Politics

In 2009 the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the conservatives, lost power in the Japanese Diet for the first time in over 50 years. They had spearheaded Japan’s rise from the ashes of defeat in 1945. By David Jack The Japanese…

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad is reportedly planning an escape from Damascus, preparing for a last stand in his home town, The Sunday Times reported this week. The embattled leader, facing a lingering 22-month-old uprising against his rule, is preparing for…

Egyptians are voting on a disputed new constitution that has split the country in two and sparked deadly protests. Liberal opposition condemns the document as too Islamist, curtailing the rights of Egyptian minority groups. Polls opened at 8:00 pm local…

Russia’s parliament should reject a proposed bill that would violate Russians’ freedom of expression and discriminate against and stigmatize Russia’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. On December 19, 2012, the Duma, the lower chamber of parliament, is scheduled…

By Jayantha Dhanapala* The US Presidential Inauguration ceremony will be held in Washington DC on Monday, January 21, 2013.The official theme for the 2013 inauguration is “Faith in America’s Future”. For many Americans, and indeed for many international observers, that…

The Argentine media group Clarin obtained an eleventh-hour ruling yesterday delaying the application of a section of the country’s new media law which would have forced it to give up some of its broadcasting licences. The Civil and Commercial Court…

Since protests began in Spain, Athenians started to demonstrate in Syntagma Square (25th of May 2011), together with demonstrations in more than 30 cities across the country. We spent more than a month with a consistently large crowd gathered daily at the bottom of the square, where open assemblies practicing direct democracy were organized. The open meetings continued…

The dilemma of Progressivism Latin America is experiencing a very special time, as everyone knows. We had to bear for nearly 200 years the rigorous, systematic and often brutal application of “The Monroe Doctrine”, until not much more than a…

Protests continue in Cairo’s Tahrir Square after Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi issued a decree last week, seizing wide-ranging powers and protections from judicial review or oversight. Morsi made the move one day after he helped secure a ceasefire ending Israel’s…

  The Southeast Asian regional summit ended 13th November 2012 in acrimony, largely over China’s assertive strategic role in the South China Sea – there was no concluding joint statement for the first time in its 45-year history. While the…