An update in the contentious Koran-burning saga in Pakistan: the accused Christian teenage girl, who reportedly has Downs Syndrome, has been granted bail. This follows the arrest of the Muslim cleric who tried to frame her by planting Koran-pages near some burnt paper. The New York Times has more on this story, which is indicative of the […]

The BBC reports: Iraq’s fugitive vice-president Tariq al-Hashemi has been sentenced to death in absentia after a court found him guilty of running death squads.Politically motivated or not, the case sparked an emergency in Baghdad: Hashemi was the most senior Sunni Muslim in the predominantly Shia Iraqi government until he was charged last December and […]

How much trouble is President Obama’s re-election campaign in? After watching and then re-reading the President’s convention speech, a writer for the (liberal) New Republic has uttered the most dreaded name in the Democratic lexicon: Carter.The speech did not exactly thrill TNR’s Timothy Noah: Watching President Obama give his nomination speech last night, it occurred […]

One of the nastiest practical consequences of the Syrian civil war for the West may very well be its radicalizing effect. We’ve already noted how Syria’s own rebels are increasingly turning to jihadist rhetoric and fundamentalist Islam as an organizing principle. Now comes word from a doctor from Médecins Sans Frontières, who just returned from Aleppo, […]

Following American presidential elections intelligently is a tricky thing to do. No spectacle anywhere in the world gets as much attention as the world’s longest and most grueling marathon. After all, the US president is the most powerful office holder in the world, commander in chief of the greatest military forces ever assembled, and the […]

Over the past few decades, rising countries in Asia have looked to American and European systems of social services as something more or less to aspire to. But as both the U.S. and European safety nets fray under staggering budget deficits, unfulfilled promises to public-sector workers, and unsustainable healthcare costs, countries like China and India are realizing […]

Young people around the world will be feeling the effects of the euro crisis for years to come, warns a new report by the International Labour Organization (h/t BBC News): As the euro area crisis continues in its second year, the impacts are spreading further, slowing down economies from East Asia to Latin America. Other […]

Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention, while playing a bit better than Romney’s a week before in Tampa, was viewed by far fewer people than his corresponding speech four years ago: The Nielsen company said 35.7 million people watched the final night of the Democratic convention on Thursday between 10 and 11 p.m. Eastern time. […]

The EU may be divided on a number of issues, but it is standing strong on one: the unacceptable behavior of Russian gas giant Gazprom. Earlier this week, the European Commission opened an investigation into the company, claiming that it has been using its near-monopoly position to strong-arm Eastern European energy markets. The Financial Times reports: […]

The greenback is, and will remain, the world’s reserve currency of choice for a long time to come, according to the Financial Times. As David Pilling argues, China’s attempts to internationalize its redback, the renminbi, to compete with the dollar won’t go far. Although Beijing is currently using Hong Kong and Taiwan to experiment with […]