For 400 of the past 500 years, Turkey has dominated Mesopotamia and struggled for power and riches with Iran, which could never quite push the Ottomans out of the Fertile Crescent. This same struggle continues today: Turkey opposed the U.S.-led invasion[of Iraq], and then paid the price when the occupation government hamstrung Turkish trade and favored […]

As the lights slowly flickered back to life across India, the heated argument over who is to blame for the massive blackouts was already underway, the New York Times reports: The nation’s new power minister distanced himself from assertions by his predecessor that state officials were responsible for Monday and Tuesday’s blackouts by drawing more power […]

Europe failed again today. It’s hardly news when this happens anymore, but the latest ballyhooed European plan to put the euro crisis behind it has now fallen apart. Markets have realized that yet again they were being sold a hope instead of a plan, and the more ECB president Mario Draghi tried to explain what […]

Could America’s oil and gas reserves make it an energy producer on par with Saudi Arabia? That depends on whether we can extract oil cheaply and easily, and whether these reserves will turn out to be as large as we hope.There are already promising signs. A new report issued by the Energy Information Administration shows that America’s […]

War is no picnic—and civil war is worse.A disturbing video circulating on the web appears to show Syrian rebels executing unarmed prisoners who appear to have been members of the Barri family, an Aleppo clan accused of backing the regime and frequently attacking anti-Assad demonstrators. An agreement between rebel forces and the Barri clan, which is […]

Sometimes the only way to build is to destroy. In Detroit, population flight over the past decade has left tens of thousands of vacant buildings that have become crime dens and serious hazards for neighborhood schoolchildren. The Governor of Michigan—who, due to a unique power-sharing agreement, has a powerful role in the city—is set on […]

Is the nose of a Shiite camel trying to get under the Sunni tent in Saudi Arabia? Recent demonstrations in Qatif, a town in Saudi Arabia’s oil rich, predominantly Shiite eastern province, have highlighted growing resentment in the economically cozy but politically and religiously smouldering kingdom. Expect the royal family and their security forces to […]

As Mitt Romney is finding out to his dismay, Republicans have just as much of an appetite for green energy pork as do Democrats these days.When Romney recently voiced his opposition to a $5 billion tax credit for wind energy projects, a number of Republican senators from wind-energy producing states in the West and Midwest […]

This is not what OWS had in mind: Goldman Sachs is headed to Riker’s Island — to make a few bucks. New York City is about to try a cutting-edge approach to reducing recidivism rates among inmates at Riker’s Island prison. Goldman Sachs will invest $9.6 million in the initiative, which uses “social impact bonds,” […]

Lt. General Zahir ul-Islam, newly-appointed head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, has been roaming around Washington, meeting with several American officials, including, most importantly, General David Petraeus, head of the CIA. The relationship between ISI and the CIA has become particularly badly frayed in recent months, so officials are hoping that General Islam’s ascent could […]