L’affaire DSK and the French awakening that ensued

Written by: Katherine Sacks ˑ

Courtesy of the International Monetary Fund.

In the wake of the arrest of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn last month for attempted rape, French women are beginning to speak out against the culture of sexism and the tacit acceptance of sexual assault and harassment in French politics.

Chavez’s dangerous convalescence

Written by: Bruno Lucas ˑ

Flickr/ChavezCandanga

As Venezuelans went to sleep on July 3rd, a cloud of uncertainty loomed over their heads. President Hugo Chavez was in Cuba undergoing cancer treatment and had been gone for a month. In his absence, Venezuelans had to cope with recurrent power shortages and worrying episodes of violence, notably in the overcrowded Venezuelan prisons. Capitalizing on the President’s moment of weakness, the opposition started to question the legality of having a President govern the country from abroad for an extended period of time. Uncertainty was becoming unbearable for Venezuelans.

Tobruk, Libya. Credit: Reuters/Asmaa Waguih. Flickr/CrethiPlethi

There can be few images more iconic of the Arab spring than that of a jubilant Libyan resistance fighter gleefully wearing the ridiculously oversized hat of his former dictator in his former palace. Such an image, an organic expression of hope and freedom, stands in stark contrast to the manufactured image of the Saddam statue being torn down during the Iraq War. In the aftermath of that misguided war, few could have expected an Arab nation would not only seek, but demand a reluctant United States to intervene on its behalf.

Balancing Beijing

Doug Bandow

After a rough start with the EP-3 spy plane confrontation, the Bush administration forged a good relationship between the United States and China. Washington realized that it needed Beijing's help in dealing with North Korea, winning UN Security Council approval for U.S. objectives, and forging a profitable trading relationship.
The Obama administration risks getting off to an equally difficult start, though for different reasons. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton advocates "a comprehensive dialogue with China" and her visit to Beijing went smoothly, but of necessity little of substance was decided.

Protesters ‘Deserve to Be Thrown Into Hitler’s Ovens,’ Egyptian Military Adviser Says

By ROBERT MACKEY

Video posted online by Egyptian activists appeared to offer clear evidence that flaming Molotov cocktails were hurled at protesters from the top of a building controlled by soldiers on Saturday.

By Karen DeYoung

Since September, at least 60 people have died in 14 reported CIA drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal regions. The Obama administration has named only one of the dead, hailing the elimination of Janbaz Zadran, a top official in the Haqqani insurgent network, as a counterterrorism victory.
The identities of the rest remain classified, as does the existence of the drone program itself. Because the names of the dead and the threat they were believed to pose are secret, it is impossible for anyone without access to U.S. intelligence to assess whether the deaths were justified.

Kim Jong-un, youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, watches a parade to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang October 10, 2010. PHOTO: REUTERS

SEOUL: Young and inexperienced, Kim Jong-un is seen as poised to take over North Korea with the death of his father and extend the Kim dynasty’s rule over the reclusive state for a third generation. Not much is known about the younger Kim, not even his age, though his father, Kim Jong-il, and his autocratic regime had begun making preparations for the son’s transition to power.
Thought to be aged around 27, Kim Jong-un Had already been made a four-star general and occupied a prominent political post when he was reported to have made an important diplomatic visit to neighbouring China in May this year. On the trip, he introduced himself to the destitute North’s main benefactor, possibly one of the most crucial diplomatic moves he will ever make.

Analysis: Nuke talks uncertain after Kim's death

By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press –

WASHINGTON – The death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il could put a brake on talks ultimately aimed at getting the secretive communist state to give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Kim Jong Un, the supreme leader's untested third son and heir-apparent, is unlikely to risk any step that could be construed as weakness as he seeks to consolidate control.

Kim Jong-il - the high life of an evil dictator

The Daily Telegraph

HE employed a personal sushi chef to prepare raw fish so fresh that it was still flapping, had an insatiable appetite for foreign films and fine wines and would have women kidnapped for his pleasure. He also liked nuclear weapons.

Kim Jong-il's youngest son and most likely heir, Kim Jong-un, reportedly had plastic surgery to give him the same chubby cheeks, double chin and mouth as his well-fed grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the godfather of North Korea.

Islamists Electoral Rise Due to Failed Secularism: Pankaj Mishra

My last column, on the strangely renewable appeal of political Islam, provoked some strong reactions from both extremes of the ideological spectrum.
Some correspondents urged me to reconsider -- even embrace -- Islam as the most superior way of life, one that holds answers to all problems of individual and collective existence. Others accused me of endorsing the ideology of Islamism that legitimizes such inhumane punishments as cutting off limbs and stoning women to death.

Britain’s Future for Now Is Brighter in the European Union

The European Union’s most reluctant member is again at loggerheads with its partners. Patching up the latest disagreement between the U.K. and the EU may be harder than usual, but it’s in everybody’s interests to try.
British Prime Minister David Cameron certainly bungled his diplomacy at the EU’s Dec. 8-9 summit. He antagonized the other leaders needlessly, and got nothing in return. His error was not so much in leaving the U.K. isolated. It was that he pressed the wrong issue at the wrong time.

Corzine Another Victim of the Alpha-Male Curse: William D. Cohan

For years, I have wondered why, for some people, enough is never enough. For example, what could have possibly motivated Jon Corzine -- a respected former senator, governor and Wall Street big shot with hundreds of millions in the bank -- to take the top job at MF Global Holdings Ltd (MF) in the first place?
He was 63 years old, six months away from getting remarried. He was one of the few remaining high-profile Wall Street Democrats around, and an avid supporter of President Barack Obama. He was routinely mentioned as a possible successor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, if Obama were to win a second term.

Kim Jong Il Makes World Scary Place Even in Death: William Pesek

If there is a reason famous people die in threes, imagine the lively debates Vaclav Havel, Kim Jong Il and Christopher Hitchens are having in eternity’s waiting room.
Havel had long been on the Nobel Peace Prize short list for his role in bringing democracy to Czechoslovakia and central Europe. Were there an award for the opposite feat, destabilizing the world and playing a role in the deaths of millions, North Korean leader Kim would win easily. And the indefatigable Hitchens would be there to chronicle this celestial collision of minds.

China’s Humbling Lessons for Russia and the West: Pankaj Mishra

Illustration by Colin Matsui

By Pankaj Mishra
More than a century ago, China’s foremost modern intellectual, Liang Qichao, declared that his country, struggling for modern nationhood, didn’t need a socialist revolution.
Liang was convinced that socialist ideas, emerging in industrialized nations with working-class populations, were poorly suited to a peasant country like China.

With N. Korea’s Kim Jong-il dead, who’s in charge?

SEOUL — Questions abound about whether North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il’s 28-year-old son is fully empowered to take control of the totalitarian, nuclear-armed regime in the wake of Mr. Kim’s death.
Mr. Kim, who reportedly died of heart failure Saturday at age 69, is expected to be entombed Dec. 28 with his father, “Eternal President” Kim Il-sung, at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in central Pyongyang, the nation’s capital.

Global fears of North Korean nuclear arsenal heightened by leader’s death

By Joby Warrick

Up to the day of his death, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s 17-year rule was defined by his obsessive pursuit of nuclear weapons—an objective so dear to him that he drove his countrymen to starvation to achieve it.
While little is known about Kim’s son and heir-apparent, Kim Jong Eun, U.S. officials and weapons experts see little to reason to believe that he will be any less enamored of the Bomb.

With elder Kim’s death, some see window for change in North Korea

View Photo Gallery — After years of speculation on his declining health, North Korean television has reported its leader, Kim Jong Il, right, has passed away. He was 69.

BEIJING — The death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has set off a wave of anxiety among the country’s neighbors and beyond, focused on possible instability on the Korean Peninsula and the unpredictable nature of the succession in the isolated, nuclear-armed country.

North Korea’s ‘Dear Leader’ Dictator Kim Jong Il Dies; Son May Take Over. By Bill Austin -

Kim Jong Il, the second-generation North Korean dictator who defied global condemnation to build nuclear weapons while his people starved, has died, state media reported. A government statement called on North Koreans to “loyally follow” his son, Kim Jong Un.
Kim, 70, died on Dec. 17 of a heart attack brought on by mental and physical strain while on a domestic train trip, the official Korean Central News Agency said. Kim probably had a stroke in August 2008 and may have also contracted pancreatic cancer, according to South Korean news reports.

Kim Jong Il’s Death May Trigger Nuclear Crisis Q By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan and Nicole Gaouette -

The death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il presents a potential crisis for President Barack Obama, complicating U.S. efforts to press the regime to abandon its nuclear arsenal and cease belligerent behavior.
The demise of the 70-year-old ruler -- who frustrated three U.S. administrations with his pursuit of nuclear weapons, threats toward American allies and economic mismanagement that resulted in mass starvation -- ushers in a period of uncertainty for the isolated communist regime and North Asia. It increases the danger of misjudgment on the Korean peninsula, where 1.7 million troops from North and South Korea and the U.S. square off. The U.S. has 75,000 troops stationed in South Korea and Japan and is bound by treaty to defend its allies

Kim Jong-il, North Korean Leader, Dies

By CHOE SANG-HUN

SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Jong-il, the reclusive North Korean leader who has been battling ill health following a reported stroke in 2008, has died, the North’s official news media reported on Monday.
“Our great leader Comrade Kim Jong-il passed away at 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 17,” Korean Central TV reported.
Mr. Kim was 69 years old. Since he reportedly suffered a stroke in 2008, he has been grooming his third son, Kim Jong-un, believed to be in his late 20s, to be his successor, as his country struggled to fight widespread food shortages and international sanctions imposed for its nuclear weapons development.

North Korea says Kim Jong Il dead at 69

By Andrew Salmon - Special to The Washington Times

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Kim Jong-il

SEOUL — Longtime North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has died, North Korean state television announced at noon Monday in a special broadcast.
The newscaster, in a black traditional dress, said Mr. Kim died at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, describing the cause of death as “overwork.”
Mr. Kim is

INTERMEX POWER

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

L’affaire DSK and the French awakening that ensued

L’affaire DSK and the French awakening that ensued