There’s talk of conspiracy theories in Lahore following Tuesday’s attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team. Pakistan is not over ruling a foreign hand in the attacks, with fingers being pointed at India. Even Sri Lanka hasn’t ruled out the possibility of Tamil Tiger involvement. There’s anger at the lack of security for the players and whilst arrests have been made and financial rewards for leads offered, some question whether these are tokenistic moves. Is this Pakistan in damage control mode or is there a real possibility of foreign involvement in these attacks?
Pakistan is both victim and protagonist of the conflict in Afghanistan, says this article . And here’s a request to the West asking it not to give up on Pakistan. Either way – can the world afford to let Pakistan fail?
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We had an interesting text message from one of our listeners in Texas yesterday who said that it was only fair to charge Sudan’s President Bashir with war crimes if other countries such as Israel are investigated too. If not, he said the International Criminal Court (ICC) would only serve as a Western tool .President Bashir became the first sitting president to be issued with an ICC arrest warrant for war crimes . Yet whilst his hold on the country has gone largely unchallenged (China and Russia remain key economic allies whilst Ethiopia says it will ignore the charges), this article feels that if the case is successful, it will send a powerful message to tyrants around the world.
Is the ICC a selective western tool? And will the arrest warrant make a bad situation even worse?
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The European Court of Justice has ruled that the UK’s retirement age of 65 is not in breach of EU legislation. With the economic situation on a downwards spiral, is it still practical to have a retirement age? Should you be able to work as long as you want?
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“There is a high probability that the collapse of the United States will occur by 2010,” says this Russia scholar. He adds that China and Russia will become the new backbones of the global economy. Do you believe him?
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Rihanna has forgiven Chris brown – so why do so many women go back to their abusers? Therapists say it’s common and violent incidents are often followed by honeymoon periods – but can abusive relationships really have long term happy endings?
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And here’s a miraculous survival – run over by a truck that was rammed by a train in Turkey, but Cem Tokac lives to tell the tale.
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BBC World Have Your Say 
No way China or Russia can take the lead over US as a superpower US will sabotage any countries who gets too strong for their liking. India is in their radar , even UK and Europe. The top dog never gets away without a fight , otherwise they will become the spoiler.
Israel, Israel, Israel Israel–it’s always Israel isn’t it? To compare Israel to Dafur is nothing more than thinly veiled anti-semitism.
If Israel is the same as the Sudan, I’ll be waiting hear the upcoming BBC broadcast from the Sudan.
RE “” “There is a high probability that the collapse of the United States will occur by 2010,” says this Russia scholar. “”
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—————– Russians hold the advantage at this moment in time.
They are unencumbered of slavish worship of the corporate model of free enterprise. Putin has put some backbone back in the country by making sure the Russian state was rebuilt first and foremost. They have recovered from the diasterous 90s to be able to rub the US nose in their foreign policy mess now.
US politioians have seen their corporate golden calf collapse in a heap of dust. Now the table scraps that the corporate masters used to pay out in taxes in exchange for access to the cheap human smuggling market for labor are no more. To survive, the US is nationalizing the shell of what’s left of these corporations gutted of value by the big corporate bosses.
Meanwhile, the bosses are poised to convert the cream they skimmed off the top into new wealth as they form new corporations to buy up bankrupt properties and businesses for pennies on the dollar. Thing is nobody has control over the montrous global economic downward spiral, so the great golden corporate calf may not be able to be rebuilt, leaving the Russian in a very practical position of having already righted their ship of state and having strong leadership.
Obama, bless him, is like a touted rookie suddenly thrown in the championship final and told the survival of the team franchise depends on him winning the thing singlehandedly.
The wind that carries dresses from the wardrobe sends a strong signal to those who have their dresses on.
The only time arresting a sitting president will send a warning to tyrants around the world is when powerful leaders like UK’s, Russia’s, China’s or the US’ are indicted.
I’m not saying they have done anything wrong.
They are powerful and respected world leaders whose arrests would send shivers down the spines of even prospective tyrants, not President Bashir.
I don’t mean Bashir should be spared.
His arrest will send signals to African leaders, at least.
The power of USA in coming days will be muited in the days to come for sure .but still it will be the most powerful nation the days to come till 2015.i say 2015 but after that usa will collapse for sure.no one can bail it out that for sure.we are seeing major shift of power to china and if usa tries to disrupt this process the collapse will be more early that for sure.so what is neded now that usa should think 100 times before taking any foreign affair decission now.the population and size of china makes it country with more prospects in future and the number of prosporus nations surrounding china is challange for usa.
I don’t think the warrant of arrest to the Sudanesse President was necessary.
It is an abuse of the international Law on a sovereign state.above all it is politically inspired
If UN thinks that is good way of handling soveriegn states,they should go ahead and summond all other world leaders who have forcely occupy other nations with a hidden aganda. Is it because Sudan is a poor country???
I wonder Where are we heading to BBC
BELA PRIMUS BEBANG
The Hague Netherlands
A caller said Bashir’s arrest warrant will make him do more evil.
I dont believe such.
Bashir is human, not Satan who is unredeemable.
The warrant will help Sudan be a better place because Bashir will start doing things to make up for his wrongs and hopefully please the international community into liniency or maybe not arresting him at all.
I shudder to think how the Flemish weavers who first played cricket in 1533 are reacting to such an appalling event as they watch from the afterlife.