Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

New details emerge about the CIA bomber

Isn't it interesting that the underpants bomber -- whose failed attempt to detonate plastic explosives on a Detroit-bound plane killed zero people -- has gotten a lot more attention than the CIA bomber -- who successfully perpetrated a devastating...

Published Sat, Jan 09 2010 10:35 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: al Qaeda, Afghanistan, Intelligence

The three entities that need to cancel Haiti's debt

Today, the Paris Club -- an informal group of finance officials from the 19 richest nations, who push for low-income country debt restructuring and relief -- officially called for the cancellation of Haiti's debt. Earthquake aside, such a prominent...

Published Tue, Jan 19 2010 10:36 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Haiti's Disaster

Too much baggage?

U.S. President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration, Erroll Southers, has withdrawn his name from consideration for the job. Reportedly, Southers considered himself too much of a lightning rod for controversy....

Published Wed, Jan 20 2010 5:35 AM by FP Passport

Chile's Billy Carter?

Every world leader, it seems, has that one member of the family he'd rather not see getting too much press. Jimmy Carter had Billy. Hamid Karzai has Ahmad Wali. Bill Clinton had Roger. Behold, Miguel "El Negro" Piñera, the brother of Chile's...

Published Wed, Jan 20 2010 11:34 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Latin America

Why Sanjay Gupta did the right thing

Washington Post reporter Ian Shapira, referring to an incident where CNN medical expert Sanjay Gupta actually began treating patients in Haiti, asks , "Are reporters with backgrounds in medicine being show-offs when they simultaneously report on...

Published Wed, Jan 20 2010 3:26 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Disasters, Latin America, Media

U.S.-Brazil turf war brewing in Haiti?

A few days ago, I optimistically hoped that Brazil, which led the U.S. peacekeeping operation in Haiti and last at least 14 citizens in the earthquake would take a leadership role in the relief effort. But Al Jazeera's Gabriel Elizondo reports that...

Published Thu, Jan 21 2010 10:23 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Latin America, Haiti's Disaster

Uganda backs down on anti-gay legislation

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 After months of resistance against international pressure to overturn Uganda's now-notorious Anti-Homosexuality Bill, Uganda's politicians seem to be pulling back. In early...

Published Thu, Jan 21 2010 1:14 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: North America, Africa, Human Rights, Politics, U.S. Foreign Policy, Religion, U.S. Congress

Dispatch from Haiti

Over a week after the earthquake in Haiti, damage control is still the prevailing priority on the the ground. Journalist Kate Prengel, who just returned from Haiti, sends this dispatch to FP from the front line: The Place St. Anne in downtown Port au...

Published Fri, Jan 22 2010 11:50 AM 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

Russia's Chelyabinsk region wants to trademark itself as world's 'meteorite capital'

The fervor may have died down a bit since Chelyabinsk, Russia was hit by a huge space rock in February, but the region is still working hard to turn that meteorite into money. As I noted in an earlier post , Chelyabinsk initially went the tourism route...

Published Wed, Apr 03 2013 10:30 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Russia, Eastern Europe, Fun Stuff

Pakistani youth may be the most pessimistic demographic in the world

Ahead of Pakistan's May 11 general election -- the first time in the country's history that an elected government is expected to (peacefully) hand over power to another elected government -- the British Council has conducted a survey of Pakistani...

Published Wed, Apr 03 2013 2:30 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Politics, Elections, South Asia, Democracy

Kim Jong Un is owning the media right now

Kim Jong Un may be a dangerous, totalitarian man-child, but he knows how to work the press. For the last 30 days, the 30-year-old leader has manipulated global news wires in a way even his late father would envy. In the month of April, web interest in...

Published Thu, Apr 04 2013 8:50 AM by FP Passport

Is this the first unfiltered threat out of North Korea?

Determining what's a credible threat out of North Korea is something of a fool's errand. Official ultimatums by Pyongyang routinely evaporate into nothing. But what happens when U.S. spies uncover threats never intended for mass consumption? CNN's...

Published Thu, Apr 04 2013 11:30 AM by FP Passport

Obama may be taking a pay cut, but he's no president of Uruguay

A day after President Obama announced that he will give back five percent of his salary this year in solidarity with federal workers facing furloughs, skimming $20,000 from his $400,000 annual wage, other U.S. political figures are following suit. On...

Published Thu, Apr 04 2013 5:30 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Politics, Economics

How worried should we be about Kim Jong Un's youth?

We may not know much about the man currently plowing full speed ahead toward international nuclear crisis, but one thing we do know for sure is that he is young -- 29 or 30. And this, most news outlets seem to agree, is an important factor in understanding...

Published Fri, Apr 05 2013 11:00 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Security, North Korea, East Asia, Politics, Military