With world opinion generally critical of Israeli actions and the large majority of the Arab world opposed to the Jewish state, Israel takes the friends it can get. However, Israel is still involved in a tiff with the self-titled pro-Israel, pro-peace lobby J Street. Some Israeli officials, such as ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren, […]
As the first year anniversary of the BDR Mutiny in Bangladesh approaches, the government is getting ready to charge over 800 members of the Border Guard with murder, arson, looting and hiding bodies in mass graves. As the Daily Star reports, “Investigators are now busy re-examining their findings, relevant documents and evidence on February 25-26 […]
The Awami League led government of Bangladesh is moving swiftly to institutionalize most of its governance and development plans in order to show that it can work transparently with its international aid donors. As the Daily Star reports: “The government has drafted 26 action plans including those for framing a new civil service act, dredging rivers […]
Thailand: This blog has followed the “Shinawatra Saga” in Thailand for awhile. Thitinan Pongsudhirak has an interesting editorial on the issues at OpinionAsia. Mr. Pongsudhirak contends that the core issue is not Shinawatra, but democracy and social justice. For this reason, he believes the Red Shirts (a.k.a. The United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, UDD) […]
Bangladeshis today, and during the day past, celebrated Ekushey February, the commemoration of the events of February 21, 1952, when student protestors were killed demonstrating for the cause to retain Bengali as a state language in, then, East Pakistan. A quick rundown of the stultifying events of that day, which lasted only 30 minutes will help […]
The Dutch Christian-Democrat, Christian Union, and Labor Party coalition-led government has collapsed and it seems likely that a national election is in the offing. What does this has to with Afghanistan? Well, one of the major reasons for the collapse of the Parliamentary partnership was the Netherlands troop presence in Afghanistan’s volatile southern Uruzgan province. […]
It’s that time of year when our readers should be rooting on the Hoyas in the Big East. But, Georgetown may pick up a few more fans in the Middle East as the university considers opening a satellite teaching hospital in the Palestinian territories. Georgetown already operates a campus in Qatar and recently opened up […]
On the occasion of Ekushey Padak, one of the highest civilian awards given to Bangladeshi artists and notables on commemoration of the Language Movement of February 21st 1952, Sheikh Hasina, encouraged Bengalis of all stripes and codas to make of Bangladesh a knowledge economy for the 21st Century. She encouraged artists, and poets to create […]
The Bangladeshi government is taking a strong stance against an influx of nearly U.S. $100 million for aid related to climate change from the U.K Department for International Development (DFID). At issue is the allocation scheme. DFID is passing along the money to Bangladesh through the World Bank, instead of allocating the aid bilaterally. The reason why […]
After the fall of Saddam Hussein, the United States found itself battling a tough and stubborn Shiite insurgency. This resistance was led by a young militant named Muqtada al-Sadr, and before long, Middle East analysts and scholars began drawing comparisons to another Shiite resistance leader, Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah. Before the US-led invasion of 2003, the […]
‘Khodorkovsky was the only one of the oligarchs who forgot that he was an oligarch, that is, a crook. He decided that because he’d stopped stealing from the company that he was a great businessman, a builder of value! The other oligarchs, when they saw the fuzz, knew they should run. But Khodorkovsky forgot.’ That […]
Observers are assessing the outcome of the Secretary of State Mrs. Clinton’s trip to the Middle East. The Itinerary of the secretary was, first, the attendance of U.S.-Islamic World conference, second, stops in various Arab cities to promote and gather support for tougher sanctions against Iran. The result: mission unaccomplished. About a year ago, the […]
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