In The News

Libya’s Release of 6 Prisoners Raises Criticism

Matthew Brunwasser and Elaine Sciolino July 24, 2007
In 1999, Libya accused five nurses and a physician, based in Benghazi, of deliberately infecting hundreds of children with the HIV virus that causes AIDS. Over the next eight years, the health-care providers, five from Bulgaria and one from Palestine, endured imprisonment, three trials and death sentences. Analysts suggest that the unsanitary conditions in the hospitals infected the children...

Interrupting a History of Tolerance – Part I

Riaz Hassan July 19, 2007
Anti-Semitic rhetoric, literature and films emerge from modern Middle Eastern society, and yet Arab nations do not have a long history of intolerance. A three-part YaleGlobal series explores the history of anti-Semitism, with the final part analyzing the delicate task underway in Saudi Arabia to change attitudes and end intolerance. In the first part of the series, Riaz Hassan explains how there...

Britain and Russia to Minimize Economic Fallout

Mark Tran July 18, 2007
Great Britain expelled four Russian diplomats, after Russia refused to hand over a suspect, a former KGB agent, in the radioactive poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko. Both countries claim that they do not want to harm overall relations. British investors and firms value the Russian market, and Russia contributes to international diplomatic efforts, for example, preventing nuclear ambitions...

A Triumph for Hamas... But a Tragedy for the Palestinians?

Donald Macintyre June 15, 2007
Muslims and non-Muslims alike around the world have long hoped for political and economic stability in the Palestinian territories. But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has dissolved what was once called a “national unity government,” formed after the Hamas party defeated Fatah in 2006 parliamentary elections. After a week of chaos, Hamas fighters, donned in hoods, control Gaza Strip and...

A New War in Iraq?

Andrew Lee Butters June 8, 2007
Turkey is massing troops along its border with Iraq to confront the Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, militants who have long waged a separatist insurgency within Turkish borders. The strategy and timing is questionable: An army relying on conventional tactics will struggle to control the PKK’s skilled mountain fighters. Furthermore, Turkish intervention in Iraq could invite military action from...

Chinese Gangs “Behind Fake Drugs”

Jill McGivering June 5, 2007
Criminal Chinese gangs are manufacturing counterfeit drugs on an industrial scale, according to reports from BBC News. The fake drugs are highly sophisticated and are sold throughout Asia, Africa and even Europe. “International health officials warn that anti-malarial drugs are just the tip of the iceberg,” reports BBC News. “There is also growing concern about fake antibiotics and fake anti-...

Talk to Foreigners and We Will View You as a Spy, Iran Warns Academics

Robert Tait June 4, 2007
Iran recently claimed to have cracked a spy ring backed by the US Central Intelligence Agency – and amid growing tensions with the West, the government has warned academics not to travel to conferences abroad. Contacts with foreigners may seem innocuous at first, Iranian officials warn, but the relationship could quickly transform into an intelligence-gathering mission. Academics who resist the...