Former captive’s silence speaks volumes By Donald Kirk What really happened to missionary Robert Park during the 43 days in which he was held in North Korea before disavowing all his criticism of the regime and flying on to Beijing? Park’s non-appearance at news conferences is revealing in itself. The less he talks, the more intense is the sense that he suffered abuse after crossing the Tumen River from China on Christmas Eve with a message demanding Dear Leader Kim Jong-il close the gulag system in which tens of thousands of prisoners are held, tortured and often executed. The nature … Continue reading Sex, The Baptist and North Korea

Hamas: Learning from mistakes By Sami Moubayed DAMASCUS – Anyone who has watched the performance of Hamas or followed its rhetoric since its founding in Palestine in the late 1980s realizes that the Islamic group has greatly matured over the past 20 years. Originally, Hamas shunned everything related to the Oslo Peace Agreement signed by Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, claiming that by accepting United Nations resolutions Arafat was offering de facto recognition of Israel. The founding charter of Hamas refused to recognize the Jewish state and promised to eradicate it completely, thereby restoring all of Palestine of 1948. It refused … Continue reading Hamas: Coming out from the cold?

Hezbollah: Craving war, not wanting it By Nicholas Noe BEIRUT – Almost five years after the George W Bush administration was handed a potentially game-changing opportunity to peacefully declaw the militant Shi’ite movement Hezbollah, Washington is finally waking up to the grim reality of its ill-conceived “Cedar Revolution” policy in Lebanon: the prospect of a renewed war involving a sophisticated actor whose hybrid military power has only grown exponentially. Setting aside, for the moment, the contentious argument over who is indeed responsible for these developments – which, it should be noted, quickly followed the forced exit of Syrian troops in … Continue reading Hezbollah: Bi-Curious?

Pretenders aspire to Iraq’s political throne By Sami Moubayed DAMASCUS – Results from Iraq’s tight general election race are becoming clearer, with 95% of votes from the March 7 poll now counted. The latest official figures at the weekend put ex-prime minister Iyad Allawi’s Iraqi National Bloc slightly ahead of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s State of Law coalition. News that Allawi was leading by 11,000 votes prompted Maliki to call for a recount, with President Jalal Talabani adding his support. On Sunday, the electoral commission rejected their demands, saying there was no justification at this stage and that final results … Continue reading Pretenders for leadership in Baghdad!

China steels for Rio Tinto court case By Wu Zhong, China Editor Asia Times HONG KONG – A Shanghai court began on Monday morning a two-day trial of four employees of Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, including Australian national Stern Hu and three Chinese colleagues, on charges of bribery and industrial espionage. If convicted they could each be jailed for up to seven years for a single offence. A combined penalty could be 20 years in prison. Dozens of journalists gathered outside the Shanghai court, but only a few reporters, possibly from China’s state-run media, were allowed in. The Australian … Continue reading The case of Rio Tinto of China

A spy unsettles US-India ties By M K Bhadrakumar News that the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had reached a plea bargain with David Coleman Headley, who played a key role in the planning of the terrorist strike in Mumbai in November 2008 in which 166 people were killed, has caused an uproar in India. The deal enables the US government to hold back from formally producing any evidence against Headley in a court of law that might have included details of his links with US intelligence or oblige any cross-examination of Headley by the prosecution. Nor can … Continue reading The case of David Coleman Headley – US spy, terrorist or simple man?

By Indrajit Basu KOLKATA – With the largest student population in the world, an estimated market of US$40 billion per year and scorching, it is a wonder that after nearly two decades of economic liberalization India’s education sector is still closed to foreign players. But propelled by the urgent need to deregulate the higher education sector to meet the demands of a burgeoning economy, the cabinet last week took a big leap by approving a bill allowing foreign universities to open campuses in the country and offer degrees. The Foreign Educational Institution (Regulation of Entry and Operation) Bill, 2010 still … Continue reading India shows an open mind

Clinton pushes to confront `status quo’ By Eli Clifton WASHINGTON – United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered reassurance on Monday to the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) that the Barack Obama administration’s “commitment to Israel’s security and Israel’s future is rock solid”, while echoing the words of warning issued by General David Petraeus and Vice President Joe Biden. Clinton’s address at the annual conference of AIPAC – a powerful pro-Israel lobby group – comes as the US and Israel are entering the third week of one of the worst bilateral crises since 1975, as the Israeli … Continue reading Clinton pushes to confront Likud in the US?

By Cristian Segura BEIJING – The Philippines Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) keeps a special trophy beside the basketball court at its headquarters in Manila. It’s a silver BMW that was owned by Antonio Kcomt, a notorious Chinese-Canadian cocaine and ecstasy dealer. Kcomt was racing the sedan through Quezon City last August when PDEA agents shot him dead after a high-speed chase. The agency keeps the bullet-holed BMW as a reminder of what it can achieve despite staffing and funding problems, and despite the upward spiral of drug-related crime in the Philippines. The PDEA employs about 600 agents, but estimates it … Continue reading Manila losing its battle with drugs

US-Israeli spat plants seeds of crisis By Victor Kotsev Last month, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy published an analysis of three simulations conducted recently by experts at Harvard University, Tel Aviv University and the Brookings Institution. The simulations explored different scenarios for how the Iranian crisis would develop, and an outcome they had in common was rising tensions between the United States and Israel and a failure of the sanctions policy to halt Iran’s nuclear progress. “Game play suggests,” the analysis points out, “that an eventual US-Israeli crisis is likely.” Even without Iran, tensions between the two allies … Continue reading Is this the beginning of the end for Christian Extremism in the US?