Beijing has offered little information about the investigation of several executives from China’s top oil producer, except to accuse them of “severe breaches of discipline,” a phrase often used to invoke bribery and corruption. But the focus on the oil industry itself and specific investigation of two of the four executives adds fuel to a growing sense that […]
For siblings of China’s Bo Xilai, the dramatic trial they witnessed in the courtroom over the past week was probably a nightmarish déjà vu. Read Here –
Always remember mornings like these, the next time police officers and politicians demand more powers to protect us from terrorism. They always sound so reasonable and so concerned for our welfare when they do. For who wants to be blown apart? Read here – The Spectator
From curbing urban crime to calculating the effectiveness of a tennis player‘s backhand, people are now gathering and analyzing vast amounts of data to predict human behaviors, solve problems, identify shopping habits, thwart terrorists – everything but foretell which Hollywood scripts might make blockbusters. Actually, there’s a company poring through numbers to do that, too. […]
Is cybercrime, cyber espionage, and other malicious cyber activities what some call “the greatest transfer of wealth in human history,” or is it what others say is a “rounding error in a fourteen trillion dollar economy?” Read Here – csis.org
Men from the Commonwealth – and they are men – are taking over the British establishment’s positions of power. Read Here – The Spectator
The scourge of African piracy is shifting from the East Coast to the West. Although the attacks are taking a major toll on the global shipping trade, world leaders continue to play for time in the hope that it will be resolved locally. Read Here – Der Spiegel
They tower over the natives: martial torsos; arms with coiled-wire sinews and a combat-hardened stare. Goliath hands clutch nervously at the tote bags. These are ex-Israeli soldiers and they are in India. Haggard and weather-beaten, fresh from military conscription they come to Delhi, Goa and the Himalayas to party and regale each other with stories […]
The leading demographic accounts of contemporary slavery project a global slave population of between 20 million and 30 million people. Most of these people are in sedentary forms of slavery, such as hereditary collateral-debt bondage. But about 20 percent have been unwittingly trafficked though the promise of opportunity by predators through varying combinations of deception […]
A stake through the heart might keep Silvio Berlusconi out of Italian politics, but it better be hammered in hard. Last week he renounced all intention of running again for the premiership of Italy, then received a four-year prison sentence (later reduced to a year) for tax evasion. Read Here – Reuters
looking beyond borders 