The United Nations Security Council took an unprecedented step this summer. Pushed principally by the United Kingdom, the council passed its first resolution addressing what it calls “sexual violence in conflict.” That’s a euphemism for an all-too-common problem in many parts of the world: Using rape as a weapon of wartime intimidation. In the human-rights world, it’s called […]
Kevin Rudd, the once extremely popular Prime Minister of Australia who was humiliatingly knifed by his own party and replaced with his deputy Julia Gillard in his first term of government, managed to resurrect himself to face a near impossible re-election battle. Read Here – AlJazeera
Today’s most important political battle in Russia is not for control of the Kremlin, but for power over its capital city. Indeed, the outcome of Moscow’s mayoral election campaign concerns every Russian – and everyone who is interested in Russia’s fate. Read Here – Project Syndicate
The Middle East is caught in a seemingly endless spiral of instability. The likely American military intervention in Syria, together with the deteriorating situation in Egypt since President Mohammad Morsi’s ouster, which was organized by the Egyptian army, has placed the region on a razor’s edge. Read Here – The Daily Star, Beirut
Asif Ali Zardari stepped down as Pakistan’s president and plans to rejuvenate his party after it was voted out of power in May’s general elections. Read Here – Bloomberg
It’s five years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, on 15 September 2008. Since then, the legitimacy of capitalism as a way of organising society has been undermined; its promises of prosperity, social mobility and democracy have lost credibility. But there has been no radical change. The system has repeatedly come under fire, but it has […]
The U.S. is looking beyond its shores, including at the Westinghouse deal with India, to revive an industry that is not doing as well as its supporters project it to. Read Here – The Hindu
Banking reforms alone, however, aren’t going to bring foreign investors back or prevent the rupee from falling further. This is (Raghuram) Rajan’s real challenge: He is stepping into a stew of financial chaos, missed opportunities and political paralysis that has been simmering for years. It’s no longer inconceivable that India could become the first of […]
The reason that U.S. President Barack Obama passed the buck on authorizing a military strike on Syria to Congress is not because getting congressional approval is the constitutional thing to do. It always has been, although presidents have regularly denied it. Rather, Obama passed the buck to Congress because it was the only way out […]
Ice in Antarctica and Greenland is disappearing faster and may drive sea levels higher than predicted this century, according to leaked United Nations documents. Greenland’s ice added six times more to sea levels in the decade through 2011 than in the previous 10 years, according to a draft of the UN’s most comprehensive study on climate change. Antarctica […]
