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Author and editor Adi Ignatius got his hands on some very private papers a few years ago, those of Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang. Never heard of him? Ignatius tells you why. In a conversation with Big Think today, Ignatius introduced the uber-forward-thinking Zhoa Ziyang who was General Secretary of ...
Williman Maclean has this report in Reuters, which continues to pour cold water on the NY Times' article suggesting al-Qaeda is relocating for the summer. The article cites Thomas Hegghammer, author of this wonderful post at Jihadica and others. Arafat Madabish has this report in al-Sharq al ...
Some volcano news before the weekend: The Barujari vent at Mt. Rinjani erupting in May 2009. Barujari, the small basaltic volcano located in the crater at Mt. Rinjani, is "spewing 200-meter-high lava", at least according to recent reports. It is unclear if the eruption is, in fact, a ...
The National warns that it is midnight in Yemen with this editorial. Laura Kasinof has this piece in the Christian Science Monitor, in which I weigh-in with my thoughts on the accuracy of the recent claims that al-Qaeda in Pakistan is relocating to Yemen. I promised a bit more information this ...
The Jewish magazine Moment ran an article in its latest issue asking rabbis from a variety of Jewish sects how Israel can promote peace with its Arab neighbors (HT: Pharyngula). Most of the rabbis express fairly bland, liberal views about the importance of peace and tolerance, which are fine in ...
This may have come, oh I don't know, about 15 years too late.
The economic spiral has seen the birth of a disconcerting social experiment. Tent cities, first on the West Coast and now in the East, are testing a new model for dealing with recession-era homelessness. Concentrated in urban areas, these communities have in some cases been embraced by local ...
Are you a C-SPAN addict, an incorrigible policy wonk, a wannabe beltway insider and a religious Twitterer? Then The Atlantic has a list for you. From the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq to the the members of Bush's inner circle who still matter, there are 30 Washington Insiders that will make your ...
Iranian expats living in Spain have recently illuminated the backdrop of the YouTube and Twitter main stage by which the Iranian elections are currently understood. Speaking with several of them over the last couple of weeks, I have come to see a significant generational difference in their ...
Comedy man Bill Scheft came by the studio yesterday to talk about writing, stand-up, Jewish humor and the role of comedy in today's pop culture. Describing comedy writing as making "mounds and mounds of coleslaw to get a good serving," Scheft unpacked his long relationship with the David Letterman ...
Sarychev Peak erupting on June 12th. Image taken on the ISS, courtesy of the NASA EO. The eruption as Sarychev Peak seems to be waning a bit, at least according to some of the latest images from the NASA Earth Observatory's collection of MODIS shots. The ash plume is less prominent - and ...
An bill proposed by Representatives Henry Waxman and Edward Markey could set a legislative precedent for a December greenhouse emissions conference Al Gore has called the "Gettysburg of the environment." "I think it's the best way to go," SC Johnson CEO H. Fisk Johnson recently said of the bill ...
China's People's Daily (big fan of the glorious voice of the proletariat here) is reporting that five Filipino nurses, held hostage in Sa'dah, have been released. This followed "successful negotiations with the captors by the sheikh and some government officials." Now. These are not related to the ...
I don't have much time this morning as I'm late for a meeting, but a press release from the Yemen Embassy as well as numerous stories (all coming from this one) claim that one Saudi member of AQAP, Na'if Dahis Yahya al-Harbi, turned himself in. More to follow later in the day.
The forums are still silent as to an AQAP statement (or any other one for that matter) on the kidnappings and executions. However, judging from the 1,069 people (at last check) who have viewed Abdulihi's thread of his article in News Yemen in one of the more popular forums, claiming that al-Qaeda ...