France24 does what no US news channel will, reporting on the challenges facing young women in occupied Gaza Related article: Gaza power plant back online as fuel supply resumes (via AFP) The Gaza Strip’s only power plant returned to life after Israel resumed fuel deliveries on Sunday, a Palestinian official said, two days after a […]
Archives for January 2014
The Politics of War Casualty Counts, from the “GWOT” to Syria
(By Michael Munk) Counting the casualties of war is a highly political exercise. We recall the competition for promotion and decoration between US military commanders in Vietnam for Vietcong “body counts.” When these were widely exposed as false or misleading (labeling civilians as fighters), the same military announced “we don’t do body counts” in the […]
Bringing medieval Persian verse to the West: Dick Davis Interview
PBS Newshour’s Jeff Brown interviews Dick Davis, among the foremost Persian scholars and translators of our time, on the delights and glories of Persian poetry. Davis is the translator of Faces of Love: Hafez and the Poets of Shiraz For Barnes and Noble fans the book is here. And here it is at the indie […]
Iraq’s Sunni Civil War
(By Juan Cole) The attempt launched earlier this week by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL) to take and hold city quarters in Falluja, Ramadi and Khalidiya in al-Anbar province has provoked an enormous political crisis in Iraq. The insurgents and supporters chased police and soldiers away from their stations, burned […]
No parallel organization within state can be tolerated, particularly inside judiciary: President Gül
President Abdullah Gül has expressed his concerns over claims relayed by several high-level officials of a ‘gang within the state’ aiming to topple the government
Iraq: Government assault as Sunni Extremists Take al-Anbar City Quarters
(By AFP) Clashes kill 32 civilians in Iraq’s Anbar (via AFP) Fighting killed at least 32 civilians on Friday in the Anbar province cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, where Al-Qaeda-linked militants took over areas this week, security officials said. Police and tribesmen in both cities are battling militants from… AFP reports
Australia burns, swelters in Hottest Year on Record (Climate Instability Story of the Day)
(By AFP) Australia endures hottest year on record (via AFP) Australia experienced its hottest year on record in 2013, the Bureau of Meteorology said Friday, enduring the longest heatwave ever recorded Down Under as well as destructive bushfires. “2013 was Australia’s warmest year since records began in 1910,”… ITN reports
Former Pakistan Dictator suffers “heart problem” on Way to Treason Trial
(by AFP) Musharraf suffers ‘heart problem’ on way to treason hearing (via AFP) Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf was rushed to hospital Thursday after suffering a “heart problem” on his way to court, in the latest dramatic twist in his treason trial. The 70-year-old had been summoned to the special tribunal in… — […]
Space Exploration as Reality Show: 1000 chosen for Private Mars Colonization Mission
(By AFP> More than 1,000 chosen for one-way Mars reality-TV mission (via AFP) More than 1,000 candidates — from 200,000 hopefuls — have been chosen to train for a private Mars colonisation mission to be partly funded by a reality-TV show following their training and subsequent steps, organisers said Thursday. They are to be… […]
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