INTERNATIONAL

  I don’t like mixing politics with morality, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. What I mean is this: how can anyone cast a ballot for a man who they know will continue to kill people in other countries merely to advance US policy objectives? That’s the question people need to ask themselves. Under normal circumstances, I can understand the “lesser of …

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 11, 2011 (IPS) – Peeved at Russia's Security Council veto derailing a Western- sponsored resolution against Syria last week, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice implicitly accused the Russians of protecting the beleaguered government of President Bashar al-Assad primarily to safeguard their lucrative arms market in the Middle Eastern country. But around the same time, the United States was …

CAIRO, Oct 8, 2011 (IPS) – Egypt, routinely the cradle for new Arab and Islamic ideologies, is now witnessing the birth of yet another line of thought – Islamic Liberalism. The term is touted now as a panacea for the eight-month impasse that has locked Islamists and their secularist rivals in bitter bickering over how this Arab nation should be …

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 7, 2011 (IPS) – Despite a slim chance of diplomatic victory, the United States is leading a doomed, mostly Western attempt to block Palestinian membership in the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). The 193-member General Conference, UNESCO's policy-making body, is expected to ratify Palestine's membership during its weeklong session beginning Oct. 25.  The application was …

On September 30, a US drone flying over Yemen launched a missile attack on a US citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki. Among the dead were Awlaki and another US citizen. Also killed along with them was the hallowed tradition of respecting the constitution, especially the constitutional right of a US citizen to be heard before a US court. In the aftermath of …

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 5, 2011 (IPS) – When Russia and China exercised a rare double veto against a Western resolution aimed at punishing Syria, the two big powers were repeating a similar feat derailing two earlier resolutions: one against Myanmar (Burma) in 2007 and the other against Zimbabwe in 2008. The Myanmar resolution was critical of that country's deplorable human …