LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 31: Prime Minister Gordon Brown's shadow is reflected on a back-drop as he talks on immigration in Shoreditch on March 31, 2010 in London, England. Mr Brown has called for the political parties to unite against people who oppose immigration because they simply don't like migrants. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid - WPA POOL/Getty Images) (Pool/Getty Images)
NEW YORK - Staring down a flood of Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants when restrictions expire at the end of the year, British ministers recently proposed a unique idea: an ad campaign to make the UK look like a terrible place to live. The proposal from the far-right wing of David Cameron’s coalition government aimed to highlight some of the more unappealing aspects of British life, from the infamously dreary weather to the lack of jobs.
Ask most Americans which country is the oldest ally of the United States in Asia and many would probably answer Korea or Japan, where US troops are still stationed. In fact, America’s first friend in Asia was and remains Thailand.
US President Barack Obama speaks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum on March 22, 2013 in Jerusalem, Israel. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
OWL’S HEAD, Maine - Until just before President Obama bade farewell to Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was looking as if Obama's visit to Israel and the West Bank had been the proverbial dog and pony show, Obama-style: long on verbiage, short on results.
But in fact, the Turkish-Israeli rapprochement that he worked out at Tel Aviv airport was a significant accomplishment. It addressed the break in Israel-Turkey diplomatic relations when nineTurkish activists sailing to Gaza were killed by Israeli commandos the year before the Arab world exploded.
The uproar following an exchange between CNN reporters Candy Crowley and Poppy Harlow, who expressed sympathy for two teenage boys convicted of rape in Steubenville, Ohio, was nothing short of predictable.
Amid a flurry of blogs and tweets from popular media personalities, more than 271,000 people to date have signed a petition demanding that the news channel issue an apology. And when CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC all aired a clip revealing the Steubenville rape victim’s name, the cries of shoddy news coverage vociferously increased.
Indian students shout slogans against Indian spiritual guru Asaram Bapu during a protest in New Delhi on January 8, 2013. Asaram sparked a backlash Tuesday after saying a 23-year-old student could have averted a murderous gang-rape by begging for mercy from her attackers. (Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images)
Attention to India’s “patriarchal culture” occludes the prevalence of rape and other forms of violence against women throughout the entire world.
US President Barack Obama speaks during the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) symposium at the National Defense University in Washington on December 3, 2012. Obama directly warned Syria's President Bashar al-Assad that he would face 'consequences' if he made the 'tragic mistake' of turning chemical weapons on his own people. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
OWL’S HEAD, Maine – As the turmoil in the Arab World goes from bad to worse, confusion to chaos, the always relevant question becomes even more critical: what, if anything, should the United States be doing?
Palestinian youths throw stone at Israeli forces during clashes in the West Bank city of Hebron on December 06,2012. (HAZEM BADER/AFP/Getty Images)
OWL’S HEAD, Maine — Well, that's it. That's the final blow. Don't worry: I'm not talking about the fiscal cliff. No, what I'm talking about is much worse, long-term — the death knell to the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.
Commentary: The use of Twitter and Facebook contributed significantly to the size and reach of Argentina’s recent huge anti-government protest. Now social media must be engaged to raise the quality of Argentinian public political debate.
Pakistani missing persons families hold pictures of their missing people as they staged a demonstration in Karachi in 2007. Scores of individuals and civil liberty groups observe the International Human Rights Day in Pakistan. (Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty Images)
GENEVA, Switzerland – Governments of developing countries sometimes engage in the rhetoric of international human rights for strategic and self-interested reasons; they create national human rights institutions, enact weak legislation and ratify international human rights treaties to deflect international and domestic criticism of a worsening human rights record, rather than out of any genuine concern for rights.
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