June 2010 - Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

What growing Iranian ties to Russia?

Criticizing a column by Charles Krauthammer is an action roughly akin to shooting fish in a barrel, but today's offering contains a particularly egregious distortion: On Tuesday, one day before the president touted passage of a surpassingly weak U...

Published Fri, Jun 11 2010 10:18 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Russia, Iran

Oiled birds: To clean or euthanize?

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Of all the photos documenting the effects of the oil spill (and there are some true stunners ), the images of oil-soaked pelicans are among the most arresting and disheartening...

Published Fri, Jun 11 2010 9:55 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Disasters, Science & Technology, North America, Environment

A major terrorism bust for Russia

It hasn't attracted a whole lot of attention yet, but Russia's announcement this week of the arrest of militant leader Ali Taziyev, better known as Emir Magas could be a devastating blow to the insurgency in the North Caucasus. Magas was officially...

Published Fri, Jun 11 2010 6:26 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Terrorism, Russia, Caucasus

Morning Brief: Gulf spill estimate doubled

Gulf spill estimate doubled Top story: A government panel has nearly doubled the official estimate of the amount of oil gushing from the damaged BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. The scientists on the Flow Rate Technical group now say that between 25...

Published Fri, Jun 11 2010 5:56 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

Les Kinsolving strikes again

Inspired by the Helen Thomas hubbub, this week's FP Explainer took up the question of whether it's possible for the White House to revoke a reporter's press credentials. In the piece, I mentioned some of the more dubious members of the White...

Published Thu, Jun 10 2010 3:52 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Media

The World Cup's group of chaos

You've heard of the Group of Death ; now, discover the Group of Political Chaos (and Diego Maradona). The New York Times Goal blog uncovered an interesting tidbit about one of the 2010 World Cup groupings. Group B is composed of three countries beset...

Published Thu, Jun 10 2010 2:35 PM by FP Passport

Xinjiang disctricts get sister Chinese regions

China's Xinjiang province is known mostly for being a hotbed of separatist violence and government crackdowns on free speech. But not all the news coming from Western China is bad: just days after Beijing ended a controversial 10-month Internet blackout...

Published Thu, Jun 10 2010 2:30 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Human Rights, East Asia, China, Internet, Central Asia, Development

Exiled emirate prince plans coup with British lawyer

Here's an unlikely advocate in the enforcement of sanctions against Iran: Sheikh Khalid, the former crown prince of the UAE emirate Ras al-Khaimah (RAK). In 2003, his own father and half-brother staged a takeover and exiled him to Muscat, Oman. Now...

Published Thu, Jun 10 2010 2:15 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Middle East

Was the Bradley effect at work in Geert Wilders' big night?

The big story out of yesterday's Dutch elections was the success of Geert Wilders' anti-Islam, anti-immigration Freedom Party. The party nearly tripled its seats in parliament going from 9 to 24 and will likely be invited to join a coalition government...

Published Thu, Jun 10 2010 11:29 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe

First comes love, then comes...jail?

Love was momentarily in the air in Saudi Arabia -- until the cops showed up. AP reports this morning that a young Saudi man from Riyadh will face 90 lashes and four months in the clapper as punishment for "engaging in immoral movements" (read...

Published Thu, Jun 10 2010 9:49 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Law, Religion, Arab World

Morning Brief: In the aftermath of UN sanctions vote, Iran warns of "reduced" cooperation

In the aftermath of UN sanctions vote, Iran warns of "reduced" cooperation A day after the United Nations Security Council passed a fourth round of sanctions on Iran for its illicit nuclear program, Iranian officials warned that the country...

Published Thu, Jun 10 2010 4:55 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

Quiz: Which country spends the most time on social-networking websites?

Quiz question for the week: Which country spends the most time on social-networking websites? a) Italy b) Japan c) United States (For those of you who don't subscribe to the bimonthly print edition of Foreign Policy , you're missing a great feature...

Published Wed, Jun 09 2010 3:00 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Internet, Foreign Policy magazine

Ambassadors bet steak dinner on soccer game

Now the pressure is really on for the U.S. to beat Britain in the World Cup opening match this Saturday, because a free meal for the American ambassador is on the line. Politico has released an email exchange between the U.S. and British ambassadors in...

Published Wed, Jun 09 2010 2:21 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe, Sports

Remarks by Syrian envoy spark controversy at U.N. Human Rights Council

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Big news at the U.N. today is the passage of a resolution to impose new Iranian sanctions -- a document that, if nothing else, epitomizes the delicate (read: watered down) diplomatic...

Published Wed, Jun 09 2010 12:15 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Israel/Palestine, United Nations

Uprising at a Chinese Internet addiction camp

Some of China's young Internet "addicts" have evidently been pushed too far : A group of young Chinese web addicts staged a mutiny at an Internet "boot camp", tying up their instructor and fleeing the facility over its tough military...

Published Wed, Jun 09 2010 9:21 AM by FP Passport