10. “There has been significant progress in tamping down the insurgency in Afghanistan.” Fact: A recent National Intelligence Estimate by 16 intelligence agencies found no progress. It warned that large swathes of the country were at risk of falling to the Taliban and that they still had safe havens in Pakistan, with the Pakistani government […]
Collateral Damage in Pakistan: Cloughley
Brian Cloughley writes in a guest column for Informed Comment: I started thinking about the phrase after a recent, disturbing trip to Pakistan. ‘Collateral damage’ is a seemingly bland phrase, but it indicates stomach-churning contempt for human life. It was fashionable during the Vietnam war, when countless thousands of civilians were blown to bits, burned […]
Map: Syria Land Use
80 Killed in Bombing, Military Strikes in Pakistan
On Saturday, a suicide bomber targeted a food aid center in Khar in Bajaur, one of Pakistan’s northwestern Federally Administered Tribal Areas, killing 43 and wounding 100. The development has implications for US troops in Afghanistan, since Bajaur abuts the strategic and troubled Kunar Province in Afghanistan and Taliban based there and in Mohmand raid […]
Yemen Ethnic and Religious Groups
Santa Claus was from Turkey?
The modern Turkish town of Demre is on the site of Myra, the birthplace of Saint Nicholas, whom the world now calls Santa Claus. If they are smart, they’ll build a huge amusement park and resort on the theme! A biography of the generous fourth-century saint is here. Here is a video on Saint Nicholas […]
Christmas Trees, Christmas Parties among Egyptian Muslims
Some 500,000 Christmas trees were sold this year in Egypt, an extremely mysterious statistic. The country’s Orthodox Coptic Church celebrates Christmas on January 7, considers the day distinctly less important than Easter, and does not have a tradition of Christmas trees or Santa Claus. The roughly 8 million Copts are the largest national community of […]
Christmas in Beirut
The people of Beirut, Lebanon, are dealing with their chronic political nervousness with bright lights and Christmas cheer. Sunni Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri lighted the huge Christmas tree downtown Beirut, and 120 other Christmas trees were spread through the capital. Lebanon consists of Christians, Sunni Muslims, Shiites, and Druze, and has a history of ecumenical […]
Abu Dhabi Hotel Does not Regret $11 Mn. Christmas Tree
Christmas means never having to say you are sorry. The Seven Emirates Hotel in Abu Dhabi says it does not either regret its display of an $11 million Christmas tree loaded down with gold and jewelry from a shop in the hotel lobby. An earlier statement had seemed to admit that the hotel had ‘overloaded […]
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