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Diplomacy & Crisis News

UN Latin America commission chief welcomes visit of China premier, looks forward to closer ties

UN News Centre - Thu, 28/05/2015 - 00:56
The head of the United Nations’ regional commission in Latin America and the Caribbean has met with the Premier of China, and looked forward to greater cooperation and a deeper relationship with the Asian country.

Dialogues needed to tackle violence against women, ‘accountability deficit’ in Sudan – UN expert

UN News Centre - Thu, 28/05/2015 - 00:13
More open and constructive dialogues should be held among Sudanese stakeholders as a top priority to address ‘the silence and the denials’ of crimes against women, a United Nations human rights expert concluded after her recent mission to the country.

The Jihad's Usefulness (II)

German Foreign Policy (DE/FR/EN) - Thu, 28/05/2015 - 00:00
(Own report) - A recently declassified memo of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) reveals that the West had supported the creation of the "Islamic State" (IS). Using jihadist forces has been a Western tradition for decades, as the Afghanistan war in the 1980s and an analysis of the Western power struggle with Iran (especially since 2003) show. In the 1980s, western countries - in collaboration with Saudi Arabia - had supported jihadists associated with Osama bin Laden, to defeat Soviet military forces in Afghanistan. Since at least ten years, they have been supporting Arab jihadists in an effort to weaken Iran's main allies. These activities, accompanying the official "war on terror," are "a very high-risk venture,” warn US intelligence officials. Saudi Arabia, one of Germany's main allies in the Arab world, is playing a central role in supporting jihadists.

After Eight Years and Few Wins, Tony Blair Steps Down as Mideast Peace Envoy

Foreign Policy - Wed, 27/05/2015 - 23:59
His most notable achievement as Middle East peace envoy: Moving his offices out of a hotel and into a permanent location.

FIFA’s Emperor Doesn’t Seem to Mind He Has No Clothes

Foreign Policy - Wed, 27/05/2015 - 23:31
FIFA chief Sepp Blatter doesn't seem very concerned about the bribery investigation that could knock him from the top of world sport.

Ban tells European Parliament to work together to address challenge of migration

UN News Centre - Wed, 27/05/2015 - 23:18
In Brussels today, where he was addressing the European Parliament, the United Nations Secretary-General today the important role played by the European Union in boosting the UN agenda, particularly on matters of peace, development and human rights.

Condemning use of sexual violence, UN envoy warns Boko Haram aims to destroy family structures

UN News Centre - Wed, 27/05/2015 - 23:14
The United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict has condemned Boko Haram militias in Nigeria for “waging war on women’s physical, sexual and reproductive autonomy and rights” by repeatedly raping their female captors and treating them as vessels for producing children for fighters.

Pentagon Mistakenly Ships Live Anthrax Across Country

Foreign Policy - Wed, 27/05/2015 - 22:30
A Defense Department laboratory in Utah inadvertently sent a live anthrax sample to a civilian laboratory in Maryland this week, military officials disclosed on Wednesday. The live anthrax had been irradiated at the Utah facility and was presumed to have been neutralized, but an investigation is ongoing as to how the military’s supposedly stringent testing ...

Adopting resolution, Security Council condemns violence against journalists, urges end to impunity

UN News Centre - Wed, 27/05/2015 - 21:20
Deeply concerned by the frequency of acts of violence in many parts of the world against media professionals in armed conflict, the United Nations Security Council today adopted a resolution condemning all violations and abuses committed against journalists and strongly deploring impunity for such acts.

Russia: U.S. FIFA Investigation Is Illegal, Extraterritorial Use of Law

Foreign Policy - Wed, 27/05/2015 - 21:01
Less than 24 hours after U.S. and Swiss authorities unveiled a sweeping investigation into corruption at the highest ranks of FIFA, including how the 2018 World Cup was awarded to Russia, Moscow is hitting back.

Enemy Number One For Minorities in Pakistan: Public Opinion

Foreign Policy - Wed, 27/05/2015 - 20:16
In a hostile world, Pakistani minorities face many threats; each new atrocity brings with it reams of analysis and no shortage of finger pointing towards the perceived culprits. But general public opinion might be just as much to blame as terrorism.

With FIFA Indictment, U.S. Takes Aim at Russian and Qatari World Cups

Foreign Policy - Wed, 27/05/2015 - 20:13
The United States is taking aim at future World Cups in Russia and Qatar.

Assad Strikes Back

Foreign Policy - Wed, 27/05/2015 - 19:37
The Syrian regime is gearing up for a counteroffensive that relies on Iran’s money and Shiite foreign fighters from as far away as Central Asia to push back against the Islamic State.

Some 8.6 million people in urgent need of medical help in Yemen, says UN agency

UN News Centre - Wed, 27/05/2015 - 19:26
The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today warned that the “unnecessary loss of innocent lives cannot go on” and spotlighted the increasingly dire medical situation in Yemen, where it says the health and lives of millions of people are at risk, and health facilities, staff and patients are under attack in widespread violations of international humanitarian law.

The Cuban Market Mirage

Foreign Policy - Wed, 27/05/2015 - 19:18
It’s a safe bet that neither Cy Tokmakjian or Stephen Purvis will be attending a Brookings Institution event next week on doing business in Cuba. Canadian and British businessmen, respectively, they each suffered through Kafkaesque ordeals in Cuba after they did just that, somehow running afoul of some regulation in Cuba’s opaque and arbitrary judicial system. After being imprisoned for months ...

Will FIFA’s Sepp Blatter Be Shown the Red Card?

Foreign Policy - Wed, 27/05/2015 - 19:01
As corruption indictments swirl, soccer’s governing body prepares for a vote of confidence in its CEO.

For American Students in China, Some Risks, No Regrets

Foreign Policy - Wed, 27/05/2015 - 18:12
Life in the People's Republic can be trying -- but for a young American, it's also transformative. FP surveys a rising generation of cross-cultural natives.

Rotation policy: Iraq & Afghanistan were really the wars we fought 1 year at a time

Foreign Policy - Wed, 27/05/2015 - 16:59
“Many times the Vietnam was called a ten-year war fought one year at a time.... which actually wasn't true though most service members rotated through one year at a time. Units remained and had members who had served different lengths of time, with those with longest service in country able to pass on lessons learned to those just arriving. Afghanistan and Iraq, unlike Vietnam truly were long wars fought one year at a time.”

Churchill on China

Foreign Policy - Wed, 27/05/2015 - 16:54
"That China is one of the world’s four Great Powers is an absolute farce. I have told the President I would be reasonably polite about this American obsession.”

Le complot bolchevique et l'a(r)gent allemand

Le Monde Diplomatique - Wed, 27/05/2015 - 15:54
En 1917, l'empire des Romanov s'est effondré sur lui-même, mais certains voient dans la révolution d'Octobre le résultat d'une cabale ourdie par des forces occultes aspirant à la mort de la Russie d'ancien régime. / Allemagne, Russie, Armée, Communisme, Conflit, Désinformation, Histoire, Idées, Parti (...) / , , , , , , , , , , , , , - 2015/06

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