The zeitgeist of Rome, Italy made itself plain last week:
For many Romans, these are jittery times. For the first time in a generation, the mayor of the Eternal City, once a left-wing stronghold, is on the political right. Gianni Alemanno, a former neo-Fascist, swept to power late last month on a tough-on-crime platform that included [...]
Victims of the recent cyclone in Burma aren’t being helped. The junta is incapable and intrinsically xenophobic. It can’t help itself and is wary of accepting help from outsiders. Meanwhile, people are dying. The lack of clean drinking water is, amongst other things, causing concern of widespread illness and further death. As such, it was [...]
We in the blogging community have been a little narrow minded lately. Everyone is paying the election its dues, but there are more pressing matters in the world today. I promise Hillary won’t drop out when you’re reading these links:
Hezbollah seizes West Beirut, civil war possible
Burma still not accepting aid workers; 100,000 now feared dead
Mexico’s [...]
A wild weekend in Tijuana. I’m sure Lou Dobbs will have more on this tonight:
Gun battles between suspected drug gang members have left about 15 people dead in the Mexican city of Tijuana, near the border with the US.
Police said rival factions of the local Arellano Felix drug cartel opened fire on each other on [...]
A photo captured during the Olympic torch relay in Paris shows a ‘Tibetan protester’ attempting to steal the torch from a wheelchair bound carrier:
The Chinese media seized upon this evident display of unbound zeal, using it to describe the protests that have accompanied the torch around the world. Their converge sparked outrage across the country.
There’s [...]
Two Chinese ex-patriots wrote a piece in the Washington Post yesterday reminding everyone of China’s horrific human rights record:
Please be aware that the Olympic Games will be held in a country where there are no elections, no freedom of religion, no independent courts, no independent trade unions; where demonstrations and strikes are prohibited; where [...]
Bolivian President Evo Morales has accused the US of attempting to subvert his government:
“The conspiracy against my government is headed by the US ambassador,” Morales said, referring to Philip Goldberg.
“USAID, with funds that come American tax payers, who think they are helping the Bolivian people, is using the money in a dirty campaign against [...]
Unrest in Tibet is being met with a show of force from Beijing. Still, if Tibet ever wants to be free, this is its best and perhaps last chance. Here’s why:
Beijing is systemically repopulating Tibet with ethnic Han Chinese. In the past thirteen years, the population of Tibetans has decreased by 15% while the population [...]
Washington’s collective worry over China should be postponed judging from the outcome of a new Pentagon report. Military Power of the People’s Republic of China concluded that “China will take until the end of this decade or longer to produce a modern force capable of defeating a moderate-size adversary. China will not be able [...]
Vanity Fair unleashes a ‘bombshell‘ in its upcoming April edition: the Bush administration instigated a civil war in Gaza which backfired, leaving them with a vanquished ally and a strengthened adversary:
Dahlan says he warned his friends in the Bush administration that Fatah still wasn’t ready for elections in January. Decades of self-preservationist rule by Arafat [...]
Despite a UN arms embargo, Chinese made AK-47’s are turning up in bulk in The Democratic Republic of Congo, helping to fuel local instability:
UN arms expert Johan Peleman says that the Chinese arm trade is like a ‘business card.’ As opposed to purely financial motives sought by other small arms trading countries like Ukraine, China’s [...]
Overall, we regard the 2nd Lebanon war as a serious missed opportunity. Israel initiated a long war, which ended without its clear military victory. A semi-military organization of a few thousand men resisted, for a few weeks, the strongest army in the Middle East, which enjoyed full air superiority and size and technology advantages. … [...]
From the IHT:
From Ireland to Bulgaria, from Finland to Spain, detention camps for foreigners have mushroomed across the European Union. They have emerged mostly over the past decade, as the region has grown less and less welcoming to migrants.
There are now 224 detention camps scattered across the European Union; altogether they can house more than [...]
The Raw Story is reporting that there is internal dissent in the CIA over who was responsible for Benazir Bhutto’s death last month:
In a 45-minute interview given exclusively to the Washington Post Friday, CIA Director Hayden blamed members of al Qaeda and Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani tribal leader.
However, when asked about the allegations that Mehsud, [...]
The People’s Republic of China is rounding up dissidents ahead of the Olympics this summer.
China, it turns out, isn’t a $10-trillion economy on the brink of catching up with the United States. It is a $6-trillion economy, less than half our size. For the foreseeable future, China will have far less money to spend on its military and will face much deeper social and economic problems at home than [...]
The Pentagon has released video of this weekend’s Strait of Hormuz incident between the US Navy and Iranian Coast Guard. NBC Nightly News has a summary of the video showing the proximity of the speed boats to US warships and, more importantly, audio recordings of the threatening language used by the Iranians over the radio.
I [...]
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