CNN, KOMMERSANT (Russia), RIA NOVOSTI (Russia) Worldcrunch KIROV – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was released from detention on bail Friday, one day after being sentenced to five years for theft and embezzlement. The Kirov regional court, east of Moscow, ruled that keeping him in custody would deprive him of his right to stand in […]
Category: Geopolitics
Take a tour of what the world has been saying this week…
Friday, July 18, 2014 RUSSIA, UKRAINE TRADE BLAME OVER MH17 DISASTER Moscow and Kiev are accusing each other of being responsible for the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 yesterday in eastern Ukraine, with 298 people on board, most of them Dutch. All sides agree on the fact that the aircraft was hit by a […]
KOMMERSANT (Russia), BBC, CNN Worldcrunch KIROV – Russian protest leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced to five years in jail for theft and embezzlement on Thursday. The Kirov City Court found the anti-corruption campaigner guilty of defrauding about $500,000 worth of lumber from a state-run company, reports Russia’s Kommersant. The tough sentence did not come as […]
BBC (UK), AFP Worldcrunch LOGAR– At least 8 Afghan workers were kidnapped and shot dead on their way to jobs at a U.S. military base in Logar province, south of Kabul. No group has taken responsibility for the attack, however, local officials blame the Taliban terrorist group, BBC reports. The workers, aged from 15 to […]
Thursday, July 17, 2014 GAZA’S SHORT-LIVED CEASEFIRE A temporary ceasefire that was planned to last at least five hours was broken less than three hours after it started, with the southern Israeli town of Eshkol targeted by what the Israeli military says were three mortars. The Guardian says there are conflicting reports about the attack […]
CNN Worldcrunch Al Qaeda’s No. 2 man in Yemen, Said al-Shihri, once emerged from the aftermath of drone strikes in the past to lambast the CIA for trying to kill him. Now, it has been confirmed, US forces have finally struck their target. A message on jihadi websites announced al-Shihri’s death Tuesday. It was purportedly […]
Domestic workers from the Philippines have faced sexual abuse by their employers in places like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan. Now they also accuse Manila’s own embassy employees.
AMMAN – The southern Syrian province of Daraa borders both Israel and Jordan — it is also considered the gateway to Damascus. With the strategic stakes so high, the area has seen fierce battles between regime and rebel forces since the early months of the conflict. As recently as April, the rebel offensive in Daraa […]
Over the past five years, the global weapons trade has grown at a rate of 30%, with total sales of arms and military hardware rising from $56.6 billion to $73.4 billion. A study released last month by IHS Jane’s details the evolution since 2008 in the arms trade across the world. Take a global tour […]
Wednesday, July 16, 2014 ISRAEL TARGETS HAMAS LEADERS IN FRESH STRIKES The Israeli air force is continuing to strike Gaza, targeting the residences of four Hamas leaders hours after warning 100,000 Gazans to flee their homes, AP reports. This comes after Hamas rejected an Egypt-brokered ceasefire yesterday. Blogger Richard Silverstein writes that a well-placed Israeli […]
REUTERS Worldcrunch CAIRO – Seven people were killed and more than 260 wounded when supporters of Mohammed Morsi clashed with the deposed president’s opponents and security forces through the night as violence returned to Egypt“s streets. Two people were killed at a bridge in central Cairo where police and anti-Morsi locals clashed with some of […]
The revelations of the NSA surveillance program came on the heels of the Boston Marathon attack. America weighs the links between an alleged terrorist and self-avowed whistleblower.
THE JAKARTA POST (Indonesia), REUTERS, CNN Worldcrunch NABIRE – At least 18 people were killed in a stadium stampede on Sunday night after a riot broke out over the result of a boxing match in Nabire, in eastern Indonesia. Around midnight, just after the end of an amateur boxing game, some spectators started protesting the […]
BDNEWS24 (Bangladesh), BBC Worldcrunch DHAKA – Ghulam Azam, spiritual chief of Bangladesh’s main Islamist party, was sentenced Monday to 90 years in jail for crimes against humanity during the country’s Liberation War in 1971. A war crimes tribunal in the capital of Dhaka found the 91-year-old former Jamaat-e-Islam leader guilty of five charges: murder and […]
BBC (UK), CNN (USA) Worldcrunch WASHINGTON– In a statement released on the White House’s website, US President Barack Obama has called for calm as protests continue following a Florida jury’s not guilty verdict in the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman case, reports the BBC. In his statement, Obama called Martin’s death a tragedy, but said that America […]
Monday, July 14, 2014 GAZA STRIKES CONTINUE AS OFFENSIVE ENTERS 7TH DAY The Israeli army continues to launch air strikes in Gaza, while more rockets are fired towards Israel, as the open conflict reaches its seventh day. At least 172 Palestinians are reported killed with more than 1,100 wounded. The United Nations said that 17,000 […]
Cases of vandalism are multiplying against Arab villages and places of worship.
BUENOS AIRES – Washington’s blatent public pressure to keep Edward Snowden from obtaining political asylum has fed a new wave of anti-Americanism worldwide. It also represents a test for the United States’ bilateral relations with several countries, including Russia and those in its own “backyard.” What explains the willingness of Barack Obama’s government to pay […]
–OpEd– There are many similarities between the protests around Gezi Park in Turkey and those of the Free Pass Movement in Brazil. In both cases, initial demonstrations were small with specific objectives: to save the park and to obtain free public transport, respectively. And discontent in both countries reached a critical mass amid widespread perception […]
Friday, July 11, 2014 NEW EVIDENCE OF EASTERN UKRAINE TORTURE NGO Amnesty International says it has gathered evidence of “stomach-turning beatings and torture” committed by pro-Russian and pro-Kiev groups against “activists, protesters and journalists” in Eastern Ukraine. In its report, the organization notes however that pro-Kiev forces have committed “a smaller number of abuses,” and […]
SHANGLIN – Zhen Minxin keeps repeating that he is “lucky.” On this warm morning of mid-June, his return back home is being celebrated, with the slices of watermelon laid out on the table and cigarette butts scattered on the floor as sure signs of the festivities. Zhen’s own cigarettes are Gold Seal, a brand unknown […]
Thursday, July 10, 2014 77 PALESTINIANS DEAD IN GAZA A Gaza health ministry spokesman said that at least 77 Palestinians had been killed and more than 500 injured in the past three days, as Israel intensified strikes on targets in Gaza, The Guardian reports. Israel military said it had hit 322 targets last night, taking […]
Though Israeli leaders were pleasantly surprised by some aspects of Mohammed Morsi’s reign, they are not sorry to see him go. For one thing, it’s a big blow to Hamas.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014 AIR ATTACKS INTENSIFY BETWEEN ISRAEL AND HAMASIsrael carried out dozens of air strikes early Wednesday, with at least 28 people reported killed and more than 100 wounded in Gaza since Monday. Palestinian authorities said two women and five children were among the victims killed in what the Israeli military called “Operation […]
Tuesday, July 8, 2014 ISRAEL PREPARES FOR GROUND OFFENSIVE IN GAZA Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the army to prepare for a possible ground offensive in Gaza, Haaretz quotes a senior official as saying. This comes after the Israeli military launched “Operation Protective Edge” hitting more than 50 targets in air strikes. Palestinian militants […]
Monday, July 7, 2014 THREE SUSPECTS CONFESS MURDER OF PALESTINIAN TEEN Israeli news sources report that three of the six suspected Jewish extremists arrested by the Israeli police yesterday have since confessed to murdering Mohammed Abu Khdeir, the 16 year-old Palestinian abducted and believed to have been burned alive last week. Israel’s daily Haaretz also […]
BERLIN – After the fall of Mohammed Morsi in Egypt, the West is still trying to figure out what words to use to describe what is happening. In Berlin, no one wants to use the P-word, so instead of referring to a military putsch, Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle spoke of a “stay in democratic […]
This week’s selection of magazine covers from around the world.
President Santos’ decision to try to negotiate an end to a decades-long civil war is the only path for a nation that has suffered too much already.
PARIS – The revelations of the controversial U.S. domestic surveillance program PRISM have provoked massive indignation through much of Europe, but France has been rather quiet. There are two simple explanations: Paris was already aware — and does exactly the same. Le Monde has confirmed that the “Direction Générale de la Securité Extérieure” (DGSE, the […]
The Egyptian Army Chief and Defense Minister had ordered the ultimatum to President Morsi, and then followed through. A portrait of Egypt’s strongest strong man.
Friday, July 4, 2014 ISRAEL-HAMAS CEASEFIRE EXPECTED A truce between Israel and Hamas appeared to be on the cards this morning, after Egypt intelligence officials held negotiations with both sides, The Times of Israel reports. Despite the imminence of a possible ceasefire, more rockets were fired at Israel and IDF continued to fire artillery in […]
BEIJING – These are good days for China. Not so much for the United States — or Sino-American relations. After Edward Snowden left Hong Kong unhindered last week, the angered Americans at first threatened this would have “negative consequences” on relations between the two superpowers. Snowden’s departure had delivered a blow to “mutual confidence,” the […]
Thursday, July 3, 2014 ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN STRIKES CONTINUE Israel’s air force and Palestinian militants exchanged fire for another night, with 15 air strikes in Gaza leaving at least 10 Palestinians injured. The New York Times reported that multiple rockets were also fired from across the border, with two Israeli houses hit in the border town of […]
Forty years after government killings here sparked the militant anti-Apartheid movement, the ailing grandfather of modern South Africa is a reminder not to return to the past.
CAIRO – Several million demonstrators add up to a considerable force that no elected leader can ignore. Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood have a lot more people demonstrating against them than ever took the streets against former president Hosni Mubarak. And still, given the off-with-their-heads rhetoric on both sides, the latest protests […]
Wednesday, July 2, 2014 CLASHES IN JERUSALEM AFTER DEATH OF PALESTINIAN TEEN A 16 year-old Palestinian who was allegedly kidnapped yesterday by Israelis, in an apparent retaliation for the death of the three abducted Israeli students, was found dead early this morning in a forest west of Jerusalem, AFP reports. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said […]
