I get to see Ezekiel Isaac Malekar at least twice a year. A pleasant person wearing a kippah, Malekar is a permanent invitee at many Indian government’s national functions, including the birth and death anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi at the Gandhi Smriti, in the heart of New Delhi, where Gandhi was assassinated in 1948. Sitting next to a Maulvi, a Muslim teacher/scholar, Malekar recites passages from...

All or most of them were women and children. The lethal strikes took place in Helmand province. Local Afghan authorities are apparently saying that 12 of the deaths are children, two are women, and six others were injured. Hamid Karzai, in condemning the killings, gave a different breakdown: 10 children, two women, and two men.

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone. Bob Dylan was 70 years old this week, and the editorial board of Germany’s Die Welt published this open letter in tribute to the American music icon. Die Welt’s message?: keep showing the world how to change with the time – because “the times – they are a changin’” The open letter from the Die Welt editorial board says in part: Dear...

The nation’s three biggest cities did not even make the list. Very disappointing.

The updated number of Joplin, Missouri, residents killed by last Sunday’s massive tornado is 132; 156 people are still unaccounted for. Joplin authorities say the bulldozers will not come out until every missing person is found.

Leave it to Beijing to raise the bar on Dominique Strauss-Kahn conspiracy theories. When a publication run by the Chinese government publishes an article like this, it’s a sure sign that U.S.-China economic and political relations are in the midst of a very rough patch. Did the United States ‘frame’ Dominique Strauss-Kahn because of IMF forecasts of U.S. economic frailty and Chinese strength?...

It seems that when it comes to the Middle East, President Obama can’t win. With blistering criticism from Israelis over his assertion that peace talks with the Palestinians be based on the 1967 borders, this article from Samidoon of the Palestinian Territories rips into Obama as insincere about wanting justice for Arabs, and criticizes America for long favoring Arab despots and Israel. For Samidoon,...

And the volcanic lava flow that erupted in response to Pres. Obama’s outrageous assertion that Israel does not have the right to permanently annex the Palestinian land that it has illegally occupied since seizing it in the 1967 Six-Day War, continues, via the Wall Street Journal (emphasis is mine): Mr. Obama got some applause Sunday by calling for a “non-militarized” Palestinian state. But...

It seems that many in Pakistan are convinced that with relations with the U.S. souring, closer ties with China are the answer to Pakistan’s troubles. According to this editorial from Pakistan’s Frontier Post, whereas the United States tends to use Pakistan when its in Washington’s interests and then treat it like ‘garbage,’ China has always been an ‘all-weather friend.’ The...

As David Headley gets ready to spill the beans at a Chicago court about Pakistan ISI’s direct involvement in Mumbai 26/11 attacks, the White House in Washington is nervous. Headley’s statements during Chicago trial “will be explosive,” said one senior Obama administration official, who confirmed that White House officials are well aware and closely watching, says MSNBC. But that’s...

Andrew McCarthy accuses Pres. Obama of “borderline treachery” for telling Israel that a future Palestinian state must be drawn along Israel’s original 1967 borders, also called “the Green Line.” Here is a chunk of what he writes (emphasis is mine):

Has the United Nations outlived its usefulness? For Bolivia’s Bol Press, Professor Alvaro Cuadra of Chile’s Universidad ARCIS writes that just as the League of Nations collapsed when World War II broke out – making it’s failure obvious, the U.N., born out of WWII, has similarly proven itself incapable of many of its central tenets, including ‘saving future generations from the...

Days ago, Germany’s Die Welt published an investigative report on a secret agreement between Venezuela and Iran for a joint medium-range missile base on Venezuelan soil. The 1,100 word article by columnist Clemens Wergin, outlines not only the location of the base, but offers details on its design and strategic purpose, which will not only pose a threat to the United States, but to Venezuela’s...

Before you buy another IPhone, or any IPhone if you are a first purchaser, read this article about almost a dozen suicides at the company in China that makes IPhones. The article is dated September 9, 2010, and the horror it describes happened in August 2010, but this is the first I’ve heard of it. And the only reason I heard about it now is because I am on TechRepublic‘s mailing list. The company’s...

It’s fair to say that with the arrest of Socialist Party rising star and IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French left is in disarray. Meanwhile, the French press is under attack from the “Anglo-Saxons” for, in effect, giving “DSK” a pass all these years – even though his behavior toward the opposite sex was widely known. In this article from France’s left-wing...

At home and abroad, large numbers of people are asking the same question: regardless of the crime or the criminal, is it fitting with common decency to celebrate a man’s death – even a man like Osama bin Laden? For Portugal’s Visao, Filipe Luis writes that even if he and most people see the benefit of eliminating bin Laden, the celebration of the event in and out of Portugal was a shameful...

I know that my colleague Elijah Sweete has just very briefly commented on this story. But having written a previous post on Senator John McCain’s courageous, correct and consistent position on torture; having some very strong convictions on this issue myself and with my apologies to Elijah, I just can not let this one slide by. As Elijah points out, presidential candidate, never-been-tortured, never-even-served-in-the...

There is an odd parallel to the U.S. mission to pluck Osama bin Laden from Pakistan and the New York arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, one of France’s most powerful and successful politicians. While the French, like Pakistan, are aghast at how the presumed wrongdoer was ‘detained’ – they both also assert disgust with the crimes they are – or were – charged with. To say that...

If German Special Forces had been the ones to whisk Osama bin Laden from Pakistan – could Germany have reformed him, turning him into a model German citizen? In this tongue-in-cheek skewering of German liberalism, Die Welt columnist Gideon Boss writes that because of those ‘Mickey Mouse’ Americans, we will never know. For Die Welt, Gideon Boss writes in part: One might well ask whether things...

For Americans who yearn for life in Europe, with its more generous social safety net and strict rules for firing employees, columnist Andrzej Lubowski of Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza has some disheartening news: the idyllic lifestyle Europeans have come to expect is in its death throes. For Gazeta Wyborcza, Andrzej Lubowski writes in part: “There is nothing more enjoyable than an evening stroll in early...

Yesterday, I noted the ironic metaphor contained in the comments of the Palestinian and Israeli responses to George Mitchell’s resignation. In the first of two paragraphs I quoted from the New York Times account of that resignation, Fatah’s senior foreign affairs person blamed Israeli intransigence for the failure of peace talks, and in the second, a spokesperson for Israel’s prime minister,...

Is NATO making a mistake by maintaining a stalemate between Libyan despot Mohammar Qaddafi and the insurgents seeking to topple his 40-year-old regime? For Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung, columnist Stefan Kornelius writes that unless NATO is willing to accept a continuation of Qaddafi’s rule or a fruitless continuation of currect circumstances, it should start setting up ‘protection zones’...

The two paragraphs come at the end of the New York Times‘ article about George Mitchell’s decision to step down from his position as U.S. envoy to the Middle East:

Is the U.S. reaction to Osama bin Laden’s death embarrassing for a country that likes to see itself as a magnanimous force for justice in the world? For Mexico’s La Jornada, columnist Jose Blanco writes that U.S. behavior since bin Laden was killed rips the mask off of a hypocritical, self-absorbed global empire, intent on infringing on the sovereignty on other nations under the guise of a global...

I do not usually agree with Senator John McCain. In fact, most of my past articles on the Senator from Arizona reflect my dislike for many of his policies and decisions: His obstinate opposition to ending “don’t ask, don’t tell;” his equally obstinate support of the Iraq war; his disappointing posturing on the new GI Bill of Rights during the Bush administration; his silly pick of Sarah Palin...