The most dangerous terror groups in the world are coordinating in new and alarming ways across north and west Africa, a development that has been underreported by the mainstream media.Nigerian insurgents defending what they call the “Islamic Empire of Mali” attacked a convoy of Nigerian soldiers rushing to the assistance of international troops in Mali on Saturday. […]

Upon further editorial review, we have determined that this post does not live up to the standards of quality and fairness we have set for ourselves. Please click here to read more.Israelis turned out to vote yesterday in record numbers, delivering a major shake-up to the Knesset. Bibi Netanyahu is still a lock for Prime Minister, […]

Amtrak plans this year to shift spending away from small, local routes, the better to service the highly trafficked ones. Now some states must decide whether to pay for the trains themselves or to cut the routes altogether. The WSJ reports: Most Amtrak routes require subsidies because revenue collected through ticket sales is less than the […]

David Cameron finally delivered his long-anticipated speech on the EU, promising that he would put the UK’s membership up to a referendum, provided he wins the next election. The promise of a referendum delighted the euroskeptics in his coalition, though Cameron himself vowed to fight for staying in the EU so long as the upcoming […]

Is China’s population going the way of an aging Japan? The Financial Times has the story: China’s working-age population shrank in 2012, marking the beginning of a trend that will accelerate over the next two decades and have profound implications for the world’s second-largest economy. . . .China’s labour market remains tight in many places […]

The Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University publishes a very informative electronic newsletter about religious developments all over the world. On January 12, 2013, the newsletter carried a story originally published in the Buffalo News, about Joelle Silver, a high school science teacher in a community in upstate New York […]

Food trucks have become the hottest new industry, yet many cities are doing everything they can to stop them in their tracks. In city after city, lawmakers are imposing complicated regulations on food trucks and other street vendors, often in the name of consumer safety, which make it nearly impossible for vendors to actually operate […]

Japan’s hawkish new PM Shinzo Abe is either confused or purposely contradicting himself. Contrary to his anti-China nationalist rhetoric on the campaign trail, Abe dispatched an envoy to Beijing today in what the FT says was “clearly presented as an effort to ease tensions.”And yet, perplexingly, Natsuo Yamaguchi, the envoy, offered a decidedly un-conciliatory message […]

Butcher Assad is getting cocky. As President Obama brought down the curtain on America’s “decade of war” yesterday, Assad reportedly sang a different tune: “I will win, even if Damascus is destroyed.”The source of Assad’s confidence? Iran is helping him assemble a new civilian paramilitary force. Iran’s elite Quds Force is training and counseling the […]

France and Germany celebrated a golden anniversary today: 50 years ago, the Élysée Treaty sealed a relationship between them. But, as longtime expert François Heisbourg writes in the FT, even the jubilant music of the Berlin Philharmonic can’t mask the wheezing of the ailing Franco-German partnership. Last week’s announcement of the Bundesbank’s repatriation of its gold from the […]