When Aung San Suu Kyi was appointed the head of an investigation into a protest that turned violent at a huge copper mine in northwest Burma, the monks and villagers, many of whom were burned by phosphorous grenades and beaten by police, breathed a sigh of relief. Burma’s most prominent human rights activist would surely […]

Yesterday the EU decided to postpone its controversial carbon charge for airlines after the US, India, Russia and China threatened a trade war. The original idea put forward by Europe’s greens was to include the aviation industry in the EU’s carbon-trading scheme, charging all flights travelling to or from EU member state airports for the […]

Go to college for seven semesters and get your last semester free!As Americans begin to question the value of college degrees, universities are beginning to experiment with these kinds of marketing gimmicks to attract cost-sensitive students. According to the WSJ, the deals run the gamut: all the way from a modest $2,500 application rebate, to […]

The Syrian rebels have violated the UN’s standards for proper conduct in war, according to a UN report. Based on information from more than 400 interviews inside Syria, the report holds both the rebels and government forces accountable for breaking international humanitarian law. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry is not pleased: [U.N. investigators] said […]

Francois Hollande’s government has flip-flopped on its commitment to keep its budget deficit within the 3 percent-of-GDP cap mandated by the EU, the FT reports. It will “probably stand at 3.7 per cent in 2013 even though we will try to make it lower,” Hollande announced while visiting Dijon. The German Bundesbank was none too […]

On Monday, the FT reported that Pakistan and Iran had agreed to a $1.5 billion pipeline project stretching from Iran’s South Pars gas field all the way across the often-restive Baluchi areas of Pakistan. News footage showed Presidents Ahmadinejad and Zardari shaking hands at the border. The United States was not pleased: “In the coming years as the […]

As usual, I was struck by two seemingly unrelated items reported by Religion News Service on February 28, 2013. I think they are worth being reflected upon together.The first story is about an action by the New York City Commission on Human Rights, which has decided to charge seven ultra-Orthodox Jewish businesses with gender discrimination. […]

One of the primary foreign policy dilemmas facing the second Obama Administration is whether to make a concerted push for Israeli-Palestinian peace, possibly including presentation of a U.S. peace plan, the ultimate form of American involvement, or conversely, to maintain the standoff approach that followed the failed attempts of its first year in office. President […]

Eleven month old baby Omar died horribly and tragically during Israel’s eight day bombardment of the Gaza Strip last November. A striking and heart-wrenching photograph of his distraught father became a centerpiece in the usual and predictable Hate-Israel campaign accompanying the military strike. Baby Omar, the son of BBC journalist Jihad al-Masharawi, died with two relatives, […]

Whether you’re a magnate or a menial worker, nowadays it’s vastly more difficult to find a spouse in China.In the wake of rapid modernization, wealth inequality has spiked, more women are pursuing careers, the skewed gender gap has produced a growing surplus of single men, and family and social networks have frayed as millions of […]