The budget crises that have been wreaking havoc on state finances for years now may have just reached a new low: Many states are now taking money from homeowners to cover other budget shortfalls. In a recent settlement with the states, five of the country’s largest banks have agreed to pay a settlement of about […]

Being a religious minority in the Middle East is an extremely tough assignment. Whether it’s the Copts in Egypt, other kinds of Christians in Iran and Iraq, Shiites in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, or Sunnis in Iran, minority faithful often find themselves persecuted and under siege. Add the Bahai to that list.Writing in the Chronicle […]

Recently, Via Meadia wrote that, while the Obama administration’s “pivot” to Asia is in part a continuation of some of the policies of the Clinton and Bush years, Washington’s deepening commitment to the Asia-Pacific region represents the biggest geopolitical event since 9/11: The legacy press, still befuddled from drinking too much of the ‘US in […]

According to the Washington Post, the FDA is currently considering approval of a new home HIV test, which could be purchased over the counter and administered within 20 minutes by performing a simple gum swab.There are still some hurdles to clear before this test pops up in your neighborhood pharmacy. Its false negative rate, 7 […]

As Via Meadia has reported in the past, the smart money has been quietly edging out of Greek banks for a long time. As concern spread, the bank walk turned into a bank jog. This weeks, there are signs the jog is breaking into a bank run: Greek depositors withdrew €700 million ($898 million) from […]

Mere hours after his inauguration, the bad news is piling up for French President François Hollande.First came reports that the day before he took office, a group of French Catholics took to the streets to protest his social policies, which include support for gay marriage, euthanasia, and reducing funding to religious schools, according to the […]

For all his bluster, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has never held the kind of authority over Iran’s nuclear program he would like. That responsibility has remained squarely in the hands of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Financial Times reports that a bitter power struggle is developing between the two men—and Ahmadinejad appears to be losing.Rumblings from Tehran suggest […]

U.S. states aren’t the only places facing pension crises at the moment: Underfunded and unsustainable pensions are wreaking havoc in Europe too. The Scotsman, in particular, is up in arms over new rules tying retirement to life expectancy; the paper describes the future under the rule changes as “a grim picture of aged toil.”The gradual […]

This weekend’s fighting in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second largest city, has not abated. The Daily Star reports: Lebanese troops backed by armored vehicles deployed Tuesday in the northern coastal city of Tripoli to end three days of clashes between the rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen that led to the killing of at least […]

Burma’s turn away from its former relationship with China and North Korea reached a dramatic milestone in Asia overnight. According to a Voice of America report, Burma’s reforming president Thein Sein told visiting South Korean president Lee Myung-bak that his country will now enforce sanctions against North Korea.In the past, Burma (aka Myanmar) has been […]