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...Russian-orchestrated meeting comes amid fears that ongoing battles with Taliban militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan are spilling over into Central Asia - particularly Tajikistan, which shares a porous 800-mile-long (1,300 km-long) border with Afghanistan. Over recent months, Tajik security forces have been involved in an extensive campaign to combat local militants and supposed drug gangs operating in its mountainous borderlands, but there are also rumors of the return of Tajik Taliban fighters who have traded one rugged frontier for another. As if on cue, while the premiers were in discussion, a car bomb blast rocked Dushanbe...
...Behind the handshakes and platitudes lies a deeper political calculus. Karzai and Zardari began their presidential terms with staunch support from Western capitals - now both have fallen out of favor, faulted for not doing enough to rein in extremists amid accusations of corruption and misrule. A warmer relationship with Russia could be the counterbalance to the West's increasingly frosty and frustrated attitude toward Afghanistan and Pakistan. (See pictures of world leaders...
Admission is eventually granted, and amid the hanging plastic carrier bags and dim lighting, the shop owner unhooks a large basket from the ceiling. She proceeds to reveal two Chanel clutches and a Hermes bag. San Remo buildings are simple in style, but something suggests that this shop is more than just an unpretentious guise. The owner pulls more and more high-end designer bags out of the cheaper merchandise, each item indistinguishable from genuine upmarket products. She claims that most of the bags are simply very good quality fakes, but admits that a couple may have...
...Amid all the other tumult, causes and revolutions of the 1960s - race, sex, war, feminism - the fight of the fat is a historical footnote. But America's overweight had their cause too. When hippies started staging "be-ins" to protest the Vietnam War, the first fat activists co-opted the idea: they staged their own event in New York City's Central Park, dubbed it a "Fat-In" and ate ice cream while burning posters of über-thin model Twiggy. Viva la revoluci...
...Amid the turmoil is one almost paranoid bit of speculation: that the public brawl Ahmadinejad finds himself in is just part of the smoke and mirrors orchestrated by Khamenei or his protégés to lend Ahmadinejad more credibility. A political insider in contact with officials in the regime says Khamenei's second son, Mojtaba Khamenei - who holds substantial influence among the ruling clergy and is seen by many as being groomed to succeed the Supreme Leader - still firmly supports the President. "He needs Ahmadinejad around to give himself legitimacy," says the insider. "This is all just...