As the world welcomes its 7 billionth person, the global fertility rate is about 2.5 children per woman. If maintained, that rate would lead to a global population of 15 billion by 2100. Pundits even fret about the most widely used scenario for global population – a UN projection based on about 2...
Hello World! Population growth is strong in Africa (top) and India, with its crowded streets
NEW YORK: By UN calculations, on October 31, the world’s population will hit 7 billion, twice the total 44 years ago and triple the population 66 years ago...
A common strategy in geopolitical rivalries is to accrue alliances, strengthen positions and counter competitors. Of course, Asia is rich with historic rivalries: India and China, Pakistan and India, Iran and Pakistan, Iran and the US, the US and China. Two ports in the Arabian Sea, one in Iran...
PARIS: Sino-Indian rivalry in the Indian Ocean and India’s naval cooperation with the US draw the world’s attention. But quietly, out of sight, a contest has been building in the Arabian Sea centered between two ports, one based in Pakistan and the...
Saudi Arabia and Iran, locked in a bitter rivalry, seek to influence the Middle East with little reason but their own supremacy. Author Dilip Hiro, based on his own travels and experiences as a journalist, describes a history of troubled relations and power machinations. In her review of Cold War...
Saudi Arabia and Iran, despite a shared belief in the Prophet Muhammad as Islam’s founder, are riven by futile religious competition and vehement disagreements. Such disagreements should not matter for normal routines of trade, development or...
Covid-19 pandemic costs are immense, as the world heads into recession and unemployment increases. The United States, which may spend as much as $5 trillion to tackle the many challenges, and other nations question China's lack of transparency in late 2019. In turn, China threatens to boycott...
The French are cracking down on illegal online sharing of protected materials. Authorities monitor downloads, and send warning letters to internet users who download a copyrighted text, song or film. Third-time offenders can lose internet privileges for one year, reports Max Colchester for the New...
PARIS—France’s new Internet piracy police has been scouring the Web this month for people illegally downloading films and music and sending hundreds of warning emails to suspected intellectual property thieves.
The implementation of France's...
For decades, Kashmir has been the target of competing Indian and Pakistani claims. Many Kashmiris, however, prefer full independence from both occupying powers. Ironically, these Kashmiri nationalists have seen their fortunes buoyed since the earthquake that devastated their homeland last year....
Last week 370 delegates gathered at the Neelum View Hotel in Muzaffarabad, "capital" of Pakistani-administered Kashmir. They were from the All Parties National Alliance (APNA), a coalition of nationalist parties...
Shoals and reefs dotting the South China Sea, now subject to competing claims from several nations, once presented treacherous traps for passing ships over the centuries. International law on deep-sea shipwrecks is murky, and recovery rights clash with preservation and research efforts. Owners,...
Underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio's team was exploring the wreckage of a 13th-century Chinese junk off the coast of the Philippines when it made an unwelcome discovery about China's maritime muscle in the 21st century.
As a twin-prop plane...
A century ago, a vicious strain of the influenza swiftly moved around the globe, infecting one third of the world’s population and killing as many as 100 million people. The first confirmed outbreak was at a US military camp in Kansas. The 2018 strain, much like the one striking today, infected...
Scourge returns: Flu epidemic threatens to be more lethal this year than in recent past; a hundred years ago the so-called “Spanish Flu” fell many victims in the United States and devastated the world
NEW YORK: A century ago, people woke up ill in...