Pakistan is a mess these days, to put it charitably, but even here there are a few glimmers of hope. Here’s one: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and special UN envoy for global education Gordon Brown recently unveiled the Waseela-e-Taleem program, which would pay poor Pakistani families to send their children to school. The program is backed by the […]

Malaria has long been among the most dangerous diseases in the world. The toll is enormous: Every year, a quarter of a billion people are infected, and an estimated 655,000 die, many of them children in Sub-Saharan Africa. The arrival of an effective drug, Artemisinin and an influx of aid money have helped lower the death […]

A Commerce Department study reports that growth in the service sector has outpaced manufacturing growth. The Wall Street Journal reports: Businesses in the service sector, including things like accounting, legal services and payroll management, accounted for 12.2% of the U.S. economy last year, adjusting for inflation, according to new figures from the Commerce Department released Tuesday. By contrast, manufacturing fueled […]

“I swear I will do everything in my power to change the situation in Tibet, where human rights are being suppressed. . . . Tibet seeks freedom and democracy and we agree on those values.” So said Shinzo Abe, likely Japan’s next prime minister, who met the Dalai Lama in Japan yesterday.It was a direct […]

The New York Times is asking publishers some hard hitting, probing questions about morals and “best practices” for biographers and their subjects: Even in the wake of revelations that Ms. Broadwell was having an affair with Mr. Petraeus, then the director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the subject of her biography, “All In: The Education of […]

France became on Tuesday the first country outside the Persian Gulf to recognize the newly formed Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces. Hillary Clinton held back on offering the same support from the United States, saying the opposition leaders must first prove they have some clout with the rebels in Syria.Meanwhile, photos of rebel fighters with […]

As was widely reported in both religious and secular media, on October 5, 2012, a letter highly critical of Israel was sent to Congress by leaders of most of the major mainline Protestant denominations and the National Council of Churches (which is dominated by them). The denominations include the biggies—the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United […]

  This documentary makes the argument that U.S. corporations are not paying their fair share of taxes and that their failure is a major part of the reason we have a substantial deficit. It goes on to argue that higher corporate tax payments (not necessarily higher rates), as well as higher taxes on the wealthiest […]

Twenty months into Syria’s revolution-turned-civil war, and the potential for Western intervention still looms large: From the UK’s top general we now hear the news of a possible contingent of British troops to be sent into the carnage, as the Telegraph reports: Gen Sir David Richards said there were contingency plans in place for a […]

We’ve seen this story before: Chinese belligerence driving a neighbor into America’s friendly embrace.Japan is set to lend significant support to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), an extensive U.S.-led free trade deal that would help integrate the economies of Asia and the Americas.Japan’s Prime Minister Noda is struggling to remain in power as he faces political gridlock, a […]