The core aspect of the Afghan surge strategy has failed, according to U.S. officials: there is no hope of a peace arrangement with the Taliban before troops leave. Instead, the U.S. has lowered expectations, saying that progress will come through Afghan-led negotiation in 2014 or later.The New York Times reports: The failure to broker meaningful […]

U.S. authorities now suspect that the 9/11/12 attacks were orchestrated by at least one Islamist extremist who escaped jail during the Arab Spring protests in Egypt. The WSJ reports: Fighters linked to one freed militant, Muhammad Jamal Abu Ahmad, took part in the Sept. 11 attack on U.S. diplomatic outposts in Libya that killed four Americans, […]

Mikhail Saakashvili has conceded defeat for his party in Georgia’s contentious parliamentary elections, signaling the first peaceful (if still very partial) transfer of power in the small Caucasian country since it declared independence from the Soviet Union: “According to preliminary results, it is clear that Georgian Dream obtained a majority in this election,” Saakashvili, 44, […]

That’s what a recent report from an organization called DARA claims. The international media seized on the report and blasted terrifying headlines across the web. But not so fast. We should take a closer look before swallowing these claims whole. Thankfully, Bjorn Lomborg has done just that at Foreign Policy: Unfortunately, this message to the […]

Is economic pressure driving Iran into national bankruptcy?Israel’s finance minister Yuval Steinatz seems to think so, claiming that sanctions could push Iran of an economic cliff by next summer.He’s got some evidence to which he can point: Iran’s currency, the rial, has plummeted by almost 57 percent since June. Last week alone, it lost more […]

In a sign of Europe’s relative decline in the world, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan did not mention Turkey’s EU accession plans during his party’s most recent congress this past Sunday. Today’s Zaman reads the tea leaves: Not mentioning such major political goals as reforms and EU membership was indeed attention-grabbing, and the prime minister notably saluted […]

Reuters reports some disturbing news from China: Policy makers and economists have long been worried about the financial burden of China’s expanding patchwork of pension schemes, but those concerns have recently escalated as its rural pension scheme took off in the past three years.The funding shortage is daunting: economists say it could blow out to […]

Regime and rebel forces traded blame for a fire that raged in Aleppo’s Old City over the weekend. No matter who is responsible the end result is the same: the beautiful ancient marketplace with its network of stone archways and cobble streets has been torched, bombed, and nearly demolished. A few pictures are available here […]

Those hunting for hope that the world economy is on the road to recovery have some more bad news to digest: the grim outlook for global trade. The World Trade Organization is the latest to sound the alarm, notes the WSJ, as the WTO is projecting that the global volume of trade in goods would […]

The New Orleans Times-Picayune just went from being a daily to a thrice-weekly. The NYT has the story: In May, the parent company of The Times-Picayune, Newhouse Media, announced large-scale cutbacks as well as plans to reduce publication to three times a week in favor of an expanded Web site. Saturday’s edition represents the official end […]