February 2010 - Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

Sen. Richard Shelby and the horrible hold

The big news in Washington -- aside from Snowpocalpyse Part II/#snOMG/Snowmageddon 2/panic caused by relatively common weather -- comes from the office of Sen. Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama. Yesterday, TPM reported, Shelby slapped a hold on all...

Published Fri, Feb 05 2010 12:56 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: U.S. Congress

Putin on Georgia's mind

Georgia just can't get Vladimir Putin out of its mind. A new cartoon of extremely poorly-drawn yellow characters on Georgian TV called The Samsonadzes -- an obvious knock-off of The Simpsons -- is rising high in the ratings chart. Creator Shalva Ramishvili...

Published Fri, Feb 05 2010 10:03 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe, Russia, Media, Fun Stuff

Uganda: The collapse of democracy?

Uganda's Chief Magistrate's court dismissed a landmark case on Wednesday that had been filed by two Ugandan journalists, Angelo Izama and Charles Mwanguhya Mpagi. The file was introduced by the two journalists as an attempt to use Uganda's...

Published Fri, Feb 05 2010 9:57 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Africa, Politics, Media, Oil

What would Muhammad say?

A "prophet row" has emerged in Turkey after Emine Erdogan, wife of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was denied access to a military hospital because of her headscarf. Heated exchanges in the Grand National Assembly followed, as opposition...

Published Fri, Feb 05 2010 9:17 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe, Culture, Middle East

Stephen Colbert wags his finger at Foreign Policy

For FP contributor Jeff Stein spoiling a surprise in former CIA operative John Kiriakou's upcoming book. Our bad, Colbert. The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Tip/Wag - Waterboarding & Canada's History www.colbertnation.com Colbert...

Published Fri, Feb 05 2010 7:17 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Media

Morning Brief: Toyota Chief Apologizes

Toyota Chief Apologizes Top Story: The president of the giant carmaker Toyota apologized for the design and manufacturing errors that led to the global recall of more than 9 million cars. Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the Japanese company's founder...

Published Fri, Feb 05 2010 6:02 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

US, China, and Too Much Fuss

The onslaught of recent commentary on U.S.-China disagreements has come so fast and furious over the last two weeks that one could be forgiven for thinking startling tectonic shifts had just reshaped the surface of the Earth. But the funny thing about...

Published Thu, Feb 04 2010 3:03 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: East Asia, China

Forget debt, let's talk rice

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE David Roodman of the Center for Global Development has a thoughtful response to my blog post (responding in turn to his initial post ) on the growing calls to cancel Haiti's debt. To summarize, David...

Published Thu, Feb 04 2010 2:20 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: North America, Food/Agriculture, International Relations, Foreign Aid, International Organizations

DIY deportation: Amazingly easy

It turns out that deporting someone from the United States, even if you're not a federal official or law enforcement officer, is not all that hard: Wearing a fake badge and a shirt imprinted with "U.S. Federal Agent," Gregory Denny, 37,...

Published Thu, Feb 04 2010 11:12 AM by FP Passport

Who's afraid of big, bad Hezbollah?

Patrick Barry noticed this very interesting passage from the U.S. intelligence community's annual threat assessment : We judge that, unlike al-Qa'ida, Hizballah, which has not directly attacked US interests overseas over the past 13 years, is...

Published Thu, Feb 04 2010 8:56 AM by FP Passport

Morning Brief: China escalates trade spats with U.S. and E.U.

China escalates trade spats with U.S. and E.U. Top news: One day after U.S. President Barack Obama promised to "get much tougher about enforcing existing rules" on trade with China and said he would pressure Beijing to let the Yuan appreciate...

Published Thu, Feb 04 2010 5:46 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

What's Ahmadinejad up to?

Scott Lucas , a professor of American Studies at the University of Birmingham whose blog has somehow emerged as a go-to place for Iran news, writes on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent offer to send the Islamic Republic's uranium abroad : That is a...

Published Wed, Feb 03 2010 10:52 PM by FP Passport

Quiz: After Mexico, which OECD country has the highest rate of teen births?

For those of you who don't subscribe to the bimonthly print edition of Foreign Policy , you're missing a great feature: the FP Quiz. It has eight intriguing questions about how the world works. The question I'd like to highlight this week...

Published Wed, Feb 03 2010 7:09 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Women, Public Health, Health

Pakistani ambassador rejected because his name is NSFW in Arabic

Despite having served for years as a distinguished Pakistani diplomat, Akbar Zeb reportedly cannot receive accreditation as Pakistan's ambassador to Saudi Arabia. The reason, apparently, has nothing to do with his credentials, and everything to do...

Published Wed, Feb 03 2010 1:48 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Middle East, Fun Stuff

Where no Iranian turtles, rats, or worms have gone before

In case you just thought that Iran launched a rocket today just to remind everyone about their rockets, they also sent up some unfortunate animals on a scientific mission: On Wednesday, Press TV said, the Iranian Aerospace Organization said live video...

Published Wed, Feb 03 2010 9:52 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Science & Technology, Iran