It was a dry bureaucratic announcement appearing in the official Granma web site (Translation). It signaled the end of Cuba’s Communist economy. Fidel Castro Here are some excerpts (sometimes paraphrased): “After 52 years, the Cuban Revolution is a living and
On Tuesday, Mozambique’s government announced that it will begin to subsidize bread prices, after bread prices had risen 22% in the previous month. The move was forced by massive food riots and looting that occurred in the last few days,
Obama administration officials are calling for an escalation of U.S. military operations in Yemen, the home of Al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). There are no plans to scale back operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Washington Post reported two
It’s about Mideast peace and a Palestinian state, but this summit is President Obama’s show. The President greeted Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas in Washington on Wednesday, in preparation for peace talks that began
An editorial in Bahrain’s Gulf Daily News chides Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad essentially for being a loudmouth. The editorial quotes Ynet reports of provocative statements by Ahmadinejad — Israel is “too weak” to handle an offensive in Iran, and he
The word “Islamophobia” has been in the news a lot this week, after TIME magazine ran a cover article wondering when America had become Islamophobic. So, is America Islamophobic? The question arises from the debate over the “Ground Zero” mosque
Saturday was the 63rd anniversary of Pakistan’s Independence Day, but the celebrations were muted by the unfolding and growing catastrophe facing the country. There are some 1600 deaths, and 20 million people are homeless because of the floods, according to
The Chinese are already discomfited by the spectre of U.S.-South Korean naval exercises in the Yellow Sea, but now their anxiety is increasing over the U.S. plans for drills in the South China Sea. The giant nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS
Torrential rains continued to pour down on Pakistan, worsening an already catastrophic situation, according to Dawn. The Indus river, which runs down the middle of Pakistan from top to bottom, almost for the entire length of the country, has been
A stable, peaceful world requires a stable world financial system, but the exponentially growing sovereign debt in Washington, Europe, and around the world indicates that the world financial system is anything but stable. Wall Street is as unstable as Washington.
Anyone who’s been paying attention for the last ten years is aware that the level of public acrimony has been increasing steadily. This applies to acrimony in politics and journalism, as well as to surging xenophobia in many countries around
It was 20 years ago this week that young people in Kashmir, emboldened by the fall of the Berlin Wall, became a separatist insurgency demanding independence from India. Kashmir, known for its beautiful scenery, has become the focal point today
The North Koreans are threatening a ‘sacred war’ and ‘physical response’ to the joint U.S.-South Korean naval exercises taking place in the Sea of Japan between Japan and Korea, and soon in the Yellow Sea between China and Korea. The
On Tuesday of last week, Talib Hussein, a trusted Afghan soldier, launched a well-planned attack on his British soldier comrades, killing 3, and fled the camp. A spokesman for the Taliban claimed that he was a “sleeper,” planted in the
