Mandela's Long Journey: Nelson Mandela was a famed freedom fighter, but a man of his time

Mandela's Long Journey: Nelson Mandela was a famed freedom fighter, but a man of his time

Announcements of former South African president Nelson Mandela's two-day visit to Israel this week masked a truly interesting story.

The JTA noted that the trip would boost South Africa-Israel relations, reported on his impressions of Israel and on his hopes for Mideast peace ("Take it from me, he said, Syria is "seeking a peaceful solution"), while Isranet added that prior to coming to Israel, Mandela had gone to Iran and Syria, and from Israel, would visit Gaza.

These are, of course, noteworthy facts, but they hardly even hint at the complex nature of the relationship between. …

Alaska lawmakers vote to subpoena Todd Palin

The abuse of power investigation against Sarah Palin, Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate, took a potentially ominous turn for her party on Friday when state lawmakers voted to subpoena her husband.

Republican efforts to delay the probe until after the Nov. 4 election were thwarted when GOP State Sen. Charlie Huggins, who represents Palin's hometown of Wasilla, sided with Democrats. "Let's just get the facts on the table," said Huggins, who appeared in camouflage pants to vote during a break from moose hunting.

The Senate committee acted at the request of investigator Stephen Branchflower, who is gathering evidence on whether …

Customised from day one ; Before launching its Gujarati daily, it took feedback from over 1.2 million homes to understand what prospective readers wanted. And then it gave them just that.

For organisations entering new markets and product segments it isessential to understand the unique needs of their potentialcustomers. Success in one geography does not always guaranteesuccess everywhere.

The task of entering a new market is made even more difficultwhen there are established players that present significantcompetition. Despite all odds, Dainik Bhaskar entered Gujarat with aGujarati daily (Divya Bhaskar) and became the #1 newspaper inAhmedabad on the day of the launch.

Until the early 2000s, Dainik Bhaskar was a Hindi languagenewspaper circulated in Madhya Pradesh, Jaipur in Rajasthan,Chandigarh in Punjab and Haryana. Given the need to grow in …

Search Suspended in Haiti Boat Disaster

SOUTH DOCK, Turks and Caicos Islands - The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search Saturday for more than 40 missing Haitian migrants after local authorities said it was no longer needed as hopes faded of finding more survivors.

Several boats and helicopters belonging to the Turks and Caicos, near where the boat sank Friday, continued to search the Caribbean waters. But police Inspector Sharon Whitaker said Turks and Caicos officials may also suspend their search early Sunday if no more survivors or bodies are found.

Roughly 160 Haitian migrants were packed aboard a 25-foot boat when it ran into stormy weather before dawn Friday off the coast of this British territory. …

Dispute over archive leads Russia to nix art loans

NEW YORK (AP) — A decades-long dispute between Russia and an Orthodox Jewish group over ownership of holy texts collected for centuries by influential rabbis and seized by the Soviet Union has jolted the U.S. art world, threatening an end to major cultural loans between the two countries.

Russia has already frozen art loans to major American institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Houston Museum of Natural Science, fearing that its cultural property could be seized after the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Chabad-Lubavitch movement won a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in 2010 compelling the return of its texts.

The Met — and possibly other major lending …

US to resume ties with Indonesia's special forces

The United States will cautiously resume cooperation with Indonesia's special forces while still pursuing reforms in the commando unit more than a decade after ties were severed over its alleged human rights abuses, officials said.

Both countries stressed that the Indonesian military had improved its human rights record, and American officials noted the decision required that those reform efforts continue.

Human rights activists, however, were skeptical that the special forces would be held accountable for past alleged abuses or would reform enough to prevent future abuse.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates made the announcement Thursday after …

Protect children, not guns

Is protecting our children important to us as a nation? On June 12, the Children's Defense Fund released our annual report on gun violence against children, Protect Children Not Guns. The report shows that the 2,827 children and teens who died from gun violence in 2003 - just one year - is higher than the number of American fighting men and women killed in hostile action in Iraq from 2003 to April 2006 three years. The bodies of young gunshot victims are streaming into urban hospital trauma centers on the frondines of an undeclared war on Americais children.

The children who die every year from gunshot wounds come from all racial groups and are all ages. Some of them are too young …