Tag Archives: Template News

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🪖 Are China and the US heading towards war? 🇺🇸 – 🇨🇳

17 Monday Feb 2014

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Posted by | Filed under Analysis 🙌, Asia 🌐, China 🇨🇳, International News, Politics 💼 🗳 🪖, USA 🇺🇸

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Will the Yasukuni shrine bring about a third world war?

03 Friday Jan 2014

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ANALYSIS – Shinzo Abe’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo last week angered many – friends and foe alike.

Predictably, China for whom the men that are honoured as men that died for the sacred Japanese nation in the second world war are nothing more than war criminals.

The same is of course true for South Korea with whom Tokyo is allied with, in fear of the rise of China.

And on that score, there is also Vietnam.

So, what was America’s position, as the Japanese internal affairs minister made the trip to the house of the dead souls yesterday?

Well, the state department has urged calm and called for dialogue.

Those who are predicting future conflict in Asia between China and the US may point to such visits by senior Japanese ministers to the site denounced by the world – that includes China – as the starting point for a conflict that could embroil all the key powers of South Asia.

Posted by | Filed under Analysis 🙌, Asia 🌐, China 🇨🇳, Comment, International News, Politics 💼 🗳 🪖, USA 🇺🇸

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2013 – The year two tyrannies made the democracies look like the ‘bad guys’

30 Monday Dec 2013

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Posted by | Filed under Analysis 🙌, Comment, International News, Politics 💼 🗳 🪖, Russia 🇷🇺, Terrorism

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⚽️ Have England really got a chance in Brazil 2014? 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

20 Wednesday Nov 2013

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Roy hogdson

Contemplating failure?

TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

The last two games that this country’s national soccer side were involved in, have been cited by most commentators, even the most the patriotic ones, as a wake-up call for England’s chances when they enter the lofty heights of tournament football.

Chile, and later Germany showed, that despite fielding a ‘second-team’ against England, that they were a yard ahead in terms of class.

In the case of Chile, one outstanding player, namely Alexis Sanchez, proved to be the difference.

But perhaps, more disappointingly, against Germany Roy Hodgson’s men lacked a clear structure and were caught short on the counter on a number of occasions – the scoreline of 1-0 could easily have been two or three.

England don’t play to a game plan, and when they do they stick to it rigidly. When playing in qualifying games to major competitions that is fine, but you will always come unstuck when facing the best in Europe or the World.

And at a time, when more money than ever is going to be poured into the Premiership – thanks BTSport’s One billion pound deal –  that only mean more failure and disappointment at an international level for England’s overpriced and overrated football ‘stars.’

roy-hodgson-press-2and this is what it looks like.. after Euro 2012

Posted by | Filed under Analysis 🙌, Brazil 🇧🇷, Comment, Football ⚽️, International News, Sport 🏏 🎾 ⚽️, UK

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What is the point in having a London Mayor?

20 Wednesday Nov 2013

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Boris

Nice hair, Boris.

TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

When Tony Blair, the then British PM, put forward the idea of having a London mayor, it didn’t sound like a great idea.

Today, as the present incumbent at City Hall faced questions over the shocking number of cycling deaths over the last two weeks – six in total – the less convincing this American-style role appeared to be.

Boris Johnson brings a floppy hairstyle, colourful comments and language, as well as a buffoon-like manner to this role, all this no doubt helps to distract away from the central question about the London Mayor and the very expensive general assembly where he was being ‘grilled’, namely – ‘What is the point?’

Apart from being a talking shop – and at a time when ordinary Londoners and not the supper rich who Boris openly champions, are being squeezed like never before – a criminally over-priced one, there is little to be said for the glorified councilors who gather in the most grandiose surroundings to score points against each other.

Those who for so long despaired at Parliament and MPs may want to turn their attention to the capital and the motley crew of elected representatives that reside in a building that can only rival Athens for modern-day European-nostalgic hubris.

George Galloway’s announcement that he may be running for the role of London Mayor just highlights the utter pointlessness of this role.

For Boris Johnson of course, this is all a prep-school for bigger and better things, namely number 10 and being leader of the country.

As for the people he will leave behind – well, they will have to grin and bare another London Mayor and the promise of more council tax, higher car parking charges, VAT etc to pay for the dubious privilege.

Posted by | Filed under Analysis 🙌, Breaking News 📺 🎙🗞, Comment, Politics 💼 🗳 🪖, UK

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Leader of Pakistani Taliban ‘is dead’

01 Friday Nov 2013

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Mehsud

TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

News that the leader of the Pakistani Taliban has been killed in a drone strike will be greeted with some joy within Pakistan, and will also be seen as a vindication of the drone policy pursued by the CIA inside the ‘tribal areas’ bordering Afghanistan.

Of course, Pakistanis would argue that the Pakistani Taliban would not be attacking their country had America not conducted its highly controversial drone strikes which the Pakistan military said has killed 67 civilians, and over a thousand militants.

Pakistan’s military has been accused of conniving with America in allowing the strikes to occur. If that is so, the reason for this may not be as straight forward as many believe. Pakistan’s relationship with America in the war on terror has always been to pursue their own nation’s interests, which in this case was to pacify a lawless part of the country – a borderland where  the kidnap of young boys and girls was commonplace.

So, the drone programme is as much a Pakistani military project, as  it was a CIA one.

The slaughter of Hakimullah Mehsud – however an unpleasant and unsavory character he may have been – is however, hugely problematic for Pakistan.

The rationale behind this assassination is of course to cut off the head of the snake, a man who the Pakistan military have been itching to get at after a series a high-profile attacks on their soldiers and headquarters.

For one, where does this leave the peace talks sponsored by the elected Prime Minster of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif – he had offered the Taliban the chance to engage in dialogue with the Pakistan government. That attempt at rapprochement was met with more attacks inside Pakistan, which left many wondering whether the Mehsud really spoke for the Pakistani Taliban, whoever they may have been.

And what does this say about the relationship between Nawaz Sharif and the Pakistan military?

But more concerning than this of course, is the fear of what is follow. How many more Mehsuds have been created out of making this evil man a martyr?

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The Calm before the Storm – The Siege of Damascus

09 Monday Sep 2013

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Posted by | Filed under Analysis 🙌, Arab World 🌎, Breaking News 📺 🎙🗞, Comment, International News, Pictures, Politics 💼 🗳 🪖, Television 📺, Terrorism, UK, USA 🇺🇸

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Is a strike on Syria inevitable?

26 Monday Aug 2013

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Bangladesh War Crimes – When hating Pakistan is not enough

19 Friday Jul 2013

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TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

Two more members of Bangladesh’s Jamaat -e-Islami party have been convicted of war crimes relating to the country’s secession from Pakistan in 1971.

That makes a total of seven – six of whom could be hanged, the other told that he escaped the noose because he was 90-years-old.

All but one of the ‘convicted’ members of Jamaat-e-Islami are accused of committing appalling crimes against intellectuals in Dhaka, alongside the Pakistan army.

Another – who was minister of social justice in the previous government – has been convicted of genocide and torture against Hindus.

More are to follow.

For their part the Islamic Party say they are being punished for siding with Pakistan. Independent observers say Jamaat-e-Islami are being gutted in an effort finish them as a political force in Bangladesh.

The War Crimes Tribunal set up by the daughter of the assassinated founder of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, has been criticised for its lack of legitimacy by international observers.

Hasina’s rivals, the Bangladesh national Party, say the current government is trying to weaken the opposition by crushing one of it key allies in the run-up to forthcoming national elections.

Of course, this is much more.

By destroying the country’s leading Islamist party, Sheikh Hasina is signaling that her country’s future lies with India and the West, at a time when it may be in the country’s long-term interest to look at China and Pakistan.

She, like her father, Mujib Islam, sees no place for Islam in the political life of Bangladesh.

As well as this, she is of course also ignoring what happened once Bangladesh won its independence – the appalling actions of Indian-trained paramilitaries on members of Jamaat-e-Islami and anyone they accused of siding with Pakistan.

In this context, the War Crimes Tribunal can be seen for what it is – the latest act of revenge conducted by a nation that really hasn’t faced-up to what really happened in 1971, and after.

And until that happens people like Sheikh Hasina’s father will never get justice, for it wasn’t the Pakistan army or Jamaat-e-Islami who threw his bullet ridden unclothed body onto the street.

That crime was conducted by Bangladesh’s own army.

And they were not the only ones.

Posted by | Filed under Analysis 🙌, Arab World 🌎, Asia 🌐, Comment, Crime 🔪 🔫, International News, Politics 💼 🗳 🪖, Terrorism

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Nawaz Sharif’s Triumphant Return

13 Monday May 2013

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PAKISTAN-POLITICS-JUSTICE-MUSHARRAFTEMPLATE ANALYSIS

Some fourteen years after being ousted in a military coup,  self-made businessman Nawaz Sharif has secured a resounding election victory to become Pakistan’s Prime Minister once again.

The world that the steel magnate returns to is of course a very different one to the one he left in 1999, when General Pervez Musharraf seized power in a coup d’etat.

Today’s Pakistan’s economy has felt the full force of the recession that has hammered the rest of the world. The rupee has been devalued to such an extent that the days when you could say ’20 rupees make one British pound’ appear to be some distant fantasy.

The people of Pakistan are still living in a third world country where running water is a luxury for most, as is the idea of getting fed.

There is no welfare system to speak or adequate hospitals either.

All the while, some of the poorest people on earth have had to endure almost daily drone strikes in Pakistan’s so-called tribal areas, and the well-heeled urban elite have learned to stay at home as terrorists strike in the country’s main cities.

Despite all this. the people of Pakistan turned up in large numbers – turnout was reported to have been 60 per cent – to put their faith in this man.

Let’s hope he doesn’t let them down.

Posted by | Filed under Asia 🌐, International News, Politics 💼 🗳 🪖

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