Four centuries ago, Babylonians appreciated onions, as revealed by Yale University’s Babylonian Collection and three clay tablets described as the world’s oldest known cookbooks. Marek Pruszewicz for BBC News Magazine points to onions as “the only truly global ingredient, adding, “rare is the...
Click here for the article in BBC News Magazine.
Governments can set goals to compete in specific industries, and South Korea’s global ambition is to exceed other countries in advanced robotics. Currently the nation ranks fourth in development of industrial robots, after Japan, the United States and the EU. The three nations and Germany represent...
Click here for the article in Bloomberg Businessweek.
Asia’s coastal megacities are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, in particular the risk of coastal flooding. What makes cities like Jakarta, Manila or Bangkok so vulnerable is that they are heavily populated and among the least prepared, suggests Aditi Sen of Verified...
Vulnerable megacities: Bangkok airport under water in October, 2011 (top); Jakarta’s flooded avenues
WASHINGTON: Typhoon Haiyan hitting the Philippines in November was yet another devastating reminder of what climate-related extreme weather may mean...
The US Congress ended its impasse over lifting its debt ceiling, proceeding to pay bills and end the partial government shutdown. The uproar over what should be routine business will have repercussions: “a new world financial order may be emerging – but one possibly more dependent than ever on the...
(Reuters) - As the dust settles on the global credit crisis, a new world financial order may be emerging - but one possibly more dependent than ever on the United States protecting the dollar's position as dominant reserve currency.
Odd as that may...
Nations all over the world are keen to explore and drill for oil and gas in a melting Arctic– even though research roundly blames human reliance on fossil fuels for a rapidly warming climate. China, Japan, India, Korea and Singapore are among 12 permanent observer states on the Arctic Council,...
The earth is getting warmer and, with it, the world’s coldest places are emerging as hot new business prospects. The melting ice in the Arctic is being watched not just by anxious climate scientists but by global energy and shipping businesses. It...
Russian deposits may account for about one third of Cypriot bank accounts worth more than €100,000, which could be frozen and taxed by up to 25 percent as part of a EU bailout deal. Russian President Vladmir Putin has denounced such methods for rescuing the Cypriot economy and “many non-Russian...
Click here for the article in The Daily Beast.
When the Arab uprisings began, Iran was delighted. Iranian leaders claimed credit, suggesting their 1979 revolution inspired the revolutionary spirit sweeping the region – even though Iran repressed its own election protesters in summer of 2009. Young adults who galvanized protests did not risk all...
BLOOMINGTON: When the Arab Rising began in December 2010, leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran were quick to claim credit, declaring their 1979 revolution as its “religious and ideological progenitor.”
Iran’s ayatollahs proposed that...
The Islamic State came to world attention for extremism and brutality in late 2013, and it took more than two years and designations by the European Parliament, the United States National Holocaust Museum and US House of Representatives for the US State Department to declare the terrorist group is...
Read the article from the Atlantic.