In The News

Syria Opposition Demands Urgent UN Probe into Alleged Chemical Attacks

Dominic Evans, Khaled Yacoub Oweis August 22, 2013
Video footage from Syria shows scores of children and adults left writhing, convulsing and dead after an alleged chemical-weapons attack. The death toll is estimated at 500 to 1300, reports Reuters. Syria has stockpiles of chemical weapons; Western nations have threatened intervention if such weapons were used. Opposition forces in Syria urge an immediate investigation by the United Nations....

Amid Mideast Turmoil, What Does Russia Want?

Thomas Graham August 20, 2013
Russia has reasons to resist military intervention in Syria. “Moscow has been resolute in the defense of the principle of state sovereignty in the traditional Westphalian sense, of non-interference by outside powers in the internal affairs of another state, a principle it considers to be the foundation of world order and international law,” explains Thomas Graham, senior fellow with Yale...

Egypt Highlights Race Between Trade and Terror

Humphrey Hawksley August 15, 2013
The Arab Spring protests, with demands for representative government and economic stability, have disintegrated into violent power struggles. After one year, Egypt’s military removed the first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, from power and cracked down on protests by his supporters, leaving more than 500 dead. Violence unfolds in Syria, Libya, Tunisia and Iraq, too. Building...

People Will Pay if Army Fails Challenge of Political Islam

Amin Saikal August 15, 2013
Political Islam in Egypt – with the democratic election of Mohamed Morsi and one chaotic year in office – took an ideological approach to government, failing to compromise with other forces in society that led the revolution against Mubarak’s dictatorship. After deposing Morsi, the Egyptian military has cracked down on his party, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other supporters. Conservative...

Big Brother Is All Ears: India Proposes What Snowden Discloses

August 14, 2013
India’s Department of Telecom, has posted a new telecommunications licensing agreement with controls that echo those of the US National Security Agency. The Telegraph in Calcutta reports: “The 176-page document that was placed on the DoT’s website on Friday evening has never explicitly spelt out in such great detail the manner in which the government can access call records of private citizens,...

This Is Not Time to Slap Iran

Trudy Rubin August 12, 2013
A vote in the US House of Representatives in favor of harsher economic sanctions for Iran, days before the president’s inauguration, could be counterproductive, explains Trudy Rubin of the Philadelphia Inquirer. She urges the US should try negotiations before the Senate votes, considering that sanctions have only hurt the Iranian economy and not deterred the nuclear program. Critics suggest that...

Japan Says Fukushima Leak Worse Than Thought, Government Joins Clean-Up

Mari Saito, Antoni Slodkowski August 9, 2013
More than two years after the Fukushima nuclear plant was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami, the utility company in charge still struggles to contain the radiation. Groundwater flowing through the plant’s basement is radioactive, with about 300 tons assumed to be escaping each day and heading for the Pacific Ocean. “The revelation amounted to an acknowledgement that plant operator Tokyo...