After July, Malaysians will grow old gracefully. Or, in any case, those who follow Malaysian Islamic law. The country’s National Fatwa Council (Jawatankuasa Fatwa) closed its three-day meeting on July 27, deciding to forbid the country’s Muslims from using botox, among other prohibitions. To settle questions of what is halal (allowed) and haram (forbidden) for Malaysia’s Muslims, the Fatwa Council meets regularly to mull over international Islamic scholarship. They pronounce on issues as modern as donating zakat funds via text-message (halal) and as serious as euthanasia (decision forthcoming). But Malaysia is no Iran. Since 1957, Malaysia’s parliament has been run [...]
Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz transferred power to his younger brother Raúl on Monday night, July 31, after doctors said he needed surgery to stop intestinal bleeding. In a letter read by his secretary, Carlos Valenciaga, on Cuban national television, the 79-year-old Fidel announced that because of ”an intestinal crisis” he would temporarily relinquish the presidency to his 75-year-old brother, who serves as Cuba’s defense minister. “The operation obliges me to spend several weeks in repose, away from my responsibilities and duties,” Fidel’s statement, as read by Valenciaga, said. “Because our country is threatened in these circumstances by the government [...]
On any given night in north Bogotá, groups of athletic, broad shouldered young men with cropped hair, conversing in their native American-English, can be seen enjoying beers in the upmarket bars of the Colombian city. Most of these men are among the 800 U.S military personnel and 600 U.S. civilian government contractors allowed to work in Colombia as part of the U.S. aid package known as Plan Colombia. It has been almost a year since the first phase of Plan Colombia officially ended. Since then the Colombian government has been left wondering whether U.S aid to Colombia will continue to [...]
