It is perhaps premature to announce the death of the US pivot to Asia, but the patient looks less than healthy. The US effort to orchestrate a win-win economic and security regime in Asia through selective and constructive pressure on China is being undercut by an ally that sees its importance, security, and prosperity eroding as China rises.

That nation is Japan, which is threateni

In Israel and in many Western capitals he is reviled as a terrorist; in much of the Arab and Muslim worlds he is hailed as a freedom fighter. But for some years now, Khalid Mishal has been inching away from his movement's ''absolutes''. These days, amid chaos and convulsions across the Middle East, Mishal finds himself on the cusp of such a radical repositioning he dares not speak of it.

BREAKING NEWS: RESIDENTS in Douglas and Mareeba have voted to reclaim their old councils in Saturday's landmark de-amalgamation referendums.
The new councils will be resurrected from January 1 next year, when the shires formally break away from the Cairns and Tablelands regional councils they were forced into by the State Government in 2008.
In Douglas, residents voted 57.29 per cent to 42.71 p

"People just want a different style of government."

How-to-vote cards normally consigned to the rubbish bin on election days were instead being kept as a memento of the historic occasion as residents swamped 17 polling booths across the former Noosa Shire area, with "Yes Vote" volunteers out numbering their "No" rivals 10 to one.

Cards handed out directly countered Queensland Treasury Corpo

NOOSA has voted overwhelmingly to break away from the Sunshine Coast local government area in a reversal of Labor's hard-fought council amalgamations five years ago.

For a time, early last year, there was no trace of Robespierre to be found on the street where he lived in the days of his fame. The restaurant called Le Robespierre had closed its doors, and after a while its portrait sign was removed from above the entrance of the house on the rue Saint-Honoré. Once again, the plaque on the wall had been smashed. The marble was shattered, the letters gouged awa

When Prince Harry compared fighting in Afghanistan to playing a video game, the Taliban were quick to accuse him of mental illness and cowardice, joining a chorus of criticism from all sides.

But in Afghanistan's highest reaches of government he has found at least one ally. President Hamid Karzai, usually quick to condemn western mis-steps in his country, told the Guardian that the y

To Abe the Shintoist, proponent of Japan in 2006 as “beautiful” and in 2012 as “new,” what is offensive about the postwar Japanese state, seems to be precisely its democratic, citizen-based, and anti-militarist qualities. His radical agenda combines attempted constitutional revision in the teeth of domestic opposition that is bound to be substantial, a security policy that rests on refusal to neg

Qatar backs the Muslim Brotherhood and, it appears, would not object to a brokered deal to end the insurrection that allows the MB to get its nose in the political tent, then make its play for winning control of the new government through some combination of foreign pressure, domestic mobilization, and elections.

Saudi Arabia, it appears, has no love for the Muslim Brotherhood and is perfectly

At the turn of this century a rebel army threatened the capital of an African country and in went Western troops to salvage the situation.

In May 2000 the capital under siege was Freetown in Sierra Leone and the troops sent to prevent a takeover were British.

They were led by the then Brigadier David Richards. I remember well greeting him as he arrived in the fearful city to announce a limi

Sabra complained that fellow Arab states were divided over Syria with some governments avoiding backing the opposition bloc for fear of spurring popular uprisings in their own countries.

"Unfortunately, there are some Arab regimes that are still friends with the Syrian regime because they have one thing in common - they are afraid of revolution," he said.

"The exception is the Gulf Arab sta

The most probable post-Assad scenario, if there is one, will be "not a unitary state, but a series of emirates near the Turkish border, and somebody proclaiming an Islamic state". Hezbollah's intelligence - the best available on Syria - is adamant: "one third of the combatants in the opposition are religious extremists, and two-thirds of the weapons are under their control." The bottom line - thi

Everything you think you know about those 13 days is wrong.
.. snip ..
Every sentence in the above paragraph describing the Cuban missile crisis is misleading or erroneous. But this was the rendition of events that the Kennedy administration fed to a credulous press; this was the history that the participants in Washington promulgated in their memoirs; and this is the story that has insinuated

29 December 2012

Israeli trained DGSE agent Frédéric Laurent Bouquet has been expelled by Venezuela after serving part of a four year prison term imposed following his arrest in 2009 for posession of a cache of weapons and explosives.

A taped conversation shows that in early 2011 Murdoch sent Roger Ailes, the boss of his most important US media outlet, Fox News, to Afghanistan to persuade Gen David Petraeus, former commander of US forces, to run against Barack Obama as the Republican candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Murdoch promised to bankroll Petraeus’ campaign and commit Fox News to provide the general with wall