Category: Blogs

Desperate Economic Measures Signal Panic Amid Unrest

By Magda Kandil

On December 19, Egypt’s Cabinet announced a raft of belt-tightening measures to cut public finance spending, in a seemingly panicked effort to stave off a financing crisis. The proposed reforms include cutting fuel subsidies for energy-intensive industries, postponing the application of a property tax for another year, and deferring a new law on social insurance […]

Havel: “Peace can hardly be attained without the readiness to defend it against the forces of evil”

By Vaclav Havel, Office of Vaclav Havel

From Vaclav Havel, Office of Vaclav Havel:  At the signing of the Washington Treaty, the fundamental document of the North Atlantic Alliance, President Truman said that if this document had existed earlier it could have prevented two World Wars.

News Update: December 19, 2011

By Mara Revkin

At least 12 people have been killed and hundreds more injured in clashes in downtown Cairo over the past three days. Violence broke out on December 16 when military forces guarding the Cabinet building near Tahrir Square cracked down on a three-week-old sit-in to call for a transfer of power to civilian leadership.

Obama: “Vaclav Havel was a friend to America and to all who strive for freedom and dignity”

By Barack Obama, the White House

From Barack Obama, the White House:  I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing today of Vaclav Havel, a playwright and prisoner of conscience who became President of Czechoslovakia and of the Czech Republic.

Statement by NATO Secretary General on the death of Vaclav Havel

By Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO

From Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO:  I would like to offer my sincere condolences to the people and governments of the Czech Republic and Slovakia on the death of former president Vaclav Havel.

World leaders praise Havel’s legacy

By the BBC

From the BBC:  Tributes have been pouring in for the man many consider a driving force in the overthrow of communist rule in eastern Europe.

Vaclav Havel, 1936 – 2011, Playwright, President, Voice of Freedom

By J.Y. Smith, the Washington Post

From J.Y. Smith, the Washington Post:  Vaclav Havel, a Czech writer who was imprisoned by his country’s communist rulers, only to become a symbol of freedom and his nation’s first president in the post-communist era, died Dec. 18 at his weekend home in the northern Czech Republic. He was 75.

Firms Bid on NATO Cyberwar

By Daniel Michaels, the Wall Street Journal