Passover, whether you’re in Israel or in the Diaspora, generally connects families around the Seder table. The little ones scurry into the far reaches of the house looking for that hidden clump of cracker known for eight days as matzah. Siblings, some of which may have not seen one another all year, come together and […]
Iyad Allawi Former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s bloc has won the most seats in Iraq’s parliamentary elections, which took place earlier this month on March 7th. According to a briefing by the BBC, Allawi’is coalition won two seats more than that of incumbent PM Nouri Maliki, making the race extremely tight at 89:91 seats. […]
How much and what is the Indian youth reading? For answering this question the National Book Trust (NBT) in India undertook a readership survey among the youth of the country. The survey was conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research in 2009. According to Bipin Chandra, Chairman of NBT, “We often say that youngsters […]
After months of negotiations, US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have finally agreed to a nuclear arms reduction treaty. The pair first started negotiations as a follow up to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) in April of 2009, but were unable to reach an agreement, as the Kremlin disagreed […]
Fellow FPA Blogger Sean Patrick Murphy recently drew my attention to an upcoming project by British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla, which I thought readers of this blog would also find interesting. Murphy profiles Abdalla, who is best known for what some have to referred to as his ‘war on terror’ trilogy. In the past, Abdalla has […]
The recent US delegation visit to Mexico has once more stirred debate on Mexico’s war on drugs. Commentators, notably Jorge Castañeda, have used the occasion to repeat claims that the drug war is President Calderón’s fault, and headway in defeating the cartels should include “some sort of tacit deal with some cartels” while extending “the […]
I’d written earlier that the government of Bangladesh is doing a commendable job on the big, ‘macro’ issues. To that list of issues, I’d add the prosecution of the so-called war-criminals, who murdered and rampaged along the city and country-side, most prominently on this day, March 25, in 1971. That night has been consecrated in […]
Russia has got a spring in its step. It is reported to have finally agreed with the US on a new nuclear treaty, its state gas company is in line to take over Ukraine’s pipelines, and its loyal businessman has bought an influential British newspaper. It is resuming ties with its former Socialist allies, And, […]
On Valentine’s Day 2005, former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed as his motorcade traveled near the Beirut seaside. To date, Hariri’s killers have yet to be identified, and like many other high-profile cases in the this part of the world, it might never happen. After Hariri’s death, the United Nations Security Council set […]
The Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority don’t seem to agree on much these days. In fact, the two governments are regularly at odds with one another, refusing to sit down and even discuss how to move forward on a peace process, let alone the details of what a final agreement would entail. Well, it […]
The Law Minister, Shafiq Ahmed has claimed that the government will seek to amend the law that created the Anti-Corruption Commission, so that it may finallly be neutral and independent. Rather, the real story is: Reacting quickly to the dropped charges brought against her by the Anti-Corruption Commision–an organization that is thought to have […]
The Times recently published an Associated Press piece on the Rohingya, the Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar who are seeking refugee status in Bangladesh. As the AP piece emphasizes so heart-breakingly, succinctly, as ” Muslims, they were unwanted in Buddhist Myanmar. As foreigners, they are unwanted in Muslim Bangladesh.” The government seems to be capable of […]
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