June 2011 - Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

A Malaysian cure for divorce, and more

What do chicken-processing factories, noodle factories, and polygamy clubs have in common? Easy -- they're all ventures undertaken by the Malaysian company Global Ikhwan Sdn Bhd . Before his death in 2010, the chairman and founder Ashaari Mohamed...

Published Wed, Jun 15 2011 4:09 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Women, South Asia

Powerful documentary shows ‘horrific’ new footage from Sri Lanka’s civil war

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 A disturbing new film from Britain's...

Published Wed, Jun 15 2011 3:33 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Southeast Asia

Photos: Street protests rock Greece

Tens of thousands of protesters today joined a general strike against the latest proposed austerity measures from Prime Minister George Papandreou's increasingly unpopular government, as the country lurched closer to economic collapse. The protests...

Published Wed, Jun 15 2011 3:00 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe, Economics

Libya conflict is now a “civil war,” says the A.P.

The decision by the Associated Press -- the world’s most influential wire service-- to begin calling the conflict in Libya a “civil war” is worth noting since it’s where most newspapers (and websites, and television networks) across the United States...

Published Wed, Jun 15 2011 2:09 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Media, North Africa, Libya

CIA informants? A few suggestions as to who Pakistan’s ISI might want to arrest

Pakistan rounded up five informants who provided information to the C.I.A. that helped lead to the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, according to the New York Times. The arrests, which reportedly include a Pakistani Army major who...

Published Wed, Jun 15 2011 11:27 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Pakistan, Southeast Asia

INTERVIEW: Rep. Brad Sherman on Libya and Obama’s Imperial Presidency

A confrontation is brewing between the executive and legislative branches over the legality of America's continued military role enforcing the no fly zone over Libya. On Tuesday, June 14, House Speaker John Boehner warned the president he had until...

Published Wed, Jun 15 2011 9:54 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Politics, Middle East, Libya

Morning Brief: U.S. officials: Pakistan arrested bin Laden informants

U.S. officials: Pakistan arrested bin Laden informants Top news: Pakistan's military intelligence agency has arrested five CIA informants whose information led to the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, U.S. officials told the New York Times . One of...

Published Wed, Jun 15 2011 5:25 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

Is the fix in at the IMF?

Today's big story on the race to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn as managing director of the IMF is that Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer was disqualified on account of his age -- he's 67 -- setting up a contest between French Finance Minister...

Published Tue, Jun 14 2011 4:03 PM by FP Passport

Hamas and Fatah agree on consensus prime minister, but won’t say who it is

Hamas and Fatah, the two rival Palestinian factions that reached a unity agreement last month, began negotiating in Cairo this morning over who would lead the new government. According to press reports and sources close to the sides, negotiators reached...

Published Tue, Jun 14 2011 1:17 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Middle East, Israel/Palestine

Where do the guns in Mexico come from? Mainly the U.S.

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 A new congressionally commissioned report has some interesting statistics on the weapons fueling Mexico's ever-bloodier drug war, including this: 70 percent of the firearms...

Published Tue, Jun 14 2011 1:00 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Mexico, North Africa

The bin Laden hunt continues... underwater

Given how long it took to find a live and active Osama bin Laden on land, I can only imagine that finding his dead body somewhere in the Indian Ocean might be even more of a challenge. But don't tell professional treasure hunter Bill Warren that:...

Published Tue, Jun 14 2011 8:13 AM by FP Passport

Republican debate: Running from Obama (and Bush) on foreign policy

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 What a difference four years makes! The new order of the day when it came to foreign policy and national security at last night’s New Hampshire GOP debate was caution. On both Afghanistan...

Published Tue, Jun 14 2011 8:02 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: North America, Politics, Afghanistan, Libya

Morning Brief: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood forms alliance with liberal party

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood forms alliance with liberal party Top story: The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most powerful Islamist party, announced on Monday that it had formed a coalition with the liberal Wafd Party for the country's upcoming parliamentary...

Published Tue, Jun 14 2011 4:51 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

The new al Qaeda: 5 emerging leaders

It's been a tough couple of weeks for al Qaeda. Since the successful Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the terror network has suffered additional losses that analysts say are taking a heavy toll on the group. Ilyas Kashmiri, al Qaeda's...

Published Mon, Jun 13 2011 4:17 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: al Qaeda, Africa, Pakistan, Middle East, Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, Arab World, Yemen

So which countries now officially recognize the Libyan rebels?

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle announced today during a visit to Benghazi that his government would now recognize the Transitional National Council (TNC) as the official...

Published Mon, Jun 13 2011 1:15 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: North Africa, Libya