With some Arab autocrats, the goodbyes are longer

WASHINGTON: At a press conference on Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at length about the Syrian government`s brutal crackdown on protesters.
But she was suddenly reticent when a reporter asked directly whether Syria`s leader should leave power.
“I think I`ve said all I can say,” Clinton said. “I come from the school that actions speak louder than words.”

Syrian President Bashar Assad is under pressure, but Washington Might not want to see him immediately ousted, as hinted in Hillary Clinton's recent remarks

There have been words aplenty on Syria from the podia at the White House and State Department in recent weeks, as the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has intensified efforts to snuff out a dogged anti-government movement.
But a demand that Assad immediately leave power in Damascus has not been among them — in stark contrast to the position Washington adopted with other embattled Arab autocrats, namely Egypt`s Hosni Mubarak (toppled in February) and Libya`s Moammar Gaddafi (still there).
The Obama administration`s cautious use of language is more than a rhetorical curiosity.
It has left some observers questioning where Washington really stands on Assad, dashed for now the hopes of Syria`s still-nascent opposition, and highlighted how all Arab revolutions are not equal — at least in US policymakers`

Thai PM Yingluck emerges from Thaksin’s shadow

By Martin Petty | From the Newspaper

Yingluck Shinwatra; the new Thai Prime Minister, rose from obscurity to being such a popular leader that she snatched the PM post despite strong political opposition

BANGKOK: With her stunning leap from the boardroom to head of government in less than three months, Yingluck Shinawatra has shaken up Thai politics with a revival of the populist legacy of her exiled brother and former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
The 44-year-old businesswoman was catapulted from relative obscurity to stardom in a matter of days, and, with her good looks and down-to-earth approach, she quickly won over the poor who elected Thaksin twice and saw Yingluck as their best hope of bringing him home.
A political novice who shied away from the spotlight in the past, Yingluck’s grace and modesty while taking on her brother’s enemies earned her widespread respect, even among opponents eager to score points but wary of disparaging her.
Just 48 days before the July 3 election, Thaksin’s Puea Thai Party was in disarray. Thaksin was trying to organise the campaign from his villa in Dubai, unable to come home because a two-year prison sentence for abuse of power awaits him.
His decision to thrust his barely known sister into the spotlight looked baffling at first but

Hina Rabbani Khar Offers Hope to Pakistan

Shehrbano Taseer writes in Guardian UK

Indian foreign minister, SM Krishna, and his Pakistan counterpart, Hina Rabbani Khar, arrive for talks in New Delhi, India.

As soon as Hina Rabbani Khar touched down in New Delhi last week to meet SM Krishna, her Indian counterpart, #HRK and #Birkin – her initials and the name of her handbag – began trending worldwide on Twitter.

Across the border, reactions to Khar – who, at 34, is Pakistan's youngest foreign minister – were surprising. The Indian media gushed ("First they sent bombs, now they send bombshells"), while Pakistan's was less enamoured ("Does this expensively dressed minister represent a country which is under hefty debt?"). But Khar – Hermes purse, Roberto Cavalli sunglasses and all – very much represents Pakistan. And especially Pakistani political culture.

The rich-poor disconnect in Pakistan is increasing. A 2010 study estimated that 32% of Pakistan's 180 million population subsists below the poverty line. According to the Human Development Index, 60.3% live on under $2 a day. Wealth distribution in Pakistan is highly uneven and the richest pay little in taxes; Khar only paid Rs8,000 (less than £60) in taxes last year. So her ability to accessorise while millions in her country are homeless jobless and malnourished is hardly surprising. It is indicative of the gulf between the haves

China far west attacks expose violence’s homegrown roots

China said ringleaders of the separatist “East Turkestan Islamic Movement” (ETIM) who trained in Pakistan orchestrated the assault on Sunday that killed six in Kashgar city, Xinjiang region, where many Muslim Uighurs resent the presence of Han Chinese people.

Reuters

BEIJING: The biggest threat to China’s grip on its ethnically divided far western frontier comes from homegrown anger exploding in violence, not from Pakistan-based terrorists officials have blamed for the latest bloodshed.

China said ringleaders of the separatist “East Turkestan Islamic Movement” (ETIM) who trained in Pakistan orchestrated the assault on Sunday that killed six in Kashgar city, Xinjiang region, where many Muslim Uighurs resent the presence of Han Chinese people.

The Uighur (pronounced “Wee-gur”) are a Turkic-speaking people who form a minority in Xinjiang, and are culturally closer to ethnic groups across central Asia and Turkey than the Han Chinese who make the vast majority of China’s population.

Still, many observers doubt the attack was a blow from abroad by ETIM, which they said was struggling, in disarray, and even outright defunct.

Instead, the causes of – and possibly the cure for – ethnic conflict lie mainly within China, they said.

“All conversations I have had with people from China and Pakistan suggests a high degree of skepticism about the real viability of ETIM,” said Andrew Small, a researcher at the German Marshall Fund think tank in Brussels who studies China’s ties with