Morning Brief, Wednesday, November 14
Asia ASIF HASSAN/AFP/Getty Images Former Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto is taking steps to unify the opposition to tottering President Pervez Musharraf. This is the kind of thing that Gen. Musharraf is talking about when he complains about Bhutto setting off “negative vibes“. Inflation is causing trouble in China: A discount on cooking oil at a ...
Asia
Asia
Former Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto is taking steps to unify the opposition to tottering President Pervez Musharraf. This is the kind of thing that Gen. Musharraf is talking about when he complains about Bhutto setting off “negative vibes“.
Inflation is causing trouble in China: A discount on cooking oil at a Carrefour store in Chongqing caused a stampede Saturday that injured more than 30 people.
Prime ministers from North and South Korea discussed a huge South-to-North aid package at a rare bilateral meeting that was a follow-up to October’s historic summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun.
Asian stocks bounced back on news that U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs is not in danger from the subprime mortgage fiasco.
Middle East
Turkish helicopter gunships launched new attacks against PKK strongholds in northern Iraq.
An FBI investigation has found that Blackwater security contractors shot at least 14 Iraqis for no good reason back in September.
A day after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denounced critics of his nuclear policies as “traitors,” Iran handed over key nuclear design documents to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The U.S. State Department is backing away from an unpopular plan to “draft” diplomats for service in Iraq.
Europe
Striking rail workers are bringing France to its knees.
In a close election, Danish voters reelected Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to a third term Tuesday. But his center-right party now depends on the pro-immigrant vote.
Over U.S. objections, the European Union will require airlines flying to Europe to buy carbon offsets.
In Spain, drawing a cartoon of royal family members engaged in coitus will get you into trouble with the law.
Elsewhere
Following a meeting with U.S. officials, Georgia will lift emergency rule on Friday.
Anti-French Riots have broken out in Chad over a case involving French aid workers allegedly kidnapping Chadian children.
David Leonhardt of the New York Times says that the U.S. economy isn’t as bad as you think.
Today’s Agenda
- The National Book Foundation announces the winners of the National Book Awards.
- The Dalai Lama visits Japan.
Yesterday on Passport
- Tuesday Map: Murder and traffic deaths shape countries
- 6.2 percent of your income is going to Iraq and Afghanistan
- How beer defies the laws of supply and demand
This Week’s Web Exclusives
Blake Hounshell is a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.
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