Habari Post

Kazakh nationalism is on the rise in Kazakhstan.

Leaders of Muslim organizations and countries in the Middle East agree that the election of Barack Obama as the next president of the United States signifies a new direction of the country's policies in the Middle East.

This week's Economist includes two articles that are well worth reading.

Kazakhstan has announced it will lift the ban on grain exports it imposed in April to control domestic food prices. Russia, Kazakhstan and the Ukraine are all expecting increases in production this year, according to an article in the Financial Times.

In 1978, President Carter's foreign policy team was primarily occupied with signing a treaty between Egypt and Israel in an effort to bring peace in Palestine and Israel. His senior advisers paid little attention the the weakening position of the Shah in Iran and the rise of support for then exiled Ayatollah Khomeini (Ayatollah is a high ranking title in structure of Shiite Islam).

After 16 years with the World Bank, William Easterly writes about the failures and shortcomings of development policy and practices by Western dominated organizations like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, USAID and the United Nations.

Rory Stewart walks from Herat to Kabul, Afghanistan in 2002 after the fall of the Taliban and chronicles his experience in "The Places in Between." His book provides an excellent first hand account of the diverse cultures in Afghanistan, as well as an introduction to the local cultures and languages.

Fareed Zakaria speaks to Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, the Sudan Ambassador to the United Nations, about his potential complicity in genocide and other war crimes committed by the Sudanese government during a heated interview.

In one of the poorest countries in Asia, young men struggle to pay the price families ask in order to marry their daughters. Although banned during the years of Soviet occupation and officially outlawed in 1994, bride kidnapping is on the rise in the Kyrgyz Republic.

A Turkish reader recommends this site for things to do and see in Turkey:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/24389995/

Tetra Pak makes its packaging from sustainably harvested wood pulp, and the used packages are recyclable. But in many places they are not recycled but thrown into landfills with un-recyclable trash. This causes the unnecessary generation of greenhouse gases, and wastes a useful resource.

Ghost, Inc. is an Israeli-Palestinian company that provides a free, web-based virtual computer that lets users access their desktop and files from any computer with an Internet connection. Ghost is an acronym for Global Hosted Operating System.

Barack Obama told reporters that he would visit Iraq if he is nominated as the Democratic Party's candidate for president of the U.S.

The Iranian Parliament elected Ari Larijani as their new speaker on Wednesday. Mr. Larijani was a rival to Mr. Ahmadinejad in the presidential election of 2005. Mr. Larijani was elected as speaker in an unusually lopsided vote: 232 to 31.

Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, recently spoke in Dubai Maritime City to urge continued focus on energy-efficient building and other climate-friendly investment. "I’d like to see the Middle East investing for the post-petroleum future," he said.