Articles in English

InternacionalSalud Pública

At the International AIDS Society's annual meeting in Rome last month, there was a lot of good news. Chief among it was the presentation of solid evidence that antiretroviral therapy does more than treat HIV — it can also prevent the virus.

New findings from the HIV Prevention Trials Network have demonstrated that early treatment for people living with HIV can reduce sexual transmission to their partners 96%. The Partners PrEP study has found that giving antiretroviral therapy to the HIV-negative partners of those living with HIV can reduce their chances of acquiring HIV up to 73%. And there is further evidence that male circumcision is effective in preventing HIV in men.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

When President Bashar al-Assad came to power all the international, regional and national communities were willing to give him a chance to start a process of gradual political reform. But 11 years on, and five months since the start of Syria's youthful, peaceful, nationalist popular uprising, Assad's regime remains unreformed.

The regime's promised programme of "reforms" – including repealing the state of emergency, licensing public demonstrations, the formation of political parties and the regulation of elections – has proven to be simply cosmetic.

The Syrian people, of all political persuasions, believe that the crimes committed by the regime's forces – which they continue to perpetrate in Dara'a, Doma, Homs, Rastan, Banyas, Baydah, al-Marqab, Jisr al-Shaghur, Hama, Bukamal and Dir al-Zur – have not met an appropriate reaction from the international community.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

As soon as Hina Rabbani Khar touched down in New Delhi last week to meet SM Krishna, her Indian counterpart, #HRK and #Birkin – her initials and the name of her handbag – began trending worldwide on Twitter.

Across the border, reactions to Khar – who, at 34, is Pakistan's youngest foreign minister – were surprising. The Indian media gushed ("First they sent bombs, now they send bombshells"), while Pakistan's was less enamoured ("Does this expensively dressed minister represent a country which is under hefty debt?"). But Khar – Hermes purse, Roberto Cavalli sunglasses and all – very much represents Pakistan.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Last week, the Treasury Department accused the Iranian government of aiding Al Qaeda and blacklisted six Qaeda operatives for funneling money through Iran. Although Treasury’s announcement, coupled with existing sanctions, has put some pressure on Tehran, much more can be done. Indeed, the White House should take action in its own backyard.

In February, the Obama administration embarked on a real estate project that directly impacts Iran’s interests in the United States. The State Department began refurbishing Iran’s Washington embassy on Massachusetts Avenue, 31 years after the last Iranian diplomat set foot in it. While the government has thus far respected and protected Iran’s property rights and permitted Iranian officials an unparalleled level of freedom, Washington should now seize outright all Iranian assets in the United States and bar as many Iranian officials as possible from our soil.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesIslam y Mundo Árabe

Ramadan has just begun, and I must admit that it starts with no small amount of dread for me. Fasting, an essential pillar of ritual in Islam, consists of abstaining from food, drink and other sensual pleasures from dawn (before sunrise) until dusk.

Because the Islamic calendar is a lunar one, Ramadan travels backward along the solar calendar, and this means that for the next 10 years it will fall during the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere.

That will mean very hot and very long days, and distressingly short nights. I remember Ramadan being in June when I was about 12 years old, and it was hard then.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaReflexionesIslam y Mundo Árabe,

U.S. Army Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo, 21, first made the news in August 2010 when, arguing that his Islamic faith contradicts serving in the American military, he filed for conscientious objector (CO) status. Referring to current American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Pfc. Abdo asserted that a Muslim "is not allowed to participate in an Islamicly unjust war. Any Muslim who knows his religion ... should not participate in the U.S. military." Further, he wrote: "I cannot be a soldier in the U.S. Army and continue to remain true to Islam."

Simultaneously, Pfc. Abdo made anti-American statements during Pashto language class and listed the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, on his Facebook page as one of his "activities and interests."…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica,

When the United Nations Security Council unanimously referred the situation in Libya to the International Criminal Court prosecutor on Feb. 26, it made clear that impunity for crimes against humanity threatens international peace and security. The referral sent a strong message that systematic attacks with deadly force against peaceful protesters have criminal consequences.

Now, the governments that took the lead in the 15-to-0 Security Council vote — Britain, France and the United States — seem to be negotiating a deal that, if it goes through, would short-circuit justice by sidelining the court’s proceedings for victims in Libya.

Britain’s foreign secretary, William Hague, said recently that it was important for Muammar el Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, to relinquish all power, but that after that: “What happens to Qaddafi is ultimately a question for the Libyans.”…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

After four months of popular demonstrations and ferocious repression, including a bloody crackdown on the central city of Hama on Sunday, the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, still refuses to step down, insisting that he can reform his regime.

What is keeping Mr. Assad in power is the extensive security apparatus that was engineered by his father, Hafez al-Assad, and is dominated by their fellow Alawites, a minority Shiite sect.

Alawites, who constitute just 12 percent of Syria’s population, have mostly thrown their support behind Mr. Assad, fearful that if he is overthrown they will be massacred. If the democratic opposition in Syria is going to succeed, it must first convince the Alawites that they can safely turn against the Assad regime.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica,

Islamic experts assure me there is no prohibition of warfare during Ramadan. On the contrary, many of Islam's great conquests occurred during this holy month, including the first clash between Muslims and infidels, which occurred in 624 when Muhammad led his troops to victory in the battle of Badr. War for the furtherance of Islam and against non-believers is considered ethically acceptable by scholars, even during the month of fasting and prayer.

But this is not the situation in Libya. David Cameron, the foreign secretary, William Hague, and Nicolas Sarkozy are not the prophet Muhammad and his companions. Even if Nato's intervention in Libya were entirely without self-interest (and not about oil and lucrative commercial opportunities) Islamic clerics concur that it is absolutely prohibited for Muslims to seek the help of non-believers against fellow Muslims.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaUE a debate

Finally, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has accepted a new form of European Union. More than ever, the EU must combine greater stability, financial transfers, and mutual solidarity if the entire European project is to be prevented from collapsing under the weight of the ongoing sovereign-debt crisis.

For a long time, Merkel fought this new EU tooth and nail, because she knows how unpopular it is in Germany – and thus how politically dangerous it is to her electoral prospects. She wanted to defend the euro, but not to pay the price for doing so. That dream is at an end, thanks to the financial markets.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsiaMundoOriente Próximo,

Ever since US President Barack Obama decided to begin withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan, global interest in what role (if any) China will play in determining that war-ravaged country’s future has grown dramatically. After all, China is not merely a neighbor of Afghanistan, but the world’s most important rising power – indeed, a “world power,” as Mike Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff proclaimed in Beijing this past June.

If China proves itself willing to help shore up Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s administration, it will not seek to gain any immediate advantage from the withdrawal of US forces.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica

Yet again, famine stalks the Horn of Africa. More than ten million people are fighting for survival, mainly pastoralist communities in the hyper-arid regions of Somalia, Ethiopia, and northern Kenya. Every day brings news of more deaths and massive inflows of starving people into refugee camps in Kenya, across the border from Somalia.

The immediate cause of this disaster is clear: the rains have failed for two years running in the dry regions of East Africa. These are places where water is so scarce year after year that crop production is marginal at best. Millions of households, with tens of millions of nomadic or semi-nomadic people, tend camels, sheep, goats, and other livestock, which they move large distances to reach rain-fed pasturelands.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

Earlier this month, Georgia conducted its third execution this year. This would have passed relatively unnoticed if not for a controversy surrounding its videotaping. Lawyers for the condemned inmate, Andrew Grant DeYoung, had persuaded a judge to allow the recording of his last moments as part of an effort to obtain evidence on whether lethal injection caused unnecessary suffering.

Though he argued for videotaping, one of Mr. DeYoung’s defense lawyers, Brian Kammer, spoke out against releasing the footage to the public. “It’s a horrible thing that Andrew DeYoung had to go through,” Mr. Kammer said, “and it’s not for the public to see that.”…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo

Since taking office more than two years ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly pressed the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a “Jewish state.” In his speech before the U.S. Congress in May, Netanyahu even made this demand the linchpin of any future peace deal, promising “a far-reaching compromise” if only the Palestinian leader were to publicly declare “I will accept a Jewish state.”

Regrettably, the Obama administration has bought into Netanyahu’s idea and is currently working behind the scenes to press key allies to adopt a formula that would call on Israel and the Palestinians to resume negotiations on the basis of the 1967 lines and — for the first time in Mideast peacemaking — spell out international expectations that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo, ,

Seven months into the Arab Spring, Israel’s leaders are getting over their initial alarm and confusion about how to react, and have begun to embrace the region’s new uncertainty. Increasingly, they see it as a diplomatic opportunity to affirm Israel’s importance to its traditional friends.

The West may dislike Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy toward the Palestinians — the new calculation goes — but Israel is the only country in the region that will certainly remain a stable, pro-American democracy. By that logic, it should be the West’s ally of choice in a volatile region.

That’s a windfall for the diplomacy of a man who wields power as Mr.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica

Half of Venezuela’s population is under age 25 — meaning half the country can barely remember or imagine a leader other than Hugo Chavez.

Chavez is not only the longest-serving head of state now in power in the Western Hemisphere — 12 years and running — but he is also omnipresent in Venezuela. He speaks almost daily on television, often for hours , and his face and phrases are splashed on posters, banners and murals in every large city and along the nation’s highways. It is impossible not to see him, hear him, read him. Looking ahead, Chavez has made clear that he will be a candidate in the 2012 presidential election and that victory is inevitable.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica, ,

If the past is anything to go by, TVs the world over will show heart-wrenching pictures of malnourished Somali babies with distended kwashiorkor bellies; of flies feeding on their eyes; of mouths sucking at milkless breasts. Environmental experts will pontificate on the recurrent droughts in Somalia. Aid organizations will canvass the world’s rich to find the funds to feed the starving. Governments will make promises they won’t keep. What has been a tributary of refugees leaving Somalia and entering neighboring Kenya will become a flood. This will be channeled into refu­gee camps, which will overflow with rivers of human misery.

A couple of years ago, I was visiting my good friend Abdullahi Mohamed Shirwa, a respected civil society leader based in Mogadishu.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional,

Japan in March 2011 and Norway in July 2011: any comparison between the madness of nature and the pure madness of man in Norway may sound artificial. Yet, confronted with their respective tragedies, Japan and Norway displayed a very similar combination of qualities and flaws.

In both countries, civil society reacted to the events in a remarkable manner, with a sense of unity, dignity, and reaffirmed national cohesiveness. But, while citizens in both countries have emerged more confident in themselves and in their core values, the security authorities’ performance clearly fell short. As a result, Japanese and Norwegians might emerge more critical – and justifiably so – of their respective official bureaucracies.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoCáucaso,

America has sacrificed a lot fighting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan - but we are not alone. The United States and our NATO allies are getting help from places many Americans can’t find on the map.

Late on July 5, an Azerbaijani tanker plane crashed in Afghanistan en route to U.S.-NATO Bagram Air Base with a load of fuel. The United States and NATO should mourn the nine crew members who were killed on board, but this accident also should serve as a reminder of the invaluable contributions and sacrifices this small, predominately Muslim country has made for NATO and American forces when other coalition allies have been pulling out of Afghanistan.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo, ,

While America focuses on its internal problems and its involvement in three wars and the world focuses on the global economy, Iran is progressing on three dangerous fronts: nuclear weapons, armed missiles and naval capability.

Despite four sets of United Nations sanctions and pressure by the United States and Europe, Iran has chosen not only to continue its nuclear program but to expand it. Iran’s leaders, dominated by fanatical mullahs, announced in mid-July that the installment of faster centrifuges had begun and that they will soon triple the production of enriched uranium to 20 percent at the Fardo nuclear facility deep in the mountain near the city of Qom.…  Seguir leyendo »