Harry's Place

According to Andy Newman, and others, Facebook has closed down several left-wing activist groups’ pages, including that of Socialist Unity, ‘on the pretext that it is apparently technically against the terms of use to operate an account that does not belong to an individual’.  Some commenters are suggesting this is a storm in a teacup, [...]

I was not among the one-third of humanity that allegedly watched The Royal Wedding.
But Lisa de Moraes of The Washington Post raises a perfectly reasonable point: Where did the astounding figure of two billion viewers reported endlessly and breathlessly by the media (even before it happened) come from?
Presumably, the other two-thirds will be too [...]

Guest post by DaveM
With reports of more than 500 dead and still no letup in the Syrian uprising, along with reports of soldiers refusing orders to shoot on their fellow citizens, one would guess that the mood inside the Assad household would be less like the infamous Vogue photo shoot and more akin to this: [...]

It appears that the Israeli strike against Syria in 2007 was the second time the Israelis should be thanked for preventing a Baathist dictatorship from acquiring nuclear technology.

Even though a trailer for the motion picture “Atlas Shrugged Part 1“– based on Ayn Rand’s Objectivist opus– wowed ‘em at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, the film itself is bombing at the box office.
And in true Randian fashion, its producer is threatening to go on strike.
Los Angeles Times movie blogger Rebecca Keegan [...]

As already reported here, a panel discussion, ‘Zionism, Jewishness and Israel’, was due to take place on 3 May at the University of Westminster.  One of the advertised speakers was Gilad Atzmon, who has promoted Holocaust revisionism and implied the Jews were responsible for the Holocaust. Whereas some content themselves with making gratuitous comparisons between [...]

The BBC interviewed a rather weary-sounding Syrian ambassador Sami Khiyami about the withdrawal of his invitation to attend the Royal Wedding.
It should be noted that invitations to the ambassadors from Iran, North Korea and Zimbabwe still stand– which suggests that the withdrawal was an effort to avoid embarrassment rather than a matter of principle. Or [...]

Every so often a snippet of news comes along which makes something inside of you groan. The Daily NK reports on claims that tunnels in North Korea have been adapted for mass-executions of political prisoners if the regime ever be threatened.
Elsewhere, as a result of studies of interviews with North Korean defectors, the number [...]

As you probably already know, the campaign group ‘Republic’ are going to hold a ‘Not The Royal Wedding’ street party featuring live jazz and food from a café which apparently ‘combines egalitarian principles with aspirational quality’.
Forgive me for not getting overly excited at the prospect of a ‘party’ which will almost certainly be [...]

Kyrgyzstan remains for the Kyrgyz with proposals to rename Ala-Too Square (above) in Bishkek as Manas Square. Whereas Ala-Too refers blandly to nearby mountains, Manas refers to a mythical Kyrgyz epic.
Almost one year after the deadly riots in southern Kyrgyzstan which targeted mostly ethnic Uzbek civilians, the authorities continue to pursue those responsibly: by charging [...]