May 2013 - Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

The 'Onion' latest victim of Syrian Electronic Army's fat jokes

This afternoon, the Syrian Electronic Army, a group of hackers supportive of Bashar al-Assad's regime, appeared to briefly hack into the Onion 's Twitter feed. Over the course of about an hour, the SEA tweeted seven times from @TheOnion , and...

Published Mon, May 06 2013 1:50 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Middle East, Internet, Syria

Is the enemy of Assad the friend of the Syrian opposition?

Reported Israeli airstrikes in Syria have left the Syrian opposition in a bit of a PR bind. As FP 's Blake Hounshell wrote on Saturday: The regime will seek to exploit the raids to tie the rebels to the Zionist entity, after spending two years painting...

Published Mon, May 06 2013 1:00 PM by FP Passport

Is Starbucks imposing its own sanctions on Iran?

Iran's English-language, state-sponsored media service PressTV may have stumbled onto something, in spite of itself. An article published Thursday cites a bizarre YouTube rant by financial analyst and PressTV contributor Mike Stathis (author of recent...

Published Mon, May 06 2013 8:40 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Media, Iran, Business

How Europe helped build the Syrian site Israel just bombed

On early Sunday morning, the skies over Damascus lit up with explosions as Israeli jets launched airstrikes near the capital. The target was reportedly the innocuously named Center of Scientific Studies and Research in the suburb of Jamraya, which goes...

Published Mon, May 06 2013 5:48 AM by FP Passport

Morning Brief: Israel strikes military facility in Damascus, U.N. investigator says rebels used sarin

Israel strikes military facility in Damascus, U.N. investigator says rebels used sarin Top news: The Syrian government charged Sunday that an overnight airstrike that targeted what is believed to be a military research center in Damascus was carried out...

Published Mon, May 06 2013 5:44 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

Would the U.S. still arm a Syrian opposition that used chemical weapons?

After a concerted effort to walk back -- or at least soften -- its "red line" on the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime, it looks as if the Obama administration may have just gotten off the hook. According to Reuters , U.N. human rights...

Published Sun, May 05 2013 8:04 PM by FP Passport

The problem with Obama's 'unscripted' Syria red line

The New York Times has another huge story on Obama's "red line" on the Syrian regime's possible use of chemical weapons, filled with juicy details and anonymous quotes from U.S. officials. One of them, referring to Obama's initial...

Published Sun, May 05 2013 6:34 AM by FP Passport

That awkward moment when ... Israel launches airstrikes in Syria

Syrian Facebook pages are reporting a series of massive explosions in Damascus, as are the Syrian regime's media outlets. A video claiming to be of these explosions can be seen here: Given the size of the blasts, and the news that Israeli jets earlier...

Published Sat, May 04 2013 6:47 PM by FP Passport

The Syrian charnel house

The above image is actually one of the less graphic photos coming out of the Syria today, where President Bashar al-Assad's forces stand accused of massacring Sunni families en masse. The more gruesome images and videos speak to a brutal campaign...

Published Sat, May 04 2013 1:41 PM by FP Passport

Obama's new AfPak diplomat: U.S. forces needed in Afghanistan 'well beyond' 2014 if peace talks fail

In 2011, James Dobbins, Barack Obama's newly appointed special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, published a 100-page analysis on the importance of a negotiated peace deal for the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The document makes...

Published Fri, May 03 2013 4:45 PM by FP Passport

5 ways you know you're eating rat meat

On Thursday, China's Ministry of Public Security announced that the police had arrested 63 traders accused of buying rat, fox, and mink meat and then selling the meat as mutton. Apparently, the crime ring had been mixing the meat with gelatin, red...

Published Fri, May 03 2013 4:10 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: East Asia, China, Food/Agriculture

How does America's suicide rate compare globally?

The suicide rate among Americans ages 35 to 64 rose by roughly 28 percent between 1999 and 2010, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Friday , up from 13.7 to 17.6 deaths per 100,000 people (the suicide rate is much...

Published Fri, May 03 2013 3:40 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Race/Ethnicity, Public Health, Health

Israel isn't happy about Google's decision to recognize Palestine

On Thursday, I wrote about Google's decision to change "Palestinian Territories" to "Palestine" on the Palestinian edition of its search engine -- a move that at the very least acknowledges the quest for Palestinian statehood....

Published Fri, May 03 2013 1:40 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Middle East, Internet, Israel/Palestine

How jihadists schedule terrorist attacks

On Friday, the Boston Police Department announced plans to beef up security during the city's Fourth of July festivities in the wake of new remarks from Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev that he and his brother originally scheduled a bombing...

Published Fri, May 03 2013 11:45 AM by FP Passport

Turkey and E! have two very different interpretations of Justin Bieber's concert last night

When Justin Bieber performed in Istanbul on Thursday night, did he halt his concert out of respect for Muslim fans -- or because he was getting pelted with toys? This is the stark question before us today amid reports from U.S. entertainment outlets that...

Published Fri, May 03 2013 10:20 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Culture, Islam, Fun Stuff