'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Pakistani Ambassador Sherry Rehman resigned Tuesday, citing her party's loss in parliamentary elections as she plans to return to her South Asian nation where she faces a police investigation on charges of blasphemy.
With Syria mired in open revolt, several other Middle Eastern and North African countries still reeling from the Arab Spring, and Iran at loggerheads with the United States over its nuclear program, it was astounding to hear Israel's president refer to a Muslim country this week not as a problem but as part of the solution.
Turkish police seized nearly 50 pounds of plastic explosives and arrested 12 in connection with what they believe was a bomb plot on the U.S. Embassy in Ankara.
The American ambassador in Azerbaijan is raising an alarm over the government's closure of a U.S.-funded university dedicated to democracy and human rights in a Central Asian nation widely denounced for crushing political opposition.
Americana music has experienced a major revival in recent years, with groups like Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers topping the charts with their music based in traditional American genres. Hot Club of Cowtown, the Austin-based trio of Elana James, Whit Smith and Jake Erwin, are no bandwagoners, having played their hybrid of western swing and hot jazz firmly rooted in the American tradition since the 1990s. Yet, as the rest of the music world turns its eyes to Americana, the group has decided to explore their other biggest influence, the Gypsy jazz of 1930s Paris, on their current U.S. tour and upcoming album.
As President Obama visited Israel to achieve some movement on the Israeli-Palestinian question, not so far away, another of the world's most intractable conflicts simmered, threatening to boil over outside of the media spotlight. This is the ongoing low-grade conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.
World No. 1 GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway is the leader at the half-post in the FIDE Candidates Tournament now under way in London. Co-leader Levon Aronian suffered his first loss of the event in Monday's Round 9 against Israel GM Boris Gelfand, leaving Carlsen alone in first by a half-point in the double round-robin event.
As the world focuses on the passing of Hugo Chavez and the impact of his socialist policies on oil-rich Venezuela, halfway around the globe a different kind of leader has been quietly transforming his country into a prosperous and reliable partner of the West.
Iran launched a domestically built destroyer in the Caspian Sea on Sunday, its first deployment of a major warship in the oil-rich region, state TV reported.
Human Rights Watch accused the government of Azerbaijan on Tuesday of intimidating a writer at the center of a public row over his depiction of violence between Azerbaijanis and Armenians.
It is hard to believe that Azerbaijan has so quickly forgotten its own history, starting with the horrific events that took place from Feb. 26 to Feb. 28, 1988, in the city of Sumgait, 16 miles away from capital city of Baku. During this three-day period, violent, rioting mobs of ethnic Azeris attacked and killed Armenians both on the streets and in their homes -- while the police observed and let the events unfold and medical personnel refused to treat the victims. These days entered the history under the name of "Sumgait pogroms."
On Jan. 20, the Azerbaijani Americans commemorate the 23rd anniversary of "Black January," events that marked the beginning of the end of Soviet rule in Azerbaijan. On the night of Jan. 19, 1990, Azerbaijan was invaded by 26,000 Soviet troops. A courageous resistance by Azerbaijanis to the Soviet invasion continued into February. Eventually, 170 Azerbaijanis were killed, 321 disappeared, more than 700 were wounded, and hundreds more were detained.
A European official says her staff members were hacked when they joined her for a conference on Internet security in Azerbaijan.
In back-to-back Asian summits this month, Iran's president made sure to carve out special time to look east.
The appearance of a life-size statue of Azerbaijan's "founder of the nation" on Mexico City's elegant Reforma Avenue, not far from Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln and Mexico's national heroes, is raising eyebrows and protests.
