In The News

Foreign Hoopsters Get a Crucial Assist

Chanel White February 17, 2005
In recent decades, sport has become a globalized and globalizing force. Sport provides the financial impetus for seemingly unlikely migrations. Nigerian soccer players ply their trade in snow-swept Donetsk in Ukraine, Brazilians play in Japan, and even Iraqis find themselves mired in the muddy soccer fields of Calcutta. Sport brings disparate parts of the world into touch. Though soccer continues...

Iranian Cleric Blogs for Free Expression

Reuters February 16, 2005
Mohammad Ali Abtahi, like so many politically conscious world citizens today, writes an internet web log, or "blog." Abtahi's story seems ordinary – except that he is an Iranian presidential adviser and a Muslim cleric. This revolutionary action, undertaken by a very senior member of the Iranian government, is aimed at promoting an open discourse for expression, political or...

Asia-Pacific Travel Set for Strong Growth in 2005

Ven Sreenivasan February 16, 2005
High fuel prices, the avian flu, and Indian Ocean tsunami disasters don't seem to have negatively affected Asia's tourist industry, says a report issued by a major ticketing and distribution company. In fact, "the trials of the past few years had taught the industry to better manage crises." The 40 percent growth rate in Asia's tourism is the fastest of any region in the...

Beijing Counts Cost of Supporting an Embarrassing Old Friend

Hamish McDonald February 14, 2005
During the Korean War, hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers came to the aid of North Korea in battling US forces. Over fifty years later, it is clear that history will not repeat itself: China is not prepared to make sacrifices for a regime that has become a political embarrassment and a possible threat to China's own economic development. Observers of Chinese policy now say that...

A Bitter Dispute Frozen in Time

Justin McCurry February 10, 2005
In the days following Japan's surrender in World War II, the Soviets seized four Japanese islands known as the Northern Territories. Sixty years after the war, the Russians still possess the islands, and Japan wants them back. While Russia is willing to honor a 1956 agreement to return two of the islands, Japanese leaders insist on the return of all four. As the author writes, amid the...

"What Aspect of Islam is Supposedly Under Threat?"

Yoginder Sikand February 10, 2005
In the wake of communal violence in Holland, multiculturalists in Europe are under increasing pressure for preaching acceptance of Islam. Some detractors insist that Muslim minorities stubbornly resist integration into European culture. Another mounting strain of critique attacks multiculturalism from an entirely different angle. These critics argue that in privileging the conservative religious...

Everybody's a Winner

Tarek Atia February 9, 2005
The Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) is one of the world's largest celebrations of the culture of consumerism. From the airport to the glitzy "Global Village" outpost, the festival, with its elaborate marketing ploys and promotions, is weaving a shopping ethos into the fabric of the city. Ten years after the first DSF was held, Dubai has undergone a huge construction boom, luring...