December 29, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: One Comment
Aung San Suu Kyi, the jailed Burmese pro-democracy opposition leader, was recently granted visitation rights to meet with three aging leaders of her National League for Democracy. The meeting marked the highest-level contact she has had with her party in years, even as the Burmese junta prepares to clamp down on pro-democracy elements ahead of the first nationwide election since her victory —never realized by taking office— in 1990. Suu Kyi has instead spent most of the last two decades under house arrest.
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December 18, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: One Comment
The United States is pledging to “take the lead” on a global fund of $100 billion over ten years, designed to help developing nations transition to a zero-combustion energy economy and fend off the already mounting ravages of climate destabilization. The offer was announced yesterday by Sec. of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and was intended in part to put added pressure on China to agree to a binding climate deal with emissions reduction verification processes built in.
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December 6, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
Iran’s government has temporarily banned foreign media from operating in the capital, Tehran, in anticipation of student rallies on Monday, marking Iran’s Student Day commemoration. The government has warned against any “illegal rallies”, suggesting it fears the student rallies could turn into a new round of protests against the alleged rigging of the June presidential vote and the subsequent violent crackdown against dissent.
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November 11, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
Lebanon has formed a new government of “national accord”, which will include majority leader and prime minister designate Saad Hariri and also representatives of Hezbollah, the militia group seen as a terrorist threat by Israel, and which was the target of an Israeli bombing campaign in 2006. The UN Security Council congratulated Lebanon on moving forward with national unity and wished the new government well.
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August 15, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
Sen. James Webb (D-VA) has won the release of American John Yettaw, who was sentenced to 7 years, including hard labor, for swimming to Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s lakefront home, effectively breaching the terms of her house arrest. Suu Kyi’s house arrest was extended by 18 months after she was convicted for allowing Yettaw to rest and recuperate at her home; the sentence will exclude her from the planned 2010 elections process.
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August 11, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
In the first election since the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the Tamil Tiger rebels), ethnic Tamil voters appear to have signaled their desire to achieve self-rule. A pro-rebel party won the largest number of seats in local council elections in Vavuniya and the second most in Jaffna.
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July 13, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: One Comment
Amid a flurry of damning reports about Bush-era counterterrorism tactics and government secrecy, CNN now reports “President Obama has ordered national security officials to look into allegations that the Bush administration resisted efforts to investigate a CIA-backed Afghan warlord over the killings of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in 2001.”
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July 11, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
As part of its deal to transition major security operations in Iraq to the Iraqi military and civil authorities, the United States has released 5 Iranian officials it had been holding on charges of engaging in covert operations inside Iraq. The officials —whom Iran calls diplomats— were released into the custody of Iraqi authorities, were met personally by prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, and were officially freed by Iraq.
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July 8, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: One Comment
In an ongoing quest to sideline or incarcerate opposition figures, the leadership of Iran’s government continues to defend the disputed official results of the 12 June election and is now blaming Hungarian-American financier and open society activist George Soros, Liz Cheney —the daughter of the former US vice president— and the secretive Bilderberg group of a conspiracy to overthrow the Iranian government by backing opposition protests.
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June 26, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: 5 Comments
Dr. Arash Hejazi is one of the bystanders who attended to Neda Agha Soltan when she was shot and killed at a demonstration in Tehran. Hejazi lives and works in England, and he was in Iran visiting. He told the BBC, after returning to Britain, of how the shocking events of that day transpired, and says bystanders seized an armed Basij militiaman who admitted he had shot Soltan.
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May 31, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
As the UN and the Red Cross express dire concerns over the humanitarian crisis emerging among the estimated 2 million people who have fled their homes in the Northwest Frontier Province, Pakistan says its military has recaptured the city of Mingora, in the Swat Valley. Taliban factions have claimed responsibility for major bomb attacks in Lahore, and have vowed to target Pakistan’s major cities.
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May 20, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have laid down their arms, in order to prevent further death among the Tamil people, according to news reports. The government says the ceasefire agreement is surrender and a comprehensive victory; the LTTE say they are entering a ceasefire in order to spare end the violence. It is not known whether, in the absence of its traditional leadership, the LTTE will be able to agree to an enforceable peace or whether the group could split.
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May 16, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
The ruling party of Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh has expanded its presence in parliament. Singh is expected to be asked to serve a second 5-year term for the professorial PM. Singh is also credited with a unique reputation for clean dealing and a steady term of service presiding over 9% growth for the Indian economy.
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May 8, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
Pakistan’s prime minister, Yusuf Raza Gilani, yesterday announced the military had been ordered to “eliminate” Taliban militants in the Buner district and the Swat Valley, after the Taliban violated a peace agreement with the Zardari government. The UN estimates over 1 million people have fled their homes to escape the fighting. Pakistan has warned civilians to leave the area, as the Taliban is accused of hiding in densely populated areas to avoid bombardment, and the military plans an all-out offensive.
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May 5, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
Pakistan’s military is stepping up its offensive against Taliban militia factions in the Northwest Frontier Province. The government has reported daily tallies of dozens of militants killed in fighting in the Buner district. Yesterday, it accused the Taliban of using over 2,000 civilians as “human shields” to prevent a military action against militants. Today, there were reports from the BBC about “helicopter gunships” being used in the assault against militia positions.
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April 30, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
Pakistan’s government, under pressure from the US and other governments, has stepped up its offensive against Taliban militants in the Buner district. When Taliban forces were said to have withdrawn last week, they also left behind newly recruited local cadres through whom they might seek to expand their reach. According to the AP: “The military said more than 50 Taliban fighters and one member of the security forces died in the offensive launched Tuesday amid U.S. pressure”.
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April 23, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: 2 Comments
With an Afghan-Pakistani hybrid Taliban taking hold of significant areas inside Pakistan, the nuclear-armed nation has become a grave security risk to the rest of the region and the world. After signing a deal with Pakistan’s government to take control of the Swat Valley and impose a brutal distortion of shari’a law, the Taliban almost immediately launched attacks deeper into Pakistan, taking control of parts of the Buner district.
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April 21, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: 2 Comments
After just over two weeks of sporadic fighting in the Buner district of Pakistan, between the Swat Valley —now under shari’a law and run by the Taliban— and the nation’s capital, Taliban fighters have reportedly forced the local government to flee. This leaves them within 100 km of the capital, Islamabad, where the insurgents may seek to claim control of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.
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April 5, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
A new Personal Status Law designed to govern family relations in the Afghan Shi’a community is being widely assailed as subjecting married women to sexual slavery at the hands of their husbands. The law specifies that married men have a right to sexual activity with their wives at least once every four days and that women may not leave their homes on any occasion without the explicit permission of their husbands.
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April 1, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: One Comment
In a gesture of cooperation toward the United States, and in answer to a call for regional assistance, Iran has offered its help in combating the spreading drug trade in Afghanistan. The offer has not been formalized by a diplomatic meeting or by policy-specific talks, but may be a signal that some negotiations could be begun between the two states. The US government insists that Iran halt any activities that could be part of a weaponization program for nuclear materials.
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March 17, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhary, the former chief justice of the Pakistan Supreme Court, who was dismissed by extraconstitutional means by then Pres. Pervez Musharraf, during the general’s desperate efforts to retain power in late 2007, will be reinstated by Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan’s current president.
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February 26, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
Rank and file soldiers in the Bangladeshi military has staged a nationwide insurrection. The mutineers seized control of 12 military bases across the nation, as officers and military commanders were unable to halt the mutiny. The nation’s new prime minister warned the mutineers they faced stiff punishment if they continued their violent insurrection and ordered heavy artillery and armored divisions to move against them.
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January 16, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
The New York Times has published an article detailing the intense discrimination still experienced by ‘buraku’, members of Japanese society who suffer discrimination due to feudal dictates that reduce them to inferior social status, due to ancestry. The most prominent ‘buraku’ is Hiromu Nonaka, who rose to the 2nd most powerful post in Japan’s government.
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January 5, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
Doctors without Borders (Medecins sans Frontieres/MSF) says the medical situation in Gaza is becoming dire. Some groups have been able to bring medical supplies into Gaza since the airstrikes began, but distribution has become nearly impossible since the ground invasion, and doctors worry that hospitals will be unable to meet the needs of wounded civilians or the normal population of patients.
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December 23, 2008 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
Pakistan’s defense minister, Ahmed Mukhtar, has said there will be no nuclear conflict with India, in the event that armed conflict breaks out over last month’s Mumbai terrorist seige. Indian authorities and other intelligence agencies have alleged that Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group outlawed by Pakistan, had launched the attack from Pakistani soil, and pressure is on both governments to reach an agreement for peaceful political cooperation to eliminate the threat of another attack and find those responsible for the deaths of nearly 200 people in Mumbai.
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December 2, 2008 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
Thailand’s Constitutional Court has stripped the sitting prime minister, Somchai Wongsawat, of his office, disbanded his party —along with two others—, and banned him from politics for 5 years, for election fraud. Masses of demonstrators for the conservative, anti-government group People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), who have seized control of the prime minister’s offices and two major airports, in an effort to depose him, were reported to be celebrating the verdict.
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November 30, 2008 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
For days, news reports heralded the end of the Mumbai siege, though it continued, with fierce gunbattles and intermittent explosions, amid a raging inferno, at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. There was death and destruction at no less than 9 separate locations in what some headlines termed “the battle for Mumbai”. Diplomatic tensions were high throughout, as foreign governments sought to ensure the safety of their citizens. The dead were of many distinct nationalities, including highly publicized French, American and Israeli victims.
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