In The News

Telangana Illegal Immigrants in Iraq in No Man’s Land

TNN July 14, 2014
Around 15,000 illegal migrants from India, according to Gulf Returnees' Welfare Association, GRWA, are trapped in Iraq, and their families are scrambling for official help with their safe return, gathering documents to establish their nationality at the Indian embassy. Many workers were illegally sent with “dummy” visas into Iraq to work for US soldiers as the Indian government had imposed...

US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue

July 14, 2014
Tensions run high between the world’s two largest economies over trade and currency, cyberhacking, and maritime disputes in the East and South China seas. Top officials of the United States and China meet annually to review economic, financial and security concerns, and the most recent US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue was held July 9 and 10. “The S&ED is now the main event in the U.S...

Modi’s Brics Summit Challenge

Nayan Chanda July 7, 2014
Leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the so-called BRICS, meet July 14-16. The theme for discussions: “Inclusive growth: sustainable solutions.” India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is new to the summit; his “diplomatic skills in preserving India’s interests will …be tested as Xi attempts to turn Brics into a platform from which to advance China’s global agenda,” explains...

Rise to the Rising Sea Levels

Nayan Chanda June 26, 2014
Evidence of a warming planet is on full display – advanced degrees in science is no longer needed. Farmers cope with droughts, insurers compensate victims of violent storms, pilots on transatlantic flights point out a Greenland with massive swaths no longer white with snow and ice in springtime. “Warm weather is leading ice sheets to break up and turning glaciers into flowing streams,” writes...

Ukraine's Empty Seat at Table Darkens Party for Putin's Ex-Soviet Bloc

Raushan Nurshayeva and Alexei Anishchuk June 26, 2014
The Eurasian Economic Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will begin in 2015, lifting trade restrictions among the three countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin states, “This document brings our countries to a new stage of integration while fully preserving the states’ sovereignty.” Putin makes no claims of attempting to recreate the USSR, though “he makes no secret that his dream is to...

US Companies Head to Mexico

Damien Cave June 24, 2014
Manufactured goods from Mexico have comprised a larger share of the US imports, reaching 14 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund, while China’s share in it has declined. With labor costs rapidly increasing in China, and wages doubling every few years, US investors have looked to Mexico as a more competitive place for manufacturing their products. Damien Cave, writing for the New...

China Says It Will Help Iraq

Rita Brown June 18, 2014
Iraq is OPEC’s second largest producer, and political ineptitude, sectarian violence and impending civil war threaten future oil production and global oil prices. Disruptions in Libyan production have already added to supply problems, and many had hoped Iraqi producers to step up pace. The United States led a coalition to invade Iraq in 2003 and depose dictator Saddam Hussein, and withdrew by the...