Stop Wasting $110B a Year on These Turkeys

After decades of repression, Arabs feel liberated, as one

(NEWSER) - There's blood and chaos in the revolutions wracking the Arab world, but there's also a new dignity and hope rising from the smoldering ashes of years of repression, reports Jeffrey Fleischman in the LA Times. Such feelings were an important part of the pan-Arabism of the 1950s, but decades of misrule and corruption left the Arab spirit broken. "Dignity became what they were looking for," says a Jordanian writer of the protesters. "This was the essence of the rage." More»

From Libya to Japan, the money's running out

(NEWSER) - There’s been a lot of news around the world in 2011—too much, in fact, for some news organizations to handle. Japan, Libya, and Egypt have stretched already tight cable and broadcast news budgets to the breaking point, The Wrap reports. “We've already had a year's worth of breaking news coverage, and it's not even the end of March,” says one NBC News VP. “If Saudi Arabia goes up in flames, all bets are off.” More»

Even Iran, Iraq seeing continued unrest

(NEWSER) - Unrest continues to spread through northern Africa and the Middle East, with protests rocking Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Iran, and even Iraq. The latest from yesterday and today, from the New York Times , BusinessWeek , and AFP :

• In Bahrain, the death toll after a surprise police attack on protesters rose to five.
• In Yemen, protests—and fights between those for and against the government —reached their seventh consecutive day, with police firing automatic rifles into the air in an effort to keep the opposing sides apart. Yesterday, government supporters used electroshock batons against those protesting the president and one person was killed.
• In Libya, protesters organized a "Day of Rage" today to challenge the 41-year rule of Moammar Gadhafi. At least four people were killed in clashes with security forces yesterday; one human rights group claims as many as 13 were killed by snipers and dozens wounded.

Delicate diplomacy ends with unified resolve to fight militants

(AP) - President Obama said he got the commitments he wanted today from the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan to more aggressively fight militants gaining power and sowing violence inside their countries' borders. The high-stakes diplomacy had Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai and Pakistan's Asif Ali Zardari meeting with officials separately and together. Looming over talks was a recent bombing that killed Afghan civilians, for which Obama apologized. More»

Zardari, Karzai in DC as Taliban surge in crumbling Pakistan

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama begins two days of talks with the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan today as his administration faces what may be its first foreign policy crisis: rising militancy in the Swat Valley that threatens to spread across the nuclear-armed nation. Obama and his team are expected to pressure Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's president, to intensify military efforts against the Taliban and reach out to political rivals to strengthen his fragile government, reports the Los Angeles Times. More»