A judicial ruling against a teacher who wore the hejab inspires an assassination of a judge—which in turn sparks a mass mobilization against the Islamists. Whatever one thinks of the Ataturk-era policy of mandatory secularism, the politics of this one… Read moreTurkey: mass pro-secular mobilization
Talk about Phyrric victories. The quick overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 paved the way for the invasion of Iraq and the quick overthrow of Saddam Hussein a year and a half later. Now, just as Iraq is spinning horribly… Read moreAfghanistan: back to the brink?
Remember all those wacky conspiracy theorists who said that “liberating” Afghanistan from the Taliban was really about building an oil pipeline through the country? From India’s Rediff.com, May 19: India joins Afghanistan gas pipeline project The Cabinet on Thursday approved… Read moreAfghanistan pipeline project advances
Today’s Wall Street Journal features a maddening front-page story on Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch parliamentarian of Somali birth who has been facing death threats for her opposition to Islamism. She has just announced that she is finally leaving Holland… Read moreDutch legislator to step down following Islamist threats
Yet again. All it takes is reading the New York Times to get pretty damn paranoid these days. From May 16: Defendant Says Police Informer Pushed Him Into Bomb Plot A Pakistani immigrant accused of plotting to blow up the… Read moreNYC: police informant behind terror plot?
A national summit of indigenous and campesino organizations is meeting at the Guambiano indigenous reserve of La Maria Piendamó, along the Pan-American Highway in Cauca, southern Colombia, and has just been attacked by the security forces. At least one death… Read moreColombia: army fires on indigenous protesters
From Ya Libnan, May 15: Beirut & Damascus — Prominent writer and democracy campaigner Michel Kilo was detained after calling for better relations between Syria and Lebanon. Syria detained Kilo days after he signed a petition calling for radical reform… Read moreSyrian dissident detained
Its about out way of life, remember? From Newsday, May 15: Fatal accident leaves grief on Mother’s Day It was a simple Mother’s Day gift: Alvin Johnson was going to surprise his girlfriend of 20 years, Emma Liverman, with a… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
From BBC, May 16. Maybe this will finally shut up the conspiranoiacs. (Yeah, as if…) Why Pentagon released 9/11 tape A non-profit government watchdog has succeeded in getting the US to release videotapes of a plane striking the Pentagon on… Read morePentagon releases 9-11 footage; conspiranoiacs appeased?
We recently noted an internal shake-up in the Libyan regime that seemed to signal a tilt back to the sidelined hardliners. This seems not to have affected Washington’s plans, announced today, to restore diplomatic relations. This may actually reveal something… Read moreChávez, State Department woo Qadaffi
From AP, May 13: WASHINGTON – President Bush, trying to build momentum for an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, is considering plans to shore up the Mexican border with National Guard troops paid for by the federal government, the… Read moreBush proposes thousands of Guard troops for Mexican border; raids and protests continue
Nine bombs exploded across Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa May 12, killing four people and wounding dozens. (AP, May 13) The Oromi separatists deny involvement. But Ethiopia has no shortage of ethnic separatist struggles, as we have noted. And also no… Read moreRebels or government behind Ethiopia terror blasts?
