Not content with being a thorn in the side of China’s suspicious neighbors in Vietnam and the Philippines, Chinese fishermen are starting to annoy China’s close friends as well, Reuters reports: Sri Lanka’s navy said on Monday it was still holding 37 Chinese fishermen to appear in court on charges of fishing within its waters, contradicting […]

Standard Chartered’s Group Executive Director, according to reports, when confronted about his bank’s Iran dealings, said: “You [expletive] Americans. Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we’re not going to deal with Iranians.”More on the story: New York State’s financial watchdog has accused Standard Chartered of hiding $250bn of transactions with the Iranian […]

Last year, the Supreme Court made waves when it ordered California to release tens of thousands of inmates from its overcrowded prisons on the grounds that the cash-strapped state was keeping them locked up under inhumane conditions. The Supreme Court order has forced California to repurpose county jails—which are intended for short stays, often by people […]

Last week, when we noted that the new head of Pakistan’s ISI had come to Washington for negotiations, we suggested that for all sorts of reasons, Pakistan needs the U.S. more than the U.S. needs Pakistan. And while nothing in this relationship is ever settled for good, some dare to hope that U.S. pressure on Pakistan […]

Budget shortfalls, cuts in federal funding, and the threat of total financial ruin are pushing municipalities to innovate—and they’re pushing hard. Case in point: the Economist recently profiled Sandy Springs, a northern suburb of Atlanta that, emergency services aside, only employs seven people full-time and outsources many of its essential services to private companies.The unorthodox […]

Give me the money or wreck Europe. That is Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti’s message to Germany, according to the AP: Mario Monti told German news magazine Der Spiegel in an interview published Sunday that eurozone tensions over the past few years “bear the traits of a psychological dissolution of Europe,” adding that Europe “must work hard to contain […]

“Amid the gloom there are unexpected signs of boom, especially in energy,” begins a tentatively hopeful report in the Economist on America’s economy. Those signs of boom begin with all that newly available oil and gas being pumped out of shale formations across the country, but they extend widely into other sectors that work with […]

The WHO has just announced that the recent Ebola outbreak in rural Uganda is now under control. Ebola outbreaks are infrequent and usually end quickly, but with a mortality rate as high as 90 percent, they’re a steep challenge for doctors and health officials.Containing this outbreak was even more challenging, though, because the victims did not […]

Longtime India watchers should not be surprised at this latest turn of events: India worked hard behind the scenes on Friday to dilute a Saudi Arabia-drafted UNGA resolution, which severely indicted Syria for the situation prevailing in the country, but finally abstained from voting after the draft could not be rid of reference to the July 22nd League of […]

In Syria, a rebel commander took dozens of Iranians hostage after discovering them traveling, rather conspicuously, through Damascus. Today, Iran has appealed to the rebel-friendly governments of Turkey and Qatar to get its citizens back—trouble is, they may not be mere “citizens.” LA Times reports: The [rebel] commander labeled the captives Iranian militiamen nabbed while on […]