U.S.: Democratic Convention Stumbles Over Jerusalem Controversy
The Democratic National Convention erupted in controversy this week over the removal of a clause in the party platform stating that Jerusalem should remain Israel’s undivided capital and only grew...
View ArticlePink Shrouds Aimed to Draw Attention to Iran Military Site, Analysts Say
Diplomats from an unidentified country and a Washington research organisation considered close to the International Atomic Energy Agency have alleged in recent weeks that Iran has covered two buildings...
View ArticleFresh Research on HIV Urges New Approach to Gay Men
Unlike the flattening or even declining rates of HIV infection among nearly all other communities, the epidemic among gay men globally is rapidly expanding. But according to new research, the reason...
View ArticleU.S.: Advantage Obama As Election Begins in Earnest
With their respective party nomination conventions behind them, both President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney travelled to the tiny northeastern...
View ArticleU.S. Declares Haqqani Network a Terrorist Organisation
The U.S. State Department on Friday declared the Haqqani network, a militant group based in Pakistan, a “terrorist organisation”. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed the order while in Brunei and...
View ArticleGaza Economy Tailored to Fail
“Gaza’s economy is expected to grow modestly and people will likely still be worse off in 2015 compared to the mid-1990s,” reads a press release announcing the United Nations’ August 2012 report, ‘Gaza...
View ArticleCulture of Peace Should Replace Culture of Violence
When U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addresses the High-Level Forum on Culture of Peace later this week, he will transmit a message that underlines his political philosophy: all disputes need to be...
View ArticleKyoto Protocol May End With the Year
As government negotiators from the world’s poorest countries ended a round of United Nations climate change talks in the Thai capital, they sounded a grave note about what appears imminent when they...
View ArticleLosing Land, and Finding a Roof
Asmahan Ramadan and her family have taken thousands of photos on the rooftop of their home. Not of themselves, or of the overcrowded Dheisheh refugee camp they see every day. “It’s like raising a...
View ArticleFears for Food Security Rise with West African Floodwaters
Hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by heavy flooding along the Niger River over the last few weeks. Niger, Mali and Benin have been particularly hard hit, with dozens of deaths, tens of...
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Ivory Ban Fails to Stem Surge in Elephant Poaching
With 2011 marking the deadliest year for poaching-related elephant deaths in Africa since an international ivory ban went into effect in 1989, a new investigative report released here Friday points to...
View ArticleNicaragua Stands Out in War on Drugs in Central America
With strict security measures and the deployment of special heavily-armed troops, Nicaragua is waging a successful war in the courts, by sea, and on land against drug traffickers shipping drugs through...
View ArticleFighting for a Free Press in Sudan
In Sudan’s newspaper district in Khartoum East, dozens of people sit beneath the trees sipping tea or reading newspapers. Most are journalists who once worked for the 10 newspapers that were either...
View ArticleSaving the Lives of Malawi’s Children
Three-month-old Simplicious Gift lives in Mafunga village in Malawi’s southern rural district of Chikhwawa, 48 kilometres from the commercial capital, Blantyre. His is a poor farming village of about...
View ArticleCzechs Weigh Human Rights Against Business
The Czech foreign ministry has insisted the country’s support for human rights is “not for sale” after calls from the prime minister to drop “fashionable political causes” such as supporting the Dalia...
View ArticleSaving the Top 100 Threatened Species – a Question of Valuing Life
The Red River Giant softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) is the stuff of legend in Vietnam. The fabled turtle in Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem Lake is popularly known by the name Kim Qui or Golden Turtle God, and...
View ArticleNo Safe Exit for Military Leaders
When Egypt’s army was deployed to restore order in the streets during the uprising that ended president Hosni Mubarak’s rule, Egyptians greeted the troops as saviours. But by the time the generals...
View ArticleGovt Abandons Former Kashmir Militants
Rashid was 12 years old when he picked up a gun and received armed training in Pakistan. He was caught by the Indian forces in 1992 and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. Five years later when he...
View ArticleFloods Dampen Thai Adaptation Plans
Thailand’s flood-management blueprint received a jolt when the dykes in Sukhothai were breached by the rain-swollen Yom river last week, submerging large stretches of the former royal capital.Prime...
View ArticleMaldives Talks Condoms
For an orthodox Islamic country, the Maldives has made remarkable progress in halting the spread of HIV in the Indian Ocean archipelago through bold awareness programmes and the distribution of...
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