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Asia Times Online :: Asian news and current affairs - Subprime fallout: Save Our Souls

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 02:56:02 -0700

" ... one of the biggest problems in the current subprime crisis is the fact that those investors outside of the financial institutions that waded into the subprime swamp have no real idea just how bad things are, just how much subprime and subprime-related exposure that those now caught in the swamp are hiding under water and away from view. ... the real problems is what happened to that subprime mortgage paper as it got packaged and repackaged, leveraged up, collateralized, borrowed upon, and then leveraged up again, while it moved further and further up into finance capital's elite addresses.
"... What more rate cuts will certainly do is give another kick to the US dollar while it's already down; since the commencement of interest rate cuts on August 17, the greenback has fallen over 6% against the euro, reaching record lows of over 1.43 euro/US$. One thing that this will do is continue to drive crude oil prices further up towards $100 a barrel.
"... [Nonetheless], a rescue from the country's current economic difficulties may soon be on the horizon. Over the past week the financial press reported rumors that China's state-owned commercial bank, CITIC, the country's eighth-biggest lender, was looking to buy a good sized stake in the US investment brokerage house Bear Stearns, the bare-knuckle Wall Street brawler whose default on two in-house subprime hedge funds was essentially the starter's pistol for the midsummer crisis. This is Not A Good Solution because "the nation would in effect be selling the ownership of its very profitable banking and finance industries to other nations."

Asia Times Online :: South Asia news - Indias Congress party backs off nuclear pact

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 02:40:40 -0700

Hotly debated in both the USA and India, it now appears that India's Congress-led federal government has blinked on the Indo-US nuclear deal."The left-wing coalition partners, who are opposed to the pact and threatened to withdraw support, have had their way and without their support in Parliament the government would have collapsed."

Oprah's Thyroid Club - Well Blog - NYTimes.com

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:16:22 -0700

"Thyroid disorders, which are far more common in women than men, are said to be among the most undiagnosed and misdiagnosed health problems. Part of the problem is that the symptoms are ambiguous and likely to be written off as stress, menopause or normal aging."

Unfortunately, Oprah thinks she can cure her TD by spending a month at her estate in Maui and drinking soy milk! And her TV show doctor, a new agey female specialist, says that repressing your words causes thyroid disease (ummm.. when has Oprah suppressed her words??)... TD is a serious condition that has been confirmed by decades of rigorous, peer reviewed research. Passing TD off as an psychological or emotional problem is cruel and disingenuous.

Asia Times Online :: South Asia news - Pakistan plans all-out war on militants

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 02:10:55 -0700

"An all-out battle for control of Pakistan's restive North and South Waziristan is about to commence between the Pakistani military and the Taliban and al-Qaeda adherents who have made these tribal areas their own. According to a top Pakistani security official, the goal this time is to pacify the Waziristans once and for all. ... Lining up against the Pakistani Army will be the Shura (council) of Mujahideen comprising senior al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders, local clerics, and leaders of the fighting clans Wazir and Mehsud (known as the Pakistani Taliban). The shura has long been calling the shots in the Waziristans, imposing sharia law and turning the area into a strategic command and control hub of global Muslim resistance movements, including those operating in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Meanwhile, one or more of these groups may be behind the suicide bombers that attacked former premier Benazir Bhutto's truck during a parade in Karachi. At least 126 people were killed and 375 injured - http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0 ,21985,22612528-5012747,00.html

Asia Times Online :: Middle East News - Iran riven by nuclear diplomacy row

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 02:22:30 -0700

"Threatening the well-spring of political unity in Iran, the nuclear crisis has now triggered a political minefield pitting the leading politicians of the Islamic Republic against each other. ... Triggered by last month's European tour of Iran's former nuclear negotiation chief, Hassan Rowhani, who is also Khamenei's representative at the Supreme National Security Council and is closely affiliated with the "centerist" former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the controversy over "parallel diplomacy" has reached new heights as a result of continuing accusations of "nuclear espionage" leveled against some members of the previous negotiation team and Rowhani's biting criticism that Ahmadinejad's foreign policy has resulted in Iran's isolation and rising threats against the country."

Asia Times Online :: Middle East News - Its the resistance, stupid

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 01:34:46 -0700

Read this, truly important! " ... a true Iraqi national pact is in the making - coordinated by Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, and blessed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani himself. The key points of this pact are, no more sectarianism (thus undermining US strategy of divide and rule); no foreign interference (thus no following of US, Iran, or Saudi agendas); no support for al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers; and the right to armed resistance against the occupation. ... As far as all the key Sunni and Shi'ite factions in Iraq are concerned, they all agree on the basics. Iraq won't be occupied. Iraq won't hold permanent US military bases. Iraq won't give up its oil wealth. And Iraq won't be a toothless pro-Israel puppet regime."

Tomgram: David Morse, A Collision Course in Africa

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 13:38:15 -0700

"We were on the front lines [in South Sudan] of what may someday be a huge war; witnessing the opening skirmish in a series of resource wars in which countries like Sudan and Nigeria now figure prominently, but which may spread to most of Africa. Not only is this continent rich in mineral wealth; but the inhabitants of a number of its countries can still be driven from their land -- raped and killed -- with impunity. Today's resource-driven conflicts are but an extension of the slave trade as well as the ivory, gold, rubber, and diamond trades that have fed on Africa, undermining and corrupting its people's attempts at governance."

Tomgram: David Morse, Energy Wars and Lost Boys in Sudan

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:42:46 -0700

"To the extent that the media spotlight is ever directed at Africa, it has focused on Darfur, in western Sudan, where several hundred thousand people have died in ethnic violence since 2003. Just next door, beyond the glare of the spotlight, however, is South Sudan, where an estimated 2.2 million people were killed in two decades of bitter internecine fighting. There, a fragile, three-year-old peace agreement is rapidly coming apart. A new conflagration in South Sudan would engulf Darfur, dwarf the carnage that has taken place so far in the region, and launch sub-Saharan Africa into the age of energy wars. "

Asia Times Online :: South Asia news - French arms deal with Pakistan risks US ire

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 14:07:46 -0700

"Pakistan is likely to get French air-to-air missiles (AAMs) and radar for its JF-17 fighter aircraft ... the widely debated European Union arm systems ban against China may finally be circumvented, in such a way that it could damage US efforts to keep Beijing's air power at disadvantage vis-a-vis Taiwan." And, of course, there are additional, far reaching implications.

Asia Times Online :: Middle East News - Iraqi Kurdistan set to become new war zone

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 01:17:18 -0700

Although rarely mentioned in the press, Turkey has had a large army - perhaps 125,000 strong - on its border with northern Iraq for several months. "The long-suffering and persecuted Kurds have agitated both militarily and politically for greater autonomy or independence in the countries where they have a presence: Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran. The [Iraqi] PKK is to some the torchbearer of the Kurdish struggle. ... Turkey has defied the wishes of the United States by giving its military a green light to cross the border into Iraq, following a number of ambushes apparently waged by a Kurdish rebel group with bases in northern Iraq. ... ... And on Wednesday, Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked suspected rebel positions close to the Iraq border. ... the Kurdish issue could be the Achilles' heel for the Turkish government, and could be used by the military to agitate the nationalist constituency in Turkey if the government isn't seen responding forcefully."