In The News

Our Moral Superiority About Sex Is Proving Deadly

Saral Boseley November 28, 2006
Western nations like the US and the UK have split personalities when it comes to sex. Western cultures are obsessed with the topic, allowing it to dominate the media, consumer products and everyday life – yet their politicians and professionals are quick to criticize or advise developing nations about high rate of AIDS or promiscuity. A series published in the journal “Lancet” suggests that the...

Globalization and God – Part I

Pratap Bhanu Mehta November 23, 2006
The politics of religious respect has become more complex in recent years as the magnifying glass of the secular West focuses on Islam – and religion in general. This two-part series examines the globalization of religion and its influence on international politics. The judgmental quality of any moral system instigates conflict with others who do not believe. Policy analyst Pratap Bhanu Mehta...

A Bigger Economy Doesn't Always Buy Happiness

Eric Weiner November 14, 2006
Economists rely on the size and growth of a nation’s gross domestic product to determine the health of any economy. But the GDP covers the sale of weapons, mindless video games, excessive packaging that ends up in landfills, prescription drugs that treat anxiety or depression, and expenditures for war. Robert Kennedy once said that GDP doesn’t measure "the beauty of our poetry or the...

The Al Qaeda Challenge

November 10, 2006
Intelligence officers in the UK have investigated 200 extremist networks operating in the UK and thwarted at least five terrorist attacks since the London bus bombings in summer 2005. Many suspects are British citizens, and public officials reflect on their society and its policies, trying to determine why so many British youth join extremist causes. Statistics released by MI5 Security Service...

Viewed From Chinese Border, North Korea Is More Curiosity Than Threat

Lauren Keane November 9, 2006
Beijing has declared its official opposition to the nuclear tests conducted by North Korea and even responded to international calls to impose partial economic sanctions on its historic ally. Despite their government’s seemingly forceful reaction, however, the Chinese people seem largely unconcerned about a nuclear North Korea. Many cite the historically friendly relationship between the two...

Kazakhs Seek Stronger Ties With Israel

Ruth Eglash November 7, 2006
Kazakhstan is abruptly the center of global attention, thanks to a film set in the US with a British star who is Jewish. British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen poses as a Kazakh television reporter, who is congenial, but also sexist and anti-Semitic. Kazakhstan officials protested the satiric film – “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” – for an...

Spy Agencies Now Share the Wikipedia Way

Greg Miller November 2, 2006
Typically, the US intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense invent gadgets that often find their way into daily American life. But aiming for better teamwork, US spies have turned to open-source software as invented by Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia where anyone can propose, write or edit entries. US Intellipedia, not open to the public, will allow staff of 16 intelligence agencies...