Governments, Aid Organizations Look to Humanitarian Needs of 14 million Pakistani Flood Victims
August 10, 2010 5 min. read

The humanitarian needs of the victims of the floods are urgent and immediately obvious. Clean drinking water, food, shelter, clothing, and medicine to help maintain the dignity and capabilities of the tens of millions of people affected by the raging floods in the Khyber-Pahktankhwa Province. Unfortunately dense fog and a running forecast of heavier rain has stymied […]

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Fish Wrap
August 10, 2010 2 min. read

Two smaller events happened over the course of the week that seemed worth passing on. The first being the announcement that France has appointed a special mediator in an attempt to get peace negotiations going between Israel and Syria. While George Mitchell is green with envy, I’m not sure this really matters much to the […]

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A Family Affair
August 10, 2010 2 min. read

Recently the news broke that three Israeli citizens were arrested and charged with spying for Syria. Apparently the arrests took place in early july but were only announced last thursday due to a court gag order. A father and son Druze tandem teamed with another Arab Israeli citizen to spy on several targets in northern […]

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Rumor of the day
August 10, 2010 1 min. read

Whispers abound, as do headlines: Obama may ease US travel to Cuba even if Congress won’t act. The separate powers of the Executive and Congress prevent President Obama from acting solo on a number of issues, but educational travel to Cuba is not one of them. The Executive does not need congressional approval to ease […]

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Prospects for PAN-PRD Cooperation
August 9, 2010 2 min. read

Rodrigo Camarena, over at the Brazil blog, has published a briefing on the cooperation between Mexico’s PAN and PRD in state elections. The awkward coalition pairs the relatively stoic process for internal disputes and leadership changes in the PAN, and the squabbles that saw the PRD’s rapid fall from grace after the 2006 presidential election. […]

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Oil spill off Mumbai coast as two cargo ships collide
August 9, 2010 4 min. read

Looks like it is oil spill season. Even as the news and uproar about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is still fresh, there has been a fresh spill, albeit smaller, off the coast of Mumbai. This one was caused when two Panamanian flagged cargo ships – MSC Chitra and MV Khalijia-111 – […]

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When Fidel does not applaud
August 9, 2010 3 min. read

So Fidel did, in the end, appear and speak before the Cuban National Assembly—just in a separate meeting from that of his brother Raúl (though the current President Castro joined this meeting as well to hear Fidel speak). In his 12-minute speech on Saturday, Fidel repeated his recent warnings that tensions between the United States […]

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Rwanda Election Watch: Dictators Don’t Step Down, But They Are Brought Down
August 9, 2010 1 min. read

Those are not my words, but a quote attributed to Patrick Karegeya (the former Rwandan intelligence chief who was jailed twice, stripped of his colonel rank, and forced into exile by the Kagame government) calling for the defeat of President Paul Kagame of Rwanda. Kagame, the rebel-hero who defeated the genocidal government in July 1994, […]

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The Month of July in Bangladeshi Politics: Moves in the Right Direction
August 9, 2010 2 min. read

We sit pat in August, in what is likely to be a set of hazier days, than the hot set just recently passed.  But seven day out July is still fresh in our minds.   Is it not? The month just passed in Bangladesh might strike anyone as a set of strides in the direction […]

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African Politics Roundup
August 8, 2010 2 min. read

Stories that have crossed my desk in recent days with brief commentary as applicable: I think there is no getting around it. ANC Youth League president Julius Malema is a South African politics version of Rasputin: it is seemingly impossible to kill his career, even by self-inflicted wounds. Obvious But It Probably Had To be […]

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Yours Truly, Bin Laden
August 8, 2010 4 min. read

A satirical take on the ‘War on Terror,’ Tere Bin Laden earns its radical chops simply for being a completely Indian production on a story entirely based in Pakistan.

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Murder of Aid Workers Likely Signals Shift in Taliban Strategy
August 8, 2010 2 min. read

The recent murders of the innocent and brave medical aid workers are heinous crimes against humanity.  In a troubling turn, this news heralds a new problem in Afghanistan: the murders were committed in Northern Afghanistan, long thought Northern Alliance territory where the Taliban owned no ground. The murders offer proof that the insurgency throughout Afghanistan […]

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