By Arko Dasgupta Last week, Salva Kiir, the president of South Sudan made known his willingness to meet Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. The two Sudans, recently separated under the conditions set in the 2005 Naivasha Agreement, have continued to have problems with each other even after their formal separation. Sudan had been witness to a [...]
Africa: ‘C’ For Colonialism – OpEd
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India: Six Charged With Murder In Death Of Rape Victim
Indian authorities have charged six men with murder, following the death of a student who was brutally gang-raped earlier this month on a bus in New Delhi. Police say the men could face the death penalty if convicted. The 23-year-old woman died early Saturday of severe organ failure at a hospital in Singapore. She underwent [...]
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Pressure Mounts On Iraqi PM To Step Down
Pressure is mounting on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to step down, after the largest scale protests so far saw tens of thousands of Iraqis gather on Friday to call for his removal, Al Jazeera reported on Friday. The protests took place across the country with the main focus on the western highway, close to [...]
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Fatah To Celebrate 48th Anniversary In Gaza On Jan. 4
Fatah will hold its 48th anniversary celebrations in Gaza on January 4, a PLO official said Saturday. Nabil Shaath told Ma’an that celebrations will take place in al-Saraya square in Gaza City after Friday prayers. Preparations are in full swing, with bulldozers leveling the ground and technical teams setting up a large stage, Shaath said. [...]
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Prisons In Mexico On Verge Of Collapse
By Daniela Pastrana Edgar Torres Castillo, 21, has spent two years in the prison of Gómez Palacio, in the Lagunera district between the northern Mexican states of Durango and Coahuila – an arid zone known as one of the most dangerous parts of the country. Amparo Castillo, the mother of Edgar, who was sentenced to [...]
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China Toughens Internet Usage Norms – OpEd
By Adith Charlie China has approved tighter Internet control norms that will require web users to register their real names with Internet service providers, the state-owned Xinhua news agency had said. This move aims to put an end to anonymous online comments and postings on websites and microblogs. The new rules require Internet service providers [...]
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George H.W. Bush Leaves Intensive Care In Texas Hospital
Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush has been moved out of intensive care and into a regular room at Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. The 88-year-old former president entered the hospital last month for bronchitis and was moved into intensive care last Sunday after developing a fever. A Bush family spokesman says the former president’s [...]
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Taliban Shoot Dead 21 Pakistani Soldiers
Taliban militants have shot dead 21 Pakistani soldiers who were kidnapped three days ago in a raid on two camps in the troubled northwest of the country, officials said Sunday. Around 200 heavily-armed militants stormed two government paramilitary camps on Thursday, killing two security personnel and kidnapping at least 23. The attackers armed with heavy [...]
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Swiss Step Up Hunt For War Criminals
By Simon Bradley Switzerland has taken a major step forward in tracking suspected war criminals with the creation of a special task force this year, campaigners say. Prosecutors have opened a number of cases linked to Switzerland. They are homing in on two figures in particular: Khaled Nezzar, the former Algerian defence minister suspected of [...]
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India: Capital Acquisition Budget: Factors Affecting Its Utilization – Analysis
By Amit Cowshish As the year draws to a close, the familiar spectre of underutilization of the capital acquisition budget has started raising its head. At the end of November 2012, the compiled expenditure on capital acquisition was INR 33,379.11 crore against the allocated budget of INR 66,032.24 crore, which works out to 50.55 per [...]
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Lawsuits Against New York City Police Increasing – OpEd
Lawsuits filed against the New York Police Department (NYPD) cost the city’s taxpayers a record-high of $185.6 million in the fiscal year 2011 and the latest figures indicate a 35-percent increase over fiscal year 2010, according to New York City Comptroller John Liu in a report released on Friday. “Settlements [for all departments] have once [...]
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Iran: Khamenei Page Prompts Calls For Iran To Unblock Facebook
By Golnaz Esfandiari for RFE/RL Thanks to a Facebook page in the name of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supporters and opponents of Iran’s supreme leader now agree on one thing: Iran should free up access to the social-networking site. “Khorasan” last week published an opinion piece titled “Why Don’t They Unblock Facebook?” in which the conservative [...]
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Nadal Withdraws From Next Month’s Australian Open
Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from next month’s Australian Open because his recovery from a persistent knee injury has been hampered by a stomach virus, BBC Sport reported. Former world number one Nadal, 26, has suffered from tendonitis in his left knee since losing in the second round of Wimbledon in June. The injury forced the [...]
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Mauritania Braces For War Next Door
By Jemal Oumar and Bakari Gueye Mauritania, like many of its Maghreb neighbours, has decided to reinforce the protection of its borders in light of recent developments in Mali. Residents of Mauritanian border towns with Mali are growing increasingly apprehensive. Following bitter fighting against the Movement for the National Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), al-Qaeda-affiliated Ansar [...]
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Burma: Warning Over Kachin Conflict
A day after Burma’s military aircraft pounded rebel areas in northern Kachin state causing an unknown number of casualties, a prominent local activist called on the government Saturday to resume peace talks to end the ethnic conflict or risk losing the confidence of the people. “Now it has escalated to usage of planes and choppers [...]
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Saudi Arabia Unveils Record Surplus Budget
By Khalil Hanware and P.K. Abdul Ghafour Saudi Arabia yesterday announced a record surplus budget SR 9 billion for 2013, projecting expenditure at SR 820 billion and revenues at SR 829. It has allocated SR 285 billion for new projects, SR 204 billion for education, SR 100 billion for health, SR 65 for transport and [...]
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Why Beg Russia For Its Help On Syria? – OpEd
By Abdulrahman Al-Rashed I cannot understand this constant insistence in trying to persuade the Russians to abandon Assad’s regime in Syria, when the Kremlin’s stubbornness has been clear throughout this past year and a half. Why has Russia been the center of Arab focus in their efforts to stop the genocide in Syria? The master [...]
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America’s Deceptive 2012 Fiscal Cliff – Analysis
When World War I broke out in August 1914, economists on both sides forecast that hostilities could not last more than about six months. Wars had grown so expensive that governments quickly would run out of money. It seemed that if Germany could not defeat France by springtime, the Allied and Central Powers would run [...]
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Obama Signs Law Countering Iran’s Sway In Latin America
US President Barack Obama enacted a law on Friday targeting Iran’s alleged influence in Latin America. This comes as Washington already wages a “covert war” against Iran, according to researcher Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich. The act also calls on the Department of Homeland Security to bolster surveillance at US borders with Canada and Mexico to “prevent operatives [...]
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The 10 Worst US Regulations Of 2012 – OpEd
By Diane Katz and James L. Gattuso During 2012, virtually every aspect of American life, from caloric intake to dishwasher efficiency, was subjected to government meddling. Most of these rules increase the cost of living, others hinder job creation, and many erode freedom. Not all regulations are unwarranted, of course, but increasingly, the rules imposed [...]
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