Rival factions in the ruling Grand National Party have papered over their disagreements on who should represent the party now ― the floor leader or the chairman of the emergency committee on reform. But a similar conflict may surface anytime, as the power struggle, triggered by the party’s defeat in the April 27 parliamentary by-elections, is most likely to intensify in the months ahead.In the wak

WASHINGTON ― The Pakistani town of Abbottabad seems to have been the perfect place to “hide in plain sight.” Not only did officers at the Pakistani military academy there apparently miss spotting Osama bin Laden. So did a team of U.S. Special Forces trainers that, according to Pakistani officials, was based there from September to December 2008. The “Where’s Waldo?” aspect of the hunt for bin Lade

The killing of Osama bin Laden is producing an unexpected outcome. His death is proving to be a Rorschach test for the entire world. Everyone who looks at it sees something different, sometimes betraying hidden motivations.Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, for example, has struggled since President Hosni Mubarak’s downfall to present a moderate image, while the group’s older leaders labor to mask the an

WASHINGTON ― When there’s political upheaval in Tehran, it’s often interwoven with the explosive question of possible outreach to the United States. And that may be the case with a recent feud between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The key figure in this dispute is Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, Ahmadinejad’s former chief of staff and said to be his choice as successor in

NEW YORK ― The annual spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund was notable in marking the fund’s effort to distance itself from its own long-standing tenets on capital controls and labor-market flexibility. It appears that a new IMF has gradually, and cautiously, emerged under the leadership of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.Slightly more than 13 years earlier, at the IMF’s Hong Kong meeting in 1

Last year, California added 28 inmates to the state’s death row, eight of whom were sentenced in Los Angeles County. They aren’t in much danger of an early demise, however, thanks largely to legal delays, including a decision Tuesday by state officials not to pursue executions in 2011. The seemingly never-ending court battles mean that convicts in capital cases are far more likely to die of natura

Although the Americans have been gloatingly bandying about the death of Osama bin Laden since their “successful” operation at Abbottabad on Monday (May 2), doubts have continued to persist about the man whom they had identified as al-Qaida’s chief before taking his life. In fact, the burial of the body at sea tends to reinforce the suspicion of a questionable identity of the murdered person; if pr

In evaluating Osama bin Laden’s dubious legacy, it is important to note that there was nothing new about religiously inspired terrorism when this rich Saudi exile convened a small group of jihadists in his Peshawar, Pakistan, home in 1988 to found al-Qaida ― an organization designed to carry on the war waged so successfully against the Red Army in Afghanistan.Two of the earliest known terrorist gr

WASHINGTON ― As Washington buzzes about yet another restart for Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, I have been reading a book that summarizes the past 44 years of botched peacemaking, blown opportunities and, sometimes, sheer folly. The book is a posthumous memoir by Jack O’Connell, a former CIA operative who was for many years King Hussein’s “case officer” in Jordan. Yes, you read that right

When it emerged Sunday night that Osama bin Laden had been killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan, some people thought I might not hear about it for weeks. Not because I only consume news about Sarah Palin but because, for the last month, I’ve been in semi-isolation in the New Hampshire woods. I’m on a fellowship at the MacDowell Colony, a hallowed institution that provides artists of all kinds ― write

“Al-Qaida. Bin Laden. Old news. This is the time to move forward.”So said President Obama’s counterterrorism adviser John Brennan last week, and his words couldn’t be more true.For Americans, for President Obama, for the landscape of security threats we face, for the war in Afghanistan, bin Laden’s death is a game changer. Yes, there is still a terrorist threat, but the death of this killer change

With the Korea-EU free trade agreement ratified earlier in the week and set to take effect in July, Korean companies are gearing up for an opportunity to expand their exports to the 27-member European Union. At the top of the list of potential beneficiaries are automakers, television manufacturers and footwear companies, whose products would be exempted from high tariffs.The EU is set to phase out

It is a matter of course that prevention is better than cure. But an Asian financial safety net, designed to fight off future financial crises, cannot be relied to prevent them. Instead, it may be used to take action only when a financial crisis is confirmed to have dealt a blow to a country.This weakness in the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM) program, a $120 billion pool of funds

When you cut the head off a snake, it dies. U.S. officials would be wise to stop making allusions to decapitated reptiles when referring to al-Qaida after Osama bin Laden’s death because this organization remains alive and active across the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe and, yes, the United States.Killing bin Laden deals a significant blow to al-Qaida, but be assured, it lives to fight again.T

Japan on Tuesday marked the 64th anniversary of the enforcement of the postwar Constitution just as the entire nation, including its people, private enterprises, and the central and local governments, is struggling to overcome the consequences of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan.The anniversary also came at a time when the lives of the people in Fukushima Pref

Now that we are on the verge of a new election, the important questions to ask are: Should a mediocre Thai government be given a second chance? Does a failed opposition party deserve to be the next government?To put it in another way: How do we know that a party that doesn’t perform well as a government would do better if voted back in? And how do we know that a party that refuses to be a strong o

The prosecution’s conclusion on Tuesday that North Korea was to blame for the paralysis of the computer network of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation is a chilling reminder of the pariah regime’s determination and capability to launch cyber attacks against the South. The prosecutors defined the North’s hacking into the NACF’s computer system as a new form of cyber terrorism. Before t

Last Saturday, we called for drastic reform of the Financial Supervisory Services as the powerful regulatory agency exuded the stench of corruption. We were not alone in smelling the odor. President Lee Myung-bak did as well. On Wednesday, Lee made a surprise visit to the FSS to express his fury and disappointment over the regulator’s failure to prevent irregularities at financial companies and FS

The dramatic killing of Osama bin Laden after a 40-minute gun battle in a Pakistani hill station mansion is, as President Obama rightly said, a triumph of justice. It is a symbolic and historic milestone in the war on terror, marking the end of a frustrating, decade-long manhunt.By continuing to pursue bin Laden years after 9/11, the United States sought to demonstrate that it has staying power an

When President Obama told the media why he had released his long-form Hawaiian birth certificate, all I could think of was Pakistan.Yes, Pakistan, where no conspiracy theory is too bizarre and you’ll hear that 9/11 was a Zionist plot ― and Osama bin Laden a U.S. agent. Ordinary Pakistanis turn to conspiracy theories to explain the overwhelming problems that face them. But those unhinged theories d