With the global economic crisis still dominating headlines following inconclusive results from Davos, I’d like to focus on two effects on Mexico’s economy. One indicator is remittances. Worldwide, remittances bring in several times more money than foriegn aid. In Mexico, these bring in the second-largest amount of foreign money after oil. In 2008, remittances slowed […]
Popular Science has an article on its website examining the effects of thawing permafrost in the Arctic. New research reveals that the melting ice does not just have localized effects on towns in places like Alaska and Scandinavia, which are sinking as the ice beneath them melts. In addition, vast amounts of greenhouse gases currently […]
The European-quarter of Brussels where all the major EU buildings are based is usually a fairly boring and dull place (with employees who often reflect the surroundings). The Berlaymont building, which houses the Commission, though a spectacular building itself, is but a speck in a sea of nothing-much. Today, however, the drabness of Europena was […]
The author of The Yacoubian Building writes in a Times op-ed that until the new President calls Israel to account for its incursion into Gaza, his words about listening to the Muslim world and initiating a dialogue will fall on deaf ears.
After some legal wrangling (and what would current South African politics be without at least some legal wrangling?) around the issue of the voting status of South Africans living abroad, President Kgalema Motlanthe has announced that South Africa’s elections will take place on 22 April. By the way, is it just me, or has Motlanthe […]
So there is a deal in Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe has yielded enough to allow Morgan Tsvangirai finally to take his place in government, as Prime Minister to Mugabe’s President. Tsvangirai’s MDC and Mugabe’s ZANU-PF will govern together. Tsvangirai was even able to appoint his chosen finance minister, Tendai Biti, the MDC’s General secretary, and he, at […]
As the global economy entered a sharp decline over the last year, the Palestinian economy “has done relatively well,” according to General Manager of the Bank of Palestine Hashim Shawa in an interview with Middle East Progress. He attributes the economy’s stability due to its low number of exports, thereby isolating it from the global […]
President Barack Obama intends to begin direct negotiations with Iran in merely a few months time. This declaration directly compromises Israeli politicians’ statements that Israel would prohibit Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon at any cost. Obama stated at a news conference Feb. 9: “[a]nd my expectation is in the coming months we will be […]
In a last minute surprise, Kadima Chairman Tzipi Livni managed a come-form-behind victory over Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu in yesterday’s elections. However, her victory does not guarantee Livni’s placement as the next Israeli Prime Minister, as forming a stable coalition may prove difficult due to the 63 seat “rightist” bloc in the government. The next […]
Thorvald Stoltenberg, former Norwegian Minister of Defense and Foreign Affairs, presented the Stoltenberg Report (PDF, in English) to a meeting of Nordic foreign ministers in Oslo. The report urges greater security cooperation between the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. In the past year, there has been increased talk of pooling Nordic […]
A study carried out by an Economist in the European Investment bank says that Europe may never catch up with the US regarding spending on Innovation and research. The aim of the Libson Agenda to spend 3% of GDP on research by 2010 also looks like it may not be met.
Last Thursday, a U.S. federal fishery panel based in Seattle voted to restrict nearly 200,000 square nautical miles of American waters north of the Bering Strait from industrial fishing. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council made the move in response to concerns over global warming rather than overfishing. Melting ice has made the waters, which […]
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