The tribal people who live in the remote borderlands between Pakistan and Afghanistan are irritated about ongoing intrusions into their territory and way of life. As result, attacks against NATO convoys are on the rise along the few rugged roads between the two countries. Plans are underway for...
Click here for the article on Spiegel Online.
Developed nations expect biofuels to help end reliance on fossil fuels, but the agricultural products – and their prices – are subject to the whims of weather. Flooding throughout the region that produces much of US corn raised ethanol prices by more than 20 percent, reports Jad Mouawad for the...
The record storms and floods that swept through the U.S. Midwest last month struck at the heart of the corn-growing region, drowning fields and dashing hopes of a bumper crop.
They also brought into sharp...
Uncertainty and infighting await nations that lack a strategy for leadership succession. The Kim family has ruled North Korea since it declared independence in 1948, but Kim Jong Il has not groomed his children for leadership. So speculation centers on them along with Kim’s fourth wife, Kim Ok,...
Shadowy power: A 2000 photo of a North Korean military delegation visiting the Pentagon shows Kim Jong Il's fourth wife, Kim Ok, identified then simply as a 42-year-old secretary and now emerging as a key player
SEOUL:...
Seals are a protected species in Ireland, and some fishermen blame them and even cormorants and other birds for a decline in salmon populations. Salmon swim the oceans and then return to the rivers where their own lives began to reproduce. There, humans and other predators wait to pick off the fish...
Click here to read the article in the Sunday Observer.
In devising foreign policy, governments must strive to understand differences and similarities in the structures of other governments. For example, the US and Israel err in assuming that Iran’s president has as much power as the US president, cautions author William Pfaff. Another err would be...
PARIS - A serious difficulty for those in the United States and Israel intent on eliminating Iran as an important Middle Eastern power center and political actor is that Iran presents a moving target. Yesterday it...
India appreciates foreign investment, but it also wants to build safeguard to its flourishing telecommunications, media, airline, pharmaceutical and other sensitive industries. A Foreign Investment Promotion Board will review investments, pointing out any that could represent possible threats. With...
Click here for the original article on The New York Times website.
In an effort to keep good jobs in the US, Democrats in US Congress may push to change trade policy with the Americas. But that could result in job loss in countries like Colombia and Peru. Labor activists of both continents claim that many of these jobs are exploitative, but even so, the loss of...
Click here for the original article on The Washington Post's website.
A US national intelligence estimate – a consensus of 16 intelligence agencies – recently concluded that Iran discontinued its nuclear-weapons program due to “international pressure.” Author and Middle East analyst Dilip Hiro examines the chronology of events and argues that Iran started and ended...
Once in charge: The 2003 US invasion of Iraq not only ended Saddam Hussein's rule, but probably also the Iranian quest for nuclear weapons
LONDON: Contrary to the claim by Washington’s latest National Intelligence...