AP, NEW YORK TIMES, BBC Worldcrunch MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin says he doesn’t rule out his country’s participation in a military operation in Syria if evidence showing that Damascus carried out chemical attacks is “convincing”. He added that the operation must be conducted with U.N. approval. In a rare interview with the Associated […]
Category: Geopolitics
REUTERS, AP, BBC Worldcrunch CLEVELAND — Ariel Castro, the Cleveland man sentenced to life in prison for the kidnapping, rape and beatings of three Cleveland women he held captive in his house for nearly 10 years, was found hanged in his prison cell late Tuesday evening, Reuters reports. According to a prison official quoted by […]
President Hollande has the power to strike militarily without parliamentary consent. But democratic and political necessities require it.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014 SECOND ISIS BEHEADING VIDEO CONFIRMED The U.S. Intelligence Community has authenticated the video published yesterday by ISIS which purported to show the beheading of another journalist, Steven Sotloff of dual American-Israeli citizenship, two weeks after similar footage of James Foley was released, The New York Times reports. Speaking from Estonia where […]
LE FIGARO (France) Worldcrunch DAMASCUS — Bashar al-Assad warned France not to launch a military strike, which the Syrian president said would support terrorism against the interests of the Syrian people. In an exclusive interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, Assad said that should Paris take part in a military intervention, “there will be repercussions, […]
French President Hollande has been in step with U.S. calls to strike Syria. Now with Obama’s request for a Congressional vote, France is left flapping in the wind.
Tuesday, September 2, 2014 RUSSIA TO REVIEW MILITARY DOCTRINE AGAINST NATO Moscow will review its military doctrine in the face of NATO expansion to countries that border Russia. Mikhail Popov, a Russian National Security Council official, said the military alliance was “one of the external military threats,” RT reports. This comes after the announcement yesterday […]
BBC, AFP Worldcrunch CAIRO — Ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is to stand criminal trial for “incitement to murder,” though no trial date has been set, according to Egyptian state television and the AFP. The charges are related to the deadly clashes outside the presidential palace in December 2012, when at least seven people were […]
GUARDIAN (UK), LE MONDE (France), AFP, ARUTZ SHEVA, JERUSALEM POST (Israel), RUSSIA TODAY, REUTERS Worldcrunch WASHINGTON — The Syrian crisis shifts in a new direction this week after President Barack Obama’s announcement that he will seek Congressional approval for any U.S. intervention. Following that news, Secretary of State John Kerry clarified that Obama had the […]
TEL AVIV — While we talk about a certain economic stability in Ramallah, the economy in Gaza is in free fall, which is due in no small measure to the massive closing of the tunnels used to smuggle in products across the border from Egypt. The Palestinian economy, at least in the West Bank, is […]
Monday, September 1, 2014 UKRAINE FORCES LOSE AIRPORT AHEAD OF TALKS Ukrainian government forces pulled out of the international airport in Luhansk after an assault by pro-Russian rebels, even as Ukrainian and Russian officials are preparing to meet in Minsk for another round of talks, the BBC reports. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he […]
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Turkey And Egypt: When Worlds Collide
–Analysis– Over this past weekend one of my Economist-devouring, Washington Post-reading, New York Times-gobbling buddies who does not work in the field of foreign affairs asked me, “Hey, what’s up with Erdogan and the Turks?” I’ve been asked this question so many times this summer by so many people that I’ve lost count. It’s been […]
As war has made regular work scarce, Ayham has trafficked in anything that has a buyer. But lately he says the face of the black market has started to change.
Syria is more reminiscent of the Balkan wars in the 1990s than Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s imperative for the West to act to force Assad’s hand, not just to slap his wrist.
“I would not call it a war, but the sanction of a monstrous violation of human rights,” the French president tells Le Monde.
THE GUARDIAN (UK), LE MONDE (France), BBC, AFP, REUTERS Worldcrunch LONDON — The U.K. Parliament dealt a heavy blow to a gathering international coalition against the Syrian regime – and David Cameron’s premiership – by voting against a crucial government motion that would have paved the way for British involvement in a possible intervention in […]
WASHINGTON POST Worldcrunch WASHINGTON – The U.S. commando raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden was guided from space by a fleet of satellites, according to a top-secret U.S. intelligence documents revealed Friday by the Washington Post. As the May 2011 mission unfolded, the satellites aimed dozens of receivers over Pakistan to collect electronic […]
The conflict in Syria has reshuffled the deck for Kurds across the region, from Turkey to Iraq. A recent mass exodus from Syria is just one sympton of a deeper problem.
A Polish army officer got himself deported to Auschwitz to document war crimes in the concentration camp. Now for the first time, Germans can read this vivid account.
Gang fights, clandestine excavations, a thriving black market for cigarettes. In post-Mubarak, post-Morsi Egypt, life and violence go on for the people of Bab El Bahr Street.
Friday, August 29, 2014 UKRAINE PLANS NATO MEMBERSHIP NATO officials are holding an emergency meeting in Brussels this morning after it released satellite imagery showing “well over 1,000” Russian troops in Ukraine, warning that 20,000 more were “amassed at the border,” the Financial Times reports. Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk, meanwhile, announced that Kiev would […]
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Bus Crash In Kenya Kills 41
KENYAN RED CROSS, DAILY NATION (Kenya), AFP, ALL AFRICA Worldcrunch NAIROBI — At least 41 people died and 27 more were injured in a bus crash in Kenya Thursday morning, the Kenyan Red Cross said. “It is difficult to tell exactly what happened, but all indications point to speeding and possibly overloading,” police officer Samuel […]
After the chemical attacks, military intervention is a question of humanity, but also of realpolitik. That does not, however, mean it will resolve the situation in Syria.
Greenwald was on vacation in Brazil when he met his partner Miranda and traded in his NY law career for journalism. Now the couple are both in the spotlight over the Edward Snowden leak.
Thursday, August 28, 2014 UKRAINE DENOUNCES “RUSSIAN TROOP DEPLOYMENT” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko cancelled a trip to Turkey over what he described as “Russian troop deployments” in eastern Ukraine. His decision comes amid reports of a Russian “invasion” and the gathering of special OSCE meeting in Vienna. Writing on Twitter, U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey […]
BBC, AL JAZEERA (Qatar), AFP Worldcrunch BAGHDAD — Coordinated bombings in Iraq’s capital of Baghdad killed at least 44 people and wounded 157 more Wednesday, the BBC reports. Aimed at the Shia Muslim community, bombs exploded during rush hour in most of the city’s Shia neighborhoods and in two mixed towns to its south. A […]
FOREIGN POLICY, REUTERS, BBC, RUSSIA TODAY, SANA (Syria) Worldcrunch DAMASCUS – American intelligence services say they have intercepted “panicked phone calls” between an official at the Syrian Ministry of Defense and a leader of a chemical weapons unit last Wednesday, after the alleged chemical attack took place. The magazine Foreign Policy, which reported the claim […]
After months of talk, the United States and its allies may now be on the verge of military intervention in Syria. As American military leaders met with European and regional leadership in Amman to discuss the Syrian crisis, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told the BBC Tuesday that the U.S. has “moved assets into place” […]
Western sources say Russia sought out the American whistleblower when he was on the run in Hong Kong. The Kremlin denies it.
Though Kurdish Syrians have largely avoided any involvement in the country’s civil war, they are now caught in the middle and fleeing in droves. A visit to the refugee camp in Iraq.
With the ownership change of the 24-hour news channel Globovision, the last remaining television source for reporting that challenges the government is gone.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014 UN DENOUNCES ISIS AND SYRIAN GOVERNMENT ACTIONS In a report following months of investigation in Syria, the United Nations said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Syrian government forces had used chlorine gas, a chemical agent, eight times on civilian areas in April. The UN also denounced crimes committed by […]
BBC, NEW YORK TIMES, AL JAZEERA, AFP Worldcrunch DAMASCUS – As the United States appeared to toughen its stance against Syria, United Nations inspectors were forced Tuesday to postpone their investigation into the sites of the alleged chemical attacks in the suburbs of Damascus, according to the AFP. The Syrian Foreign Affairs Minister Walid Muallem […]
BBC, O GLOBO (Brazil), LA RAZÓN (Bolivia) Worldcrunch BRASILIA — Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota resigned last night in the wake of a diplomatic row with Bolivia, the BBC reports. He sent his resignation to Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff after it emerged that a Bolivian senator accused of corruption who had been sheltered in the […]
Spat on and kicked out of his job running a top Cairo theater company, Tamer Abdel Moneim, a bona fide *fulul*, says he’s proud he always stuck by the deposed former strongman.
U.S. APPROVES SYRIA SURVEILLANCE FLIGHTS President Barack Obama approved manned and unmanned surveillance flights over Syria in a bid to hit ISIS positions without reinforcing President Bashar al-Assad, The New York Times reports, describing the decision as “a precursor to potential airstrikes there.” According to officials, Washington has no intention of notifying or asking the […]
AFP, BBC Worldcrunch RAMALLAH – Three Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces Monday after a raid in the Qalandiya West Bank refugee camp, which threatens to derail ongoing peace talks. Clashes erupted in the camp after Israeli forces attempted to arrest a suspect, the AFP reports. Medical sources said at least 19 other people […]
TEL AVIV — Israeli officials are under the impression that the United States soon will conduct a Syrian military operation even without a decision from the U.N. Security Council. This comes after a Friday phone call between U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey and Israeli Army chief of staff Benny Gantz. A […]
AL JAZEERA, BBC, NEW YORK TIMES, LE MONDE (France), IZVESTIYA (Russia) Worldcrunch DAMASCUS – As pressure mounted for a strong Western response against the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, United Nations inspectors were heading Monday to the site of last week’s suspected chemical attack in the outskirts of the Syrian capital. Both the Syrian […]