Heavy fighting between warring militias and the government has erupted in Tripoli, the capital of Libya. The country is slowly slipping back into civil war. Assassinations and bombings occur on an almost daily basis in Benghazi, the coastal city in eastern Libya, and now Tripoli, which for a while hadn’t seen the worst of the […]

In an astounding feat of government sclerosis, the legislature facing the deepest deficit and lowest credit rating of any US state is set to punt yet again on the source of its misery: public pensions. Governor Pat Quinn began the year with a demand that the legislature do something, anything, about the state’s $173 billion pension […]

So many European countries are getting energy policy wrong that even the green-minded EU is calling for change. The European Commission urged the EU’s member countries to be more judicious when intervening in energy markets, after overzealous green subsidies have sent energy prices into the stratosphere.Germany is often held up by environmentalists as proof that renewable […]

As the Chronicle of Higher Education reports, schools that offer MOOCs are getting nervous about how much power they’ve handed over to the private companies that host their courses. Stanford is among them: Why? “There are people who are uncomfortable for a range of reasons,” says Jane Manning, director of platforms for Stanford Online, the university’s new […]

Obamacare supporters have always feared that the young and the healthy won’t sign up for insurance in large enough numbers to make Obamacare work. Without enough enrollees in the that demographic, the system would experience an “adverse selection” death spiral in which only the sick and the old sign up, pushing premiums higher. In a […]

Outsiders might shake their heads in consternation as Pakistanis overwhelmingly turn their anger on the US in the aftermath of a drone strike that killed Pakistan’s former Enemy Number One. Hakimullah Mehsud, the chief of the Pakistani Taliban, was one of the country’s most prolific mass murderers. But there was very little relief and almost […]

After the bomb attacks that killed 6 people at BJP rally in Patna, Bihar, in which PM candidate Narendra Modi was about to speak, Indian politicians are stepping up their security contingents in the run-up to the elections next year. Modi, in particular, has become a prime target for Muslim extremist groups after he presided […]

Thanks to high energy costs, Italy—like Germany, Spain, and Europe in general—is struggling to stay competitive in the global economy. Rome is propping up renewable energy with government subsidies that will total nearly a quarter of a trillion euros over the next two decades, and those costs are being passed along to consumers in the […]

Wehazit Berhane Debesai, a Christian activitist jailed by the government of Eritrea, died two weeks ago of pneumonia in her prison after being denied medical treatment for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. She was one of roughly 300 Christians jailed for similar reasons this year, many of whom are held in appalling conditions by the […]

Defying critics at home and abroad, the Indian Space Research Organization is preparing to launch its first interplanetary exploration satellite to Mars. Called the Mangalyaan—”Mars Craft”—the satellite is expected to launch tomorrow afternoon and will reach the Martian atmosphere in September 2014.India has been criticized for spending $72 million on the project instead of on “toilets and […]