Asia

By Joseph Chamie | (Inter Press Service) | – – NEW YORK (IPS) – It first happened in Italy in 1995. Five years later it happened in six additional countries, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Japan, Portugal and Spain. Today the total number of countries where it has occurred stands at 30, including most members of the […]

Japan

On 71st Anniversary of Hiroshima, the Fear of a Nuclear Trump

contributors

TeleSur | – – Donald Trump also recently asked a national security expert three times why, since the US has nuclear weapons, it can’t use them. Japan marked the 71st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Saturday as its Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for eliminating nuclear arms. “We must not have […]

Buddhism

Buddhist Mob Burns Down a Muslim Mosque in Myanmar Village

contributors

TeleSur | – – A mob has burned down a mosque in the second attack of its kind in just over a week. Scores of Buddhists ransacked a mosque in northern Myanmar forcing Muslims to seek refuge overnight in a police station after another violent dispute caused religious intolerance, officials and residents said Friday. “The […]

al-Qaeda

Top 5 things that Make Bangladesh a natural Target for Extremists

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Bangladesh has been plagued by extremist violence for years, but the violence and hostage-taking in Dhaka on Friday and on Saturday morning was a whole new level of disruption. Why Bangladesh? Here are some reasons: 1. Bangladesh is a multicultural state, where some 9 percent of […]

Afghanistan

US still in Conventional War in Afghanistan via . . . Drones?

contributors

By Jack Serle | ( Bureau of Investigative Journalism) | – – US drones hit Taliban more than terrorist networks despite end of Afghan war The majority of US airstrikes in Afghanistan in 2016 have been in support of ground troops including Afghan forces fighting the Taliban, rather than targeting suspected terrorists. An investigation by […]

Afghanistan

The Taliban Threat to Northern Afghanistan

contributors

By Bruce Pannier | ( RFE/RL) The security problems in northwest Afghanistan continue despite several trips to the region by Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum, a former general who comes from the region. Dostum has led at last four offensives against militants there since the summer of 2015, but when he leaves the militants […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan: New Taliban leader between Drones, ISIL & Negotiations

contributors

By Michael Semple | (The Conversation) | – – The May 21 drone strike that killed Taliban leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor was no ordinary assassination; it was an act of armed politics against an acutely political war strategist. The Taliban has already named Mansoor’s successor, Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada, and is reassuring its members that the […]

Buddhism

Left For Dead: Myanmar’s Muslim Minority

contributors

VICE News | (Video report) | – – “In recent years, democratic reforms have swept through Myanmar, a country that for decades was ruled by a military junta. As the reforms took hold, however, things were growing progressively worse for the Rohingya, a heavily persecuted ethnic Muslim minority concentrated in the country’s western state of […]

Afghanistan

In an Age of Global Terror, do Failed States endanger you, too?

contributors

By Joseph Chamie and Barry Mirkin | (Inter Press Service) | – – NEW YORK, Apr 9 2016 (IPS) – Regardless of whether they are called fragile, failed, or failing states, scores of countries around the globe are plagued by overwhelming problems with few solutions in sight. Moreover, the instability and dire straits of these […]