Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

Canadian parliament to dine on seal meat tomorrow

Apparently back from their two-month hiatus , the Canadian parliament is sending Europe a message on Wednesday by serving seal meat in the parliamentary restaurant: Canada's Conservative government says it will fight the EU ban, which was imposed...

Published Tue, Mar 09 2010 11:23 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Environment, Food/Agriculture, North Africa

Motive for Cyprus corpse theft still unclear

Something's not quite right with this story about the president of Cyprus's stolen corpse being found. Well... something other than the corpse being stolen in the first place. Contradicting early suspicions that hardline Greek nationalist Tassos...

Published Tue, Mar 09 2010 10:48 AM by FP Passport

Bush's Northern Ireland intervention

Earlier today, former U.S. President George W. Bush called British conservative leader David Cameron to try to convince him to urge his allies in the Northern Irish Ulster Unionist party to support a deal that would give the government in Belfast control...

Published Tue, Mar 09 2010 8:17 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe, Bush Administration

Morning Brief: Biden: "No space" between U.S. and Israel

Biden: "No space" between U.S. and Israel Top story: Vice President Joe Biden is on yet another reassurance mission, this time to Israel where he assured leaders today that the United States is committed to preventing a nuclear-armed Iran. There...

Published Tue, Mar 09 2010 5:56 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

Women's Day in Afghanistan

This afternoon in Washington, I met with Suraya Pakzad, an Afghan women's rights activist who was named one of Time magazine's most influential people last year. She's in town to meet with Washington's top policymakers, and her message...

Published Mon, Mar 08 2010 12:51 PM by FP Passport

No lawyers for Swiss animals

A setback for animal-rights activists in Switzerland: Voters in Switzerland have rejected a proposal to introduce a nationwide system of state-funded lawyers to represent animals in court. Animal rights groups had proposed the move, saying that without...

Published Mon, Mar 08 2010 9:26 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe, Law, Environment

Another disputed election. Another crackdown.

This time it's Togo : Togo's top opposition candidate said Monday that security forces have been provoking demonstrators with force, a day after the group staged protests claiming last week's presidential election was rigged to favor the son...

Published Mon, Mar 08 2010 9:06 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Africa, Elections

Putin: Olympics money might have been misspent

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin reflects on Russia's preperations for the Vancouver Games: "Maybe the money was spent not on what was needed but instead on what someone wanted to spend it on," Putin told top sports officials that he...

Published Mon, Mar 08 2010 8:20 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Russia, Race/Ethnicity

Kim Jong Il's Austrian fetish

The thing about wacky Kim Jong Il stories is that they're generally impossible to prove or disprove so it's gnereally best to treat them as little more than curiosities. That's certainly true of Kim's apparent taste for all things Austrian...

Published Mon, Mar 08 2010 7:47 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: North Korea, East Asia

Morning Brief: Counting underway in Iraqi election

Counting underway in Iraqi election Top story: Counting is underway in Iraq's second parliamentary election since the ouster of Saddam Hussein. Turnout was reported to be high around the country yesterday despite scattered violence. The results will...

Published Mon, Mar 08 2010 5:33 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

Friday Photo: The world's first 'Zero Star Hotel'

Daniel Charbonnier, co-founder of Minds in Motion, an international hospitality advisory and services company, has recently partnered with concept artists Frank and Patrik Riklin to transform the 'Zero-Star Hotel' into a worldwide business opportunity...

Published Fri, Mar 05 2010 3:11 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe, Fun Stuff

Chile revises earthquake casualties down

As announcements of government screw-ups go, this is a pretty welcome one: The death toll from last weekend's earthquake in Chile has been revised sharply downwards, generating further criticism of the muddled official response to the crisis. As powerful...

Published Fri, Mar 05 2010 1:30 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Latin America

Russian official proposes fingerprinting entire population of North Caucasus

Give Aleksandr Bastrykin points for ambition : A Russian official has proposed compiling a database containing the fingerprints of the entire population of Russia's volatile North Caucasus region, RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service reports. Aleksandr...

Published Fri, Mar 05 2010 11:58 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Russia

Europe's inflation fundamentalism

FP Editor in Chief Moisés Naím and the Carnegie Endowment's Uri Dadush have an op-ed in today's Financial Times arguing that Europe's excessive fear of inflation is preventing it from taking the action necessary to prevent a potentially catastrophic...

Published Fri, Mar 05 2010 8:21 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe, Economics

Gay sex scandal at the Vatican

In his FP piece on the decline of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Patsy McGarry described the disatisfaction of Irish catholics with the Pope's tepid response to their country's priest sex abuse scandal. Now Benedict may have to do some damage...

Published Fri, Mar 05 2010 7:35 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Religion