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Handover Advanced but Problems Remain

June 28, 2004
The unexpected early handover of sovereignty in Iraq may be a public relations coup for the US and the UK, but realities on the ground indicate that the road ahead is not easy. Although members of the new Iraqi government are claiming they are "ready", says this BBC article, they are in...

Google, Skype Targeted in India Security Crackdown

September 3, 2010
India is asking all companies that provide encrypted communications to place servers inside its borders so security officials can monitor user data. Increasingly, countries make demands on foreign firms producing goods and services desired by their citizens. “India seems to be gaining confidence in...

Bail Out the Poor

October 24, 2008
Reduced food supplies around the globe would seem to be a more immediate crisis than plummeting prices of homes and stocks in the wealthiest nations of the world, notes Ramzy Baroud, editor of the Palestine Chronicle, writing for Al-Ahram Weekly. Baroud questions why governments cannot act in...

A Question for the Global Community

August 14, 2008
As regions gain new freedoms, minority groups with longstanding differences and gripes try to break away from central governments, too often stirring international conflict in the process. Attempting to separate from Georgia, provinces South Ossetia and Abkhazia have fueled tensions between the...

Pink Floyd's Money Travels Long Way to Mongolia

October 6, 2008
Natural resources can be a boon to a nation's economy – just ask landlocked Botswana, which enjoyed tremendous growth, thanks to its diamond deposits. However, abundant minerals, gas, and oil can hinder a country's economic progress, if governments over-invest in such booming industries...

International Adoption: A Big Fix Brings Dramatic Decline

March 26, 2010
In recent years, increased publicity has both heightened demand for adoption and exposed the sometimes-dark underbelly of international adoption agencies. The ongoing case of American missionaries accused of trafficking children in quake-stricken Haiti serves as a prime example of the shadier side...

A Generation on the Move in Europe

July 22, 2003
In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, a new Generation E (Europe) has emerged, bringing into question long-revered notions of national identity and culture among Europeans. World War II solidified national identity because it was fought along national lines. But the younger...

Last Stop, Lhasa: Rail Link Ties Remote Tibet to China

July 6, 2006
In terms of engineering, there is no doubt that the completed railway connecting Beijing to Lhasa, the remote capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, is a great feat. It traverses a total of 710 miles, much of it over unstable permafrost at astonishing altitudes. Chinese officials hailed the $4...
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