THE MOGAMBO GURU : Bernanke blows his cover

That cheaper goods and services are bad for us is the only conclusion we can draw from US Federal Reserve boss Ben Bernanke’s concern that price inflation isn’t running fast enough – in utter violation of the Fed’s purpose in life: expressly to prevent…

BOOK REVIEW : Al-Qaeda and counter-terrorism

Jihad in Saudi Arabia: Violence and Pan-Islamism since 1979 by Thomas Hegghammer An engaging study of the rise of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, this book traces the movement’s evolution from a Pan-Islamic volunteer force in the Soviet invasion o…

MARKET RAP : Confused – but forward

Asia’s stock markets put on a positive showing over the past week, with Australia and its near 4% gain leading the way and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index staging a recovery. But muddle and outside forces, rather than confidence, were the driving forces. R…

New case for US reparations in Laos

It is estimated it will take 3,000 years to clear Laos of all the explosive remnants left behind from United States bombers over 30 years ago. More than 20,000 people have died from unexploded ordnance since conflict ended. Now, new questions are being…

Deripaska on US mission

Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska is to seek the backing of institutional investors in the United States for his hostile takeover bid for Norilsk Nickel. Echoing in the background is Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s recent warning on how company p…

Old Korea hand points new finger of blame

In Donald P Gregg, a former United States ambassador to South Korea, North Korea has found an unlikely advocate for its claim of innocence in the sinking of the South’s corvette the Cheonan. Gregg goes further in an op-ed piece for the New York Times, …

IT WORLD : Delhi targets Google, Skype

The stay of execution granted Research in Motion before it has to give the Indian government access to BlackBerry encrypted data services does not mean a retreat by New Delhi, which now has Google and Skype in its sights. Martin J Young surveys the wee…

LIFE IN TALIBANISTAN : Married to the mob

Ten years ago, while the Taliban were filling their coffers with taxes from the world’s largest smuggling ring, a reincarnation of the Queen of Sheba was playing her part in a sprawling west Afghan underground network of women refusing to be locked ind…

Taiwan in a rice wine stew

Taiwan’s plans to halve the price of local rice wine have angered fellow World Trade Organization members, who say this creates unfair competition to imported whisky and cognac. Insisting the spirit is used only for cooking and therefore exempt from hi…

Inspectors miss the flight to Kyrgyzstan

The US’s standing in Central Asia has taken a big hit after Kyrgyzstan’s interim President Roza Otunbayeva, under pressure from nationalists, shut the door on its idea for a European-led security mission to keep peace between Uzbek and Kyrgyz communiti…

IMF stumps up Pakistan aid

The International Monetary Fund is to give Pakistan US$450 million in immediate emergency funding while the World Bank has topped up its aid to the flood-stricken country to $1 billion. Yet to be decided by the IMF is if and when it will release more t…

THE MOGAMBO GURU : Secret path to riches

The great secret to being poor is to believe that a money-creating government like the present one in Washington is going to preserve the value of your income, pension and savings. The secret to being rich in such circumstances is steadily but surely t…

Iraqis uneasy over what happens next

With the 50,000 United States troops left in Iraq serving mostly as a deterrent against large-scale violence, many Iraqis are ill at ease. The nation still has no government, and there are concerns that Iraqi troops and police may fail to hold sectaria…

Pakistan mulls ‘flood taxes’

Flood-battered Pakistan, which wants the International Monetary Fund to ease terms for an already obtained multi-billion dollar loan, may impose special taxes to make up washed-out revenue while facing reconstruction bills that can only keep mounting. …

Clawing back credibility in Kyrgyzstan

The United States and Russia have a key role to play in Kyrgyzstan’s fragile attempts to become the first functioning democracy in Central Asia. Many Kyrgyz still suspect, however, that the US is merely continuing its obsessive pursuit of strategic a…

Hiroshima’s poisonous past

While each year Japan solemnly marks the thousands killed by the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, there is no shrine on Okunoshima Island, which lies a short distance from Hiroshima. Here the Imperial Army prod…

LIFE IN TALIBANISTAN : The degree zero of culture

A decade ago it was a sad sight at the University of Kabul to witness a group of eminent professors at what was once one of the best centers of learning in the world being subjected to the sermons of a mediocre madrassa student who never finished the e…

Malaysia reaps reform benefits

Economic reforms instituted by Najib Razak after he took over as Malaysian prime minister less than 18 months ago appear to be paying off. The stock market is driving ahead, exports of oil and electronics have soared, and domestic spending is on the ri…

Al-Qaeda presses a point with Lahore attack

The incident on Wednesday night in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province, in which at least 35 people were killed and more than 250 injured after three bombs exploded during a Shi’ite procession, is not an isolated attack. Al-Qaeda has set …

China makes its North Korea move

A long handshake between President Hu Jintao and Kim Jong-il in Jilin province explicitly placed China’s Korean Peninsula eggs in the North’s basket. The idea that Beijing will acquiesce to the collapse of the Pyongyang regime and reunification under t…

Sheen wearing off Indian growth

India’s latest stunning headline growth figures are raising hopes of a 9% economic full-year expansion. Unfortunately, while production charges ahead, demand for factory goods is less strong, and the government is not plugging the gap left by reluctant…

THE MOGAMBO GURU : Inflation on the shelves

Bank of England governor Mervyn King is yet again failing to do his job, letting consumer price inflation stay above the government’s 3% target and retail prices surge 4.8%. Even worse, in the United States, Wal-Mart has increased some prices by more t…

Kashmiri youth wage online struggle

The Internet has become a key weapon of resistance in the intensifying protests against Indian rule in Kashmir, with teenagers forming groups on social network websites to coordinate rallies and to post graphic depictions of violence on video-sharing s…

Pentagon watchdog misses $1bn audit

The Defense Contract Audit Agency’s job, and the work of its thousands of employees, is to keep a close eye on Pentagon spending. Yet it failed to complete an audit of US$1 billion in bills presented by a young company supplying translators. – Pratap C…

Cracks in India’s nuclear law

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh trumpets a new law governing the nuclear power sector’s legal liability to accidents as ending decades of « nuclear apartheid » by opening the door for global equipment suppliers. While that’s a fillip to the industr…

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