In The News

Southeastern European Nations Unite to Battle Sex Trafficking

David Binder August 15, 2004
According to the International Organization for Migration, 200,000 women are trafficked through Southeastern Europe each year. In response to this tragic crime rate, the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative in Bucharest has conducted three regional sweeps against human traffic rings. The Initiative, which opened in 2001 with American assistance, recently helped arrest five offenders in a...

Action or Sanctions

Dina Ezzat August 13, 2004
Jan Pronk, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative to Darfur, has the responsibility of reporting to the Security Council on Aug 30 about the progress, if any, that the Sudanese government is making in its crisis-ridden Darfur region. If Pronk’s report is favorable, then no punitive action will be taken and the Council will wait until the next month for another progress report....

Signs Across the Atlantic: 'Europeans for Kerry!'

Shada Islam August 12, 2004
With the US presidential elections nearing, Europe is carefully evaluating its tumultuous relationship with its transatlantic neighbor. Shada Islam, a Brussels-based journalist who specializes in EU foreign policy, says that differences between the two sides run almost as deep as the ocean that separates them. The relationship between the EU and the Bush administration has been plagued by...

Kuala Lumpur Cracking Down on Illegals – Again

Leslie Lau August 12, 2004
Malaysia, a nation of 24.5 million inhabitants, has over 1.3 million legal foreign workers and another 700,000 who are undocumented. Though these migrants generally have jobs that are low paying and unattractive to native Malaysians, public sentiment has turned against them, says this article in Singapore's Straits Times. Some Malaysian natives have begun to blame the country’s recent...

Japan Elbows its Way into Far East: Not Only for Energy

August 12, 2004
As a country poor in natural resources, Japan has had to look elsewhere for its energy needs. Although most of Japan's oil imports presently come from the Middle East, instability in the region has prompted Japan to look to relatively oil-rich Russia as an alternative source. Through building good relationships with the local government, investing in the area, and fostering a positive...

Mapuche Indians in Chile Struggle to Take Back Forests

Larry Rohter August 11, 2004
Chile’s native Mapuche people have struggled against the government since the arrival of the Spaniards. In those colonial days, the Mapuches were pushed south of Chile’s Bío-Bío river, where they retained formally recognized autonomy. After Chilean independence, however, they were forcibly incorporated into the state and, decades later, pushed onto reservations so as to make room for European...

Afghan Asylum Seekers Sew Up Mouths in Protest in Indonesia

August 10, 2004
Approximately 150 Afghan asylum seekers currently live in Indonesia and are waiting to move to a third country such as the United States, Norway or Australia. Though some have been granted refugee status, forty of these asylum seekers are going on a hunger strike to protest being denied this status by the United Nations. In the past, Afghan immigrants in Indonesia, many of whom have security...