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News and business analysis from Asia
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Hezbollah's display of strength in Lebanon leaves its backer, Iran, emboldened. Tehran is now in a stronger position to negotiate a deal with the United States pertaining to its
nuclear file. Or it could do something radical, such as trade off Hezbollah in exchange for a greater piece of the Iraqi cake. All options are on the table. - Sami Moubayed (
May 16, '08)
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The reaction to the flareup in Lebanon has left Saudi Arabia (and its United States ally) with no doubt that there are not many takers in the Arab world for anti-Iran, anti-
Hezbollah ploys. This leaves the George W Bush administration with little choice other than to resort to back-channel diplomacy to engage Tehran, while the Saudis, too, will
have to re-asses their stance on Iran. - M K Bhadrakumar (May 16, '08)
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With the international community looking on in stunned disbelief, Myanmar's humanitarian crisis has intensified as the military government pilfers foreign aid and the UN
dithers through dead-end talks. Only the US military now has the power to avert a wider human catastrophe, and if ever there was an opportunity for the US to make moral
use its military might, an intervention in Myanmar is it. - Shawn W Crispin (May 16, '08)
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Though Asia in general had a bad week, India's problems stand out as the most intractable and subversive, harking as they do to the dominance of age-old communist
thinking that has bred a cesspool of corruption. Other Asian countries also face this peril. (May 16, '08)
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US President George W Bush and the man who hopes to replace him, Senator John McCain, have divulged to the world their beautiful dreams, in which Middle East weapons
have become ploughshares, bitter enemies lie down together as lambs and evil powers abandon nuclear weapons. This stuff keeps the neo-cons happy, even though the
politics that will make it reality are absent. - Jim Lobe (May 16, '08)
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Opinion in Russia today on Iran is divided over whether or not to engage the country. This same division existed in the late 19th century, the era on which the author focuses,
using the writings of Russian travelers to Iran. What the lively book lacks is a comparison of what European travelers to Russia felt. Russia and Iran in the Great Game by
Elena Andreeva (May 16, '08)
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Across Pakistan, a sex industry has begun to boom. Spilling from dark alleys and red-light haunts, prostitution is more common and ever-more exploitive. Profiteering
foreigners are preying on a demand for sex that far outstrips supply. If the issue remains in the dark, more poor Pakistanis will fall prey to the sex trade. - William Sparrow
(May 16, '08)
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China's insistence that it will not hold back economic growth to assuage concerns about the impact that expansion is having on the world's climate has attracted the
opprobrium of many in the West, such as US presidential candidate John McCain. Yet Western companies are playing an important role in helping China clean up its act. -
Craig Meer and Vincent Shie.
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Investors in Asian stocks can head for the golf courses in a happy mood this weekend after the best five days so far this year, although the chatter and mood on the way to
the first tees will have little in common from Shanghai to Mumbai. Holders of Australian dollars might be the most willing to buy the drinks back in the clubhouse. R M Cutler
runs his eye over the ups and downs in the week's markets.
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Inflation is no longer just a nasty little thing that might or might not raise the "concern" of the US Federal Reserve, it is a horrible storming fact of life, climbing out of low
single digits way up into the roaring 20s for key stuff such as imports. It isn't Zimbabwe yet, but it is heading in that direction.
Asia Times Online weekly PodCast on stories from Asia.
International Security - Emerging Threats - Briefing - UPI.com
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NEW DELHI, May 16 (UPI) -- India has asked its state governments to provide jungle warfare training to its police personnel to counter Maoist insurgents.
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WASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- Grants to aid cities in the event of terrorist attacks or natural disasters were announced Friday by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
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LONDON, May 16 (UPI) -- British officials say 2007-2008 was a record year in the war on drugs, according to an annual report by the Serious Organized Crime Agency.
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ABYEI, Sudan, May 16 (UPI) -- Escalating violence between rebel factions and the Sudanese government has forced the United Nations to evacuate most of its staff from Abyei.
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CANBERRA, Australia, May 16 (UPI) -- Australia is calling on the international community to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty into force to promote disarmament and non-proliferation.
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BRUSSELS, May 16 (UPI) -- Confusing security operations in the southern Philippines could spark renewed insurgent violence, according to a report from the International Crisis Group.
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MOSUL, Iraq, May 16 (UPI) -- Iraqi military officials said Friday the operations targeting al-Qaida operatives in Mosul will be "ferocious" as the military campaign gains momentum.
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BAGHDAD, May 16 (UPI) -- An anti-corruption committee of the Iraqi Parliament Friday said it has evidence supporting corruption claims involving the Iraqi Defense Ministry and Serbia.
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BAGHDAD, May 16 (UPI) -- U.S. officials in Iraq severed ties with controversial former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi because of a rift with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
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KIRKUK, Iraq, May 16 (UPI) -- More than 300 members of the Sunni paramilitary force Sons of Iraq boosted the ranks of the local police following graduation from the Kirkuk Police Academy.
International Security - Emerging Threats - Analysis - UPI.com
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By HIBA DAWOOD
UPI Correspondent The daily Al Sabaah newspaper said Friday in its editorial that observers of the political process in Iraq today cannot illustrate it or acknowledge its aims or intentions, which turns the process of analyzing it into something close to a guessing game.
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By STEFAN NICOLA
UPI Germany CorrespondentBERLIN, May 16 (UPI) -- The German government has accused foreign intelligence services -- blaming mainly Russian agents -- of having spied on German companies.
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By RICHARD TOMKINSBAGHDAD, May 13 (UPI) -- A new cease-fire has been declared between the Iraqi government and Shiite gunmen of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr, but U.S. and Iraqi forces say their troops are still coming under attack in Sadr City.
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By DAVID ISENBERGWASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- One aspect of private military and security contractors that is relatively ignored is their relationship with regular military forces. Such discussion, as there is, is generally limited to sound bites about the reported envy that soldiers have for allegedly better paid security contractors.
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By KUSHAL JEENA
UPI CorrespondentNEW DELHI, May 15 (UPI) -- India's intelligence and security agencies are indulging in a blame game over a recent foiled infiltration bid by militants on the Pakistani border, with one agency accusing the paramilitary forces guarding the border of lacking alertness.
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By HIBA DAWOOD
UPI Correspondent The daily Al Mashriq newspaper had an editorial Thursday titled "Last lines for the chaotic months" that said although Iraq has been in a war for five years, the government in the last few weeks has been chaotically carrying out quick military operations and offensives in many cities and areas around the country.
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By RICHARD TOMKINSZAHAMM, Iraq, May 13 (UPI) -- The number of human remains unearthed in an al-Qaida killing field northeast of Baghdad in Diyala province is nearing 70 with the discovery of more graves by villagers who had volunteered to search an abandoned pomegranate orchard.
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By SHAUN WATERMAN
UPI Homeland and National Security EditorWASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) -- Procurement documents from the U.S. Air Force give a rare glimpse into the Pentagon's plans for developing an offensive cyberwar capacity that can infiltrate, steal data from and if necessary take down enemy information technology networks.
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By HIBA DAWOOD
UPI Correspondent The Association of Muslim Scholars' Al Basaer newspaper said in its editorial Wednesday that President Bush has divided the people of Iraq into five groups according to the five political groups in Iraq.
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By RICHARD TOMKINSZAHAMM, Iraq, May 13 (UPI) -- Farmers digging in part of an abandoned pomegranate orchard in the Diyala provincial village of Zahamm have uncovered the graves of more than 50 people murdered by al-Qaida-Iraq during their two-year reign of terror in the area.
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