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$16.50
By Mark Heisler
$2.79
$20
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Mark Rain (CC-BY)
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The Iranian president has offered to negotiate personally with the United States over his country’s nuclear program—with one proviso.
Posted on Feb 10, 2013
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Flickr/CSIS: Center for Strategic & International Studies
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By Ralph Nader —
Behind the public relations sheen, the photo opportunities with groups of poor people in the developing world, an increasingly militarized State Department operated under Hillary Clinton’s leadership.
Posted on Feb 8, 2013
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AP/Alexander Zemlianichenko
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By Ivo Mijnssen — For motives that are not entirely clear, Vladimir Putin’s Russia has overcome stiff opposition at home and in the United States to take its place in the World Trade Organization.
Posted on Sep 25, 2012
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Bill Day, Cagle Cartoons —
Posted on Jul 27, 2012
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By Eugene Robinson — China, for better or worse, is a serious country. The United States had better start acting like one.
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As Amy Goodman points out in this report from Tuesday’s edition of “Democracy Now!,” North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s death came as a surprise to the U.S., which also underscores a more general lack of knowledge in America about either of the Koreas. Fortunately, she brings in some experts on the region to bring us up to speed.
Posted on Dec 20, 2011
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Israeli Ambassador Nimrod Barkan huffed and puffed after his country’s Palestinian colony was admitted into the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Monday. Washington, bound by law, promised to cut off all U.S. funding for the organization, whose mission “is to contribute to the building of peace.” (more)
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Flickr / World Economic Forum (CC-BY-SA)
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The prime minister of Turkey will visit Egypt for the first time in 15 years Monday, potentially to forge an alliance between the two countries that could ultimately isolate neighboring Israel.
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Fifteen months ago Israeli forces raided a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying aid, killing nine civilians in the process. A U.N. report, which acknowledges that its sources are limited and its conclusions are not definitive, has found that Israel’s blockade in international waters was legal. (more)
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By John Pomfret —
For decades during the Cold War, the most captivating spy-vs.-spy battle was the one waged between Moscow and Washington. With the rise of China, a new player has entered the game.
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By William Pfaff — U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was in Kabul at the start of June talking about withdrawal—or non-withdrawal—from Afghanistan, but before he went home he stopped in Singapore to talk about an enlarged American military engagement in Asia.
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Speaking at a historic dinner in the castle that once headquartered Ireland’s British overseers, Queen Elizabeth II expressed regret over the two islands’ violent history: “To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past, I extend my sincere thoughts and deep sympathy.”
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NASA / Bill Ingalls
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The queen of England is headed to Ireland despite a bomb threat and other security concerns. She’ll be the first British monarch to visit the republic in 100 years, the first since the Irish—most of them, anyway—cast off British rule.
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Yancho Sabev (own work) CC-BY-SA-3.0
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Tibet’s exiled leader announced that after half a century of floating the idea, he is ready to hand over his political power to an elected official. The 14th Dalai Lama has led his government in exile since the Tibetan uprising of 1959 was put down, forcing him to flee the country.
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AP / Jose Luis Magana
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The U.S. and the U.K. have maintained a diplomatically symbiotic relationship, to all appearances, for decades, but yet another WikiLeaks cable cropped up to harsh that friendly mellow late this week. Let the official backpedaling commence.
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AP / Tara Todras-Whitehill
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By Barry Lando — In attempting to persuade Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to leave the scene, Washington desperately wants to avoid further radicalization on the streets of Egypt and, above all, to ensure that the Egyptian army remains unscathed.
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By David Sirota — Just as you cannot be sorta pregnant, you cannot kinda support democracy, and only when it does what you want. That’s not “supporting democracy”; that’s imperialism.
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Fake news by Andy Borowitz —
In a moving White House ceremony today, President Hu Jintao of China presented U.S. President Barack Obama with a counterfeit DVD of the Hollywood blockbuster “Toy Story 3.”
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AP / Thibault Camus
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By Juan Cole — Every state and movement in the Middle East is reading into the events in Tunisia its own anxieties and aspirations.
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AP / Vahid Salemi
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Like a piece of Swiss cheese, U.S. sanction policy is riddled with holes, according to reports. A former Treasury official claims licenses to trade with blacklisted countries such as Iran have been doled out to the tune of billions of dollars in profits, all at the behest of lobbying groups.
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U.S. Embassy, Kabul (CC-BY-ND)
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Richard Holbrooke, a diplomatic fixture since the Vietnam era whose last assignment was special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, died Monday following heart surgery. ... (more)
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Flickr / dkwonsh (CC-BY-ND)
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As India’s top U.N. diplomat, Hardeep Puri is not supposed to have a hard time getting through the airport, but a trip through Houston found the Sikh in a polite showdown with security officials who wanted to search his turban. Puri is the third ... (more)
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By Amy Goodman — The way the U.S. conducts diplomacy is now getting more exposure than ever—as is the apparent ease with which the U.S. government lives up (or down) to the adage used by pioneering journalist I.F. Stone: “Governments lie.”
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By Eugene Robinson — The secret U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks leave one overriding impression: It’s hard out there for a superpower.
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AP / Evan Vucci
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Being the U.S. secretary of state must have its perks, what with the power and guaranteed attention of various world leaders and all, but Monday, Hillary Clinton’s was not a job to envy.
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wikileaks.org
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U.S. officials are warning foreign governments that the WikiLeaks website is about to let fly with another batch of sensitive diplomatic documents that will be “harmful to the U.S. and our interests.”
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Steven Borowiec
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By Steven Borowiec — The potentially explosive G-20 meeting in Seoul was smothered before anything spectacular could happen.
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White House / Pete Souza
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By William Pfaff — Like his royal British forerunners, the president, through his advisers and their policies, brings imperial ambitions to the largest and most populous continent.
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bbc.co.uk
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India’s future role in the United Nations might just bump up a big notch soon, thanks to Barack Obama’s endorsement. The president officially announced his support for India’s permanent inclusion on the U.N.‘s Security Council on Monday ... (continued)
Posted on Nov 8, 2010
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AP / Hasan Sarbakhshian
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In one of the world’s most troubling on-again-off-again relationships, Iran has announced that it is open to resuming stalled multilateral talks over its nuclear program after irreconcilable differences shut down negotiation channels between Iran and six other nations last year.
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DoD / R.D. Ward
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Nouri al-Maliki is more than influenced by the Shiite clerics in Iran who have done so much for the troubled Iraqi prime minister. Maliki just schlepped over the border for a powwow with Iranian bigwigs. Tehran’s spokesman said the PM was in town to exchange views, but for all we know he just needed a hug. (continued)
Posted on Oct 18, 2010
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By William Pfaff — No one attending the New Policy Forum in Sofia was very interested in Washington’s present military and geostrategic preoccupations.
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U.S. Air Force / Staff Sgt. Bradley Lail
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The Afghan government claims to have had contact with the Taliban, though the insurgent group denies this. The White House signaled its support, but said such contact, which the Washington Post reports is at the “secret, high-level talks” stage, “has to be done by the Afghans.”
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Rainer Hachfeld, Neues Deutschland, Germany —
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By William Pfaff — The relationship between Western Europe and the colonies that became the United States was complicated from the beginning. The situation reversed, it is now Europe that tires of America’s imperial wars.
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AP / Javier Galeano
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By Saul Landau — After three hours of conversation, it is clear that Fidel Castro has definitely retired and now spends his time underlining President Obama’s books and reflecting on decades of revolution. Anyone who thinks Cuba is going capitalist, however, should check more carefully with the facts.
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White House / Pete Souza
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Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority could implode before they even get off the ground. Hillary Clinton and George Mitchell will have their chaperoning cut out for them, with the PA threatening to withdraw if Israel resumes settlement construction and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing a plan to do just that.
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By William Pfaff — There is no serious reason to consider direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority anything other than a political pantomime, although believers—if such remain—may pray for a miracle.
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Flickr / hoyasmeg (CC-BY)
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Politico suggests that the U.S. is close to sharing Israel’s international isolation, thanks to Washington’s hesitation to condemn its special ally. The publication quotes an anonymous U.S. official who says, regarding Israel’s explanation of the deadly flotilla raid, “We’re the only ones who believe them.”
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AP / J. Scott Applewhite
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Eight years ago President George W. Bush went to West Point to declare a new, bomb-a-holic course for American security. Now, President Barack Obama has used the same platform to declare a revised doctrine, one that roots security in diplomatic engagement and international alliances.
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Flickr / nedrichards (CC-BY-SA)
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The United Kingdom will not allow an official representative of Israel’s security services into the country, according to an Israeli report, until Israel promises, in writing, not to abuse British passports. Israel has so far refused, the report said.
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White House / Pete Souza
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already made his position clear, but over the weekend he officially refused U.S. demands to halt housing construction in occupied East Jerusalem. The White House has delayed negotiations while waiting for an official reply. (continued)
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Flickr / World Economic Forum (CC-BY-SA)
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has once again rejected calls to stop construction of Jewish housing in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians hope to make their capital.
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By William Pfaff — The specific inspiration for weapons proliferation among vulnerable Third World states is the desire to have a nuclear deterrent against invasion or attack by the United States (or in the Iran case, Israel), or by some other nation in the future.
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AP / Musadeq Sadeq
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In a response fit for a wronged lover, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected a renewed effort from the U.S. to engage diplomatically, saying that President Barack Obama’s call to talks contained “three or four beautiful words” but that the U.S. had yet to change its ways.
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Flickr / United Nations Photo
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In a meeting that could signify shifting tides between the U.S. and Cuba, Cuba’s foreign minister has met with Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff at a U.N. forum on Haiti relief, the first public meeting of such high-level officials in years.
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DoD / Staff Sgt. Alan R. Wycheck
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Less than a year after President Barack Obama called for a world without nuclear weapons, the U.S. and Russia have agreed to reduce the number of deployed nukes by more than 25 percent. The White House hopes the agreement, which will ... (continued)
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By William Pfaff — The relationship between the United States and Israel has always rested on a number of pretensions, politically useful to politicians on both sides, but because they are untrue, certain eventually to prove destructive to both countries.
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Benghazi: Dissecting Congressional Follies, Media Coverage and ‘Cover-Up’ Charges
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