Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

Auschwitz's memory trap

President Obama recorded a video message today for the ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz: We have a sacred duty to remember the twisted thinking that led here—how a great society of culture and science succumbed to the...

Published Wed, Jan 27 2010 10:02 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Human Rights, History

Auschwtiz's memory trap

President Obama recorded a video message today for the ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz: We have a sacred duty to remember the twisted thinking that led here—how a great society of culture and science succumbed to the...

Published Wed, Jan 27 2010 10:01 AM by FP Passport

Good times roll for the Italian mob

Italy's "biggest company" is doing just fine in the recession: Italy's mafia crime syndicates bucked the recession in 2009 to raise 'profits' by almost 8 percent with the financial crisis making companies and even the stock market...

Published Wed, Jan 27 2010 9:39 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe, Drugs & Crime

Honduras crisis ends with a whimper

Half a year later, as new president Porfirio Lobo is sworn in, Honduras's political chaos appears to be coming to an end: The mustachioed Zelaya, known for his signature white cowboy hat, plans to abandon the Brazilian Embassy where he has been holed...

Published Wed, Jan 27 2010 9:26 AM by FP Passport

Morning Brief: Sri Lanka election results challenged

Sri Lanka election results challenged Top news: Sri Lanka's election authority has announced that incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa has won the country's first presidential election since the end of a 26-year civil war, but the results have been challenged...

Published Wed, Jan 27 2010 6:04 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

How to cut inflation by 230 million percent

Nine months ago when the power-sharing government in Zimbabwe came into office, I must admit that I was pretty darn skeptical that they could meet their hyper-inflation-cutting goals. After a complete economic collapse, inflation last year about this...

Published Tue, Jan 26 2010 12:02 PM by FP Passport

Sarkozy's Putinesque TV talk show

Last night, French President Nicolas Sarkozy went on television for a very special appearance with 11 "typical" French voters and listened to their concerns. The Times' Charles Bremner describes the scene: The President sympathised, using...

Published Tue, Jan 26 2010 10:58 AM by FP Passport

Schwarzenegger: Outsource prisoners to Mexico

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger went a little off-script yesterday and floated a novel solution for his state's overcrowded prison system: "We pay them to build the prisons down in Mexico and then we have those undocumented immigrants...

Published Tue, Jan 26 2010 10:14 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Drugs & Crime, Mexico

Trouble ahead for Merkel?

Oskar "The Red" Lafontaine, the polarizing leader of Germany Left party is stepping down to fight prostate cancer. Der Spiegel explains why this could be bad news for Angela Merkel's Conservative coalition: Lafontaine's departure has...

Published Tue, Jan 26 2010 9:49 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Germany

How pro-Russian will Ukraine's new government be?

Russia ended a five-month diplomatic freeze with Ukraine yesterday as new ambassador Mikhail Zurabov arrived in Kiev to present his credentials. The new friendliness is the result of the Jan. 17 election that dealt a crushing blow to anti-Russian president...

Published Tue, Jan 26 2010 9:20 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Russia, Eastern Europe

Morning Brief: A second attack hits central Baghdad

A second attack hits central Baghdad Top story: Just a day after a coordinated suicide attack that killed 36 people at three Baghdad hotels, another blast hit the city center this morning, killing 17 outside the forensics department of the interior ministry...

Published Tue, Jan 26 2010 5:59 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

How crazy was China's Cultural Revolution?

This New York Times article about the surprising release of records from the late Mao era raises the question: Just how crazy was the Cultural Revolution, anyway? This crazy, according to the eminent historian Jonathan Spence, as told in his landmark...

Published Mon, Jan 25 2010 8:07 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: China, History

Senate v. House of Lords

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Today, on Fox News Radio (via The Hill ), Rep. James Clyburn, the House majority whip, let loose with some nasty words for the upper half of the U.S. bicameral legislature: "...

Published Mon, Jan 25 2010 4:11 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe, Britain, U.S. Congress

Did Romania's president use the occult to get reelected?

President Obama has brought back his 2008 campiagn manager David Plouffe to help get his domestic agenda back on track ahead of the 2010 midterm elections, but if he really wants to throw the Republicans off their game, he may want to take a trip to the...

Published Mon, Jan 25 2010 2:39 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Eastern Europe, Fun Stuff

That's not how I remember the conversation...

I was surprised to see a UPI headline today reading , "ElBaradei Rules Out Presidential Bid." I had just spoken with the former IAEA Director General last Thursday, and he had given no indication that was the direction he was leaning -- if he...

Published Mon, Jan 25 2010 2:26 PM by FP Passport