North Korea sends a missile warning
After weeks of increasingly acrimonious verbal sparring between North and South Korea, Pyongyang on Friday fired a volley of short-range missiles off South Korea's west coast. Seoul quickly dismissed the incident as routine, but few are falling for that: the nuclear deal with North Korea is coming undone. - Donald Kirk (Mar 28, '08)

Jitters over Syria's Kurdish clashes
The death of three Kurds in clashes with security forces in the Kurdish district of Qamishly in northeastern Syria has angered Kurds not only in Syria but also in neighboring Iraq and Turkey. This is very bad timing for a region on the verge of explosion. - Sami Moubayed (Mar 28, '08)

Western colleges find school mates in India
Indian students are storming the halls of the country's higher education system in search of rare seats. Now some of the best universities in the United States and Europe are helping out, allowing Indian institutions to offer coveted brand-name degrees for half the cost of studying abroad. - Indrajit Basu (Mar 28, '08)

Afghanistan adrift in misplaced aid
The US$15 billion in donor aid for Afghanistan has to date been focused on numbers, quick delivery, high visibility and meeting benchmarks - a production-line approach to rebuilding a nation. An authoritative new report raises serious questions about this "solution" adopted by the donor community: the evidence in the shattered country is plain for all to see. - Aunohita Mojumdar (Mar 28, '08)

SEX IN DEPTH
Indecent exposure in Indonesia
The Indonesian government's new ban on Internet sites with "immoral content" comes at the same time another government campaign attempts to put free Internet access in all the nation's high schools. Such complexities continue, as the world's most populous Muslim nation tries to balance its "sexual evolution" with a bustling sex trade, the cyber age and what Jakarta considers moral decay. - William Sparrow (Mar 28, '08)

Knives out for Malaysia's Abdullah
Following his party's poor election showing, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi is on guard on all fronts, from potential challengers within the ranks of his party to the emboldened opposition alliance. Few believe he will survive. - Anil Netto (Mar 28, '08)



Bush and bin Laden's virtual war
The George W Bush administration's "war on terror" could be summed up in three words - "fragmentation, diminution, destruction". That's fragmentation brought about by "creative destabilization", as in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine; diminution of American prestige, both military and political, and thus of American power; destruction of political consensus within the US for a strong global role. And all this to the advantage of Osama bin Laden. - Mark Danner (Mar 27, '08)

SPEAKING FREELY
September 11 was a third-rate operation
From the day of the attack, evidence has accumulated that September 11, 2001, was never more than a third-rate operation. This is evident from what the plot achieved, and what it didn't attempt, or do. The American public shares the blame for the plot's success, causes and ensuing ramifications; through its collective narcissism, dereliction of responsibility, and fear. - Bohdan Pilacinski (Mar 27, '08)

Muqtada cuts free
Fighting in the south of Iraq between Muqtada al-Sadr's Madhi Army and a rival Shi'ite organization fitted in uniforms of the Iraqi security forces mark the end of Muqtada's self-imposed ceasefire. It also signals a major defeat for the US military command's strategy of weakening the Mahdi Army. - Gareth Porter (Mar 27, '08)

A sheikha, a queen and a first lady The dazzling arrivals of three young first ladies to power in Doha, Amman and Damascus have unveiled a new and important realm of possibilities for the wives of Arab leaders. The "Big Three" have enchanted much of the world with their grace and elegance, and have taken increasingly active roles as businesswomen, entrepreneurs and nation-builders. - Sami Moubayed (Mar 27, '08)

Sri Lanka's wounded Tigers growl at Delhi
India's perceived "state welcome" for a Sri Lankan army chief has drawn heavy criticism from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who have called it an "historic blunder". Some have dismissed the statements as a cry of desperation from an organization suffering severe setbacks, others warn that strident remarks could presage attacks on Indian soil or interests in Sri Lanka. - Sudha Ramachandran (Mar 27, '08)

Tibet, China, the West: Back to stereotypes
The riots in Tibet have blown a formidable flicker into China's Olympic flame, and any chance of keeping the sporting event free of politics has been extinguished. All the same, the Games still offer China the opportunity to educate the world on the daunting challenges it faces as a still-developing nation. - Kent Ewing (Mar 27, '08)

US moves towards engaging Iran
Sunday's mortar attacks on the Green Zone in Baghdad may be a harbinger of things to come unless the United States accommodates Iranian interests. And with the George W Bush administration's grudging admission of the realities of the political alignment in Tehran, "unconditional talks" between the countries are in the offing. The real issue now is whether the emboldened leadership in Tehran shares Washington's sense of urgency. - M K Bhadrakumar (Mar 26, '08)

The fateful Battle of Baghdad
In its five years under American occupation, Baghdad has been transformed from a metropolis into an urban desert, and various American "surges" have proven, in the end, disastrous. For the residents of the battered city, it's an endless wait for the Americans to leave. - Michael Schwartz (Mar 26, '08)

Crisis looms for Myanmar's riven junta
With top junta members under investigation for corruption and the health of senior general Than Shwe deteriorating, Myanmar's leadership is in a state of paralysis. But all the while, tension between rival junta factions is building and something will likely give soon, in the form of a mutiny, purge, or palace coup. - Larry Jagan (Mar 26, '08)

India all at sea over US defense ties
A report by an independent watchdog has shot holes through a US$50-million deal the Indian navy inked to acquire the US battleship USS Trenton. The findings run from the ship's toxic leaks to fine print that prohibits it from any offensive action. The controversy has the potential to sink possible big-dollar India-US defense deals. - Siddharth Srivastava (Mar 26, '08)

THE BEAR'S LAIR
Wall St greed to feel the squeeze
The present unwinding of the US financial system, with serious and repeated losses still to come, will lead to fundamental change in the regulatory environment. Even as some new rules will prove as counterproductive as those they replace, the altered Wall Street that will emerge will be less exciting for the greedy - providing one of the few unequivocal benefits of the miserable recession ahead. - Martin Hutchinson (Mar 26, '08)

THE SHAPE OF US POPULISM
Part 3: The progressive era
Ideological ferment at the close of the 19th century left the US with impressive political and economic reforms for future generations to build on. Yet fundamental issues - notably those involving race and economic centralization at the expense of economic democracy - dating back to the nation's birth have even now not been resolved. - Henry C K Liu (Mar 26, '08)
This is the third part in a series.

 Part 1: A rich free-market legacy - for some

 Part 2: Long-term effects of the Civil War

KEBABBLE
Turkey seeks a
more modern Islam
Turkish highest religious authority has instructed top theologians to re-evaluate the oral traditions relating to the Prophet Mohammad. It's an ambitious attempt at a fundamental revision of the holy texts and Turkey has the capacity to do nothing less than recreate Islam, changing it from a religion whose rules must be obeyed, to one designed to serve the needs of people in a modern secular democracy. - Fazile Zahir (Mar 26, '08)

Tibet, the 'great game' and the CIA
The main beneficiary of the death and destruction in Tibet could be the United States. For Washington and the Central Intelligence Agency, with its deep involvement in the Free Tibet Movement, this is a heaven-sent opportunity to create significant leverage against Beijing, with little risk to American interests. For China, the seriousness with which it is treating the unrest is illustrated by the deployment of a large number of important army units. - Richard M Bennett (Mar 25, '08)

SPENGLER
The mustard seed
in global strategy
With Pope Benedict's baptism of Magdi Allam, a prominent Muslim-born journalist who converted to Catholicism during Easter services, the global agenda is changed through the soul of a single man. Since September 2001, the would-be wizards of Western strategy have tried to conjure variations of Islamic "reform" or "democracy". None of this matters now, as Magdi Allam's case confirms.
(Mar 25, '08)

CAMPAIGN OUTSIDER
Black and white and
barely read at all
US presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama gave an intelligent speech on race relations to the wrong country. America doesn't want to think about much, least of all about a topic on which everyone's already an expert. - Muhammad Cohen (Mar 25, '08)

   What Obama's pastor really said (video)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
Bonfire of puppy-tossers, and the beer test
A widely viewed Internet video of a US Marine throwing a cute puppy to its death in a ditch in Iraq has Americans gnashing their teeth at the appalling actions of a native son. It's disturbing stuff, but where's America's all-consuming concern for the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqi humans? It's this dicshotomy that exposes the real reasons for the war, and the real risks that those who advocate its quick conclusion are taking. - Julian Delasantellis (Mar 25, '08)

Same game, new rules in Afghanistan
Obituaries for the Taliban's spring offensive are premature, though instead of trying to engage opposition forces head-on, the Taliban will open up new fronts in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. In return, North Atlantic Treaty Organization and United States-led troops will target the Taliban's safe havens straddling the border with Pakistan. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Mar 20, '08)

Why Spitzer was Bushwhacked
Disgraced New York State governor Eliot Spitzer had cause to feel frisky when he visited Washington in February. As he was paying off a call girl, the press was preparing to run a Spitzer broadside against the world's biggest financial powers and President George W Bush, whom he described as a fugitive from justice and a partner in crime with predator lenders. It was a politically fatal coincidence. - F William Engdahl (Mar 19, '08)