Gone are the heady heroin nights of the nineties, and with them, many of the expats who had come East to trade in the drudgery of their suburban lives for a more visceral, tragic version of humanity. Now that the country brims with the Toyota Priuses (Prii? Priux?), hipsters, libel laws, Time Out Magazine, […]
Mexico City's Police Chief, Joel Ortega, resigned today under pressure from the city's mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, to reconstruct the police force. Ortega's firing is a direct result of a botched police operation to catch underage drinking at a nightclub, which prompted a stampede that killed 12 people in late June (see story). Mexico D.F.'s human […]
The June 30 signing by President Bush of House Resolution 2642, the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2008, not only includes the Merida Initative to help Mexico crack down on drug cartels, it also funds wide-ranging American policies of which Latin America forms part of the global war on terror (see the President's remarks here). To […]
Future parliamentary bloc leader MP Saad Hariri filed a legal suit Monday against suspects in the killing of his father, former Premier Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated in 2005, in a bomb blast in Beirut. The case was filed by lawyer Mohammad Mattar, who is representing Hariri, at Examining Magistrate Saqr Saqr's office. The claim […]
Premiering this Wednesday on the Discovery Channel, is episode 1 of Ted Koppel's 4-part series on China's economic growth (and its impact on the US), entitled, The People's Republic of Capitalism. Each successive Wednesday for three weeks, installments 2, 3, and 4 will be aired. If there is a resoundingly persistent mantra here, it […]
Lately there has been much talk on this blog and the FPA site about NATO and its role in Afghanistan, and rightly so, but it has just been simply too long since I have talked about the ‘other’ regional alliance with influence in Central Asia, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The Asia Times wrote a […]
Israel has successfully tested a new defense system designed to intercept rockets fired from southern Lebanon and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, public radio reported on Sunday. The "Iron Dome" system is expected to be fully operational within a year and will be able to intercept the military-grade Katyusha rockets used by Hezbollah and the cruder […]
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanese leaders are close to a deal on the formation of a national unity government as stipulated in an agreement that ended the country's political crisis, political sources said on Saturday. They said the new government, in which Hezbollah and its allies would have a blocking minority, could be announced as early […]
John McCain's visit to Mexico in July 2nd and 3rd came as a surprise. The media in Mexico and the United States only reported McCain's travel plans to Colombia and Mexico just a few days before the trip was to take place. During the trip to Mexico, McCain met with captains of industry, politicians, diplomats, […]
To my readers in the United States: Happy 4th of July! To my readers in South Africa and anywhere else on the globe: Happy Friday! In the last dozen years I believe I have spent more American Independence Day holidays outside of the United States than within it, with most of those spent here in […]
Just a quick break from the travelogues to let you know that you should take the time to read FPA editor Robert Nolan's important recent viewpoint piece “Moving Forward in Zimbabwe.”
The European Commission has put forward a proposal that would allow patients to seek out medical assistance in other countries irrespective of the approval of their health care provider. Citing principles of free choice, free movement and comparative advantage, EU Health Commissioner, Androulla Vassiliou presented the plans in Brussels. Though the Financial Times predicts the […]
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