50 years ago today, a man in a gleaming white helmet and bright orange jumpsuit approached a peasant woman in a field of potatoes, and asked where he could find a phone. “Could it be that you’ve come from outer space” asked the woman, crossing herself? “As a matter of fact, I have”, replied Yuri Gagarin. […]
U.N. Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Margareta Wahlstrom had nothing but praise for Japan’s preparedness for natural disasters, which apparently includes drills, building codes and risk assessment. Wahlstrom said Monday strong building codes, constant drills among the population and an effective warning system saved lives when the massive earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on […]
When Laurent Gbagbo’s endgame seemed imminent, the U.N. peacekeeping director Alain Le Roy hastily declared that the “war is over” in the western African nation of Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), a headline that was splashed across TV screens, newspapers, news radio stations, and social networks around the world. But it turned out that Laurent Gbagbo, […]
In the past few weeks, Israel has had a few significant firsts. Amidst the upsurge in violence erupting almost daily between Hamas and Israel, Israel has been rolling out some new, and very impressive, defense programs. Israel has implemented a long-sought defensive shield for its hard-hit south. They have dubbed it the Iron Dome, and […]
In an exclusive interview with the FPA Israel Blog last week, Colonel (Ret.) David Hacham – a top adviser on Palestinian and Arab affairs to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak – unequivocally stated that Israel’s next major military campaign in the Gaza Strip will result in a complete destruction of Hamas’ terror infrastructure and outlined […]
All of us Skype-addicts can breathe a sigh of relief: No, the FSB will no longer ban the free online phone service in Russia. But the (justified) outrage over the government’s bungled plan to outlaw Skype and GMAIL overlooks some important context: Electronic communications are already rountinely compromised by most of Russia’s neighbours and democratic counterparts. […]
Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara was voted in for a fourth term in Sunday’s election. Voter turnout was 57.8 percent, and Ishihara got about 43 percent of the vote. The 78-year-old, far-right incumbent, who has been an independent governor of Tokyo since 1999, played up his role in handling the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake […]
As Portugal taps into the bailout fund it is time to take stock of the EU’s Euro Summit of March 11, and the March 24-25 summit, which finalized the EU’s attempts to halt the euro crisis and harmonize member state economies. The results of these summits have been hailed as a “turning point” by European […]
Something I ran across on the ‘net that I wanted to share with readers. The video below was originally posted by Aljazeera in September of 2010: The past decade has seen Chinese economic growth explode across the world and the Chinese economic miracle seems to reach into every imaginable area of manufacturing and natural resources. […]
I’m not usually the biggest fan of NY Times Roger Cohen’s articles. It’s not that I question his intelligence or thoughtfulness. I just think that he rides his “hobby horse” of Israel’s intransigence a little too hard in light of its legitimate security challenges, and doesn’t seem to expend nearly the same energy taking the […]
The brokerage arm of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, SMBC Nikko Securities Inc, says an employee at a Tokyo branch swindled 16 individual investors out of a total of about 880 million yen (more than $10 million) over an 11-year period to earlier this year. The employee, who was in charge of sales for individual investors, […]
Many foreign nationals fleeing Japan are basing their decisions on pressure from family back home and the overly bleak scenarios projected by foreign media. State Foreign Secretary Chiaki Takahashi told a press conference Thursday that foreign coverage of the nuclear crisis in Fukushima has been sensationalist and in some cases incorrect. Takahashi asked foreign media […]
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