President Obama has nominated Stephen Rapp, currently the Prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), as his Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues. As head of the Office of War Crimes Issues, Rapp will report directly to Secretary Clinton regarding a wide range of war crimes issues – from Darfur to Burma […]
Third of May 1808 – Francisco Goya Behind 88794 is a name that is no stranger to controversy, that puts her words into actions, who is not afraid to push the boundaries of truth and moral conviction to help those oppressed. Locked up behind bars, this woman locked horns with President George Bush, had called […]
The fragmented country of Somalia is no stranger to conflict and the last two years of fighting has increasingly taken a toll on the lives of everyone in the country, especially the children. Somalia is quite literally a raging battle ground, as fighting in the country continues, as insurgents exchange fire with the Somali government, […]
What China needs to reduce corruption is not more high-profile capital punishment cases, but a free press and an independent, de-politicized judiciary and police force that will fairly implement and adjudicate the law. Monopoly rule from the top makes it hard to develop such institutions.[…]
Bharat Verma, Editor of the Indian Defence Review, made a controversial statement today. He predicts that China will attack India by 2012 in order to distract its massive populace from rampant internal unrest. He stated: “China will launch an attack on India before 2012. There are multiple reasons for a desperate Beijing to teach India […]
Summer weekends can be rather distracting, so if you missed it, President Obama gave a historic speech during his visit to Africa and several websites have great coverage to get you caught up on events. The speech has been widely seen as an outline of U.S. policy toward Africa. I’ve been impressed the the coverage […]
Desertec Takes Another Giant Leap – I’ve written a few times about this project, bursting with promise to provide clean energy, build bridges and make the desert bloom, most recently here. The “FT” said today that Desertec has been embraced by several major European financial, utility and industrial concerns. “A dozen companies are today set […]
Mexico held its midterm elections last week and while the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party regained control of the Congress for the first time since 2000, another story has begun to emerge: the surprise showing of the small Green Party, which garnered 10% of the vote. The reason why this may be significant? The Green […]
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/ccTOaxG-7CQ” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] When Sri Lanka’s 26 year civil war ended in May 2009 with the final defeat of the insurgent Tamil Tigers rebel group (LTTE) by government forces, there were immediate concerns about the civilian death tolls and methods used by the government in the final months of the war. The […]
Mourners gathered in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica to honor the victims and mark the anniversary of the bloodiest massacres during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. War crimes fugitive Gen. Ratko Mladic led his troops in July 1995 into the U.N. safe-haven of Srebrenica and “stripped all the male Muslim prisoners, military and civilian, elderly and […]
Having a loving and caring family is something none of us should ever take for granted, unfortunately most do. We take it as right, we complain about out siblings, our parents, and often take little time to truly get to know the depth of those around us. Yes, of course we love our families without […]
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/YECvWjZXSTE” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, compared the violence in China’s Xinjiang region against the minority Uighurs to genocide on Friday. Speaking about the violent protests that have taken place between ethnic Han Chinese and Uighurs he said, “The event taking place in China is a kind of genocide […]
Senatus Populusque Romanus – The Senate and the People of Rome. The old Roman Senate was, on paper, representative of the people. Because the US is a representative democracy, the US Senate was meant, up to a certain point, to perpetuate this same principle. It was, however, certainly less representative, from Day One, than its […]
In light of this week’s racially motivated violence and unrest in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Province it may be helpful to reassess China’s ethnic policies in the Autonomous Region. They have been called everything from “genocide” to “stability promotion” but what they really happen to be lies somewhere in between. Since the 1950s the Chinese government […]
President Obama is joining the leaders of allied countries in the annual G8 Summit, this year hosted by Italy. The G8 is not a formal alliance, it was not founded by a treaty and it does not have a permanent headquarters. It’s merely an informal gathering to discuss major international issues and try to chart […]