Regions

When dealing with a terrible post-conflict environment there are often few good choices as to how to deal with those who have committed human rights atrocities. In negotiation processes people are unlikely to put down arms without some hope for amnesty. Think of the negotiations that led to the end of Apartheid in South Africa. […]

The Obama Administration’s refusal to condition Egypt’s military aid on political and human rights reform is congruent with Bush Administration’s policy. It is a good move, aimed at maintaining the strategic relationship. In interviews in Egypt, Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates have both gone on record as opposing conditions as a matter of policy. Secretary […]

At The Guardian Richard M. Kavuma has  an article showing how Ugandan football is suffering even as the country’s fans continue to show their love for the game through their support not of the local clubs, but of the English Premiere League. Part of the explanation for the flagging fortunes at the local professional and […]

At the History News Network blog Cliopatria Aaron Bady has a useful post summarizing an ongoing debate at Making Sense of Darfur, the blog edited by respected Sudan expert Alex de Waal. The debate centers around Mahmoud Mamdani’s book Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror. I should be honest in saying […]

First signs of recovery in China’s textile sector? Order volumes at the Canton Import and Export Fair, China’s biggest trade fair, exceeded forecast, sparking hope amidst exporters and producers for a recovery of the struggling textile sector. While orders fell 15.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2009, participants at the Canton Fair were […]

While the world uses science and health advisories to combat the swine flu (officially referred to in Israel as the Mexican flu to avoid offending observers of Kashrut where pigs are forbidden), some rabbis in Israel are urging a different approach– prayer and a day of fast. The Israeli government already posted advisories and quarantined […]

    PESHAWAR: Shop owner Saeed Khan has already buried one child killed in fighting between the Taliban and government forces in northwest Pakistan. He cannot bear to lose another, AFP reports. So the 50-year-old bundled his wife, son and daughter onto a bus in the Taliban-infested town of Mingora in the Swat valley and […]

    MINGORA/BATKHELA: Forty-seven militants, 15 security personnel and 36 non-combatants were killed and several others wounded on Wednesday in fierce clashes and explosions in the Swat valley and Malakand region. Sources said security forces killed 30 militants near emerald mines and 15 others in Takhtaband area, in the outskirts of Mingora. The ground forces […]

  LONDON: Turbulent Pakistan has replaced Iraq as the place to go for militants bent on striking the West, but the threat of US attacks means al Qaeda recruits may spend more time out of sight in a classroom than on an assault course.  Long a favoured destination of British militants of Pakistani descent, Pakistan’s […]

Many young men and soldiers hailing from diverse societies identify with the concept of dying for honour, the latter term referring to a willingness to die in battle. One of the ways of building up such an idea is through the process of indoctrination — as in the case of those who are recruited for […]

Yesterday, in a video podcast, the European Commissioner for Information Society, Commissioner Reding called for ICANN to be restructured. ICANN is the entity that basically governs the internet, it decides the endings of web-addresses (eg. .com, .be) and it under the notional auspices of the US governmnet. European anxiety about this arose when teh proposed .xxx […]

Middle East Progress interviewed Israeli President Shimon Peres on his latest trip to the United States to meet President Barack Obama and speak at the AIPAC conference. Peres expressed the need for hope in the peace process, a strategy mirroring, although likely unrelated, the Obama ’08 campaign. Notably, Peres stated: “The Israeli public has already […]