December 2010 - Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

Evading a shutdown, WikiLeaks mobilizes Twitter supporters

In a bid to stay one step ahead of the governments, companies , freelance hackers trying to shut down its operations, WikiLeaks mobilized its vast base of online support Saturday by asking its Twitter followers to create copies of its growing archive...

Published Sat, Dec 04 2010 5:58 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: WikiLeaks

Qataris celebrate World Cup winning bid

The global reaction to Qatar's winning drive to host the World Cup in 2022 can be summed up in a word: incredulous. David Goldblatt has a smart piece for the Middle East Channel weighing the pros and cons of holding the world's top soccer tournament...

Published Sat, Dec 04 2010 9:45 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Middle East, Sports

Friday photo: Snow Shepherd

A Basque shepherd dog plays in the snow in the Northern Spanish Basque village of Oquendo, on December 3, 2010. Fresh snowfalls swept northern Europe, shutting down airports, blocking roads and forcing Eurostar international rail service cancellations...

Published Fri, Dec 03 2010 4:23 PM by FP Passport

Department of unwanted endorsements

Brown Lloyd James, a PR agency that represents the Libyan government, just sent out a press release about Muammar Qaddafi's speech via satellite to students at the London School of Economics today. (Incidentally, his son Saif is in LSE grad .) Qaddafi...

Published Fri, Dec 03 2010 2:14 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: North Africa

Brazil recognizes Palestinian state

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his transformative Foreign Minister Celso Amorim are still making new s in their last month in office, announcing today that Brazil would recognize the Palestinian state along the 1967 borders. Here's...

Published Fri, Dec 03 2010 11:54 AM by FP Passport

Obama in Afghanistan

President Obama has just arrived at Afghanistan's Bagram airbase for an unannounced trip during which he will meet U.S. troops and hold a meeting by videoconference with President Hamid Karzai. Obama had originally planned to travel to Kabul by helicopter...

Published Fri, Dec 03 2010 9:46 AM by FP Passport

Morning Brief: South Korea: We will retaliate if North strikes again

South Korea: We will retaliate if North strikes again Top news: South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's nominee to take over as defense chief said in his parliamentary confirmation hearing that his jets would bomb the North if North Korea forces staged...

Published Fri, Dec 03 2010 6:05 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

The secret Somalia anti-piracy force

An un-named Muslim country is funding the creation of a well-armed and privately trained militia force in Somalia's north to fight piracy, the AP reports today. And behind the scenes consulting are the George W. Bush administration's former ambassador...

Published Thu, Dec 02 2010 2:51 PM by FP Passport

Nigeria to try *** Cheney for corruption

A bit of interesting breaking news from the wires: Nigeria's anti-corruption commission is set to unveil a warrant for former U.S. Vice President *** Cheney. During his time at Haliburton, the company is alleged to gotten wrapped up in a dollars-for...

Published Thu, Dec 02 2010 12:09 PM by FP Passport

Russia and Qatar to host World Cup

FIFA today announced that Russia would host the 2018 World Cup and … Qatar … would host the 2022 Cup. Obviously this is shocking news across the sporting and football worlds. So why Russia and Qatar? Russia, actually, makes a certain amount of sense....

Published Thu, Dec 02 2010 12:00 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Corruption, Russia, Middle East, Sports, World Cup

Attention WikiLeaks junkies

As you've probably noticed, Passport has turned into an essentially WikiLeaks-only zone over the last couple of days. In the interest of consolidating the massive amounts of WikiLeaks related content coming in -- and to allow Passport to cover some...

Published Thu, Dec 02 2010 7:33 AM by FP Passport

Morning Brief: Obama administration reverses plan for Gulf oil drilling

Obama administration reverses plan for Gulf oil drilling Top story: The Obama administration announced on Wednesday that it would maintain a ban on offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and off the Atlantic Coast for the next five years...

Published Thu, Dec 02 2010 5:28 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief, Oil / Energy Disaster / Problem / Shennanigans

WikiLeaks on Luzhkov and Kremlin corruption

Give U.S. diplomats some credit for foresight. More than seven months before the unceremonious firing of Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, U.S. embassy officials observed that his presence was becoming a liability for the Kremlin. A just WikiLeaked cable from...

Published Wed, Dec 01 2010 1:17 PM by FP Passport

Mon dieu! WikiLeaks makes the US look good. - By David Kenner

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange crowed yesterday that the State Department "is going to have a hard time of it trying to spin" his organization's ongoing document dump. U.S. diplomats, he said, will "find their very privileged position...

Published Wed, Dec 01 2010 12:21 PM by FP Passport

FP's 2010 Global Thinkers gala in photos

Here are a few images from last night's Top 100 Global Thinkers event at Washington's Corcoran Gallery of Art. Our panel featured (from left to right) Brazilian Foreign Minsiter Celso Amorim , Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu , moderater...

Published Wed, Dec 01 2010 12:05 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Foreign Policy magazine