Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

Change Chile can believe in?

Could Chile's political right return to power after two decades in the wilderness? That's the question hanging over Santiago, the capital, as Chileans head to the polls today to vote in a runoff presidential election between Eduardo Frei, the...

Published Sun, Jan 17 2010 5:05 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Latin America, Politics, Elections

How to cover the Syrian war without leaving your home

The war in Syria has been documented unlike any conflict before. Every day, there is an electronic flood of information: Youtube videos, Facebook posts, and web forums all provide a ground-level view of events in the country. Particularly given journalists'...

Published Fri, Apr 12 2013 6:56 AM by FP Passport

Fidel Castro: Korea standoff one of greatest nuclear threats since Cuban Missile Crisis

Fidel Castro, who knows a thing or two about being a young, anti-American leader engaged in nuclear brinkmanship with the United States, weighed in Thursday on the rising tensions on the Korean peninsula -- in his first " Fidel's Reflections...

Published Fri, Apr 05 2013 9:40 AM by FP Passport

All those oil and gas deposits everyone wants in the South China Sea may not even be there

As it stands, six countries claim conflicting territorial rights in the long-simmering South China Sea dispute. As anyone will tell you, one of the main drivers of this conflict is the " sizable deposits of oil and gas " believed to reside in...

Published Fri, Apr 05 2013 11:40 AM by FP Passport

The new frontier in life-tracking devices: human rights

There's the FitBit for fitness fanatics, the Pebble Watch for people who think their cell phones are too big, and Google Glasses for fancy sportsmen or irritating entrepreneurs. And now, there are high-tech life-trackers for human rights activists...

Published Fri, Apr 05 2013 1:10 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Science & Technology, Human Rights, Internet

Scotland's independence leader on how Margaret Thatcher helped Scottish nationalism

Scotland is currently gearing up for an independence referendum scheduled for Sept. 18, 2014. If it passes, independence advocates hope the country could become the world's newest nation as soon as 2016. First Minister Alex Salmond, leader of the...

Published Tue, Apr 09 2013 12:20 PM by FP Passport

Former Maldives president: 'They have to finish me off for their coup to be successful'

Until last year, Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed was best known for his high-profile advocacy on behalf of small island nations in climate change talks, which included high-profile stunts like holding a cabinet meeting underwater and starring in an...

Published Wed, Apr 03 2013 12:40 PM by FP Passport

Morning Brief: North Korea blocks access to Kaesong

North Korea blocks access to Kaesong Top news: North Korean authorities blocked access on Wednesday to the jointly run Kaesong industrial zone. The plant had stood out as one of the few -- if not the only -- remaining symbols of North-South cooperation...

Published Wed, Apr 03 2013 5:36 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

Where should you take shelter during a cyclone? There's a map for that.

In the latest example of crisis-mapping during natural disasters, the World Food Program's GIS Coordinator, Fabrice Recalt, has charted out the trajectory and intensity of Cyclone Mahasen and also made a map of available storm shelters, with detailed...

Published Thu, May 16 2013 10:50 AM by FP Passport

Why isn't the Chinese press all over the AP phone-record scandal?

It seems like a story cooked up by a columnist for China's patriotic tabloid Global Times hoping to write about the problems with American democracy and press freedom: The U.S. Justice Department snoops on the Associated Press, and, without informing...

Published Wed, May 15 2013 3:25 PM by FP Passport

Morning Brief: Iran's President-elect wants to improve relations with the U.S., vows to continue nuclear program

Iran's President-elect wants to improve relations with the U.S., vows to continue nuclear program Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Top news: In his first news conference since Friday's election in Iran, President-elect Hassan Rowhani...

Published Tue, Jun 18 2013 5:33 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

Exclusive: Egyptian Ambassador to U.S.: Morsy Ouster 'Not a Coup" but 'a Popular Uprising'

On July 3, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Egyptian defense minister, announced the removal of President Mohamed Morsy, Egypt's first democratically elected president, and the suspension of the Egyptian constitution. It's a very uncertain time...

Published Wed, Jul 03 2013 2:53 PM by FP Passport

630 members of Japan's ruling party headed to China this week

The Democratic Party of Japan apparently doesn't travel light. Mainichi Shimbun reports: Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) Secretary-General Ichiro Ozawa won't be lonely when he heads to China and South Korea on Thursday, as he's taking an entourage...

Published Wed, Dec 09 2009 10:34 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Japan, East Asia, China

Cheer up: The world has plenty of long words beyond rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz

Monday brought unexpected news (news, as you'll notice above, that's difficult to squeeze into a standard headline): In scrapping a requirement to test healthy cattle for mad cow disease, the European Union also set in motion the demise of Germany's...

Published Mon, Jun 03 2013 3:30 PM by FP Passport

What's Ahmadinejad up to?

Scott Lucas , a professor of American Studies at the University of Birmingham whose blog has somehow emerged as a go-to place for Iran news, writes on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent offer to send the Islamic Republic's uranium abroad : That is a...

Published Wed, Feb 03 2010 10:52 PM by FP Passport