May 13, 2010

A blow to Spanish judicial independence

Baltasar Garzon, a Spanish “investigative magistrate” in charge of investigating crimes of national or international significance, is now himself under investigation. Conservative groups accuse Garzon of prevaricato judicial (roughly translated as “abuse of a judge’s power”) for having intentionally bypassed a 1977 amnesty law, ...

Apr 27, 2010

New sanctions will only bolster hardliners

If past experience with authoritarian regimes is any guide, new sanctions on Iran will not succeed in curbing its nuclear power development and will, instead, strengthen the hardliners in government. Much more can be gained by improving the relationship between U.S. and Iranian citizens. ...

Apr 19, 2010

Diabetes epidemic the price of China’s growth

China has a serious problem with diabetes, which has reached epidemic proportions in the country. This is the conclusion of a group of researchers from Tulane University and colleagues from China, whose findings were published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. Type ...

Mar 30, 2010

Drone dependency trivializing Afghan war

NEW YORK — Captain Ferguson (a fictitious name) gets up early in the morning, and has breakfast with his wife and children. At the office, he sits in front of a computer off and on for almost eight hours. At the end of the ...

Mar 16, 2010

Obama needs a push to normalize Cuba ties

NEW YORK — Several years ago, during my first visit to Cuba to attend a health-related meeting, I witnessed a demonstration. As friends and I walked into the Bodeguita del Medio, a traditional restaurant famous for the number of illustrious visitors who had dined ...

Mar 2, 2010

U.S. ‘torture memo’ lawyers got off too easily

NEW YORK — The recent statement by the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) that the two lawyers who wrote the so-called torture memos merely exercised “poor judgment” is a disservice to justice. This is a topic that should be properly addressed ...

Feb 7, 2010

Rebirth of Haiti begins with education effort

NEW YORK — “Did you see this?” My colleague asked me in a hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, in 2005. Regrettably, I had seen it — a dead child covered with a sheet, flies buzzing around it, seemingly abandoned in a hospital hallway. For ...

Feb 2, 2010

Cities robbing their people

NEW YORK — When observing the chaotic growth of the modern city, the more erudite of urban planners will reminisce wistfully on how different it is from its ancient Greek counterpart, the polis, which Italian architectural historian Leonardo Benevolo once described as “dynamic but ...

Jan 8, 2010

Warding off risks from Iran’s nuclear plans

NEW YORK — Iran’s development of nuclear power provides an opportunity for reaching an accord on a Middle East nuclear weapons-free zone (NWFZ). Talks between Iran and representatives of the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Russia and China can help develop a consensus to ...

Dec 18, 2009

Illegal wall exacerbates disaster for Gazans

NEW YORK — Collusion between Egypt and the United States in building a wall separating Egypt from Gaza not only threatens Gazans’ health and quality of life, already seriously deteriorating because of the de facto Israeli blockade, but also violates international law. According to ...