The gruesome attack on the U.N. compound in Mogadishu that killed 18 people has shocked the world. Once the “Breaking News” hit the social media, condemnations, condolences, and blame started pouring.
This latest bloody attack couldn’t come at a worst time — when …
What began as a peaceful sit-in to save a downtown park in Istanbul has erupted into a conflict between the forces of Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan’s government and liberal reformers. On Monday, June 17, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinic announced Turkey “will resort to calling on the military to …
When U.S. President Obama sat down with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin at the latest G-8 Summit in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, the evolving civil war in Syria dominated the conversation. The push had been for a negotiated political settlement under the guise of the Geneva II process, but it …
On June 11th, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that more than 6,000 Nigerians had fled to Niger to escape armed clashes between government forces and armed insurgents associated with Boko Haram (“Western education is sinful”). This displacement is one of the latest developments in …
“The Lives of Others,” a film documenting the workings of a surveillance state run by the Stasi, the secret domestic spymasters who kept the Soviet lid on in East Germany from the end of World War II until the wall came down, paints a grim picture of what …
There is a village in Afghanistan by the name of Kobakai, a few winding hours from Kabul, where the lives of the residents changed because of one thing: water.
With help from outside groups such as CARE, one morning the residents of Kobakai (ko-BAH-ki) woke to find that beginning that day …
Beginning in January, French and Malian forces took just over a month to rid Mali’s north of Islamic militants. The Tuareg-dominated MNLA however claims a remote, remaining area. With elections scheduled the end of July, most Malians are refusing to compromise
Kidal, a city in the far north-east, is the hub …
Amidst all the news reports and speculation about a renewed push for a two-state solution to end the Arab-Israeli conflict, many have been very vocal about why the two-state solution is simply not the right way to end the conflict. These critics lament that the two-state solution is a crying …
[Robert Mugabe and Nelson Mandela]
Nelson Mandela has been hospitalized for more than a week and South Africans are on edge.
Robert Mugabe has controversially announced a quick July 31 date for elections in Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans are on edge.
Of course South Africans are on edge …
More than two years after the beginning of the Syrian rebellion, the Obama administration reported on Thursday, June 13, that it would begin supplying small arms and ammunition to rebels fighting the Syrian government. Proposals for more direct intervention, such as the establishment …
On the heels of the opening of the Arctic Council’s Permanent Secretariat in Tromsø, Norway, two new Arctic research centers in China and Russia have been announced while one in Canada has made progress towards becoming reality.
China-Nordic Arctic Research Institute
First, Chinese and Nordic representatives announced plans to establish the China-Nordic Arctic …
Economic doldrums mean that India is not much of a destination for global investors nowadays and the flight of foreign capital is depressing the rupee’s value to record lows vis-à-vis the U.S. dollar. Even domestic investorsprefer to put their money elsewhere. The country was the toast of the …
Robert Morgenthau, the legendary Manhattan District Attorney, used to have a framed Oliphant cartoon in his office. It comically depicted the attempt by the newly inaugurated President Nixon to fire Morgenthau, a Democrat, from his then position as U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of New York, arguably …
The Secretary General’s latest quarterly report on the Africa Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) makes for grim reading. Citing frequent military clashes between the Sudanese government and armed rebel forces, the report states that increased violence in the region has displaced more than 300,000 people since …
China’s manned space program scored a major advance this week as they launched three astronauts to an orbiting space lab for a brief stay in orbit. It may surprise …
