Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

Egypt says it arrested ‘criminals' trying to sabotage its Internet

In an intriguing story developing out of North Africa, Egypt's military says it arrested members of a "criminal operation' attempting to cut an underwater cable that provides Internet to the country. Military officials tell Abram Online that...

Published Wed, Mar 27 2013 2:04 PM by FP Passport

Iran gains upper hand in ice cream cold war with United States

Iran may have just scored a massive, albeit largely symbolic, victory in its cold war with the United States. And it is a very cold war -- because the battle being waged is over ice cream. On Monday, the Iranian ice cream company Choopan appeared to unseat...

Published Tue, Apr 02 2013 10:50 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Politics, Middle East, Food/Agriculture, Iran, Cool

Could a floating city-state solve Silicon Valley's visa woes?

As Tyler Cowen notes , the new startup Blueseed is aiming for something of a libertarian hat trick combining the ideas of seasteading , circumventing U.S. immigration laws, and providing a regulation-free development space for tech firms. The idea is...

Published Tue, Nov 29 2011 11:43 AM by FP Passport

Qaddafi "adopts" Italian mountain town

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Muammar Qaddafi has eradicated and restructured the Libyan calendar, publicly supported international terrorism and then called the Security Council the "terror council,"...

Published Mon, Jun 21 2010 12:37 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe, Africa, Foreign Aid, Libya

Morning Brief: U.S. agrees to welcome Yemeni president for medical treatment

U.S. agrees to welcome Yemeni president for medical treatment Top story : President Barack Obama's administration has decided to allow Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to enter the United States for medical treatment as long as he agrees to certain...

Published Tue, Dec 27 2011 5:01 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

2011’s traditions you never knew needed protecting

Judging by the latest reports from Durban , your children may never know what a glacier is, but thanks to the UN's cultural body -- recently defunded by the United States for other reasons -- they'll still be able to watch cross-dressing Czech...

Published Wed, Nov 30 2011 2:57 PM by FP Passport

Will the end of the freeze reconcile Hamas and Fatah?

Khaled Meshaal, the Damascus-based leader of Hamas, said today that the best response to the end of Israel's 10-month "settlement freeze" would be a reconciliation with rival Palestinian faction Hamas. DPA reports : Meshaal argued that internal...

Published Mon, Sep 27 2010 2:37 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Middle East, Israel/Palestine

Morning Brief: Obama begins Africa trip as continent awaits news of Mandela

Obama begins Africa trip as continent awaits news of Mandela Top news: U.S. President Barack Obama began his long-awaited Africa trip on Thursday as the continent holds its collective breath over the fate of Nelson Mandela. Speaking in Dakar, where he...

Published Thu, Jun 27 2013 5:47 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

Sorry, Obama, Soccer Balls Won't Bring Progress to Africa

President Barack Obama generated a feel-good photo-op on Tuesday in Tanzania when he took a few moments to play with the Soccket , an ingenious soccer ball that can power an LED light for three hours after you kick it around for 30 minutes. Simply play...

Published Tue, Jul 02 2013 9:50 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Science & Technology, Africa, Development

Would Martin Luther King Have Supported a Syrian Intervention?

In January of 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr., en route to Jamaica for a vacation, picked up a copy of Ramparts magazine and sat down to read a story about the plight of Vietnam's children. According to his assistant, Bernard Lee, King froze as he saw...

Published Wed, Aug 28 2013 5:30 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Syria

What's the definition of war criminal?

At a Monday lecture in Los Angeles, Bush presidential advisor Karl Rove was given a very, very warm welcome . Audience members called him a war criminal and yelled that he would "rot in hell." One member of activist group Code Pink even approached...

Published Tue, Mar 30 2010 9:54 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Law, Politics, Bush Administration

Friday Photo: Iran prepares for battle with Swamp Thing

Iranian soldiers in full camouflage march during the Army Day parade in Tehran on April 18, 2010. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Israel was on its way to collapse, as Iran's military displayed a range of home-built drones and missiles at...

Published Fri, Apr 30 2010 2:19 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Friday Photo

With Manning Trial Over, Assange Sees Himself as the Target

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 More than three years after Julian Assange and WikiLeaks began publishing classified documents provided to the organization by Pfc. Bradley Manning, the court marshal of the young...

Published Fri, Jul 26 2013 3:45 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: WikiLeaks

How Apple Helped China Reclaim Taiwan, and More Mapping Messes

Taiwanese officials are up in arms after discovering that Apple maps refers to their country as a province of China -- in simplified Chinese characters, no less. The government filed a complaint with the company Tuesday, demanding that it drop the China...

Published Wed, Oct 30 2013 9:34 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: East Asia, China, International Relations

Dynastic Dirges, Part Deux

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 This is a guest post from Nick Frisch, a writer based in Hong Kong: "The outside world got a listen at North Korea's curious soundscape during yesterday's widely-covered...

Published Thu, Dec 29 2011 2:45 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: East Asia