The Sakineh confession broadcast on Saturday is the new episode of the strange "reality" show that the Iranian regime has staged around her case. For those of you who would like to get to the bottom of this situation, I have some advice: stick to the basics.
Despite all the bad news I can report there is life in the old Emerald Isle yet. Grafton Street, the main shopping thoroughfare was thronged, the bookstores were crowded and a Christmas spirit like only the Irish can whip up prevailed.
The main purpose of a conference I recently attended in Hangzhou, China, seemed to be to advertise Hangzhou -- a city where gentrification moves at a fast pace and the impoverishment of peasants in western China is but a distant reality.
If you want a sneak peak at the future and the role of dumps such as WikiLeaks in it, look at the history of the diffusion and reaction to Benedict de Spinoza's work in 1670. You won't go too far wrong.
In Afghanistan, a nation where 850 children die every day, about a quarter of the population goes hungry. "Do you think we like to live this way?" an Afghan man asked me, last October, as he led us toward a primitive tent encampment on the outskirts of Kabul.
In an ideal world, the WikiLeaks revelations would have ended two wars. But rather than retreating, the Pentagon became emboldened that a significant portion of its dirty laundry was aired publicly.
Leahy's statement comes as the streets of Haiti are in chaos over a disputed election plagued by fraud, voter intimidation, ballot stuffing and violence.
Lebanon is on edge waiting for indictments related to the assassination of Prime Minister Rafiq al Hariri. Based on what are claimed to be "leaks", there have been suggestions that the indictments will charge members of Hezbollah in the crime.
By extending tax cuts to the wealthy, shrinking the estate tax, and freezing discretionary spending, Obama is leaving almost nothing for education and infrastructure -- precisely what we need to get back on top internationally.
Brown's face lit up at the sound of the students' cheers, as well it might after years of being publicly disemboweled in the media. He will be a hell of a lot happier as a community organizer than a politician.
Documents released by WikiLeaks tell us that the State Department's Iran watchers are effectively replicating what the Bush Administration's widely discredited Office of Special Plans did with regard to Iraq.
CNN provided me with an advance copy of their "Taliban" documentary and arranged a discussion with filmmaker, Paul Refsdal, who risked his life embedding himself in a Taliban fighting unit -- a move supposedly blessed by Taliban leadership.
It's essential for international powers to consider ways of working together to keep the North Korean people informed. Radio is proving to be one of the answers.
Activating the Espionage Act is an act of profound aggression against the American people because we are all Julian Assange. Under this act, anyone who publishes or discusses WikiLeaks material can be arrested.
America and the world must not stand idly by and allow China's contravention of basic human rights -- as exemplified by the imprisonment of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo -- to be a costless offense.
China threatened "consequences" if governments supported Liu Xiaobo by attending the Nobel Prize ceremony this year. The strategy worked. More governments declined invitations than ever before.
This clip is just one of the horror shows to bubble up since the national media started paying attention to mob rule in regions of Russia.
The doomsayers and pessimists have been wrong every time they have predicted the Chinese economy's imminent demise. They will continue to be wrong.
Wyclef Jean, 2010.12.13
Bill Shipsey, 2010.12.13