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Category: Geopolitics
The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) governed Mexico, at times with an iron fist, for 70 years until it lost the presidency in 2000. It returned with Enrique Peña Nieto’s victory in this year’s presidential elections. But have politics changed in Mexico? Will the PRI resort to its old ways, asks Luis Rubio,* or will it […]
Your weekly shot of what the Arab world is saying, hearing and sharing.
Around the world, famous and regular folk alike are mourning Nelson Mandela, as South Africa prepares for a 10-day commemoration. Here’s a selection of reactions from heads of state to a certain former heavyweight champ to the people of his nation, to as the world says goodbye to the father of South African democracy and […]
Justin Bieber’s graffiti global tour continues, Berlusconi lingers, Pope Francis surprises again, and other notable quotes from around the world…
Friday, December 5, 2014 NEW CEASEFIRE ATTEMPT IN UKRAINE The Ukrainian government and pro-Russian rebels in eastern parts of the country agreed yesterday to a new ceasefire starting Dec. 9, under the terms of a deal reached three months ago in Minsk, AFP reports. Under the agreement, Kiev will begin withdrawing heavy weapons from the […]
Concerns grow in Beijing, especially as the American boom in shale-gas production is helping the U.S. move toward energy independence.
Thursday, December 4, 2014 NEW YORK PROTESTS GRAND JURY DECISION For the second time in less than two weeks, the presiding grand jury in a high-profile case of a white police officer who’d killed an unarmed black man chose not to bring charges against the officer involved. Protests quickly spread around New York and in […]
Life is about to get even bleaker in Homs, as the third winter arrives since the city fell into the center of the Syrian civil war.
Wednesday, December 3, 2014 DID IRAN STRIKE ISIS IN IRAQ? Iran denied claims made by Al Jazeera and confirmed by the Pentagon that Tehran’s warplanes had launched strikes against ISIS in eastern Iran. Reuters reports that the unnamed senior Iranian official also said that “any cooperation in such strikes with America is also out of […]
Moscow has already made it clear to Ukraine that it should stop reaching out to Western Europe. The same message is being sent to Lithuania, which is already an EU member.
Protests turn deadly in Thailand, a mesmerizing angle for beach sculpture, extreme jumping and more photos that capture our world the past seven days…
BERLIN — A refugee slams a briefcase down on the table, snaps it open and takes out a series of plastic cards. “Here,” he says, “health card from Italy, residence permit, identity card. We have everything. Our asylum cases are complete. We’re allowed to move around in Europe, but we’re not allowed to work, not […]
Tuesday, December 2, 2014 UKRAINE AND REBELS AGREE ON CEASEFIRE Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian rebels have “agreed in principle” on a “total ceasefire” in the eastern region of Luhansk, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe announced. According to the OSCE, heavy weapons will start being withdrawn from the region on Dec. 6. Such […]
Monday, December 1, 2014 IRAQ’S GHOST SOLDIERS A corruption probe in Iraq has discovered that the Iraqi army counts 50,000 “ghost soldiers,” troops that don’t even exist but are paid, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said yesterday, as he continues efforts to end years of graft. Meanwhile, AP reports that the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS launched […]
BEIJING — The recent government shutdown in the United States prompted a chorus of comparisons in China of the two countries’ political systems. The general sentiment? “The American model of democracy is not the only way. The Chinese style may be another option.” But the comparison is inappropriate because it is based on two false […]
Your weekly shot of what the Arab world is saying, hearing and sharing.
-OpEd- ROME — We must remember that Wednesday’s vote to oust Silvio Berlusconi from the Senate does not mean his political demise. Still, his exclusion from Parliament, the sentence for tax fraud and the other alleged cases — involving underaged prostitution, extortion, the bribing of parliamentarians, and corruption of witnesses — put the former prime […]
Europe represents the freedom from political dictatorship. But at what cost?
Friday, November 28, 2014 OIL PRICES CONTINUE TO FALL Oil prices continued their slide today after OPEC member states refused yesterday to cut their output to force higher prices, Reuters reports. “It was a great decision,” Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said after yesterday’s talks. Iran and Venezuela, whose economies are badly hurt by the […]
Thursday, November 27, 2014 SUICIDE BLAST HITS BRITISH EMBASSY IN KABUL At least five people died and 30 were injured in a suicide attack on the British embassy in Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul, the BBC reports. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed one British citizen and mostly hit Afghan bystanders. The group’s […]
Russia is using “obligatory patriotism” and university “deans of ideology” to ward off separatist movements that challenge the central authority.
DEIR EZ-ZOR — On a pitch-black night, we wait in our taxi on the embankment. A fighter informs us there are wounded on the bridge, and that his comrades are trying to reach them. The official name of this deadly crossing — Siyasiyeh Bridge — has been discarded in favor of something much more apt: the bridge of death. Syria’s eastern city of Deir ez-Zor is effectively divided, split between government-run and opposition-held areas. The rebels briefly gained an upper hand when they captured the Siyasiyeh Bridge in late January, effectively cutting off regime supplies to the adjoining province of […]
Categories
Snapshot Of The World, Nov. 19-26
Japan’s new island, the Champs-Élysées alight for Christmas, and protests in the Ukraine are among this week’s featured photographs.
Wednesday, November 26, 2014 FERGUSON PROTESTS SPREAD ACROSS U.S. Protests against a Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson for the killing of teenager Michael Brown spread to more than 170 American cities, from New York to Los Angeles, CNN reports. In Ferguson, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said […]
Tuesday, November 25, 2014 FERGUSON BURNS AFTER GRAND JURY DECISIONViolent rioting and looting erupted in Ferguson, Missouri, after a grand jury decided last night not to indict police officer Darren Wilson, who shot black teenager Michael Brown Aug. 9. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar described the night’s events as “probably much worse than […]
A Le Monde reporter takes us behind the scenes of Geneva’s marathon, high-stakes negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.
Categories
After Geneva: Iran’s Glasnost Moment
Iranians hope a deal on the country’s nuclear program and a softening of sanctions mark a turning point. But what will Iran’s hardliners say?
MOSCOW – Recently, Russian leaders have been meeting more and more frequently with their Asian counterparts – Vladimir Putin visited Vietnam and South Korea last week, and in the past two weeks there have been official meetings with India, China and Japan. Many are starting to talk about a strategic shift in Moscow. What is […]
Monday, November 24, 2014 DEADLINE DAY FOR IRAN NUCLEAR DEALLast-minute talks in Vienna hold little hope that Iran will reach an agreement with world powers today, the deadline, about the country’s nuclear program and the lifting of economic sanctions. U.S. officials admitted yesterday that negotiations might be extended for a second time, The New York […]
HAMA — Most young women in Syria probably grew up dreaming of someday having a beautiful, magical wedding. But in wartime, many women, assuming they are able to wed at all, are settling for ceremonies that are a far cry from what they imagined. “My biggest fear was that we would book a restaurant and no one would show up,” says Sarah, a newlywed from Hama. She had planned to get married at the end of the summer. But plans are hard to make in Syria these days. Roads are so dangerous that chances are slim a mailed invitation will […]
The two explosions that killed at least 23 people this week in Beirut are the latest sign that the country is moving toward the kind of conflict that has torn it apart in the past.
Putin is doing everything to not be remembered by history as the one who “lost” Ukraine. Mother Russia’s imperial face is on the line.
A quick shot of what’s brewing in the Arab world …
Exclusive: inside a special German intelligence program that questions asylum seekers about their home countries. Berlin denies that asylum requests are contingent on cooperation.
One full year has past since peace talks opened between the Colombian government and the rebel forces after decades of war. But behind the slow pace, there are real reasons for hope.
The disaffected youth and religious radicals in the Muslim world are obsessed with Europe’s top football leagues. Testimony of an Italian reporter, who was held hostage earlier this year in Syria.
KHODORKOVSKY FREE Former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was freed from prison this morning, after Thursday’s surprise announcement by Vladimir Putin that he would sign a decree pardoning him of his convictions for fraud, tax evasion and embezzlement, Ria Novosti reports. The international cause célèbre spent a total of 3,709 days in prison. ROOF COLLAPSE AT […]
Thursday, November 20, 2014 IRAN NUCLEAR TALKS STALL As talks on Iran’s nuclear program continue in Vienna ahead of a Nov. 24 deadline to reach an agreement, Iran’s nuclear chief told reporters that his delegation saw “no more room for further negotiations” on the design of its controversial Arak nuclear reactor, AFP reports. This reactor, […]
People escaping the Communist bloc used to try to cross from Bulgaria into Turkey. Now, immigrants, including many refugees from the war in Syria, cross the other way.