The wrong kind of voting machine could bring chaos to the mid-term elections in the United States, says The Economist. “The polls go up, the polls go downand there are still more than three weeks to go: time for any amount of sleaze or terror to influence the voters. But it is quite possible that America’s mid-term elections on November 7th will produce a close result, not just in the House of Representatives, where it has long been predicted, but in the Senate too. At which point things...

Indian writer Kiran Desai,35, won Britain’s prestigious Man Booker Prize yesterday for “The Inheritance of Loss,” a cross-continental saga that moves from the Himalayas to New York City, says The Washington Post. “Desai, daughter of novelist and three-time Booker Prize nominee Anita Desai, had been one of the favorites for the prestigious $93,000 prize. Judges deliberated for two hours before making their decision, hailing Desai’s work as ‘a magnificent novel...

President Bush had to personally contradict this figure of 655,000 deaths in Iraq (in a press conference today) ever since the US forces entered that country more than three years ago. This may give rise to the controversy that whether an average Iraqi was safer under Saddam Hussein regime than under the control of the US troops. Says a news report: “The death toll among Iraqis has reached an estimated 655,000 since the US-led invasion three-and-a-half years ago, a study published in Britain’s...

I am at this very moment watching CNN. I heard what US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as also what UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, had to say on the crisis created by North Korea’s nuclear test. The world is facing a real crisis. Answering a question from a reporter, Kofi Annan made it clear that although the UN Security Council is working hard to plan a united strategy against this provocative action of North Korea, the US administration must engage the North Korea at a one-to-one...

The Western nations seem confused and do not know how best to react to North Korea’s nuclear challenge. This is best summed up by The Independent when it says: ” The leading world powers huddled in an emergency session at the United Nations yesterday to forge agreement on measures to punish North Korea… “But with the regime in Pyongyang still showing unrepentant defiance, it remained hard to say whether measures to further isolate the country from the rest of the world would...

I read yet another fascinating article by author Frederic Grare “Islam, Militarism, and the 2007–2008 Elections in Pakistan”. Those who wish to read the Pakistan elections article in full may visit the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace website. Here are some excerpts from Frederic Grare’s article on “Islam, Militarism, and the 2007–2008 Elections in Pakistan”: “The year 2007 will be crucial for the future of democracy in Pakistan. If the...

Daata Durbar in Lahore, Pakistan is the tomb of Ali Hajweri, eleventh century Sufi saint. People come each year to pay their respects and to say prayers. The large complex also includes Jamia Hajweri, or Hajweri Mosque. Pakistan has so far been able to sustain the myth in the West that only President General Parvez Musharraf can ensure stability in the region. And after him the deluge. On this basis, Pakistan’s role in the spreading of clandestine nuclear technology to rogue states, etc.,...

(A cartoon by Angel Boligan, El Universal, Mexico City, Mexico, caglecartoons.com) While the world leaders watch helplessly, and make meaningless noises, at the brazen manner North Korea has exploded the nuclear device, it is also time to jog our memories. For full five years the USA and the world leaders knew for sure about the major involvement of Pakistan in clandestinely exchanging nuclear and missile knowhow with rogue states. Why were they silent then? It is like encouraging child lovers...

Recent news stories from Afghanistan are alarming. First, the British troops are under real pressure/threat and may now withdraw owing to the constant attacks they face in parts of Afghanistan. The second story relates to General David Richards, the British officer commanding Nato troops in Afghanistan, statement yesterday that 70 per cent of Afghans may start supporting the Taleban if their lives did not improve in the next six months. Now the question is how do you improve the lives of people...

How real/immediate is North Korea’s nuclear threat? While the rest of the media is getting into the blame game, the CNN has carried an interesting Associated Press report about how dangerous or immediate are the consequences of this nuclear test. “North Korea may have the bomb. But the twin complexities of developing nuclear warheads from a successful test explosion and the ways of delivering them means the country may be years away from posing an atomic threat to the rest of the world. “Ahead...

There has been an international outcry at the killing of Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist, who worked at the bi-weekly liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta. The deputy editor of the publication was quoted as saying he believed the murder was linked to her work. “The mother of two had received death threats before, but it was thought her gender and high profile might spare her the fate of others killed for writing uncomfortable truths since the fall of the Soviet Union,” says The...

“Five years ago, hard on the heels of 9/11, someone sent anthrax spores through the US mail to journalists and politicians. Five people died, and at least 17 more got sick. The culprit was never caught. “This relatively unsophisticated attack confirmed fears, already growing in the US, that with a bit more effort a determined bioterrorist could spread disease and mayhem across the nation. “To combat the threat, the Bush administration launched an unprecedented biodefence effort....

This is the heading of an article published in today’s edition of the Asia Times by Kim Myong Chol (“Unofficial” spokesman of Kim Jong-il and North Korea, Kim is the author of a number of books and papers in Korean, Japanese and English on North Korea. He is executive director of the Center for Korean-American Peace.) Here are the excerpts from the article: “The Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)announced on October 3 that the DPRK...

It is not quite so easy to make obituary references to a fellow journalist whom you have known for a long time. But world media has risen as one to pay moving tributes to R. W. Apple Jr of the New York Times, better known as Johnny Apple, who passed away on Wednesday at age 71. In a NYT career spanning 43 years, he travelled to more than 100 countries. Johnny, who covered Vietnam and the 1991 Gulf War, the Iranian revolution, the Falklands war and the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II,...

Before throwing its weight behind Ban Ki Moon, the South Korean in the leading position to succeed Kofi Annan, the British Government set out conditions that included the promise of top jobs in the United Nations for British officials. The Times quotes diplomatic sources that “unseemly’ horse-trading also involved other countries. ” ‘It was like the European states carving up Africa in the 19th century,’ one diplomat at the UN said. ‘The very same countries that...

Fear and hysteria are the two words often mentioned in the wake of 9/11. To this I would add ‘insecurity’. The comments that followed the two TMV posts on the gun issue bring to light the hidden fears. That it may not be the ‘terrorist’ alone, but also the state that may take away individual liberty by intruding/impacting into one’s personal/private life. Guns, it seems from these arguments, would provide ‘security’ and ‘peace of mind’ (as opposed...

Poetry has travelled a long distance from the romantic yearnings of William Wordsworth to the present disturbed outpourings of young British poets who participated in a recent competition. “The grim realities of the contemporary world – including terrorism and racial strife – loom large in the work of the winners of the biggest competition for young poets, says a news report. “The number of entries for the Britain’s Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award doubled to 11,000...

The winds of change affecting one of the most beautiful tourist destinations in the Indian ocean, not far from India and Sri Lanka, seem disturbing. Here is a recent news story from Maldives… “While the holiday makers change into their bikinis in their £1,000-a-night rooms and recline in the sunshine, the face of the real Maldives, rarely seen by outsiders, is slowly changing, says The Independent. “Traditionally, Maldivian women have tended to wear brightly coloured, form-fitting...

I have repeatedly stated that the US administration’s several woes in international affairs stem from its insistence to ride solo, and roughshod, over public opinion (within and outside the country). Its hostile attitude towards the United Nations has further alienated the United States from the comity of nations. Hopefully, this entire scenario may undergo a change with the United States and Israel supporting Ban Ki-Moon, who has emerged as a clear favourite to become the next UN Secretary-General....

In Michael’s post on Guns, the comments that follow are on a predictable line. ‘Americans love guns’, ‘it is a question of freedom and inalienable right’, ‘an average American does not depend on the State alone for his, and his family’s, security’, ‘the simple ego boost from firing guns suits the American’s over inflated sense of self’, etc. Maybe one should look at the cold statistics provided in the The Indpendent article: “There’s...

(Abdul Qadeer Khan with President Musharraf.) Dina Khan, the daughter of the disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan, has criticised claims made by President Pervez Musharraf in his autobiography, says the BBC. “In her first statement since her father’s arrest in 2004, said she wanted to set the record straight. “Dr Khan was put under house arrest after admitting passing nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya. “In his book, President Musharraf said that Dr Khan...

“Yes,” says Dr James Martin, Britain’s leading computer scientist and physicist. This is likely to raise the hackles of groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, especially because Martin himself is a prominent green who has spent much of his large IT and publishing fortune on research into global warming and environmental science, says The Times. “Though nuclear power generates very low carbon emissions, most green lobby groups are opposed to it because of the...

Much has been written about the Bush administration turning a deaf ear to the clear warnings before 9/11 about the imminent terrorist attacks. Bob Woodward’s new book again brings into focus this fact with a detailed and more chilling account of what transpired between the ex-CIA Chief George Tenet and the powers that be. Here is what the NYT has to say: “Members of the Sept. 11 commission said today that they were alarmed that they were told nothing about a White House meeting in July...

An extensive recent survey in Canada shows that a clear majority of Canadians consider the mission in Afghanistan “a lost cause”, and hints at a “deep public skepticism about the war on terror”. Now that baffles me. In the USA too the majority of the people are expressing their opposition to the continued engagement of their armed forces abroad. But the leadership in both the countries are riding roughshod over public opinion. So what’s the difference between these...

(Click on map to enlarge.) “As the Afghan war goes increasingly badly for the Western powers, President Hamid Karzai keeps blaming President Parvez Musharraf for allowing Taliban to operate inside Pakistan and launch cross-border attacks on Afghanistan. Musharraf fired back that Karzai was a figurehead who had no control of his country. Both accusations are true”, says Eric Margolis In Toronto Sun. “Tribal politics lie at the heart of their dispute. The 30 million Pashtuns (or...