BBC NEWS (UK), AL JAZEERA (Qatar) Worldcrunch ISLAMABAD – Senior Pakistani militant leader Mullah Nazir has been killed by a US drone strike, Pakistani security officials say. The drone attack killed at least least five fighters including the militant Wednesday night in the northwest tribal district of South Waziristan, according to security officials, reports BBC […]
Category: Geopolitics
ANTARCTIC SHIP RESCUE An operation to rescue the passengers of the Russian ship Akademik Shokalsky was launched this morning, as a Chinese helicopter attempts to ferry tourists and scientists to an Australian ice-breaker, Russia Today reports. The Shokalksky has been trapped in ice since Christmas eve and several evacuation attempts had failed due to poor […]
CAIRO HIT BY DEADLY BOMBSThe Egyptian capital of Cairo was hit by three bombs this morning, killing at least five people and leaving scores injured, Mada Masr reports. The first and biggest explosion targeted the police headquarters in the city center, where four people died. The attacks, for which an al-Qaeda-inspired group claimed responsibility, come […]
TELESUR, ULTIMAS NOTICIAS, EL NACIONAL (Venezuela), BBC (UK) Worldcrunch CARACAS – Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro has told Latin American TV network teleSUR that he had visited President Chavez twice in the past days and that he had shown “gigantic force” as they spoke of political issues. Chavez is currently in Havana, Cuba, where he […]
CONNECTION IVORIENNE (Ivory Coast), BBC (UK) Worldcrunch ABIDJAN – At least 60 people were crushed to death after a New Year’s fireworks display in the Ivory Coast city of Abidjan. More than 250 people were wounded. The stampede occurred around 3 a.m. local time, when an explosion created a panic outside a stadium in the […]
Yes it’s that time of the year again! Readers’ Picks These are the articles that got your attention (and clicks) in 2012. 1. Catholic Church Makes A Fortune in the German Porn Business DIE WELT Weltbild, one of Germany’s largest publishing companies, happens to be owned and operated by the Catholic Church. But that has […]
MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin recently announced that this year was a record year for Russian weapons exports, with $15 billion in contracts for next year and $14 billion worth of weapons that have already been sold in 2012. This past year the main customers for Russian weapons were once again India, Algeria and Vietnam. […]
Categories
The World Next Year: 2013 Edition
Bob McMahon and I typically use our weekly podcast to discuss major foreign policy issues likely to be in the news in the coming week. In honor of the approaching New Year, we decided to change things up and examine the issues likely to dominate world politics in 2013. We discussed a sluggish global economy; […]
CAIRO – Some of the most widely circulated images and clips in the past year and a half have been taken using smartphones, leading a well-known activist to write on Facebook in late November that: “An effective use of a smart phone can sometimes replace the need for a Kalashnikov.” His comment came around the […]
KIGALI– Beginning in January, every African visitor to Rwanda will be granted his or her visa upon arrival in the country from any border post. This “on-the-spot” visa process, according to Ange Sebutege, communications officer at the Rwandan Immigration Services, is designed to bring in more Africans tourists. Until now, visitors had to fill out […]
REUTERS, FOXNEWS, CNN, AP (USA) Worldcrunch SALT LAKE CITY – Gun-rights advocates in Utah have offered six hours of training in handling concealed weapons for teachers, in the wake of the mass shooting that killed 20 children and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. On Thursday, about 200 Utah teachers […]
President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that he will sign the so-called “anti-Magnitsky” bill into law is just part of the widespread anger toward Washington.
FRANCE 24 (France), BBC NEWS (UK), AL JAZEERA (Qatar) Worldcrunch BANGUI – The United Nations has evacuated its non-essential staff from the Central African Republic, while the U.S. urged its nationals to leave as rebels closed in on the capital, reports France 24. The United Nations ordered more than 200 non-essential staff and families of […]
THE TIMES OF INDIA, IANS (India) Worldcrunch SINGAPORE – The 23-year-old Indian woman victim of a gang rape on a New Delhi bus that sparked violent protests was flown to a Singapore hospital on Thursday morning, and remains in criticial condition. The decision to medevac the young woman to Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth hospital was taken […]
DONETSK – Four hundred miles south of Kiev, the oppressively cloudy sky overwhelms the vast plain. The only things cutting through the horizon are the slag heaps from the region’s coal mines. The coal basin of Donbass has seen better times – before Ukraine became independent in 1991, it was the heart of the Soviet […]
MANILA STANDARD TODAY (Philippines), THE INDEPENDENT (UK), AP Worldcrunch MANILA – Angry residents beat a man to death and threw rocks at firefighters after a shantytown fire killed seven people on Christmas day, reports the Associated Press. The man was reportedly beaten to death by his neighbors after shouting that he started Tuesday’s fire in […]
CAIRO – President Mohammed Morsi has reportedly signed a decree Wednesday that activates Egypt’s new Constitution, after nearly 64% of voters approved its adoption in a referendum that concluded this past weekend. Opposition leaders have vowed to try to overturn the new Constitution, saying its language is vague and does not protect freedom of speech […]
MOSCOW – Human rights organization “Shield and Sword” has become the first Russian non-profit forced to register as a “foreign agent.” This comes with the activation of a new law that requires any non-profit that receives funding from outside of the country to register as such with the Russian government. Activists say the legislation was […]
AGEO – Shigeo Iizuka still has the black-and-white photo of his little sister, Yaeko, stuck on the inside cover of his pocket diary. It was June 1978, when the 22-year-old suddently disappeared, taken from the bustling heart of Tokyo and transferred to North Korea to be used as a teacher of Japanese language and customs […]
KABUL – “No, he was not hiding the bomb in his turban or in his briefs,” a high-ranking western military officer tells me. I look at him: his face a bit pale and an uncomfortable demeanor; perhaps, despite his familiarity with the ferocity of war, shocked by the new method used in the attempted assassination […]
– Editorial – PARIS – A revolution is a riot that has succeeded. A riot is a revolution that has failed… For the second time since 1990, Algeria has missed another rendezvous with history, the Arab Spring. Like Saudi Arabia, it remained mostly extraneous to the unrest that overwhelmed the Arab world and led to […]
Warnings by the United States and other countries threatening the Syrian regime with dire consequences if chemical weapons are used against rebel forces may have had the intended effect. Recent media reports suggest this concern has now diminished. It is just as plausible, however, that the regime had little intention of using its chemical weapons […]
Using lasers for tracking objects through the sky has been possible for years, but there’s never been anything like Lockheed’s new laser defense system successfully tested last week. It’s not that using high-powered lasers to drop incoming missiles is anything new, and was achieved by Boeing with a nine-year Air Force project that was canceled […]
LE MONDE (France), SKY NEWS (Australia), BBC (UK) Worldcrunch BAMAKO – The United Nations Security Council has approved an open-ended resolution authorizing military operation to secure northern Mali from terrorist organizations. The design of this gradual intervention, authored by France and to be led by African forces (Ecowas) and supported by the UN military, has […]
CAPITAL FM (Kenya), BBC NEWS (UK), AL JAZEERA (Qatar), REUTERS Worldcrunch NAIROBI – At least 30 people have been killed Friday in clashes between rival farming communities in the Tana River district on the Kenyan coast, reports BBC News. The attacks, that come after weeks of sharp tension between rival Pokomo and Orma communities occurred […]
Also signs of additional facilities that could produce weapons-grade uranium.
PICHARI – Miguel doesn’t make a sound on his way to the plantation. “Best to keep a low profile, put away your microphone,” he advises. The path leads all the way over the Apurímac River, whose brown waters wind through the middle of the forest, to a clearing where shrubs of coca grow across 12 […]
DHARAMSALA – Sacrifice of life for Tibet. Under this scarlet red title, the giant poster displays photos of deceased Tibetans. The poster was put up on a steep road in McLeod Ganj, a village on the slopes of Dharamsala, home of the Tibetan government in exile, in northern India. The street leads to the Tsuglakhang […]
PRETORIA – Jacob Zuma sang in the choir when he was a political prisoner on Robben Island in the 1970s. South Africa’s president has a remarkable voice, and these days he uses it particularly effectively during election campaigns. Not necessarily when he gives speeches (he tends to read these) but in the songs he sings; […]
LOS ANGELES TIMES, VOICE OF AMERICA (USA), REUTERS Worldcrunch WASHINGTON – Four senior U.S. State Department officials resigned after an independent review board determined their operational responsibility for “grossly inadequate” security when Islamic militants killed four Americans at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, reports the Los Angeles Times. Among them is Eric Boswell, the […]
SKYNEWS (UK), KOREAN TIMES (South Korea) Worldcrunch SEOUL – South Korea has elected its first female president, as Park Geun-Hye, the daugther of the country’s longtime autocratic ruler, defeated opposition candidate Moon Jae-in. Park, 60, the conservative party candidate, claimed victory early Thursday, after collecting 51.5% of the votes against Moon’s 47.9%. The campaign largely […]
PARIS – Syria appears to be moving closer by the day toward the end of Assad’s regime. In Western countries, the debate on a military intervention to secure the country’s “hot zones” is gaining momentum. Until now, Western leaders have said that they would only support a military intervention if Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons. […]
MOSCOW – Barack Obama has signed into law a bill that establishes normal trade relations with Russia for the first time in decades, including the repeal of the 1974 Jackson-Vanick Amendment that denied “most favored nation” status to countries restricting human rights. But the bill also included the so-called “Magnitsky” Act, which calls for sanctions […]
PUTIN TO PARDON KHODORKOVSKY After his annual press conference, Vladimir Putin stunned reporters by saying he will sign a pardon for jailed ex-Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky “in the nearest time,” RT reports. MARKETS ON THE RISE AFTER FED’S STIMULUS REDUCTION European and Asian stocks were on the rise this morning after the Federal Reserve’s announcement […]
BERLIN – She’ll never know why, on August 7 1970, her father was in the border area near the Berlin Wall. The only thing she knows is that East German border guards fired 177 shots at him. Monika N. was 13 when she lost her father. Her sister was a year older. The worst thing […]
BBC (UK), REUTERS Worldcrunch KARACHI – Three more health workers administering polio vaccinations in Pakistan were killed Wednesday, a day after five of their colleagues were killed in attacks blamed on Taliban militants. The nationwide campaign to immunize Pakistanis has been suspended after the latest shootings. The three killings came in two separate attacks Wednesday […]
EL NORTE (Mexico), CNN (USA), BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch MEXICO CITY – At least 17 people were killed in a Northern Mexico prison on Tuesday, reports El Norte. Eleven inmates and six guards died in a shootout as the prisoners attempted to escape the prison through tunnels, reports CNN. “The inmates started to shoot with […]
In Aesop’s Fables, the story about the race between the hare and the tortoise tells people that the rabbit’s complacency and the turtle’s perseverance resulted in an unexpected ending to a seemingly predictable contest. In the 21st century, will the economic race between China and India also offer similar twists and turns, notably because of […]
-Editorial- If there is one thing that both government supporters and the opposition in Venezuela can agree on: daily life in is an endless series of unnecessary frustrations. Here are just a couple of recent examples: problems with the ports delayed the arrival of Christmas trees – which are imported from Canada – raising the […]
RISING DEATH TOLL IN SOUTH SUDAN Between 400 and 500 people have died in the past three-plus days of clashes between opposing army factions in South Sudan, the BBC reports, citing UN officials. This comes as former vice-president and opposition leader-in-exile Riek Machar told the Paris-based Sudan Tribunethat he didn’t orchestrate a coup attempt, instead […]