-old postal worker living on the poverty line. The film asks how the quality of life could be so miserable in […]
Results from the latest Haitian-cholera study by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) sparked an avalanche of blame and finger pointing across the country, demanding accountability and the redressing of grievances. “Today it is clear, about 5,000 people have died and there is one group of people responsible: it is MINUSTAH,” said Steven Benoit, outspoken […]
It was news most Indians received with weary resignation – India’s business capital, Mumbai, had once again been targeted by some faceless terrorists. It was happening all over again – multiple attacks, torn limbs, distraught relatives, reporters breathlessly reporting the latest developments, and the inevitable platitudes about Mumbai’s resilience. Yet, incredibly, there was still something […]
In chess there are several ways a game can end without a victor, none of them particularly satisfying. There is the stalemate, when a player cannot move but is not in check; essentially a locked board. There is the fifty-move rule, which kicks in when fifty successive moves do not result in a capture; no […]
Iran is a land of not only great empires, but also of great traditions and cultures. The traditions that have shaped Iranian culture come from a variety of ethnic groups and cultures, blessing Iran with a longstanding and strong tradition of diversity that continues to date despite efforts by the current Iranian government to suppress […]
In a striking turn of events last week, Greece came to the rescue of Israel by curbing the highly anticipated “Freedom Flotilla II.” The contingency of 350 activists on 10 boats, mostly from the U.S. and Europe, was determined to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. All boats were either intercepted by the Greek coastguard […]
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