For all the excitement about the twilight of the dictators, only two ― Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia ― have been officially knocked over since the start of the so-called Arab Spring six months ago. It isn’t even clear whether that count will reach three. Yemeni strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh is in neighboring Saudi Arabia for medical treatment after a bomb in his own

To ensure its control over the government, the Pakistan army has always exaggerated the threats from India, often referred to as the No. 1 enemy. It has been able to secure billions of dollars from the U.S. ostensibly in the fight against terror. The Pakistani government has followed the policy of running with the hare and hunting with the hound. Although an ally of the U.S. in its fight against g

In meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Singapore on June 3, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa told him that Japan would allow the United States to export to other countries an anti-missile missile being jointly developed by Japan and the U.S. if certain conditions are met.Japan is expected to confirm this position in a meeting of Japanese and U.S. foreign and defense ministers to b

Was this the best the Democratic Party of Japan could do to put its foot down?The ruling party on Monday decided on punishments for 15 of its House of Representatives lawmakers who did not attend or abstained from voting on a recent no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Naoto Kan.Former DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa and seven other lawmakers had their party membership suspended for three months

Just when we thought we’d seen everything from Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Thai prime minister has managed to clone himself. The genetic copy in question is Thaksin’s younger sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, who is running for his old job. If you think this sounds like the political version of a cheesy horror film, imagine how Thailand’s 68 million people feel. They’ve seen this one before and it d

“As a sensitive day known to all fell in this week, many brothers and sisters began to be restricted at home,” report the leaders of the Shouwang congregation, one of the largest unauthorized “house churches” in Beijing. “Some were told to report at their respective local police stations or neighborhood committees” that answer to the communist government.The “sensitive day” is June 4, the annivers

For more than 30 years Republicans have won elections by promising to cut middle-class taxes, or at least to stop middle-class tax increases. No domestic issue has been as reliable a vote-winner. But now Republicans are in a bind. The huge deficit makes tax-cut promises seem impractical. They also worry that cutting middle-class taxes will leave high earners paying an even larger share of income t

Buy a farm house in the middle of nowhere, pick up a gun or two, prepare for hyperinflation and brace for a catastrophic bankruptcy. Thirty minutes with hedge-fund manager J. Kyle Bass has you wanting to do all of the above. The head of Dallas-based Hayman Advisors LP isn’t thinking about Greece or even Spain but Japan, the world’s third-biggest economy. He says his bet against Japanese government

How was Anthony Weiner so easily able to find such willing sexting partners?Even conceding that Weiner’s pecs were pretty impressive when he took off his shirt, this is nevertheless the embodiment of the geeky guy we all grew up with who struggled with girls. Sure, his quick thinking and tart tongue probably earned him a few points with ladies, but not to a level that could account for the online

No other president has invested as much political capital in a national development program.This assessment by Danareksa Research Institute’s chief economist Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa of a new economic blueprint launched by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on May 27 says it all.Since his reelection in 2009, Yudhoyono has tried various means to stimulate economic growth by improving the performance of