Diplomats have focused on Syria’s unwillingness to grant additional visits as stalling an International Atomic Energy Agency investigation into a bombed site which the US claims was a nearly-finished nuclear reactor, but IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei finds the more onerous problem the mysterious lack of commercial satellite images of the site.
ElBaradei says “it is regrettable, [...]
There is no shortage of US officials making broad statements accusing the Iranian government of attempting to develop a nuclear weapon, but after last week’s International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran yielded no interesting allegations to latch onto, US Ambassador to the IAEA Gregory Schulte has tried to novel strategy of accusing Iran of [...]
Lest we think that all the allegations flying across the India-Pakistan border in the past few days are headed in one direction, Pakistan’s Daily Times is reporting tonight on evidence which according to unnamed sources was gathered by Pakistani intelligence agencies, pointing to a plot against Pakistan’s financial capital of Karachi, originating in Balochistan, and [...]
A myriad of coordinated attacks across India’s financial capital of Mumbai continues this evening, and though a group calling itself the Deccan Mujahedeen (Deccan is a plateau that makes up most of southern India) has claimed credit for the attack, there is no shortage of speculation, or suspects, for who is actually behind it.
Few seem [...]
A delegation from the United Nations Security Council wrapped up a three day tour of Afghanistan today with a veiled swipe at recent complaints by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Touting a cabinet reshuffle as grounds for “cautious optimism,” delegation head Giulio Terzi declared that the situation in Afghanistan was “not a security crisis,” and warned [...]
A deal yesterday to schedule a referendum for July 30, 2009 on the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) may have been instrumental in scoring the vote a narrow victory today in Iraq’s Parliament, but the terms of the deal are unlikely to give the referendum the meaning that its Sunni advocates were hoping for.
Not scheduled [...]
Updated 11/27 2:09 PM EST
Mumbai’s night of terror has stretched on well into the afternoon of the following day, and India’s economic center remains under siege. Gunmen remain at large, battles are still ongoing at the city’s two major five star hotels (the Oberoi and the Taj), and as many as 50 hostages are reportedly [...]
Numerous vote delays to allow time for extra politicking, a deal for a referendum next year to placate the major Sunni bloc (the Iraqi Accord Front), and last minute endorsements from the IAF, the National Dialogue bloc, and the Iraqi Communist Party seem like a recipe for success for Iraq’s controversial Status of Forces Agreement [...]
US complaints earlier this week about the “wholly inappropriate” IAEA aid scheduled to be provided to Syria have been rejected, and the agency has approved the $350,000 aid project to help the Syrian government select a site for a potential nuclear power plant.
The move came after three days of intensive negotiations, with the US and [...]
In a sign that the days of military interference in political affairs may indeed be over, Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) has had its domestic political wing disbanded. The enormously independent ISI has been accused of using the wing to undermine previous civilian governments and to meddle in the nation’s political affairs.
The Pakistani civilian [...]
