Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

Morning Brief: State of emergency extended in Thailand

State of emergency extended in Thailand Top story: The Thai government on Tuesday announced that it would extend the state of emergency for another three months, in a bid to prevent a repeat of the anti-government protests that brought the country to...

Published Tue, Jul 06 2010 5:19 AM by FP Passport

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

Friday Photo: Have a Magritte weekend

Suited volunteers in bowler hats stand in the surf holding umbrellas aloft at sunrise at Bondi Beach on June 27, 2010 in Sydney, Australia. The human installation is the latest in a series of 'surreal human sculptures' by artist Andrew Baines...

Published Fri, Jul 02 2010 3:48 PM by FP Passport

Stat of the Day

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 If you're a not-so-diehard World Cup fan (read: ever since Landon Donovan dropped out of sight, you've...

Published Fri, Jul 02 2010 12:25 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Russia, Media, World Cup

Kim Jong Un succession watch

There were a few new reports (or "rumors," if you prefer) on the Kim Jong Un front this week. First, the South Korean media reported on Tuesday that Kim Jong Il's presumed successor may have been "elected" to parliament last year...

Published Fri, Jul 02 2010 11:45 AM by FP Passport

Life, liberty, and cheap broadband? - By Joshua Keating

Finland, yesterday, became the world's first country to garuantee broadband access to all of its citizens as a legal right: The legislation, which came into effect Thursday, forces telecom operators to provide a reasonably priced broadband connection...

Published Fri, Jul 02 2010 11:23 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Internet

Morning Brief: More than 50 killed in attack on Sufi shrine in Pakistan

More than 50 killed in attack on Sufi shrine in Pakistan Top news: The death toll has climbed to 50 from a triple suicide bombing at Pakistan's most important Sufi shrine in Lahore, a devastating attack clearly directed against the country's moderate...

Published Fri, Jul 02 2010 5:49 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

Elian Gonzalez gets star treatment on 10th anniversary of return home

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 On the tenth anniversary of Elian Gonzalez' famous return to Cuba, there's no telling how his Miami relatives are feeling: still ruing the day they let the five-year-old...

Published Thu, Jul 01 2010 3:10 PM by FP Passport

What's the deal with Nigeria's suspended soccer team?

Ok, so Nigeria did badly at the World Cup. Really badly, actually. But talk about a rough punishment: Yesterday, the country's President Goodluck Jonathan banned the team from competing for two years. Wait, really? You're thinking: There's...

Published Thu, Jul 01 2010 2:14 PM by FP Passport

Is Obama in any hurry to fix immigration? - By Joshua Keating

In President Barack Obama's speech on immigration at American University today he described a "sense of urgency" surrounding the country's broken immigration system, but what really stood out from the speech was the degree to which Obama...

Published Thu, Jul 01 2010 1:55 PM by FP Passport

Secret list reveals fate of Dirty War prisoners - By Sylvie Stein

Two words sum up Argentina's national stance towards the atrocities committed under the 1976-1984 military dictatorship : "Nunca más" -- never again. But while the junta remains firmly in the past, the effects of its clandestine crimes remain...

Published Thu, Jul 01 2010 1:46 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Corruption, Drugs & Crime, Human Rights, Latin America, South America, Development

Entire Maldives cabinet quits in protest -- by Brian Fung

The cabinet of the Maldives sure has a flair for the dramatic. If you'll recall, this is the same bunch that held a meeting underwater last year to draw attention to the country's sinking land mass. But will the administrative body's latest...

Published Thu, Jul 01 2010 12:35 PM by FP Passport

Was Barack Obama the Karate Kid?

The Indonesian "Little Obama" movie, which I've blogged about before , premiered in Jakarta last night. The event wasn't quite what the producers had hoped for -- they had rushed the production so that the release would correspond with...

Published Thu, Jul 01 2010 11:36 AM by FP Passport

'Muscovite code' tells foreigners to blend in

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 As foreign moles in suburban America, the "Murphy's" of Montclair -- two of the recently exposed Russian "illegals" (read: spies with boring long-term assignments...

Published Thu, Jul 01 2010 10:26 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Russia, Law, Culture, Race/Ethnicity, Migration/Immigration

Morning Brief: Aid from flotilla makes its way to Gaza

Aid from flotilla makes its way to Gaza Top story: Humanitarian aid from the Gaza-bound flotilla, which the Israel Defense Forces raided when it attempted to breach its blockade on May 31, killing nine, began arriving in Gaza by land. The cargo had been...

Published Thu, Jul 01 2010 5:00 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

Is al Qaeda's new English-language magazine any good?

Answer: no. It is terrible. But perhaps there are some idiots out there who will find it appealing. According to the Daily Beast 's Lloyd Grove, the U.S. government is apparently " deeply concerned " that the magazine, called Inspire , will...

Published Wed, Jun 30 2010 9:21 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Terrorism, al Qaeda, Media