The Russian nightmare of Islamic radicalism spreading like a contagion is growing closer to reality. Reuters has a thorough report on the radicalization taking place in the mountainous region of Dagestan and the government’s heavy-handed crackdown: In the first half of 2012 alone, the Caucasian Knot website recorded 185 insurgency-related deaths and 168 wounded, making […]

Last year, a massive cheating scandal at an elite New York high school prompted closer scrutiny of alleged cheating elsewhere. This year, it’s happening again, but at a higher level: the New York Times reports that more than 100 students at Harvard University are suspected of cheating and plagiarism on exams in a class on government (sadly, it […]

Known as Dokdo in Korean, Takeshima in Japanese, and Liancourt Rocks to the rest of us, a few small islets are the focus of an escalating fight between Japan and South Korea. WSJ: Japan’s foreign minister ratcheted up pressure on South Korea with tough rhetoric and hints of further countermeasures, after Seoul Thursday formally rejected […]

Over the past few months, the conventional picture of China’s meteoric rise to economic dominance has been cast into serious doubt. Numerous economic indicators are pointing toward a significant slowdown. In the past month alone, manufacturing has hit a nine-month low, steel prices have fallen dramatically, and investors have begun pulling their money out of […]

Rajesh Shah opened a men’s clothing store in the city of Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujarat and named it after his father’s nickname: Hitler. Shah says his father got this nickname because he was “very strict” and that he didn’t know of anyone named Adolf Hitler. Now he is being roundly attacked, and […]

Like most undercover security officials, members of Nigeria’s secret service work hard to hide their personal information from the public. It came as a surprise, then, when information—including names, addresses and bank account details—belonging to more than sixty service members was leaked online for several days. Worse, this information came with a message attached: the terrorist […]

The port of Gwadar on Pakistan’s southwestern coast is strategically well-placed just outside the Straight of Hormuz (see map). It is a deepwater port capable of handling international shipping vessels and oil tankers. It was built with help from Chinese money and has been run by a Singaporean company—until now.The FT reports that China is about […]

Iran’s chairmanship of the (mostly meaningless) conference of the Non-Aligned Movement conference isn’t going exactly as planned. First, Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi deviated from the script, criticizing Iran’s allies in Syria and coming out in favor of the rebellion. Then UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon joined in, sharply denouncing Iran’s threats of destruction towards Israel […]

The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, a union with about 59,000 members, has been under Federal investigation for almost ten years. Trustees have been found charging hundreds of thousands of dollars of travel, restaurant, and other “expenses,” and leaders have made several irresponsible business choices based on family ties. The Kansas City Star has an exhaustive list of […]

Just months after Premier Wen Jiabao cited corruption as the biggest threat to Communist Party rule, the BBC reports that a former top city official in northeast China fled the country at the start of the year, taking millions of dollars with him. Wang Guoqiang, who was party secretary of Fengcheng city in Liaoning province, left for […]