The European Union has finally decided whom to send to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize: Jose-Manuel Barroso, Herman Van Rompuy, and Martin Schulz, representing the European Commission, the European Council, and the European Parliament, respectively. We’re not sure why Mario Draghi of the European Central Bank is not tagging along with his big […]

On the campaign trail, Obama has boasted loudly and repeatedly of his record on higher ed. In particular, the president likes to remind us that he has increased the number of Pell Grants (by about $26 billion in four years), streamlined the financial aid process, and given more government aid to community colleges.All of this […]

Last week it was China; this week it’s Japan where nationalists are raging against the country across the sea . And unlike in China, this time it isn’t just hotheaded micro-bloggers; it’s former prime minister and opposition leader Shinzo Abe, who is widely expected to become PM next year. Abe has decided to visit the […]

With EU ministers preparing for a major summit on Thursday, all eyes are on the latest plan to save the euro: unified supervision of Eurozone banking. There’s only one problem: the plan is probably illegal. As the FT reports, a top secret body of legal experts has advised EU finance ministers that current European treaties do […]

As CJ Chivers reported on Monday, video evidence on YouTube suggests the Syrian rebels have SA-7 shoulder-fired, heat-seeking surface-to-air missiles. Pieces of the SA-7 have been sighted in Syria several times since the summer, but no one had seen it in action against government forces until earlier this week.The WSJ picked up the story today: […]

It’s the end of an era. Newsweek is killing its print magazine and going digital as of the new year. The Guardian reports: The new digital-only publication, which will be called Newsweek Global, will be a “single worldwide edition targeted for a highly mobile, opinion-leading audience who want to learn about world events in a […]

After years of money flowing in, in the past year the trend has been reversing: cash is beginning to flow out of China. The Wall Street Journal estimates that $225 billion left  China in the 12 months leading up to September. These estimates are based on analysis of trade data, recent foreign-exchange reserves numbers and other economic […]

Could Egypt’s secular tradition be over for good? In the absence of a strong post-Mubarak judiciary, Egyptian communities are increasingly taking justice into their own hands, and that justice has an Islamic slant. The past few months have seen Egyptians take to the street to call out neighbors and community members for atheism, among other […]

A newly released report from the International Energy Agency indicates that U.S. and E.U.-led sanctions are beginning to make a serious dent in Iran’s economy. Most notably, the report estimates that the sanctions have reduced Iran’s oil exports by more than one million barrels a day. The Washington Post reports: The agency estimates that the […]

South Korea has been cracking down on Chinese trawlers illegally fishing in its waters, and the South Korean Coast Guard has been seizing hundreds of ships every year. The Chinese fishermen often resist arrest and are armed with primitive weapons, forcing the South Koreans to use rubber bullets to subdue them. On Tuesday, one such […]