Technological advances in renewable energy are putting purveyors of fossil fuels on notice. For example, solar energy is advancing with improved site locations, molten salt and mirrors. Battery and electric vehicle technologies are also advancing, and such developments will impact global politics,...
Isolation from the rest of the world, a shroud of obsessive secrecy, allows North Korean leaders to brutalize their own citizens. A ruined economy leads to desperation, with thousands of escapes reported in recent years. The horrific stories from victims take years to emerge, only after prisoners...
Gulags of the Hermit Kingdom: Women in a North Korean prison camp (top); detainees in the country's largest camp (below)
NEW YORK: Recent reports from North Korea about the new leader, Kim Jong Un, and his “openness” are tantalizing. Coming months...
The West can no longer hold its tongue on fundamentalist religious sects that emphasize piety to the point of counting a few followers worthy while dismissing everyone else in the world. Such is the case with Wahhabism, or Salafism, the state religion in Saudi Arabia that’s exported to other Muslim...
Ideology of blood and gore: Islamic State terrorists in Libya prepare to behead Coptic Christian civilians by the Mediterranean (top); the founder of the extremist sect, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab
CHICAGO: The West declared a war on terror more...
Environmental degradation and human-rights abuses are often associated with small, illegal mining operations around the world. Peru, among the world's major gold producers, offers a case study on how local development could help solving a global problem. About 20 percent of Peru’s gold...
Perils of gold rush: Poor Peruvians make a living with illegal mining for gold, top; government attempts to disrupt illegal operations brings resistance
MEXICO CITY: In the first week of 2016, Peruvian Prime Minister Pedro Cateriano announced the...
Electricity is essential for any who care to participate in globalization, and huge numbers of the world’s rural poor still long for this basic tool at a time of tight supply and climbing prices. This two-part series examines two frontiers – the energy demands of the rural poor and the increasing...
A must-have: Electricity allows rural villages to join global networks and escape poverty; above, a home with light in Antioquia, Colombia. © A. Valencia
WASHINGTON: One cannot open a newspaper without reading the word...
First he inspired hope at a crowded haven for anti-globalizers. Then he received an ecstatic greeting from a globalized assembly of free traders meeting at a playground for the rich. Brazil's new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, moved last week between Porto Alegre and Davos with amazing...
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在所有偏见中，种族歧视大概是最肤浅的一种。证明这一论断的，不仅是对造成歧视的原因的审视，而且也是我们拥有共同祖先的科学数据。母系遗传的线粒体 DNA和父系遗传的Y染色体均显示，所有的人都携带来自非洲的基因密码。人类不同的体貌特征——金发或黑发，圆眼或丹凤眼——都是千万年的气候影响和自然选择的结果。我们拥有的共同基因，远远超过了体貌差别——所有DNA中有99.9%相同。然而，这一事实并未阻止种族歧视在全球每个角落肆虐。为了制约种族歧视的蔓延，教师可以从向学生传授上述科学发现着手。虽然仅靠知识无法阻止偏见，但知识的传播却能够弱化偏见的影响并且表明，我们不仅可以通过全球化、...
瑞典知名作家莱斯•伯格（Lasse Berg）常常在其书友座谈会上以这样的俏皮话开始：“我很高兴见到有这么多的非洲同胞在场”。他的听众们（大多是金发的北欧人）听闻此言后总会环顾四 周，看看那些非洲人在哪里。当然，伯格实际上是指在场的每个人。他是《卡拉哈里沙漠的黎明：人类如何成为人类》一书的作者，该书讲述了全人类如何发源于所 谓的黑色大陆，并在地球各地繁衍生息的故事。
当我读到关于一个非洲学生在印度德里因为其黑色皮肤而被嘘声骚扰的报道时，...
Bowing to pressure from the US and other nations, Iran has announced that it will suspend nuclear enrichment for "an interim period" to help "create a new atmosphere of trust and confidence between Iran and the international community". Meeting with the foreign ministers of...
Iran has agreed to suspend its disputed uranium enrichment programme and allow tougher UN inspections of its nuclear sites, after talks on Tuesday with British, French and German foreign ministers in Tehran....
