Al Gore made an important speech today in Washington: In it he challenged the US to become carbon free in its electricity production in ten years time. See this from CNN. Regarding surface transportation, the article quotes him as saying "The way to bring gas prices down is to end our dependence on oil and […]
Last May, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili signed into law a set of three amendments lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 12 in direct contravention to UN recommendations. Children committing major crimes will be tried as adults. Major crimes include premeditated murder, intentional damage to health, rape, most types of robbery, and possession […]
Further to my last post, here are some more looks at transportation issues. Air Show , This article from the "NY Times" today, The Wild Green Yonder, describes some of the initiatives of the airline industry I touched on the other day: new materials, new engines, new fuels. The article refers to a series of […]
Canadian lawyers acting on behalf of a Palestinian man sued two Montreal companies and their director for violation of international laws pertaining to the transfer of civilian populations into Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories. Court documents filed in the Superior Court of the District of Montreal claim two firms acting on behalf of the Israeli […]
When one in the US thinks of sex trafficking and exploitation, they tend to think of girls from lands with mostly unpronounceable names. Images of Russian "Natasha's", young Thai girls, girls on the streets of India, etc., however those images are not the only picture one must see in order to see the harsh reality […]
In something that resembled more of a rock concert than your traditional Hezbollah rally, the party's Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah made a rare in-person appearance on stage this evening at a ceremony celebrating the return of Hezbollah's prisoners exchanged for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers. Nasrallah has typically appeared live to his audience televised […]
A quick follow-up to my last post to note that the U.S. appears to be inching toward a new engagement with Iran. According to this New York Times report (U.S. Envoy to Join Meeting With Iranian): President Bush has authorized the most significant American diplomatic contact with Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, […]
Whether American or British journalism is “better” is a complex and probably unanswerable question that would require many thousands of words to address exhaustively. Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs writer of the Financial Times has a crack at it in a 900-word column July 15 (“American journalism, still a model”), and doesn't much like the […]
Perhaps this is no more than proof of the old adage that journalism is a career for young people, who necessarily have less in their memory banks than their elders. In a dispatch July 16 (“Crises force Bush to embrace intervention“), the Financial Times quoted the following words as told to the Washington newspaper Politico […]
Just released from Agence France Presse: “Defense Secretary Robert Gates called for greater funding for U.S. diplomacy and foreign development aid July 15, acknowledging concerns about a “creeping militarization” of U.S. foreign policy. “Broadly speaking, when it comes to America's engagement with the rest of the world, it is important that the military is – […]
From a July 2008 Foreign Policy Magazine web exclusive interview with Karim Sadjadpour is an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: FP: What do Iranians think about the U.S. presidential election and John McCain versus Barack Obama? KS: There's far more intrigue about Obama than about McCain. Apart from the fact that he […]
It is rather incomprehensible that the New Yorker actually intended to insult Muslim Americans , despite showing the Obamas as flag-burning militants in the White House. The fact that the cover of the July 21, 2008 issue of the magazine has offended Barack Obama and countless Americans may speak precisely to what the New Yorker's cover […]
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