Greece’s far right neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn has taken on policing responsibilities in Athens, with disturbing results. An article in the Guardian paints a dismaying picture of Greece’s trouble with politics and immigration these days: One victim of crime, an eloquent US-trained civil servant, told the Guardian of her family’s shock at being referred to […]

As Spain deals with a secessionist movement and a worsening economy, it’s gearing up to receive life-saving injections from Mario Draghi’s big-muscle sovereign central bank, says Reuters.The German taxpayers, however, are dragging their feet, reluctant to foot the bill once again, and Angela Merkel is treading lightly. She is reluctant to have to ask for bailouts […]

As the Associated Press reports, Johnnie Carson, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, told reporters that the Islamist extremists who control northern Mali should be dislodged by military force: They are responsible for terrorism, for kidnapping, and for robbery. This is an issue that must be dealt with through security and military means.The actual fighting, […]

The core aspect of the Afghan surge strategy has failed, according to U.S. officials: there is no hope of a peace arrangement with the Taliban before troops leave. Instead, the U.S. has lowered expectations, saying that progress will come through Afghan-led negotiation in 2014 or later.The New York Times reports: The failure to broker meaningful […]

U.S. authorities now suspect that the 9/11/12 attacks were orchestrated by at least one Islamist extremist who escaped jail during the Arab Spring protests in Egypt. The WSJ reports: Fighters linked to one freed militant, Muhammad Jamal Abu Ahmad, took part in the Sept. 11 attack on U.S. diplomatic outposts in Libya that killed four Americans, […]

Mikhail Saakashvili has conceded defeat for his party in Georgia’s contentious parliamentary elections, signaling the first peaceful (if still very partial) transfer of power in the small Caucasian country since it declared independence from the Soviet Union: “According to preliminary results, it is clear that Georgian Dream obtained a majority in this election,” Saakashvili, 44, […]

That’s what a recent report from an organization called DARA claims. The international media seized on the report and blasted terrifying headlines across the web. But not so fast. We should take a closer look before swallowing these claims whole. Thankfully, Bjorn Lomborg has done just that at Foreign Policy: Unfortunately, this message to the […]

Is economic pressure driving Iran into national bankruptcy?Israel’s finance minister Yuval Steinatz seems to think so, claiming that sanctions could push Iran of an economic cliff by next summer.He’s got some evidence to which he can point: Iran’s currency, the rial, has plummeted by almost 57 percent since June. Last week alone, it lost more […]

In a sign of Europe’s relative decline in the world, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan did not mention Turkey’s EU accession plans during his party’s most recent congress this past Sunday. Today’s Zaman reads the tea leaves: Not mentioning such major political goals as reforms and EU membership was indeed attention-grabbing, and the prime minister notably saluted […]

Reuters reports some disturbing news from China: Policy makers and economists have long been worried about the financial burden of China’s expanding patchwork of pension schemes, but those concerns have recently escalated as its rural pension scheme took off in the past three years.The funding shortage is daunting: economists say it could blow out to […]