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BlackBerry phones may be unwelcome guests at dinner parties, in class, or at the movies, but in the UAE, the smartphones have recently been labeled a "security threat."

"As a result of how Blackberry data is managed and stored, in their current form, certain Blackberry applications allow people to misuse the service, causing serious social, judicial and national security repercussions," an authority from the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority declared.

Despite what may appear to be honest "social [and] judicial" concerns, Emrati officials are annoyed because they can't access BlackBerry users' personal data. Research in Motion, the company behind BlackBerrys, stores their customers' data overseas - outside of the UAE's jurisdiction.

But, this is just the latest attempt at censorship. A year ago, the country's biggest state-run mobile provider Etisalat, promoted an update to the phone that would have allowed the company to access users' personal data like emails and text messages; but it was met with fierce opposition. More recently, Bahrain banned  BlackBerry's "Urgent News" app which aggregated stories from the country's six main newspapers.

Reporters Without Borders listed the UAE as an "Enemy of the Internet" and recently stated that the UAE  "regards the services offered by BlackBerry, especially its instant messaging, as an obstacle to its goal of reinforcing censorship, filtering and surveillance."

The era of the BlackBerry (or CrackBerry, its affectionate nickname) may be over, according to recent figures: In America, R.I.M's share of the smartphone market fell to 41 percent in the first quarter, down from 55 percent last year. But its sales are still increasing overseas. If Dubai still wants to become the financial capital of the world, they're going to have to embrace the CrackBerry.

This week's quiz question:

Which country produces the most hashish?

a) Afghanistan    b) Morocco    c) Russia

Answer after the jump … [[BREAK]]

A, Afghanistan. Afghanistan is well known as the world's top producer of opium, but it's also the world's top producer of hashish, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Other countries do have more land area under cannabis cultivation, but Afghanistan comes out on top because its crop yields more hashish (derived from the resin of the cannabis plant) per hectare. Cannabis generates more net income per hectare than opium poppies, but farmers prefer the poppies because the cannabis plant is more perishable once harvested and grows in the summer, when irrigation water is less available.

"Afghanistan's drug problem is even more complex than just the opium trade," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UNODC, in March. "Yet the remedy remains the same. By improving governance and development in Afghanistan's drug-producing regions, we can knock out the world's biggest supplies of both hash and heroin." 

Now, if only there were a way to wave a magic wand and have better governance in Afghanistan …

You'd think a town named after a substance that kills 90,000 an estimated people every year might want to rebrand itself, but Asbestos, Quebec is sticking to its guns:

The mining town of Asbestos, Quebec, is finding it hard to leave its past behind; the fibre has been banned in 30 countries but it is still being mined in Canada. Indeed, the town plans to start mining it again.

Advocates of the project claim that the chrysotile mined there is the least dangerous asbestos fibre and can be handled in complete safety. "We are not saying there is no risk, but that it is lower than for other asbestos fibres, such as amphibole," said Serge Boislard, who heads the pro-chrysotile movement. He makes no secret of his direct interest. Now a local councillor at Asbestos, after working with the fibre for 42 years, he is among 450 people due to be hired by the company, and said: "The Jeffrey mine has been our livelihood for 130 years."

The Quebec government is currently debating whether to approve a $60m loan that would allow the mine to reopen. 

Asbestos has had a rough go of it in recent years. The mine has been open only sporadically since 2002. Because of the lack of funding, the city government was forced to demolish its own city hall rather than continue to maintain it. In 2006, a magazine ranked it as one of the 10 towns in Quebec most likely to disappear. A plan to import garbage from Montreal to convert into Methane was stalled in court. In light of all this, the town's mayor proposed changine the town's name to Trois-Lacs, but locals rejected the plan.

You'll see no signs of the recent turmoil on Asbestos' official website, which among other attractions for visitors bosts  "Parc récréo-touristique" on the site of the old asbestos mine. 

The Telegraph reports that Wan Wuyi, director of China's main domestic news service, has gone missing after a training course at Britain's Oxford University:

He is said to have gone missing after telling colleagues he was suffering a bad back so would have to delay his flight home after finishing the training last month.

Rumours on the Chinese internet suggested Mr Wan may have decided to flee after his reporting landed him on the wrong side of China's leaders. There were also claims he may have been under investigation for corruption. Mr Wan's wife is said to have already emigrated to the UK....

A spokesman for Xinhua refused to confirm or deny whether Mr Wan had defected. He said: "We do not know the situation clearly. You should keep an eye on the news."

But a Chinese official based in Britain rejected suggestions Mr Wan had gone missing. "This is totally wrong. It is a rumour," said Hei Dalong, the Xinhua bureau chief in London. "Mr Wan is at my home. He has been ill for 50 days and the doctors say he is recovering but only slowly. He cannot travel at this time."

Very fishy. Wan would be a pretty major defection if this turns out to be true. Stay tuned. 

Hat tip: The Diplomat

One of the dubious accomplishments of the Islamic Republic of Iran is how much it's succeeded at making criminality utterly banal. The government has made so many prosaic things illegal - from certain hairstyles, to satellite transmissions -- that consistent enforcement is impossible, and hypocrisy is endemic. Rule-breaking is so ubiquitous that Iranians often don't even feel compelled to hide their flouting of the law; better off just doing what you want and hoping you just won't get nabbed for it. So you go into the supermarket, and next to the cashier you'll see a stand holding Hollywood new releases that wouldn't make it past the censors.

Or, as this Tehran Bureau post reminded me, you'll drive on the highway past people selling contraband puppies off of truck beds. (Though the photo suggests a back alley arrangement.) Dogs are technically illegal in Iran, but in a tacit acknowledgement of the popularity of the puppy black market, the government hasn't barred the sale of dog food.

One can only imagine what sort of strained small talk this leads to at the cash register. Perhaps the Iranian government should consider legislating some sort of animal amnesty. A canine version of Don't Ask, Don't Tell?

Asia

• A bomb blast killed 25 people on a bus in Southern Afghanistan. 
• British Prime Minister David Cameron visited India to promote new trade links.
• China's Three Gorges dam is nearing its maximum water level after massive flooding.  

Middle East

• In a new tape, a man reported to be al Qaeda no. 2 Ayman al Zawahri makes reference to the failed Times Square bombing attempt, the French veil ban, and Israel's botched flotilla raid. 
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan's King Abdullah II met in Amman for security talks. 
• An explosion, possibly deliberate, damaged a Japanese oil tanker in the Persian gulf. 

Europe

• According to a new U.S. State Department report, Russia may not be acting in compliance with international treaties on chemical and biological weapons.
• A British court has blocked the extradition of former Bosnian leader Ejup Ganic to face war crimes trials in Serbia.
• Iceland is continuing to defy EU fishing rules as its accession talks begin.

Africa

• Eleven people were killed by fighting near Mogadishu's largest outdoor market.
• Four white South African university students pleaded guilty to a widely publicized incident of humiliating black staff on video.  
• Two German aid workers, kidnapped in Darfur five weeks ago, were freed. 

Americas

• Police found eight human heads left by the side of roads in the northern Mexican city of Durango. 
• Four journalists have been reported missing in northern Mexico.
• Venezuela has arrested six alleged right-wing Colombian paramilitaries. 

MANPREET ROMANA/AFP/Getty Images)

Earlier today in Ankara, David Cameron was eager to display a facility with the Turkish language: Tabii ki Tuerkiye ­- "of course, it's Turkey," in English - was the refrain of a speech advocating Turkey's admittance to the EU. Judging from his argument though, Cameron would have benefitted from a better acquaintance with the Latin phrase non sequitur, or the colloquial Americanism straw man.

There are many good reasons that Turkey should be an EU member state. This is not one of them:

When I think about what Turkey has done to defend Europe as a NATO ally and what Turkey is doing today in Afghanistan alongside our European allies it makes me angry that your progress towards EU Membership can be frustrated in the way it has been. My view is clear. I believe it's just wrong to say Turkey can guard the camp but not be allowed to sit inside the tent."

Whatever this excerpt says about Cameron's personal integrity, it doesn't have much purchase as a political argument. NATO and the EU are two entirely separate entities, with different histories, different mandates and overlapping, but different, membership rolls.  Participation in the one doesn't require, nor imply, participation in the other; membership in NATO is supposed to be its own reward. Or is Cameron suggesting that the United States line up alongside Turkey for EU accession, followed shortly thereafter by Albania?

Then there's Cameron's tidy summary of the case against Turkey. There are apparently three groups of European Turkey-skeptics: the protectionist (who see Turkey as "an economic threat"), the polarized (who are in thrall to a vision of a "clash of civilizations"), and the prejudiced (who "willfully misunderstand Islam"). Cameron proceeds to show just how mistaken those troglodytes are.

But does Cameron really think the reasons of the EU states holding up Turkish accession fall under his categories? France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany's Angela Merkel are both on the record resisting Turkish entry. Which are they: the polarized? Or is it the prejudiced? Or, perchance, might they be motivated by national interest? (Wait: Might the U.K. itself be motivated by national interest?)

There's no doubt that including Turkey would mean changes for the EU. Those changes may be for the better - from increased soft power, to a more dynamic internal market - but it's only prudent for each country to evaluate those changes on its own. France is right to wonder whether accepting Turkey into the club would put an end to its dream of a deepened EU foreign policy, much less its annual bounty of EU agriculture subsidies. Demographic trends being what they are, Germans should be forgiven for clinging to the EU voting rights commensurate with their status as Europe's most populous country. They'd also be deluded not to consider the impact of potential Turkish migration to German cities with large numbers of Turkish immigrants.

Name-calling accomplishes little in such a fraught enterprise. And making it all seem obvious and uncomplicated is only condescending.

The Turkish surely know this. Perhaps Cameron was calculating that earning good graces in Ankara was worth risking scorn in Berlin and Paris. But I wonder whether all he's done is lose credibility all around.

Or, most frightening of all, maybe he actually believes this argument accurately describes European institutions and European concerns. Even if Cameron skipped his rhetoric classes at Eton and Oxford, here's hoping he didn't sleep through all the rest.

U.N. Dispatch's Mark Leon Goldberg, reporting on today's House subcommittee hearings of the U.N. Millenium Development Goals, quotes a very strange argument made by California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher: 

Does progress on the Millennium Development Goals enhance American national security interests?  The Obama administration apparently thinks so.  They even included the MDGs and other development themes in their recent National Security Strategy... 

Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who is the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight apparently disagrees with this premise.  At a subcommittee hearing on the MDGs that I attended this morning he railed against the very idea that security threats could emanate from poor countries.  After, all, he said, "Adolf Hitler came from a developed country!" 

Rohrabacher, who earned a spot on our "worst predictions" list last year by forcasting the ChiCom domination of the Panama Canal, has brilliantly elevated Godwin's Law to previously unknown heights. He's not even comparing a policy he doesn't like to Nazism, he's arguing that a policy should be opposed because it wouldn't have prevented Nazism. (Put aside, for a moment, the fact that the 21st-century developing world is not exactly devoid of muderous dictators.)

With the rise of the Tea Party, it seems that American conservatives have opened up a healthy lead in the use of Hitler-related rhetoric -- Sheldon Whitehouse, notwithstanding. Clearly, what the Democrats need right now to regain the rhetorical upper-hard are more Hitler-related arguments. Here are a few suggestions: 

-- The START treaty:  You know who else didn't honor his agreements with Russia? Hitler!

--  The National Endowment for the Arts: You know what happens when aspiring artists can't support themselves? Hitler!

-- Cap and Trade: You know who else didn't believe that global warming was caused by human activity? Hitler!

I look forward to the day when all U.S. policy debates will be conducted on the basis of what hypothetical Hitler would think.

Feel free to come up with your own Hitler arguments in the comments.

Life can be hard for a psychic cephalopod. One day your countrymen are threatening to turn you into calamari for correctly betting against the national soccer team, the next day you're being denounced as a symbol of western imperialism: 

[T]he Iranian president accused the octopus of spreading "western propaganda and superstition." Paul was mentioned by Mr Ahmadinejad on various occasions during a speech in Tehran at the weekend.

"Those who believe in this type of thing cannot be the leaders of the global nations that aspire, like Iran, to human perfection, basing themselves in the love of all sacred values," he said.

One would think that at this point, national leaders would want to stay on Paolo's good side.

For the first time in memory, neither Fidel nor Raul Castro addressed the annual Revolution Day rally in Havan yesterday. Raul was at the event but left the main speech to First Vice President Jose Ramon Machado. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who was scheduled to attend as the guest of honor, was also a no-show, citing heightened tentsons with neighboring Colombia.

Fidel was out-and-about elsewhere in town, but the choice of Machado -- age, 80 -- to take their place at the ceremony, doesn't do much to convey the message that the revolutionary generation has made plans to pass on the torch. Even after Raul Castro's widely publicized cabinet "shake-up" last year, the gerontocracy remains in place -- only one of his five vice-presidents was born after the 1953 guerilla attack that Revolution Day commemorates.  One of them make the Castros look like spring chickens. Two of the younger rising stars of the regime, cabinet minister Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque -- both considered potential future presidents -- lost their positions. 

The rally could have been an opportunity to highlight the generation that will take up the mantle of the Cuban revolution but the most prominent young face on display seems to have been the long-dead Che Guevara.