North Korea's Kim Jong-un named marshal
Kim Jong-un has cemented his position at the helm of the Korean people's army following the removal of the army chief
North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, has tightened his grip on power after being named to the highest rank in the country's military.
His appointment as marshal of the Korean people's army, a force of 1.2 million troops, comes after the removal on Monday of the regime's chief of the general staff of the army, Ri Yong-ho, and cements Kim's control of the state apparatus seven months after he became leader.
State media cited illness as the reason behind Ri's dismissal but analysts said his sacking may signal the start of a campaign by the young and inexperienced Kim to shape the regime in his image rather than that of his father, Kim Jong-il.
Centrists abandon Benjamin Netanyahu to leave Israeli government in limbo
Kadima walks out on coalition over Likud's refusal to draft ultra-orthodox Jews into military
The broadened coalition formed by Benjamin Netanyahu just ten weeks ago ended yesterday when the centrist Kadima party walked out in protest over the terms of drafting ultra-orthodox men into military service.
Kadima's Knesset members voted 25-3 in favour of their leader Shaul Mofaz's decision to pull the party out of the government and leave his post of Deputy Prime Minister after the breakdown of negotiations aimed at resolving one of the most contentious internal issues in Israeli politics.
London 2012A Preview of an Olympic-Sized Fiasco
By Marco Evers in London
London and the Olympic Games are clearly not made for each other. Visitors will need determination and, most of all, patience to reach the venues at all. And, for the locals, it all can't end soon enough.
It's never easy to be a Londoner, not even on a perfectly normal workday in an English summer.
In London, cars, cabs and buses are inefficient forms of transportation for medium- and long-distant trips. As a result, day after day, millions squeeze into the clattering London Underground, the oldest, probably hottest and often fullest subway system in the world.
The problem with Nelson Mandela: It's us, not him
As SA celebrates Madiba's birthday, it is becoming more protective of its hero amid growing criticism of how the man and his legacy are being "used".
As South Africa celebrates the 94th birthday of Nelson Mandela, South Africans are increasingly beginning to grapple with the question of how to demonstrate care for the man without infringing on his dignity.
Earlier this month Mandela's former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, accused the ANC of disrespecting the Mandela family and said that in the past the party had "never had any interest in celebrating Tata's [Mandela's] birthday except to gate crash on the family's arrangements".
Madikizela-Mandela has also in the past decried the commodificaton of Mandela, saying he had become a"corporate foundation" who was "wheeled out to collect money".
Persian Gulf primed to explode
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
"US navy fires on Emirate boat out of fear of Iran" - headline in Kayhan Newspaper, Tehran.
The Persian Gulf powder keg may soon explode if the current cycle of mounting tensions continues unabated. Two days ago, a minor incident involving a US refueling warship and an Indian fishing boat off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) resulted in one fatality and three wounded. That the fishermen insist they were fired on without a warning - contrary to the US navy's assertion - gives us a prelude to more ominous developments on the horizon. It seems trigger-happy American sailors see gathering clouds of conflict and are taking preemptive measures that, in this particular case, made a small dent in otherwise amicable US-India relations.
The Persian Gulf powder keg may soon explode if the current cycle of mounting tensions continues unabated. Two days ago, a minor incident involving a US refueling warship and an Indian fishing boat off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) resulted in one fatality and three wounded. That the fishermen insist they were fired on without a warning - contrary to the US navy's assertion - gives us a prelude to more ominous developments on the horizon. It seems trigger-happy American sailors see gathering clouds of conflict and are taking preemptive measures that, in this particular case, made a small dent in otherwise amicable US-India relations.
Iraq war reconstruction: $6 billion to $8 billion wasted, US official says
By Zach Toombs
Center for Public Integrity
Center for Public Integrity
The official in charge of monitoring America’s $51 billion effort to reconstruct Iraq has estimated that $6 billion to $8 billion of that amount was lost to waste, fraud and abuse.
Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction (SIGIR) for the past eight years, gave that estimate in an interview with the Center for Public Integrity on Monday, shortly after releasing a new summary of his office’s many grim discoveries since it began work in in 2004.
In Friday’s report, Bowen said the exact funds lost to fraud and waste “can never be known,” largely because of poor record-keeping by the U.S. agencies involved in the effort. These include the Departments of State and Defense, along with the U.S. Agency for International Development.
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