Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto said Japan is trying to prevent excessive import restrictions on Japanese products abroad over fears of radiation contamination Friday. Fears of contamination arose following the crisis caused by the Mar. 11 earthquake and tsunami at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. Matsumoto said, “We will fully inform other countries of the […]
Continuing on its quest to cover all of the world’s top 40 languages and 99 percent of its Internet users, Google has finally launched Iraq.
Following the successful revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, citizens of Libya have been calling for democratic transition since February 2011. For almost two months, the European Union has been invisible and quiet on the Libyan case at the exception of several irrelevant statements delivered by the High Representative Ashton. It is only on April 1st, […]
There’s little to do but quote Rod Nordland’s Times piece on this horrendous bit of breaking news: “Protesters angered by the burning of a Koran by a fringe American pastor in Florida mobbed offices of the United Nations in northern Afghanistan on Friday, killing ten foreign staff members and beheading two of the victims, according to an […]
The Libyan dilemma around the question of intervention versus non-intervention to provide protection of civilians should remain at the heart of the political debate and should not disappear in Libya’s ruins. The approval of the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1973 on March 17, 2011 was an important step for the international community to […]
As the attention of the Indian cricket fans moves away from Mohali to Mumbai, the India-Pakistan game earlier this week entered the Hall of Fame of Indo-Pak cricket diplomacy encounters. The unique reverence for the game in the sub-continent has been often used as diplomatic ice-breaker in the past. The special place accorded to cricket […]
Police in Azerbaijan have arrested “several youth and opposition activists” ahead of a protest rally scheduled for 2 April in Baku, RFE/RL reports. Three of those arrested have been released, but at least three others have apparently been given “administrative sentences” of between five and ten days. However, an Azeri source tells me that more […]
The Japanese government decided this week not to renew its eco-points subsidy program, which ended Thursday. The ostensible purpose of the program was to encourage consumers to upgrade to energy-saving appliances and electronics. Consumer demand fell sharply following the Mar. 11 earthquake and tsunami, which crippled the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, leading to power […]
A judge ruled today that the trial of controversial Dutch minister Geert Wilders trail can resume in two weeks. Wilders has compared the Koran to Hitler’s Mein Kampf. “I’ve had enough of Islam in the Netherlands – ban that fascist book,” he said. In fact he was wrung up on both comments individually; the judge […]
Turkish-American relations have always been defined as a ‘strategic partnership’. Almost without exception, decision-makers and diplomats at the highest levels point to a particular ‘importance of the strategic partnership’ or ‘relationship’ whenever they try to define bilateral relations between Turkey and the United States. Surprisingly at the public level, we take this definition for far […]
About the Stock Market crash and the lurking housing bubble in Bangladesh. Part 1 of a series of articles on the subject.
Japan was struck by a massive earthquake on March 11, followed by a devastating tsunami that deluged many parts of Japan. Not only was the disaster colossal in terms of the human casualties (more than 10000 at last count), but it also damaged Japan’s nuclear reactors causing radiation leakage. As of this writing, the Fukushima […]
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