A R A B I C A ارابيكا By Kristen Gillespie SYRIA: TORTUREThis disturbing video shows Syrian security forces beating a man named Loay Amr, who was teaching school in Saudi Arabia. He returned home to the village of Houla, near Homs, and was captured, beaten and killed. The soldiers force him to repeat an […]
Category: Geopolitics
In the towns of the West Bank, Palestinian residents are cautiously optimistic about negotiations at the UN, which could recognize Palestine as an independent state. But even if the vote does go their way, will things actually change? “Will the Israelis l
Op-Ed: As Palestinians arrive at the United Nations in search of recognition of their statehood, Israel’s isolation grows deeper. Israelis have justifiable existential fears, but must accept there is only one way to achieve lasting peace and security: a P
A Muslim woman has declared her candidacy for the French presidency in protest against a ban on Islamic veils.
Pushed out of Prague, Roma are heading to northern Bohemia. Their arrival has triggered a backlash from native Czechs in the region of Ústí nad Labem, which is also attracting right-wing extremists who come from the city to stoke local anger and shout the
Op-Ed: Too much attention is being focused on China’s role in helping bail out European and American debt crises. The best thing Beijing can do is focus on the domestic economy; for if it collapses, all will pay a heavy price.
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Pope Benedict XVI’s Troubles At Home
The Pope was met with protests as he began a four-day trip in his native Germany. But his challenges run even deeper in a country that was protective of their native son in the early days of his papacy, but now sees him as the ultimate symbol of rigid tra
A R A B I C A ارابيكا By Kristen Gillespie SYRIA SCHOOLING*It was back-to-school week in Syria for 5.6 million students, and pro-democracy activists called for a school boycott until President Bashar al-Assad resigns. CNN Arabic reports that protesters are urging parents to keep their children home from school. In a statement, a group […]
Ain’t no party like a? Pyongyang party, ’cause a Pyongyang party is ABSOLUTELY MANDATORY
Earlier this month protesters attacked the Israeli Embassy in Giza and hurled stones at officers in the city’s Security Directorate. Anyone tempted to try the same thing on the Interior Ministry can expect to be shot, Interior Minister Mansour Al
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Yemen Violence Escalates
Reports say Yemeni government forces have killed more than 50 people in two days of oppression on anti-government protestors. As violence further escalates, Yemen has been plunged in the country’s bloodiest clashes for months.
A ruling by the Inter-American Human Rights Court has the potential of galvanizing support behind Leopoldo López, a 40-year-old opposition leader who is looking to run against Chávez in Venezuela’s 2012 presidential election.
A R A B I C A ارابيكا By Kristen Gillespie YEMEN: TAKING STOCK, COUNTING DEADProtests in Yemen have been ongoing for more than eight months, with the epicenter of the uprising at a square near the University of Sanaa. Protesters have been camped out, and despite periodic attempts by security forces to forcefully break […]
The largest “no nukes” protest to date, post-Fukushima, hit Tokyo on Monday, with tens of thousands of Japanese calling for an end to nuclear energy. The demonstration comes just over six months after the earthquake and tsunami that crip
Phil Black, whose convoy came under attack, responds to reports that fighters loyal to Muammar Gaddafi no longer control parts of Sirte, Libya.
Social Democrat Helle Thorning-Schmidt has been elected Denmark’s first female Prime Minister to succeed outgoing PM Lars Lokke Rasmussen.
When Super-Rich Russian opposition leader Mikhail Prokhorov called the country’s party system a “sham,” he subsequently vanished from state TV after months of air time. The last oligarch to push too far was Mikhail Khodorkovsky, now serv
A R A B I C A ارابيكا By Kristen Gillespie CAPTURED COLONELSyrian Lieutenant Colonel Hussein Harmoush, possibly the most well-known officer to defect from the army because of a candid, strongly worded condemnation of the government’s orders to kill unarmed protesters, was paraded on Syrian state television on Thursday night after being captured by […]
New exclusive footage of a crash in Argentina where a train hit a bus before smashing head-on into another train. The number of dead has risen to 11, with more than 200 injured.
An Al-Masry Al-Youm investigation cites secret documents outlining specific orders for sniper units to fire on protesters, despite denials by current Interior Minister Mansour al-Essawy, who has repeatedly denied that the Interior Ministry had sniper unit
Throughout Latin American, more and more top military posts are being filled with business school graduates. In some cases, promotions are only available to soldiers with advanced degrees, particularly MBAs.
In the interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung, Turkish president Abdullah Gül reveals secret talks, which ultimately failed, to resolve the diplomatic dispute with Israel. He also said days are numbered for the Syrian regime. Gül added that Turkey still wants
The often-tense relationship between Beijing and Moscow has not been helped by a 2009 regional trade pact. Expectations on both sides have never been met, as the dispute came to a head at a recent economic forum in Siberia. One problem: China would rather
A R A B I C A ارابيكا By Kristen Gillespie MIRACLESLebanese political leaders hardly need occasion to snipe at each other in the press. The media facilitates the endeavor because major political factions own the largest media outlets, where they flog their own views and denounce those of their opponents. In a political landscape […]
Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes a splash on his so-called “Arab Spring” tour, landing in Cairo to a “rock star” welcome and later telling an interviewer that Egypt should embrace secularism. This is how
Torn between their hunger for freedom and fear of radical Islam, Syria’s ancient minority Christians do not know whether to support the protesters or Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Exclusive: Otto Pérez Molina, the winner of this week’s first-round presidential election in Guatemala, tells Le Monde that he “has nothing to hide and nothing to regret” from his days as the army’s intelligence head during the country’s long civil war.
The leaders of Russia and the UK met at the Kremlin for the first time since 2006. But despite the warm public words, behind closed doors the two sides were in tough talks over how the investigation of the death in London of former KGB spy Alexander Litvi
Op-Ed: This year’s Arab Spring may soon give way to a winter of discontent. Revolutions in Egypt, Libya and beyond have shifted the region’s balance of power. Stability will depend on how Turkey, Egypt and Israel handle simmering hostility suddenly brough
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U.S. Embassy Under Siege In Kabul
The Taliban claims responsibility for an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan. CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux reports.
Pro-democracy leaders from Egypt have traveled to Berlin to learn how former East German dissidents peacefully managed revelations of the explosive files of the Stasi, the brutal secret police. Can Egyptians unearth the same details about its past? Do the
A R A B I C A ارابيكا By Kristen Gillespie TUESDAYThe online engine of the Syrian revolution, the Syrian Revolution against Bashar al-Assad Facebook group, each week builds up to a Friday of protests under different banners, last week’s being the “Friday of International Protection.” The group bills the event, and somehow, protesters on […]
Salim, 16, is the son of Gaddafi loyalists from Sabratha, north of Tripoli. He now lies in a hospital prison bed in Misrata, lucky to be alive, but scared to contact his parents — and knowing his life will never be the same.
One person has been killed in an explosion at a French nuclear site. The incident reportedly took place at a waste treatment plant, when an oven exploded while melting down low-level radioactive metallic waste. It appears that there was no radioactive con
Essay: Italian journalist Gianni Riotta, who lived through 9/11 in Manhattan, recalls how radically everything can change, and yet how it all still manages to pass. Or almost all.
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Muammar Gaddafi’s Last Stand
What appears to be the final battle for the pro-Gaddafi stronghold of Bani Walid continues, with NATO air strikes helping Libyan fighters trying to capture the town. There has been stiff resistance, however, after the deadline given to the Gaddafi loyalis
A R A B I C A ارابيكا By Kristen Gillespie PLEA FOR PROTECTIONThe Syrian Revolution Facebook group, after months of encouraging Syrians to rise up and bring down the regime, has turned its attention directly to the international community. The “Friday of International Protection” protests feature the tagline: “We ask for civilians to be […]
After hockey powerhouse Lokomotiv Yaroslavl’s Yak 42 charter crashed at take off, President Medvedev paid homage to the 43 killed, but launched into a harsh critique of an airline industry that counts too many new, untested carriers, and too few
Op-Ed: Turkey’s once powerful military was respected both within the country, and around the world. But it now has it been — rightly — superseded by the civilian government, and recently leaked comments from top brass show an institution rife w
Like the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Jama’a Al-Islamiya is looking to carve out a political niche in post-revolutionary Egypt. Reformists have reshaped the once violent-prone organization, but continue to be challenged internally by a powerful militant faction