Latest General Editorials
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Turkey Silencing the Guns – and Critics
Sevan Nisanyan, a Turkish-Armenian journalist, wrote a blog entry last September stating that critical comments about religion don’t constitute hate speech. "Making fun of an Arab leader who claimed he contacted God hundreds of years ago and received political, financial and sexual benefits is not hate speech," he said. "It is an almost kindergarten-level test of what is ...
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Countries exchange surveillance — were all being spied on Marcin de Kaminsky
Marcin de Kaminsky also belongs to a community of Net activists and 'hacktivists'. De Kaminsky is co-founder of Telecomix, a network which showed Egyptian human rights activists how to circumvent government surveillance and communicate safely during the Arab Spring. Speaking with Robin David, de Kaminsky discussed how democracies justify online surveillance, how citizens become ...
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Muzzling the media Freedom is at risk
Markandey Katju , was appointed chairman of the Press Council. He hit the ground running, called journalists ignorant and the media unreliable and worse. The current attack on the media started around then. Katju persistently sought to drum up a debate on media ethics, while making a pitch for more powers for ...
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Protect privacy Snowden affair highlights the dangers of the surveillance state
National Security Agency (NSA) exposed as exploiting domestic tech giants to monitor phone and internet activity of hundreds of millions across the world. Now the leaks have done the same to the just concluded G8 summit. It's been reported that delegates of all the attending countries were subjected to systematic spying at their 2009 G20 meetings in London, where NSA tied up with British ...
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Editorial By the waters of Lough Erne
The Prime Minister also stole some of Brussels' thunder by announcing the start of talks on what could be a truly world-changing trade treaty between the EU and the US - an agreement, what is more, that might even persuade sceptical Britons that the UK is better in the EU than out. Not bad, it might be judged, for a bare 24 hours' work. The landscape was easy on the eye, too - about as ...
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Editorial Our duty is to build a state as best we can
It was neither a scuttle nor a rout. Taking place a year-and-a-half before Nato's planned withdrawal, yesterday's handover to Afghan state forces, though tainted by yet another terrorist attack, could be described as dignified. Both Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Nato Secretary-General, and President Hamid Karzai found optimistic words to mark the ...
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Here’s a chance to ease the misery of fistula
I was profoundly moved to meet these women and girls, most from poor, rural backgrounds, who had suffered severe physical and social consequences because of this largely preventable illness. Mourning the stillbirth of their babies, ashamed of the fetid odour they produced, having lost a chance at education, being confined to their homes, they were left feeling hopeless, depressed and ...
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Women in academia thwarted by double standard
In 2000, I greeted the first entering graduate-student class at Berkeley where the women outnumbered the men. I was the first female dean of the graduate division. As a ‘70s feminist I cautiously thought, "Is the revolution over? Have we won?" Hardly. That afternoon I looked around the room at my first dean’s meeting and all I saw were gray-haired men. The next week at the ...
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NSA Is No Match for the FSB
While the U.S. has checks and balances that regulate how the state eavesdrops on its citizens, Russia has none. The FSB has control centers that are connected by cables directly to operators' computer servers. To monitor particular phone conversations or Internet communications, an FSB agent only has to enter a command into the control center located in the local FSB headquarters. That ...
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Deep vein thrombosis Dont ignore symptoms of silent killer
My wife almost lost her leg a few weeks ago. Then she almost lost her life. The symptoms didn't seem life-threatening at the time, so we almost made a fatal mistake by delaying seeking medical treatment. Since then, we've learned about the dangers of another "silent killer" you might not be familiar with: Deep vein thrombosis (DVT). My wife developed severe leg cramps while ...
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Editorial Cut snapper limit to build up species
How many snapper should anyone be allowed to catch in a day's fishing? Readers who do not go fishing for fun might be surprised at the bag limit: nine. That seems an excessively generous allowance for every person out fishing, yet the recreational fishing lobby is aggrieved at proposals to reduce the permitted catch in response to diminishing stocks in the Hauraki Gulf, east of Northland and the ...
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Richard Schulze keeps a Minnesota tradition
While being treated for brain cancer in 2009, my friend Jackie and her family were well served by the Richard M. Schulze American Cancer Society Hope Lodge. It's a well-appointed, comforting home away from home for cancer patients at University of Minnesota Medical Center/Fairview. That personal connection with the generosity ...
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Putins Fantasies About Georgian Terrorists
Vladimir Putin made a truly sensational statement by revealing the real reason for the Russia-Georgia war of August 2008. Apparently, Russia delivered a preventative strike to liquidate international terrorists who were sent by Georgian forces to penetrate Russian territory. Putin said the terrorists advanced to positions 30 kilometers south of Sochi before they were eliminated. "About six ...
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How World Leaders Become Foreign Policy Aces
Some critics complain that U.S. President Barack Obama campaigned on inspirational rhetoric and an ambition to "bend the arc of history" but then turned out to be a transactional and pragmatic leader once in office. In this respect, however, Obama is hardly unique. Many leaders change their objectives and style over the course of their careers. One of the great transformational ...
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USGermany End Mass Surveillance
On Tuesday (18 June), the German chancellor and the US president will embrace each other. Eyes will be shining as both sides praise the German-American friendship. After all, this visit from Washington is an election campaign present for Angela Merkel, and the president can hope for symbolic pictures to build his own legend. At the same time, the two of them have an enormous quandary: Obama is ...
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Uganda Musevenis 10000 Days in Power
On 15 June, Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, joined the ‘10,000 Club’, a small coterie of world leaders who have held power for over 10,000 days – more than 27 years. In Africa, only Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, and Jose Eduardo Dos Santos of Angola have remained in office longer. Museveni is not in good company: each controls ...
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BOOK REVIEW Conscience and Its Enemies
View results CONSCIENCE AND ITS ENEMIES: CONFRONTING THE DOGMAS OF LIBERAL SECULARISMBy Robert P. GeorgeISI Books, $29.95, 290 pagesRobert Peter George has to be one of the most civilized people laboring around these parts to make sense of the muddle we call modern life. The word ';civilized'; I use in its, shall we say, civilized sense - as marking ownership of, or attachment to, ...
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Patrick Chappatte Arming Both Sides
Dueling interventions in Syria. Patrick Chappatte is an editorial cartoonist for the International Herald Tribune. View more of his work, visit his Web site or follow him on ...
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For Libya to end the violence it needs to shut down the militias
Protesters block the road and set off fireworks, after they burned two vehicles belonging to the Libyan Army's First Infantry Brigade in Benghazi June 14, 2013. The protesters said they had burnt the vehicles, both of which belonged to the Libyan Army's First Infantry Brigade, as they accused the brigade of being responsible for clashes that broke out at the headquarters of the Libya ...
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Name Five Women In Philosophy. Bet You Cant.
Society for Philosophy and Psychology , affectionately known as "SPP." Daniel Dennett was in the seat just ahead of me; additional luminaries were scattered about the room. A quick count revealed about equal numbers of men and women in the audience -- an unusual figure for an event in philosophy, ...
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Put a Spotlight on African Women’s Reproductive Rights
Victoria J. married in 2009 at age 14, and became pregnant shortly after. "I started labour in the morning on a Friday …. The nurse kept checking and saying I would deliver safely. On Monday she said I was weak. "The doctor decided to operate on me. (During the) operation they found the baby was dead. The doctor said the baby had died due to the long labour. After that, I found ...
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Letter Small Price to Pay for Security
Do Europeans want to die any more than Americans do in a terrorist attack? I ...
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Utah mans new running shoe could be golden
The running shoe is all wrong for the human foot, so Orem's Golden Harper came up with a solution — a radically different shoe called Altra that is expected to do $20 million in sales this year and challenge the big brand names in the ...
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Op-Ed Contributor In Iran Hints of Hope and Change
Iranians went to the polls on Friday in what turned out to be ...
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Making Arizona voting fairer
Arizona argued that the law was needed to prevent voter fraud by immigrants who don't qualify to vote. and that it was not pre-empted by federal rules because it was consistent with Congress' intent of protecting the integrity of elections. Such arguments are unpersuasive. As the U.S. ...
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