As the United States debates deploying 4,000 more soldiers to Afghanistan to stem the advances of the Taliban, which has overrun much of the country, Western diplomats keep repeating the same old line: that only a political settlement can end the war there. By now, even the Pentagon accepts that negotiation, not triumph, is the ultimate goal. But a political settlement may be as elusive as a military victory, and the Western coalition supporting the Afghan government may have less time to resolve the conflict than it thinks.
Tacloban on Top
By Robbie Pangilinan
Almost four years after Yolanda pounded the city and left thousands dead and millions-worth of damage in its wake, Tacloban has been awarded first place for being the Most Improved Local Government Unit among the Highly Urbanized Cities (HUCs) during the 5th Regional Competitiveness Summit.
THE FEMALE RAPPER TRADING VERSES WITH KENDRICK LAMAR
When you’re from Snow Hill, North Carolina — population maybe 1,800 — the odds of making it as a successful hip-hop artist are about as remote as winning Powerball. But in the case of Marlanna Evans, better known as Rapsody, when you dedicate your life to defying those odds, developing a reputation for wicked wordplay and singular storytelling along the way, you might find yourself embraced by a Grammy Award–winning producer, trading verses with Kendrick Lamar and on the cusp of being recognized as one of the best rappers in the business.
Why they jump ship
"Honor is not the exclusive property of any political party."
--Herbert Hoover
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- When Marcos fell in 1986, many Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) stalwarts jumped ship and were "rescued" by the late former Vice President Doy Laurel's United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO).
Some opted to stay behind the "defrocked" party particularly the "Marcos loyalists" hoping for the strongman's political resurrection which fizzled out with his death in 1989.
IS FAKE NEWS CRIMINAL? WE ASKED, YOU ANSWERED
MARY MILLER-ZURELL
It would be lovely if promoting fake news were a crime. However, I think one would need an indisputable definition of fake news and, probably, evidence of intent to harm, incite violence, deceive or otherwise cause havoc. A challenge still today is the age-old question, “What is truth?” Subjectivity seems to rule too often, and even objective fact, proven and replicable, is disputed and not accepted by many.
THE INSIDE STORY OF FRANKIE BLUE EYES, THE MOB KILLER-TURNED-RAT
“Dude, Frankie Sparaco is in the hole,” Mean Gene, a fellow prisoner at FCI Loretto in Pennsylvania, told me on the move.
Why on earth would this popular mobster get thrown into single-cell segregation? I wondered. “That white boy from New York, Roger, punched him in the face and called him a rat,” Mean Gene explained. But I wasn’t buying it. I’d done time with Sparaco at several joints, and he was known as a solid convict. He also was nearing the end of his two decades in federal prison, getting ready to return home. A vicious dude and then some, but Sparaco was different from most mobsters I knew in jail.
WHERE TO FIND HIPSTERS IN TURKEY
Kadıköy. It’s a district of Istanbul where beards point toward Bushwick and not Mecca. Where two men or two women can be seen walking arm in arm under lattices of rainbow umbrellas hanging over Ziya Bey St. Where young people drink European beers under Edison bulbs and munch on gluten-free breads or pork hot dogs. In the wake of the 2013 Gezi Park protests and subsequent government pressure on adjacent Taksim Square, Istanbul’s locus of nightlife has moved from Taksim to Kadıköy’s Moda neighborhood, which has rapidly turned from a sleepy residential area to a left-leaning hipster haven. The Brooklyn of Turkey.