The Italo-Ottoman War of 1911 haunts today’s Libya conflict.

Bad government is making the tsunami-ravaged northeastern Japan’s bad luck hard to stomach.

Looking back on the life of an extremely difficult woman.

With the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of American Special Forces on May 2, 2011, the 9/11 decade may be said to be psychologically over.1 Political decades, after all, do not have to fit neatly into the calendar.  Just as the Sixties began with the assassination of President Kennedy on November 2, […]

H/T to Foreign Policy for bringing this to our attention. It appears from a 2008 cable released by Wikileaks that the US envoys in India were a little frustrated by Indian delyaing tactics and decided to let off some steam in a cable to the home office. Read the cable here on Wikileaks, and some […]

From the NYT: In a gale wind from [Hurricane Irene], a hollowed-out branch of an enormous tree was ripped off, exposing a hive of 30,000 to 40,000 honeybees. The hive’s discovery was a jackpot for the beekeeping community and word spread quickly on Facebook and Twitter that a feral hive was up for grabs.This being […]

The latest threat facing Iran’s theocratic paradise? Water fights and squirt guns. As a story in the WSJ says, After heeding a call on Facebook, a group of nearly 800 young men and women were among those who showed up at the park…They chased strangers around a giant water fountain, screaming and laughing as they […]

Dear readers of Via Meadia: The American Interest has a new homepage! Take a look around.

South Africa’s political façade has begun to crack. Fissures within the ruling African National Congress party became more pronounced Tuesday, as violent demonstrations erupted in Johannesburg to protest a disciplinary hearing for Julius Malema. From Reuters: South Africa’s ruling ANC will hold the second day of a disciplinary hearing of youth leader Julius Malema at […]

Martin Wolf has an excellent analysis of the struggling global economy in today’s FT. He writes: What has the market turmoil of August been telling us? The answer, I suggest, is three big things: first, the debt-encumbered economies of the high-income countries remain extremely fragile; second, investors have next to no confidence in the ability of […]