Framework Needed for Land Deals in Developing World Driven by food security concerns, governments around the world have begun purchasing land in developing nations for agricultural purposes. Foreign land acquisition -- known by critics as "land grab" -- responds to worries over global problems that include growing water scarcity,...
Don't Assume Ahmadinejad Really Lost There is no denying that the news clips from Tehran are dramatic, unprecedented in violence and size since the mullahs came to power in 1979. They're possibly even augurs of real change. But can we trust them? Most of the demonstrations and rioting I've seen in the news are taking place in north...
Iran: Ahmadinejad Victory Sparks Protests and Claims of Fraud According to Iran's Interior Ministry, Ahmadinejad took 62.6 percent of the vote, with leading reformist candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi receiving 33.7 percent – thus averting a widely anticipated run-off. The ministry says turnout was a record 85 percent of eligible voters.
The weekend...
Would a United States of Africa Work? The United States of Africa remains a constant theme - the great dream cherished from the earliest days of pan-Africanism.. For many political leaders, the failure of the post-colonial state is the root cause of the marginalisation and upsurge in violence that is plunging whole swathes of Africa...
Israel's War Crimes For the first time since the establishment of Israel in 1948 the government is facing serious allegations of war crimes from respected public figures throughout the world. (…) To grasp the significance of these developments it is necessary to explain what made the 22 days of attacks in...
China Lightens up on Taiwan but Leaves Tibet in the Dark Lacking a democratic mandate, the Communist Party of China relies on two other sources of legitimacy: its success at delivering ever-rising prosperity to the majority of the Chinese people, and its success at uniting China and keeping it united.
If the first source dries up as the economic...
Fighting Discrimination in Education of Romani Children. The Bulgarian Model. The Roma, also known as gypsies or “travelers”, are the greatest ethnic minority group in CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) countries today. They are often described as a nation of pickpockets, thieves and fortunetellers by the non-Romani population and are usually targets of...
Chávez Decisively Wins Bid to End Term Limits President Hugo Chávez handily won a referendum on Sunday that will end presidential term limits, allowing him to run for re-election indefinitely and injecting fresh vibrancy into his socialist-inspired revolution.
(...)The vote opens the way not only for Mr. Chávez to run for a...
Asia's Jewish Myths (...) [Anti-Semitism] conspiracy theories are not rare in Asia. (...)
The Chinese picked up many modern Western ideas from the Japanese. Perhaps this is how Jewish conspiracy theories were passed on as well. But Southeast Asians are not immune to this kind of nonsense either. Former Malaysian...
Iraq's Elections: Winners, Losers, and What's Next The Iraqi local elections were held on 31 January 2009 (...). The results, most of which were released on 5 February, offer important evidence into current political trends.
The outcome has two especially striking aspects. First, the trouncing of the principal ruling parties - the Islamic...
Iran's Anti-Secularist Backlash Millions of jubilant revolutionaries greeted Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the senior Shia cleric, when he ended 14 years in exile and returned to Iran (...) from Paris on February 1, 1979. (...)
On his first day back, Khomeini delivered a message of hope and change to Iranians.
He praised...
Zimbabwe: How Deal with Tsvangirai Saved Mugabe PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe (pictured) was saved from what could have been an embarrassing tongue-lashing at the just-ended African Union summit after striking a last minute deal with MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai to form an inclusive government.
(...) [A] number of AU leaders were...
A New Plan for Darfur By any measure one might care to use, the situation in Darfur continues to deteriorate. Caught in the diplomatic vacuum created by the appalling events in Gaza, the region seems to have been relegated to a second or third order agenda item at best. (...) Violence on the ground has escalated...
Gaza Is No Warsaw Ghetto Within days of the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, critics of the war, on blogs and in the mainstream media, began to compare the situation of Palestinians in Gaza to that of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Second World War.
In the last few years comparisons between the Israeli...
A Common Approach to Integration? Both national governments and regional authorities have in recent weeks adopted declarations about the integration of immigrants into European society. (...)
Setting policy on the integration of immigrants [into European society] is for the most part the responsibility of member states. The...
