Monthly Archives: October 2013

France eyes C.A.R. action, as Mali lessons loom

October 16, 2024 by Lara Vergnaud in Africa, Europe.

As was the case for Mali, a delayed international response may be forcing Hollande’s hand.

Egypt cracks down on Ultras with soccer set to resume

October 15, 2024 by Lora Moftah in Middle East.

Al-Ahly Ultras in Cairo on March 9, 2013. (AFP PHOTO / MAHMUD KHALED)

With their main foe, the police, only more powerful after the military takeover, Ultras are sure to become one of the main protest forces outside of the Islamist movement.

ICC throws critics a bone with Senussi deferral

October 11, 2024 by Lora Moftah in Africa.

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FILE - In this Sunday, Aug. 21, 2011 file photo Abdullah al-Senussi, head of Libyan intelligence, speaks to the press in Tripoli, Libya. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)

The International Criminal Court has, for the first time ever, deferred a case to a national judiciary with its ruling that Libya can try former spy chief Abdullah el-Senussi.

Egypt games U.S. aid reduction

October 10, 2024 by Lora Moftah in Middle East.

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U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel stands with an Egyptian army official in Cairo. (AP Photo/Jim Watson, Pool, File)

The military-backed government appears focused on using this development to bolster their standing on the Islamist insurgency raging in Sinai.

C.A.R. grapples with violence, religious tensions

October 9, 2024 by Lara Vergnaud in Africa.

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Soldiers of the International Support Mission for the Central African Republic (MISCA), placed under the auspices of the African Union, formerly known as the multinational force of central Africa, FOMAC, patrol on October 7, 2024 in a street of Bangui, where arms were seized in houses during a disarmament operation of Seleka rebels.

Now, the specter of a sustained interfaith divide looms large.

Saudi council voices support for women drivers

October 9, 2024 by Lora Moftah in Middle East.

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Saudi women waiting for their drivers outside in Riyadh, September 26, 2011. (AFP PHOTO/FAYEZ NURELDINE)

Using female council members to give voice to the sentiment is a tidy way of underlining already established reforms alongside the (not so firm) promise of those to come.

Kuwaiti plan to “detect gays” poised to stir up more trouble for Qatar

October 8, 2024 by Lora Moftah in Middle East.

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A blatantly discriminatory GCC proposal will ensure that the Gulf state is mired in an international PR nightmare.

A world held hostage

October 8, 2024 by David A. Andelman in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East, U.S..

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A lone worker passes by the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, October 8, 2013. A few faint glimmers of hope surfaced in the U.S. fiscal standoff, both in Congress and at the White House, with President Barack Obama saying he would accept a short-term increase in the nation's borrowing authority to avoid a default.

The U.S. Is not alone in its fiscal instability. Other nations are on a cliff’s edge as they face their own fiscal crises, needing barely a nudge from a thoroughly fractured and paralyzed Washington to push them over.

Romania anti-mine protests continue but efficacy in question

October 7, 2024 by Lara Vergnaud in Europe.

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Young people protest against a Canadian gold mine project on September 1, 2013, in Bucharest, Romania.

Regional observers attribute the latest outburst of Romania’s civil society to the growth of a young, disenfranchised middle class.

Obama’s domestic woes leave hole in Asia strategy

October 6, 2024 by David A. Andelman in Asia-Pacific, U.S..

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US President Barack Obama walks along the colonnade at the White House to the Oval Office on September 10, 2024 in Washington, DC. President Obama has agreed with his French and British counterparts to probe Russia's plan to defuse the Syria chemical weapons crisis at the United Nations on Tuesday, a US official said. The discussion will test the viability of the plan with a view to enshrining commitments in a Security Council resolution, the official said. The strategy was agreed in separate phone calls between Obama and French President Francois Hollande and British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday, the official said.

The United States needs to show its commitment to Asia, demonstrate that the region is deeply a part of its global vision and its future, not simply tell a good story.

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