Feature – News Updates

Nazareth: Thousands of road signs are the latest front in Israel’s battle to erase Arab heritage from much of the Holy Land. Israel Katz, the transport minister, announced this week that signs on all major roads in Israel, East Jerusalem and possibly parts of the West Bank would be “standardised”, converting English and Arabic place names into straight transliterations of …

The US slaughter in Afghanistan makes the Chinese creeping colonisation of Urumqi look like a picnic, bemoans Eric Walberg July 15, 2009 “Information Clearing House” — Last week’s riots in Urumqi, resulting in 180 deaths, recall similar protests in Tibet last year, though only 19 people were killed there. Both Uighurs and Tibetans exiles demonstrated during the Chinese Olympics, to …

Remember the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)? Like a comet which zooms in the distant sky and makes periodic appearances, the Non-Aligned Movement summit surfaces once in three years — and then, virtually, disappears. There was little media hype over the 15th NAM summit held at the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday and yesterday. Whatever the media attention that …

July 28, 2009 “Asia Times” — The United States may think of Russia as a strategic partner when it comes to Iran. In reality, the geostrategic tensions between Washington and Moscow are still powerful enough to warrant a common approach by Russia and its eastern neighbor Iran with respect to a deterrent strategy towards the intrusive Western superpower. This week, …

The monsoon had woven thick skeins of mist over the central highlands of Vietnam. I was a young war correspondent, bivouacked in the village of Tuylon with a unit of U.S. Marines whose orders were to win hearts and minds. “We are here not to kill,” said the sergeant, “we are here to impart the American Way of Liberty as …