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The second Rajai
The rise of Mahmud Ahmadinejad
signals a major shift in power in Iran to
second-generation revolutionaries. Clerical
supremacists now have to contend with the first
non-clerical president since Ali Rajai, who was
assassinated in 1981. - Mahan
Abedin | INCOMING! Iran's new
president  handed a nuclear
confrontation
Iran's incoming president, Mahmud
Ahmadinejad, will have to hit the ground running
when he takes over on Wednesday. Tehran's
decision to resume uranium-enrichment activities
puts him on a collision course with the
European Union, as well as with the hardliners
who pull Iran's policy strings and who have
ensured that Ahmadinejad's hot seat is very hot
indeed. - Safa
Haeri
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SPENGLER
Death
by secularism: The statistical
evidence
 Infertility
is killing off the secular world, whose ideologies
- socialism, positivism, and so forth - promised
an unending vista of peace and prosperity.
Statistical evidence strips secularism of its
progressive mask and reveals the death's-head
underneath.
Narita:
An end to a 39-year battle
After
decades of deaths and demonstrations, the fight
between farmers and the government over land
around Tokyo's Narita International Airport is
finally over. Chalk it up as a victory for private
property rights in Japan. But in the end, Japan's
key airport comes up short. - Todd
Crowell
US
strikes out in
Uzbekistan
The US has
put on a brave face over Uzbekistan's decision to
phase out a US military base in the country. But
the move, which will be welcomed in Russia and
China, will come at a cost. - Ramtanu
Maitra
Mumbai counts the cost of
deluge
Unchecked construction in Mumbai
contributed to the death toll of more than 400
people in floods that also caused billions of
dollars in damage. While money continues to flow
toward projects to help Mumbai catch up with the
likes of Shanghai, a fraction is spent on good
infrastructure and drainage.
UN visit to Myanmar under
scrutiny
A
visit by the most senior UN official to Myanmar
since pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was
placed under house arrest in 2003 has people
wondering whether the visiting diplomat has more
on his plate than humanitarian
concerns.
China,
US discuss their
relationship
They're suspicious of one another
by nature but next week the US and China will
at least be sitting down to calmly
reevaluate the sort of relationship they want.
They share some common concerns and until
a few months ago their ties were described as
the best they had been in three decades. Then the
yelling started, about currency, trade and defense
issues: it's definitely time for a quiet chat.
- Jing-dong Yuan
Entangled in terror's
net
Under
Western pressure, Pakistan has cast the net far
and wide to round up suspected jihadis and other
suspects in the "war on terror". The system is not
perfect, though, and instead of eliminating the
problem of extremism, it is actually making it
worse. - Syed Saleem
Shahzad
You're in the US Army
now
The price
is high for those who don't survive the
battlegrounds, but foreigners, notably from India
and the Philippines, are joining the US military
in growing numbers as a fast track to obtaining
American citizenship. - Siddharth
Srivastava
A way
out of the Korean
standoff
Combine
North Korea's belief in the value of holding at
least some nuclear weapons with Chinese and South
Korean reluctance to push the North to the brink
by forcing it to disarm completely, and there is a
basis for compromise over Pyongyang's nuclear
program. Convincing the US might be the hardest
part.
Why the
Saudi envoy really went home
It's all relative when it
comes to the Saudi royal pecking order. The
resignation of the Saudi ambassador to Washington
indicates ailing King Fahd is near his end, and
now the family feud that is the country's
bureaucracy is taking up positions. Watching with
interest are the followers of Osama bin Laden. -
John R Bradley (Jul 28,
'05)
SPEAKING
FREELY
The Buddha is
smiling
Buddha, Laxman,
Richard the Lionheart: they all took off on
religious grounds and gained fame for their piety
and service to religion. They also left behind
wives and families to fend for themselves. So,
too, did the London suicide bombers. -
Bhaskar Dasgupta (Jul 28,
'05)
Rumsfeld
makes it to first
base
US
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has secured the
US's continued use of a key military base in
Kyrgyzstan, heading off a challenge from a Central
Asian grouping that includes Russia and China. The
game is far from over, though. -
Sudha Ramachandran (Jul 27,
'05)
Indian
police get mobile over porn
 Police
in India, with an enthusiasm that itself borders
on the illegal, are keeping a sharp eye on booming
cell-phone porn: blame it all on sex siren Mallika
Sherawat. -
Siddharth
Srivastava (Jul 27,
'05)
THE COMING TRADE WAR, Part
4
Scarcity
economics and overcapacity
 The
myth of scarcity is as old as the story of Adam
and Eve, who were driven out of the garden of
plentitude by a jealous god who, rather like
today's wealthy capitalists, was bent on
preserving his pre-eminence. But the myth is
unsustainable, as even the concept of employment
is becoming obsolete. - Henry C K Liu (Jul 27,
'05)
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