Muntadar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi journalist who made headlines worldwide for throwing his shoes at then-President George W. Bush, has had an interesting two months: he went from obscure journalist to international folk-hero, spent time in the hospital for injuries suffered during his arrest, was reportedly tortured, and was held completely incommunicado for nearly a month. [...]
En route to an official visit to South Korea, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters that the Obama Administration was preparing for various scenarios surrounding possible succession in North Korea. Clinton said that even a peaceful succession “may encourage behaviors that are even more provocative.” In the meantime, tensions between North and South Korea [...]
While the endorsement of Yisrael Beiteinu chief Avigdor Lieberman has likely secured the Likud Party the first opportunity to form a coalition government, but getting the controversial right-winger to actually join that coalition is going to cost would-be Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu far more than anyone could have imagined. Lieberman is now demanding three major [...]
In what one senior UN official described as a “significant” discovery, the word now is that the test samples taken from the Syrian site attacked by Israel in 2007 contained traces of graphite and 80 uranium particles, a trivial amount. The United States had claimed that the Syrian government was building a secret gas-graphite reactor [...]
While earlier today Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni seemed resigned to putting her Kadima party in the opposition, she is now backing off of those claims. Now the Kadima head says she would be open to joining a Likud-led coalition, but under certain conditions. Livni says she would not join a government that included Shas [...]
While the cost of the American war in Afghanistan is bound to surge as the number of troops do, an often overlooked expense is the monthly stipend provided to the Pakistani government for its own military aid. That expense has been deferred, however, in that the US hasn’t paid them in nine months. For the [...]
A key endorsement from Avigdor Lieberman this morning is likely to secure Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party the first opportunity to form the next Israeli government. The 15 seats of Yisrael Beiteinu will bring the total of supporters of Netanyahu’s position up to 65 seats. Once chosen, the party would have 42 days to piece together [...]
Afghan authorities confirmed today that at least 13 civilians, including six women and two children, were killed in a US missile strike near Herat. The US said the strike targeted a “key insurgent commander.” Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Rick Helmer said in a statement that “we take all reports of non-combatant casualties very seriously and [...]
It has been over two months since Iraqi parliamentary speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani angrily resigned his post, and it looks like after considerable infighting and several failed attempts the parliament is finally poised to select his replacement… a replacement that some in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s political bloc are already seeing as a threat. The front-runner [...]
Israeli President Shimon Peres today began a series of talks with the leaders of the nations various political parties, and will in the next few days determine which party gets the first opportunity to attempt to form a coalition government. Though the post-election environment in Israel has been marked by serious political infighting and no [...]
