Jakarta/Brussels - After demonstrating commitment to an extraordinary series of social, economic and political reforms, Myanmar’s new government has launched a bold peace initiative with potential to resolve the devastating 60-year civil war with ethnic groups.
(Full Story)
|
The Syrian crisis has entered its most dangerous stage, requiring urgent attention to issues that the international community and Syrian opposition have largely been ignoring.
(Full Story)
|
Sanaa/Brussels - In Yemen, political negotiations have given way to violent confrontation. Hostilities erupted on 23 May between military forces controlled by President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s son and nephews and fighters loyal to the preeminent sheikh of the powerful Hashed confederation, Sadiq al-Ahmar.
(Full Story)
|
by Huma Yusuf
Washington, DC - Scenes of rejoicing in Washington and New York accompanied the news that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been killed by US special forces on Sunday. But in Pakistan, many remained glued to their television sets, wondering what this event means for their nation’s security and sovereignty.
(Full Story)
|
By Michael Nagler
Berkeley, California - The astonishing breakthrough in Egypt, when President Hosni Mubarak stepped down after weeks of protests, has rightly galvanised attention around the world. Yet as usual, there has been little commentary from the non-violence standpoint. While US President Barack Obama at least used the words “non-violence” in his recent congratulatory speech, we should realise that there is much more to the potential of non-violence than just protesting without weapons.
(Full Story)
|
by Farah I. Abdel Sater
When Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse wrote their 1965 song "Feeling Good", odds were pretty close to zero that the couple could imagine that this is what young Arab citizens 46 years later would be feeling – and in many places singing, thinking or shouting – in reaction to Tunisia's "Jasmine Revolution".
(Full Story)
|
By Lina Attalah
Cairo - In April 2006, hundreds of Egypt’s Alexandrian Christians gathered to mourn the death of 78-year-old Nushi Girgis, a Christian who was stabbed at St. Mark and St. Peter’s Church during one of a series of attacks on churches in the city that year. As the crowd walked down the street, chanting religious hymns, people began throwing stones from their balconies. The scene quickly turned violent, pitting Muslims against Christians.
(Full Story)
|
The latest round of U.S. State Department cables released by Wikileaks have hardly been surprising to anyone who follows foreign affairs. North Korea is a crazy state that everyone in the region wishes would collapse. Iran is the problem that dominates the security concerns of all its neighbors.
(Full Story)
|
Kabul/Islamabad/Brussels - U.S. plans to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan by 2014 would lead to a collapse of the government in Kabul and serious security risks for the region.
(Full Story)
|
African Union peacekeepers, especially those deployed in Somalia, are ill-equipped for the task, an industrialist says. Paramount Group executive chairman Ivor Ichikowitz says “African peacekeepers are deployed in some of the most dangerous environments, such as Somalia and Darfur.
(Full Story)
|