By Kent Ewing HONG KONG – When China’s Ministry of Education suggested recently that the Hong Kong arm of Oxfam International is a subversive organization and warned university students against volunteering for its poverty-relief programs, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) around world heard the message loud and clear: no matter how big or internationally recognized, when in China, play by Chinese rules. It is a lesson that has also not been lost on Google. The Internet giant In January threatened to close its Chinese website if it continued to be subject to censorship. Beijing gave the threat a cold shoulder, and the … Continue reading NGOs with Chinese characteristics

A Question of Command by Mark Moyar Reviewed by Brian M Downing In Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead, an operation on the fictional island of Anopopei comes to a successful conclusion, but owing to the campaign’s intricacies, no one is quite sure why. Headquarters writes a report crediting the commanding general and in time it becomes official history. Many campaigns might be a bit like Anopopei. Counter-insurgency thinking is once again much discussed, as it was 50 years ago. In the early 1960s, the United States was reeling from Fidel Castro’s seizure of power in Cuba and uncertain … Continue reading Counter-insurgency, then and now

Tran Dinh Thanh Lam HO CHI MINH CITY – A Vietnamese film that missed out on the short list for Sunday’s Oscars nonetheless offers a glimpse into how Vietnam and the United States are healing their decades-old war wounds, as well as how that war still generates emotional debate. Dung Dot, or Don’t Burn , is based on the wartime diary of a 27-year-old female Vietcong physician Dang Thuy Tram, who was shot dead by US soldiers in the early 1960s as US military involvement escalated in the country. The movie was Vietnam’s representative in the best foreign language category … Continue reading Vietnam loses out on Oscar glory

By Jim Lobe WASHINGTON – Last Thursday’s vote by a United States congressional committee condemning the deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians during World War I as “genocide” is almost certain to complicate US ties with Turkey, a long-time strategic ally and increasingly influential player in the Middle East and Central and Southwest Asia. The 23-22 vote by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives prompted the immediate recall of Turkey’s ambassador here and an announcement by Ankara that ratification of a pending US-backed treaty with Armenia would be frozen. And the government of Prime Minister Recep … Continue reading Genocide vote poisons Turkey-US ties

The PLA raises its voice By Peter J Brown A growing number of senior officers in the different branches of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) are becoming outspoken. But why they have chosen now to raise their voices is subject to debate. Following the recent decision by the United States to sell arms to Taiwan, three senior PLA officers from China’s National Defense University and Academy of Military Sciences – Major General Zhu Chenghu, Major General Luo Yuan and Senior Colonel Ke Chunqiao – told Xinhua News Agency that China should be selling off US debt, and that China … Continue reading Chinas Defenders finally speak up?

Ahmadinejad hunkers down with Karzai By Kaveh L Afrasiabi On Monday, Iran’s President Mahmud Ahmadinejad was due to visit Afghanistan on a short trip with a heavy agenda of issues concerning regional security and a drug trafficking problem that is growing despite advances against Afghan insurgents in Helmand province, the world’s opium capital. On the eve of his trip, Ahmadinejad once again captured headlines by describing the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington as a “big lie” that was “intended to serve as a pretext for fighting terrorism and setting the grounds for sending troops to Afghanistan”. His comment, … Continue reading Ahmadinejad hunkers down with Karzai and gives the US some thoughts!

By Syed Saleem Shahzad ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has once again come up with a big fish for the United States with the arrest in the southern port city of a senior al-Qaeda operative. Although there is some confusion as to the identity of the man, the arrest again underscores the importance of Pakistan in the US’s struggle in Afghanistan. On Sunday evening, Pakistan’s security agencies leaked a report of the arrest of al-Qaeda operative Abu Yahya Azzam, but later information began circulating that the man was in fact another al-Qaeda operative, Adam Gadahn, an American-born convert to Islam whose Muslim … Continue reading Pakistan delivers but doubts remain

By Charles McDermid SULI, Iraqi Kurdistan – At about the same moment on Sunday when United States President Barack Obama was in the White House Rose Garden praising a relatively peaceful voting day in Iraq, revelers in this northern city were blasting handguns and Kalashnikovs into the sky, often from speeding vehicles, in their own show of happiness for a day that will be a defining event for the nation, and Obama. Earlier in Baghdad, Apache and Blackhawk helicopter gunships hovered over the city as residents braved a morning of deadly terrorist attacks to take part in the country’s second … Continue reading Now the hard part for Iraq – and the US

By Stephen Blank For over a decade, Iran, Pakistan and India (IPI) have taken pains at negotiating a major pipeline deal whereby Iran would send natural gas from its territory to the region. Yet geopolitical and commercial issues have repeatedly prevented the deal’s fruition despite Tehran’s growing need to diversify gas sales to Asian markets and Asian countries desire to find a stable, reliable source of gas supplies. In recent years, India’s participation in this project has become more uncertain, which is partly responsible for the long delay that the project has suffered. Iran’s repeated attempts to raise the price … Continue reading China hangs fire on Iran-Pakistan pipeline and watches the Mullahs carefully

The Dawn Pakistani volunteers search for blast victims in the rubble of destroyed law enforcement building after a car bomb attack in Lahore on March 8, 2010. – AFP Media Gallery Terrorists target market in Lahore Terrorists target market in Lahore LAHORE: A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban’s main umbrella faction, Tehreek-e-Taliban, claimed the group was responsible Monday for a suicide blast that killed 12 people in Lahore. “We claim responsibility for the Lahore blast. We will continue such attacks in future,” Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Azam Tariq told two AFP reporters in telephone calls from an undisclosed location. “The … Continue reading FIA building collapses after blast in Lahore