The widely read Indian newspaper The Hindu reports that the Indian delegation to the 2005 South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC ) Summit refused to attend the affair hosted in Dhaka because of long-standing tension about a series of terrorist events throughout Bangladesh in 2004 and in early 2005. This revealing bit of information […]
South Korea protested the Japanese government’s approval of a textbook claiming the South Korean-administrated Liancourt Rocks Wednesday. South Korean foreign ministry spokesman Cho Byung Jae said his government remains firm in its response to Japan’s attempts to undermine South Korea’s territorial sovereignty over the islets. “We express a strong protest and demand an immediate retraction […]
The world’s shock at the loss of life and destruction to property in NE Japan was soon eclipsed by the worry associated with the possibility of an impending nuclear disaster. While the global community feels for the double whammy that struck Japan and is rallying around the nation, concerns about the short and long-term effects […]
A Tokyo ordinance starting April 1 will require publishers to impose self-restrictions on sexual depictions in manga comic books. Authorities will be able to ban books they judge have extreme sexual content to children. The ordinance was proposed by Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara (regular readers of my blog already know my opinion on him). The […]
It’s a long way off, sure. But Jimmy Carter seems to be the guy for it. The former US President began a visit to Cuba yesterday at the invitation of the Cuban government. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, in fact, was there to meet Carter on the runway when his plane arrived. Carter is the only […]
The U.S. Navy is conducting naval exercises in the Arctic as part of Ice Exercise 2011 (ICE-X 2011). The USS New Hampshire and the USS Connecticut are the two submarines participating in the exercises, which have been planned and are being overseen by the Arctic Submarine Laboratory located in San Diego, about as far away […]
The euro’s chance of survival has since the onset of the debt crisis been up for debate. The impossible seemed an alarmingly realistic alternative: The abandonment of the euro in the face of unpopular austerity measures and bailouts. This led to questions regarding the viability of the EU as a whole. The March 25 […]
Four months before the scheduled July 2011 drawdown, well into a term where international forces are redeploying to urban areas, a few weeks into peak fighting season, the counterinsurgency in Afghanistan remains in flux, troublingly fluid, radically unsettled. The Taliban have announced that they have taken over a district in North Eastern Afghanistan, signalling not […]
Abducted, bound, sedated, flown to an undisclosed location in siberia, detained in a cell for a week, nose broken, then released only to be continuosly monitored by Putin on his presidential iPad. No, we are not talking about an average Tuesday in the life of a Russian journalist: the Prime Minister’s latest target is an […]
As African Union peacekeepers continue to come under attack in Somalia, the mission there, known as AMISOM, received two pieces of good news this week. First off, Uganda and Burundi, offered to send 4,000 more troops to the mission. The two countries account for a majority of what will now be a 12,000-strong force aimed […]
An Associated Press investigation found that Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) officials ignored glaring scientific evidence regarding the risk of a major earthquake or tsunami in constructing the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. In assessing the risk of a tsunami striking the Fukushima reactor, TEPCO officials did not account for a wave larger than 18 […]
In the aftermath of the killing of five Israelis, including three children, in the West Bank settlement of Itamar, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas offered a tepid condemnation, saying: “…violence produces violence and what is needed is to speed up a just and comprehensive solution to the conflict.” Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu immediately criticized […]
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