1, 2, 3…The Nukes Are Piling Up On Us

Aditya Bordolo writes in Tehelka:
Contrary to claims, the [India-US nuclear] deal boosts India’s Nuclear-weapons capability.
The hostility with which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement on the Indo-US nuclear deal was greeted on August 13 testifies to the deep rifts the agreement has caused among the Indian public, especially the political class. It is plain that a [...]

India: 24 Karat Crisis

Sankarshan Thakur writes in Tehelka:
As rifts go, the nuclear deal is bad enough. There could be worse in store for the UPA government if the CPM’s Prakash Karat has his way.
For several hours on the night of August 13, it appeared that Manmohan Singh’s upa government had suddenly, and improbably, arrived at the brink. Alert [...]

Empowering the Copts

Emad Mekay writes in Al-Ahram:
The United States has been quietly funnelling millions of dollars from its annual aid budget to Egypt to groups coming from the country’s Coptic Christian community as part of an effort to “empower” the religious minority, according to a review of recent US congressional documents.
Most of the money, hidden in a [...]

Suffering in Numbers

Saleh Al-Naami writes in Al-Ahram:
Prayer time and afternoon naps excepted, Mohamed Saleh and Hassan Barak spend most of their day together conversing at the crossroads separating their homes in the southern quarter of Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp in central Gaza. Saleh and Barak, who both work in construction, have been unemployed since Hamas took exclusive control [...]

Taliban, US In New Round of Peace Talks

Syed Saleem Shahzad writes in Asia Times:
Taliban commanders, Pakistani and American intelligence members, and Afghan authorities are involved in talks to revive and extend peace deals in selected parts of Afghanistan. The Taliban are being offered the prospect of greater political representation both in Kabul and provincially, while Afghanistan will be able to push ahead [...]

Reading Arendt in Caracas

Elisabeth Young-Bruehl writes in The Nation:
A student movement influenced by Hannah Arendt is emerging in Venezuela. What do they think of the Bolivarian Revolution?
The year 2006 was the centenary of Hannah Arendt’s birth. Conferences and colloquia marked it all around the Western world, from Berlin to Belgrade, from Paris to Prague. Radio and TV documentaries [...]

Re-enactments of slavery folk tale reflect grim realities in Brazil

Jack Chang writes in McClatchy:
About 250 groups in all perform bumba-meu-boi around Maranhao, with hundreds more re-enacting the tale across a swath of the Brazilian north.
That the festivals are most popular in Maranhao is no coincidence, de Carvalho said.
Social rebellion and institutional violence resonate in a state where the average wage is about $200 a [...]

News in Brief 20 August 2007

A brief list of news for the day:
India govt in crisis: Singh to quit if US N-deal is scrapped. India’s 40-month old United Progressive Alliance government is in turmoil. The government is likely to fall, much ahead of its full five-year term in April 2009 with its key ally, the Communists, putting the Congress-led UPA [...]