In The News

European Sugar Policy Works to Undermine Trade With Asia

April 19, 2004
A recent report by Oxfam, an international non-governmental organization, has concluded that the European Union's skewed sugar regime is heavily subsidized, benefits several big companies, and generally hurts poorer countries. "This is a sugar scandal, and there is nothing sweet about it. The system rewards big companies and rich farmers with EU taxpayers' and consumers'...

Al-Qaeda Tries to Split West Over Iraq

Mark Huband April 16, 2004
Yesterday over Arab television, Osama bin Laden, leader of Al-Qaeda, offered European countries a three month respite from terrorist attacks in exchange for withdrawing their forces from Iraq. Mark Huband, security correspondent for the Financial Times, says that this move hints at Al-Qaeda's long term strategic goals: to expel non-Muslims from the Islamic world, undermine incumbent Islamic...

World Set Back 10 Years by Bush's New World Order, Says Blair Aide

Paul Brown April 14, 2004
In a recent statement, the British prime minister's senior advisor Jonathan Porritt says US President George W. Bush has had a "devastating impact" on the world's work on sustainable development. Porrit accused the Bush administration's bad policies in a wide range of issues related to sustainable development, including climate change, international aid, family planning,...

Nonresidents Buy Stocks at Record Level

April 13, 2004
It seems foreigners are more interested in Japan’s economic recovery than even the Japanese who are seeking higher return abroad. Nonresidents bought just over 14 trillion yen worth of Japanese stocks in 2003, almost a half more than in 1999. Nonresidents were also net sellers of bonds by 1 trillion yen. For March of this year, nonresidents were net buyers of Japanese stocks for the 12 month in...

A Matter of More Than Economics

Martin Wolf April 13, 2004
As the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU) opened up to more and more immigrants to satisfy their domestic labor needs, many have started thinking about the implications for such sizable immigration. Martin Wolf, columnist for the Financial Times, says that the choice for more immigration should not just be based on economic incentives, but also on the values of a country's citizens...

Terrorist Chemical Threat 'Worse than Suspected'

Mark Huband April 11, 2004
Small groups of chemical weapons experts uncovered in Europe appear to have a wide network of links. Two separate groups, one arrested in a Paris suburb by French counter terrorism officials and the other uncovered by British intelligence, are both reported to have received chemical weapons training in Chechnya, Russia's breakaway republic. The group arrested in France is said to have links...

When US Aided Insurgents, Did It Breed Future Terrorists?

Hugh Eakin April 10, 2004
Arguing against popular belief, Mahmood Mamdani, a prominent Uganda-born political scientist at Columbia University, asserts that terrorism has little to do with Islamic culture; rather, it is an outgrowth of American Cold War strategies. In this article on the New York Times, the author attempts to probe into Mamdani's thesis through other scholars' positions as well as Mamdani's...