The Foreign Desk
China turns friendly with India – but why?
When China’s former premier, Wen Jiabao, visited India in December 2010, he was full of talk about the two country’s joint aspirations, their friendship, their co-operation, and about how their two-way trade would almost double to $100bn a year by 2015.
By John Elliott | The Foreign Desk | Tuesday, 21 May 2013 at 12:58 pm
Syria’s cannibal rebel defends himself
Much has been written this past week about a Syrian rebel named Khalid al-Hamad, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Sakkar, and who gained notoriety after a video emerged of him appearing to eat part of a dead pro-government fighter’s lung.
By Richard Hall | The Foreign Desk | Friday, 17 May 2013 at 12:30 pm
India’s latest $2m corruption scandal is a very old scam
The latest corruption scandal to embroil India’s coalition government is scarcely a surprise. The nephew of Pawan Kumar Bansal (right), the railways minister, was to be paid Rs100m (about £1.2m) to fix a top Railways Board appointment. Such appointments have been fixed for decades, often financed with money from companies that later benefit, as was [...]
By John Elliott | The Foreign Desk | Monday, 6 May 2013 at 8:35 am
You don’t have to have visited Syria to be horrified by ‘Syria: Across the Lines’
Rarely has a piece of salad served as a symbol of friendship, especially not a limp and watery lettuce. As a gesture, however, the leafy homegrown green presented to my friend Richard by the family elder among a large family of Syrians during our holiday to their country a couple of years ago has stuck in our minds as one of the kindest and most generous of gifts.
By Rob Hastings | The Foreign Desk | Wednesday, 17 April 2013 at 5:32 pm
The two sides in Syria’s civil war are talking
A new video uploaded by a group of rebel fighters in Darayya appears to show a dialogue of sorts between the Syrian regime and the opposition.
By Richard Hall | The Foreign Desk | Monday, 15 April 2013 at 12:48 pm
How we launched Thatcher’s ‘Privatisation’ word in the FT in 1979
One of Margaret Thatcher’s most significant legacies is privatisation – not only for introducing the policy itself, but also for adding the word into the world’s every-day vocabulary. Her death this week seems a good moment to recount how we launched the word on July 28 1979 in The Financial Times.
The day before, I [...]
By John Elliott | Notebook, The Foreign Desk | Thursday, 11 April 2013 at 7:34 am
Free Syrian Army launches investigation into arrest of The Yellow Man of Aleppo
The Free Syrian Army has launched an investigation into the arrest of “The Yellow Man of Aleppo” – a local celebrity who was detained by rebels in the city last week.
By Richard Hall | The Foreign Desk | Wednesday, 13 March 2013 at 8:06 pm
Is the Bangladeshi Spring morphing into a national Islamophobia?
Almost 42 years since Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan, the ghosts of the bloody 1971 liberation war still haunt the nation. The bloodletting, rape and torture inflicted by Pakistani militias prevent many Bengalis to this day from treating the country’s road to freedom as just a tragic tale of the past.
By Hasnet Lais | The Foreign Desk | Friday, 8 March 2013 at 10:00 pm
Syrians put “non-lethal aid” to use
Days after William Hague announced that Britain would be sending “non-lethal aid” to Syria’s opposition, a video has been uploaded online showing it being put to use.
By Richard Hall | The Foreign Desk | Friday, 8 March 2013 at 12:03 pm
Gustav Klimt’s ‘The Kiss’ reimagined in a warzone
Syrian-born artist Tammam Hazzam superimposed Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss on a devastated, bullet-ridden building somewhere in Syria.
By Richard Hall | The Foreign Desk | Wednesday, 6 February 2013 at 11:25 pm
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