The United States effort to get out of Afghanistan next year has been thwarted once again by the propped-up present regime of President Hamid Karzai, who just broke off peace talks the day before they were to have started in the United Arab Emirate state of Qatar.  And why wouldn't he, knowing that the Taliban can't wait to unseat him once he's no longer protected by U.S. military troops?  Karzai's existence as president becomes tenuous the moment American troops pack up and come home.  The U.S. so desperate to get out of the mess has brought a willing ... << MORE >>

America's like the guy, women would call a come-on cad who builds up a power-directed relationship only to dump the affair for another short-lived alliance.  It's happened all over the world. in African states, in Panama where we had the audacity to use Noriega in the drug trade, then lawlessly flew the dictator to a Florida prison for a stay of 19 years.  Panama's a foreign country.  You can't do that.  Since we stopped our relationship with South Vietnam, the North and South have been living in harmony for 38 years. We loved our relationship with Egypt's Mubarak, ... << MORE >>

China has broken its silence over American Edward Snowden's revelations, demanding the United States explain the internet surveillance, i.e spying on China.   China calls American speculation the former National Security Agency employee could have been spying for China as "nonsense."   "We believe the United States should pay attention to the international community's concerns and demands and give the international community the necessary explanation," said the foreign ministry in the first Chinese comment since Snowden acknowledged he was the source of the secret Prism program last week and went into hiding somewhere in Hong Kong.  U.S. ... << MORE >>

By Paul Kiel of ProPublica << MORE >>

Remember the dissident who escaped further Chinese government enforcement by seeking safety in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, last year?   Chen Guangcheng was then welcomed at New York University as a graduate law student.  This was a compromise deal welcoming him as a student without walking on the toes of the Chinese government as would have been the case in a protective extradition fight.  Well,  that love affair is over, here, with N.Y.U. saying his "activism," was harming the university's opening of an American university branch in Shanghai.  Chang's individual speech rights, are being sacrificed so ... << MORE >>

The West's pleasant surprise that a moderate, Hassan Rowhani has replaced the militant, threatening Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iranian president is a relief to all those living under the Tehran's constant threat of nuclear warfare. Of course any Iranian president is always responsible to Ayatollah Khamenei.  But the supreme leader had tightened the reins on the losing candidate in recent months, giving some hope to the West that the Ayatollah may have felt the crazy threats had gone far enough or had accomplished their purpose.  Incoming president Rowhani is well known to the West as a principle negotiator ... << MORE >>

House Intelligence Committee Democrats and Republicans are together in digging into why American Edward Snowden chose Hong Kong as his place for extradition protection while the U.S. government prepares charges against him for publicly revealing American surveillance secrets.  Snowden's decision to sneak from his National Security Agency office in Hawaii to seek safety in Hong Kong opens questions about the possibility of his connections to mainland China. That move has lost much of his American support as a "hero" for exposing U.S. government surveillance of its own citizens.  Several members of both parties are now calling him ... << MORE >>

Seems like the White House priority remains public relations. It took hours for the president's people to confirm yesterday that there had been a decision to send some weapons to the rebels in Syria, but now the game is when and what will be sent.  All that's official this Friday is that the rebels' critical need for antiaircraft weapons will NOT be met and there is some speculation anti-tank weapons might be sent.  There was instant reaction from Vladimir Putin in Moscow, blasting the president for accepting "misinformation" that Syria's Bashar al-Assad has been using chemical weapons. ... << MORE >>

The Supreme Court dropped its usual ritual of 5-4 decisions and agreed, unanimously that genes belong to us all and can't be patented.  Myriad Genetics, the Utah company which defended its patents before the Supreme Court failed to convince any of the 9 justices.   Clarence Thomas, issuing a rare written explanation, claimed, "A naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated."  There was no gene manipulation here, just discovery of 2 existing faulty genes that indicate elevated chances of women having breast cancer.  These are ... << MORE >>

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