In The News

Chilean Rescue Offers Lesson in Globalization

Susan Froetschel October 18, 2010
Global media united in covering the successful rescue of 33 miners, trapped since early August. Chile’s president and major mining companies quickly took charge over a small, near-bankrupt mining company, transforming the rescue into an international competition of sorts. The media reports highlighted unusual international collaboration and exposed the public to grueling work conditions for...

Why Do Terrorists Blow Themselves Up?

Riaz Hassan September 9, 2010
Nine years after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the world shares a perception that suicide attacks are unusual acts committed by the poor, the psychologically impaired, the morally deficient, the uneducated or the religious fanatics. Yet analysis of more than 1500 suicide attacks between 1981 and 2008 by author Riaz Hassan reveals far more complex motivations...

New Dissent in Japan Is Loudly Anti-Foreign

Martin Fackler August 31, 2010
As Japan’s economy stagnates, young men stuck in menial jobs use the internet to plan demonstrations against foreign influences. Their “main purpose seems to be venting frustration, both about Japan’s diminished stature and in their own personal economic difficulties,” explains Martin Fackler for the New York Times. The discontents resent rising unemployment and lack of global respect for Japan...

Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Moving From South Asia to US

Donald G. McNeil Jr. August 26, 2010
People travel around the world with unprecedented speed and frequency, carrying germs as they go. Recently, H1N1 – otherwise known as swine flu – swept through many countries, devastating a normally healthy group: 18-40 year olds. Now, a new mutation in some bacteria, a gene labeled by scientists as NDM-1, is resistant to almost all antibiotics. First detected in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh...

Shariah in Aceh: Eroding Indonesia’s Secular Freedoms

Dewi Kurniawati August 26, 2010
Indonesia has a secular constitution, but in 2003 gave a nod to the Aceh province adopting partial sharia law, supposedly an attempt to stem recruiting by a rebel movement. This separate set of laws, often targeting the poor and women, discourages tourism and economic development. Hard-line groups intent on gaining power in other provinces press for similar laws. Though scholars still debate what...

Facebook Deletes Accounts Purporting to Be From North Korea

Jun Yang August 25, 2010
It’s unclear if Facebook, Twitter and Google accounts claiming to represent North Korea are truly from the isolated nation. Facebook, insisting that the social networking site is for real people aiming for real connections with real identities, deleted two suspect accounts. “The move comes as South Korea, which bans its citizens from communicating with the North, clamps down on Twitter Inc....

The Burden of Thirst

Tina Rosenberg August 25, 2010
Information flows to every corner of the world much like movements of the water cycle, connecting people more than ever before. But nothing separates us more than the inequality that exists in access to water. Nearly 900 million people lack access to clean water, and more than 3.3 million – most children under age five – die each year as a result. In many developing countries, the brunt of the...