The Taliban in Pakistan have denied responsibility for the Islamabad Marriott bombing that left over 50 dead and 250 injured. According to Al Jazeera, Talibani senior commander Baitullah Mehsud claims "that their group does not believe in killing so many locals and would never overtly attack civilians.' Mehsud backs this assertion by highlighting the use […]
By Eve Copeland and Cecily Boggs For many months, Iran's nuclear ambitions have taken center stage in both American and European news and analytical reports. On September 15, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released what has been described by the Financial Times as "one of the most damning reports it has yet published on […]
Congress might be a little preoccupied this week with saving the world from the consequences of the overleveraged, unregulated excesses of the financial industry, nevertheless, they may actually make time to find a way to create a package of tax credits that will bolster the renewables industry, keeping its incredible recent momentum going. Senate to […]
The Guardian reports from Brazil: “Welcome to Obama-mania, Brazil-style. Few countries have embraced the idea of the US's first black president as enthusiastically as Brazil, a country with one of the largest Afro-descendant populations on Earth yet where black faces remain a minority in politics. Obama T-shirts are everywhere while chat shows and newspaper columns […]
Permafrost , I wrote about the problem of thawing permafrost here recently. One group of researchers in Canada, at least, believes that permafrost is more "stubborn" than previously thought and will melt more slowly than predicted. See this story from AFP. The qualification in this is that the uppermost layers of permafrost may degrade as […]
As Al-Qaeda's As-Sahab media planned on releasing a video commemorating the 7th anniversary of 9-11, the group's online media infrastructure appears to have come under a cyber-attack this past week, according to Will McCants's Jihadica blog. Several of the pro-Qaeda internet forums (i.e. Ekhlaas and Al-Firdaws) have been down for the past week, while the […]
For my weekly blog recommendation I’d like to call your attention to the Counterterrorism Blog, a group blog dedicated to providing a one-stop gateway to the counterterrorism community. From their About page: We envision the blog's audience to be the policymakers in Congress and the Executive Branch, as well as serious students elsewhere, who want […]
With Gustav, Hanna, and Ike just behind us and many more letters of the alphabet still to go, the GAO's report Voluntary Organizations: FEMA Should More Fully Assess Organizations’ Mass Care Capabilities and Update the Red Cross Role in Catastrophic Events asks what the federal government's role should be in coordinating between disaster management providers (i.e. voluntary […]
Githu Muigai has replaced Doudou Dienne as the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. Muigai addressed the Human Rights Council in Geneva today and was particularly alarmed by the mainstreaming of racism and xenophobia by their adoption of political parties in democratic countries. Muigai did not specify. Many […]
“The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.” – Pablo Casals (Spanish cellist and conductor 1876-1973) Children are our world's irreplaceable miracles; each one possesses the potential to change […]
According to the Sadrist-affiliated Al-Kufa News Agency, representatives from the Sadrist Bloc are calling for the vetting the Awakening Councils, a largely Sunni citizen patrol force, including former insurgents, who many believe have played a key role in combating Al-Qaeda's presence in Iraq. This NY Times piece provides an informative breakdown of the Awakening by […]
The Times of London reported in this article as news that Sarah Palin has linked her electoral success to Kenyan pastor whom Palin "says helped her to become governor of Alaska founded his ministry with a witchhunt against a Kenyan woman who he accused of causing car accidents through demonic spells.' While her connection to […]
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