IRAN: Obama’s Iraq policy speech at Camp LeJeune was closely watched by the Middle East media. Press TV (Iran) saw it as a step in the right direction, although the author pointed out that August 31, 2010 is a later withdrawal date than Obama promised during his campaign.

Press TV also took the opportunity to do a little Bush bashing. They cited a poll with 60% of Americans saying that the Iraq War was “not worth it”.

Press TV article: Obama sets Iraq withdrawal date

DHAKA, BANGLADESH: Many of the families evicted from their homes during the fighting earlier this week are still trapped outside the gates.

Photo of Dhaka by Akhlaque Haque

UPDATED: 11 March 2009

DHAKA, BANGLADESH: The police quelled a violent mutiny by thousands of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), a paramilitary border defense force. Their uprising lasted only 34 hours, but already rescue workers have uncovered dozens of bodies in sewers, drain pips, and shallow graves. Most of the dead were military personnel who were held hostage during the mutiny.

The mutiny began Tuesday when armed BDR fighters seized the BDR headquarters building in Dhaka. The Bangladesh Army evacuated a 3km radius around the BDR HQ and reinforced the siege with tanks and heavy artillery.

‘Lay down your guns immediately and go back to barracks. Do not force me to take tough actions or push my patience beyond tolerable limits,’ PM Sheikh Hasina said.

The tension rapidly spread around the country. Fighting was reported in at least 15 other BDR bases. The BDR’s big beef is that their leadership comes from the army and police corpse, and not from promotion through the BDR ranks. They would like to be lead by their own. They are also looking for higher wages and the freedom to accept better paying UN Peacekeeping missions.

The BDR mutineers held out until they had a government assurance of amnesty and a promise to look into their demands.

Many of the hostages are still mssing.

New Nation article: Mutiny ends as tanks enter city: Police takes over Peelkhana armoury as BDR rebels surrender: 11 bodies of army officials recovered: Fate of 127 still unknown

BDNews24.com article: Mutiny ends as rebels retreat, police enter

This is part one of a series of interviews with a revel leader in Patani, in southern Thailand. The conflict reaches back to 1902, when Thailand colonized the independent Patani Kingdom. The Patani leader even refers to Thailand as Siam, to give you an idea of how long they have been fighting.

Cartoon from Outlook Afghanistan

Outlook Afghanistan Cartoon Page

Photo by riptheskull

Around the globe people tuned in to watch, listen, or read Obama’s speech from last night. Here’s how different papers around the world responded.

Times of India

The Times of India ran a piece that mostly profiled Bobby Jindal’s response. Jindal, of Indian decent, has been a major thorn in Obama’s side ever since the stimulus fight got underway. The Times o India focused on Jindal’s criticism of the economic plan, but did service to the Democratic side of things. I don’t know if the Jindal emphasis has to do with his being Indian, or more because they wanted a change of pace from all the Obama coverage. They are the only paper that made reference to the fact that Republicans on Capitol Hill are acting against the wishes of over 1/3 of their consituents.

Al Jazeera English

Al Jazeera talked about the international fallout more. They discussed his bold claims and his big spending. Al Jazeera was also concerned with Obma’s foreign policy. Their correspondent in Afghanistan had this to say:

Those in Afghanistan who watched the speech probably would not have been particularly impressed. Clearly, there is a question about whether or not, amid all of this financial turmoil, the US can continue to foot the cost of the war.

When it came to Jindal, Al Jazeera quote him in a practically angelic light. To fill their readers in on some of the background they described Republicans as “champions of smaller government and decreased public expenditure”, despite the past 7 years where that has been anything but true.

China Daily

The China Daily’s report told about how Obama entered the room to great applause, and how he stopped for a long embrace with Ginsberg, who just got back from surgery. They didn’t mention the oppossition at all. Their quotes for Obama were his sweeping positive statements, and none of his specifics. They didn’t mention any policies directly, but chose to give their readers a broad look at the address. I think CD was trying to capture the Obama narrative more than the Obama plan. The author loved using the phrase “day of reckoning”.

Mail and Guardian

The M&G article was all hugs and kisses for the speech. They quoted Senators from both sides of the aisle, including McCain, who had great things to say about the speech. McCain’s problems with the speech were also quoted, but then quickly followed by Claire McCaskill’s quotes about how great it was. One point of interest is that Michael Pence snuck in a quote about how bad it is to “raise taxes in a time of recession”,. I wish M&G had included for its readers that only the top 2% of Americans are involved in those hikes. I am assuming that most of the South African population is uninformed on the subject, so Pence’s statement is a tad misleading.

Times of India article: Obama’s financial plan irresponsible: Jindal

China Daily article: Obama vows to lead US from dire ‘day of reckoning’

Mail and Guardian article: Legislators from Barack Obama’s Democratic Party as well as several opposition Republicans responded positively to the new president’s first address to Congress late on Tuesday.

INDIA: There has been much debate among Indians about how to receive Slumdog Millionaire’s big win at the Oscars on Sunday. Many are proud to see a film shot in India, with Indian actors do so well abroad. Others feel that Slumdog’s portrayal of biting poverty and the ugly underbelly of Mumbai is unbalanced and unfair.

What no one has talked about yet is why this film is so popular. It seems that the story of a guy, with almost no hope of success, pulling one out of the fire might be something we can all relate to. Without big name stars or big name money this movie made it to the top. At the SAG awards I even heard the actors thank their casting director. That blew my mind. Barely anyone else that was nominated had to go through a casting director. Most of those stars get hand picked by the director, or they get the script written for them in the first place.

Tarun Shankar has a great opinion column in Outlook India talking about this, so I am going to defer to him here.

Outlook India article: Slumdogs Worldwide