By Ihsan Bal Ask why states exist and one of the first things to come up in reply will doubtlessly be ‘in order to have a system of justice that functions properly.’ As the Turkish expression goes ‘justice is the basis of ownership.’ We have not yet heard the final verdicts in the Ergenekon trials [...]
Turkey: Coup Tribunals At Silivri? – OpEd
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Constitutional Flaw: Culture Of War Nation – OpEd
By Charles Mercieca Over the past few decades, the United States has emerged to become the most violent nation in the civilized world. This did not happen overnight. In fact, we can trace this nation’s source of violence to the draft of its Constitution, which has now emerged to become the nation’s dangerous enemy. Enactment [...]
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Freedom: Because It Works Or Because It’s Right? – OpEd
Libertarians divide into two broad classes: those who espouse a free society because it gives better results than an unfree society, and those who espouse a free society because they believe that it is wrong to deny or suppress a person’s right to be free (unless, of course, that person is suppressing the equal right [...]
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Turkey’s EU Bid Faces Opportunities And Challenges In 2013 – Analysis
By Menekse Tokyay Developments in Turkey and the EU could present fresh opportunities for Ankara’s accession bid in 2013, provided that each side is ready to address long-term challenges together. The ruling AKP introduced a series of democratising reforms early in its tenure, leading the EU to officially open negotiations with Turkey in 2005. But [...]
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Statement By President Obama On Fiscal Cliff Talks
By President Barack Obama Good afternoon, everybody. For the past couple of months, I’ve been working with leaders of both parties to try and forge an agreement that would grow our economy and shrink the deficit — a balanced plan that would cut spending in a responsible way but also ask the wealthiest Americans to [...]
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Russia Agrees To Talk To Syrian Opposition
Russia is preparing to hold talks with Syrian opposition figures, following its admission that President Assad could lose the war, the BBC reported on Friday. Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said he wanted the Syrian president to follow his lead in talking to the rebels. Speaking at a news conference in Moscow on Friday, Mr. [...]
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India, Russia Cannot Give Up On Each Other – Analysis
By Nandan Unnikrishnan Russian President Vladimir Putin’s whirlwind one-day visit to Delhi on 24 December, amidst speculation about the future direction of Indo-Russian relations, has helped lift some of the pall of doom and gloom that appeared to engulf the outlook on the relationship. Superficially, it appeared that bilateral ties were beset by several problems [...]
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The Second Great Depression Deepening Across The Globe – OpEd
By Webster G. Tarpley In Charles Dickens’ celebrated short story A Christmas Carol (1843), the Malthusian miser and London stock exchange speculator Ebenezer Scrooge is told by the ghost of his deceased partner Jacob Marley that “it is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow men, and [...]
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Hagel Is Definitely In The Mainstream – OpEd
By Jim Lobe The initial attacks against Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense included a virtual mantra that the former Nebraska senator was “out of the mainstream” of thinking on the Middle East. Even in his endorsement of Hagel yesterday, Tom Friedman noted that “some of his views are not ‘mainstream.’” But that’s nonsense, particularly [...]
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Philippines: Rebels Threaten To End Ceasefire
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today threatened to cut short a ceasefire with the government after Manila failed to reciprocate an order issued by the rebel group to its fighters to extend the truce to January 15. The CPP demanded that the Aquino government also order an extension of its earlier ceasefire declaration [...]
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Sri Lanka: Back-To-Back Disasters Compound North’s Difficulties
Floods in the past two months following a long drought have left Sri Lanka’s Northern and Eastern provinces reeling, with tens of thousands of people displaced, thousands of houses damaged or destroyed, and stretches of agricultural land devastated. Rain beginning on 16 December has affected at least 350,000 people, displaced 31,000, killed 39 and left [...]
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Fighting Terrorism, The Moroccan Way – OpEd
On December 25 Moroccan Ministry of Interior issued a communique announcing that Moroccan security services have broken up a six-member cell that recruited young Moroccans embracing with jihadist thought. According to the statement, the new recruits were sent to the camps of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb in Algeria (AQIM). The jihadist cell was dismantled [...]
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A New Year Gft To Syria: A Possible Agreement? – Analysis
By Saeed Naqvi The New Year promises to be better for the Syrian people because diplomacy, not conflict, appears to be coming on top. The brazen indifference to the question “what after Bashar al Assad?” appears to be giving way to sober reflection on just that point. Remember Hillary Clinton waving her hand in one, [...]
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Belgium To Charge Church Of Scientology With Fraud And Extortion – Report
fter a long lasting legal battle Belgium prosecutors demand to label the Church of Scientology as a criminal organization and charge it and its leaders with extortion, fraud, privacy breaches, and the illegal practice of medicine. The subpoenas have been sent to the scientologists, the local financial newspaper De Tijd reported. The charges against the [...]
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Dragon In Eagle’s Shadow – OpEd
China has plans to move on claimed territories in the Pacific. It plans to become the imminent dominant regional player. They are also making geopolitical waves in Central Asia and in Africa—all around the world in smaller strides. With acts of diplomatic hostility and occasional militant actions from the regional players of the China Seas, [...]
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On New Terrorism And Yemen: A Hard Look – Analysis
Terrorism, especially “New Terrorism” is a very debatable topic in the present discourse of International Relations, Political studies and Social Science. The term New Terrorism particularly got popular in the scholarly discourse after September the 11th attack on the World Trade Center, but it is not a new concept; atleast as far as general narrative [...]
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Burma: Army Steps Up Air Offensive Against Kachin Rebels
The Burmese army has deployed military helicopters and jet fighters in a series of coordinated air attacks against Kachin rebels less than 16 kilometres away from their headquarters in Laiza, local sources say. Fierce fighting raged throughout Friday in the strategic Lajayang region as government forces stepped up their military assault on the isolated Kachin [...]
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EU, US Plan Economic Union – OpEd
By Kirill Bezverkhy The European Union and the United States are holding secret talks on the creation of a joint trade and economic union. According to news media reports, Washington and Brussels are in talks to strike an unprecedented deal on creating a trans-Atlantic market. The purpose of such an initiative is to offset the [...]
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India: Rape Victim’s Death Demands Action, Says HRW
The death on December 29, 2012, of a 23-year-old student who was gang raped and assaulted should spur decisive action by the Indian government to combat sexual violence, Human Rights Watch said today. The attack catalyzed massive nationwide demonstrations and reopened public debate about reforming India’s inadequate laws and practices concerning sexual assault. The woman, [...]
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China: First Electricity Flows From Ningde Nuclear Plant
Control room engineers at Ningde 1 sent power to the grid for the first time, in the Fujian province of China. The landmark was reached at 2.58pm on 28 December as the delivery of first electricity took the reactor from the construction phase into commissioning. Operator China Guangdong Nuclear Power Company (CGNPC) said it was [...]
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