President Michel Martelly, among other world leaders, joined the list of heads of state speaking at Columbia’s World Leaders Forum, officials said yesterday. In addition to Martelly, King Abdullah II IBN Al Hussein of Jordan and Atifete Jahjaga, president of the Republic of Kosovo will also speak at the world-renown event that provide a platform […]
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkey would be downgrading its diplomatic relations with Israel and cutting all military ties with the state. A few days after the announcement, he stated that there would also be an increase in Turkish ships patrolling the Eastern Mediterranean to ensure the safety of maritime navigation, implying […]
While all eyes are on a likely Turkish land incursion against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, Turkey faces the prospect of another security and ideological challenge in the Kurdish hinterland across its border, this time in Syria. Syria’s 1.8 million Kurds (10% of the population) have arguably been the most quiescent of […]
Last night I attended the New York Premiere Screening of Back Door Channels: The Price of Peace. Featuring interviews with Leon Charney, Back Door Channels reveals the unlikely confluence of events that produced one of the most significant diplomatic achievements of the 20th Century: the Camp David Peace Accords between Israel and Egypt. The term […]
The Japanese government is giving temporary shelter to nine North Korean defectors who were picked up by the Japanese coast guard Tuesday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Tokyo is in the process of granting permits for the North Koreans to stay in Japan for up to six months. The nine North Koreans–three men, three […]
The IRB Rugby World Cup is under way in New Zealand. The hosts come in as the favorites because, much like Brazil in football, the All Blacks pretty much are always the favorites, despite a history of underachievement in rugby’s signature event. The All Blacks have only emerged with one William Webb Ellis Cup, and […]
I remember when Russian haute cuisine was a 10 letter word: mayonnaise. When the first “Western” pizzeria opened in my home town of Murmansk around 1994, its house specialty certainly looked like pizza: a slick flatbread baked in a giant rectangular pan and sliced into plate sized squares. I queued for ages to get my […]
Earlier this month, I wrote about a growing confrontation in Kuantan, Malaysia regarding a planned rare earth mining facility to be opened by an Australian corporation. The plant – which would become the world’s largest of its kind and the first rare earth refining operation built outside of China in many years – had been […]
Emerging Leaders from Egypt and Tunisia Awarded Fellowships to Work in Congress and U.S. Media Outlets Washington D.C. — The World Affairs Institute has selected thirteen young Egyptians and Tunisians to participate in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Democracy Fellows Program. The Democracy Fellows will arrive on October 1 to begin their two-month […]
Cairn Energy, an Edinburgh-based oil and gas exploration company, runs one of the largest exploration programs in Greenland. It has a history of being a risk-taker and has succeeded in the past, such as when it discovered oil in Rajasthan, India after purchasing Shell’s operations there. However, the latest results from drilling in the Arctic […]
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s role in the 2002 riots has been an emotive issue in India. Conviction of Modi is viewed by his critics as the only form in which justice can be accorded to the victims of Gujarat riots. Modi’s supporters cite his performance as an administrator and development of Gujarat (the Muslim […]
Outcries over Uruguayan peacekeepers’ rape allegations of an 18-year-old Haitian man did not spark the country’s distrust and disgust of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). Haitians have protested peacekeepers’ overwhelming presence in their homeland since they landed following the 2004 ousting of former President Jean Bertrand Aristide. Many people even demanded their […]
The following op-ed piece was written by Hassan Zarehzadeh Ardeshir. Hassan Zarehzadeh Ardeshir is a human rights defender and award winning journalist, currently living inToronto, Canada. He was the spokesman for the United Student Front, the biggest student secular democrat group in Iran, and founder of the first student human rights organization known as the […]
Trade Minister Yoshio Hachiro resigned after just eight days in office over a remark he made about radiation contamination at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. While touring the plant and its vicinity nearly six months after the disaster struck Thursday, Hachiro said: “Unfortunately, there was not a soul in sight in the streets of […]
Ten years ago the story of the Taliban as a criminal organization began its unfolding international public narrative. Ten years ago the story of Islamist rebellion and insurgency in Afghanistan dovetailed directly with the story of American politics in the 21st century. That story is run through with cheap talk, carnage, forsaken promises and missed […]