When China’s Lieutenant-General Ren Haiquan took the podium in front of an audience filled with representatives from various Asian militaries in Melbourne, Australia, last month, he attacked “some people” who were threatening to repeat the mistakes of WWII. “Flames of the war ignited by fascist countries engulfed the whole region, and many places, including Darwin in Australia, […]

Self-healing materials; energy-efficient water purification; drug delivery through nanoscale engineering—these are just a few of the top ten technologies to watch in 2013, according to the World Economic Forum. The WEF believes these ten innovations are almost at the point where they can be widely distributed and used, transforming all our lives dramatically. David King over […]

The Western love affair with cars may be over. The FT reports that the number of UK teenagers taking driving tests has fallen by about 18 percent since 2007. For 20-somethings, the drop is about 10 percent. Even licensed drivers are driving less: many don’t have cars, and those who do are clocking less miles. The US, […]

If you listen closely you can hear slow fade out of the funeral bells announcing America’s decline. The growth of nanotechnology—a vital piece of varied industries like aerospace and medicine—may just be centered on American soil. Reuters reports via Yahoo News: Inventors based in the United States led the world in nanotechnology patent applications and grants in […]

A strain of a new SARS-like virus has just infected its fourth British victim, suggesting that SARS didn’t go away after its deadly 2002-3 outbreak. The virus, which experts are calling NCoV (novel coronavirus), has now infected 12 people globally, five of whom have died. Most of those sick with NCoV are from the Middle […]

As Iran’s involvement in Syria deepens, Israel’s stake in the war to its north is growing. Iran will do what it can to increase cooperation between Hezbollah and Syrian government forces, and continues to build Hezbollah’s combat capacity. The chaos in Syria, with troops and weapons moving rapidly across the country, provides an ideal environment […]

Narendra Modi, wonder Governor of the booming state of Gujarat on India’s western coast, is hard at work positioning himself as a candidate for Indian prime minister for the 2014 elections. But Modi’s path to the PM’s office is full of roadblocks. How, for instance, can he convince Indians in the south and east of […]

Powerful Democrats who helped write and pass Obamacare subjected the new law’s chief  administrator to withering criticism at a Senate hearing yesterday. Gary Cohen, the director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, testified before the Senate Finance Committee, and the Democrats on the committee—from its Chairman Max Baucus to Senators Ron Wyden, Bill Nelson, and Maria […]

When UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon watched North Korea test its third nuclear device this week, he thought of Iran. If the Norks exploited years of diplomatic talks to achieve nuclear capability, Ban appears to be thinking, why couldn’t the mullahs? The WaPo reports: “We should not give much more time to the Iranians, and […]

Argentina’s pensioners are fighting the government to have their benefits adjusted for inflation, with little success so far. The government has been doing everything it can to avoid paying, and now some 450,000 individual cases are inching through an overloaded court system.Much of the problem is due to the government’s decision to use the pension […]