Politics

Around three years ago, the U.S-born world financial crisis forced five European Union member countries to receive a really little honorable “title” — the PIGS. These were Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain. With Ireland added to the group, the acronym became PIIGS. More recently came Cyprus, the current EU president.

Southeast Asian states should collectively negotiate with powerful China to resolve territory disputes. 04 Jul 2012 China’s claim to a disputed island in the South China Sea has angered many in the Philippines. No one will believe that the stand-off between the Philippines and China over a disputed island in the South China Sea is a straightforward bilateral issue.

In the wake of an enormous fine for rigging fundamental interest rates, general outrage at banker’s bonuses, and the devastation ravaging the world’s economy, the stink from the Banking sector is set to rise with a stink bomb attack planned for Barclays Bank. Will the UK government be capable of undertaking the Herculean task of cleaning out the Augean Stables?

More than 140 countries have passed counterterrorism laws since the attacks of September 11, 2001, often with little regard for due process and other basic rights, Human Rights Watch said in a new report.
The 112-page report, “In the Name of Security: Counterterrorism Laws Worldwide since September 11,” says that while terrorist attacks have caused thousands (read more)…

The first of February this year was a historic day in the Chinese village of Wukan. Several thousand villagers, who had chased out their corrupt old leaders, went to the polls to democratically elect new representatives. A few months later, on 27 May, there was another equally historic democratic election in a factory in nearby Shenzhen…

We are seeing increasing social protests all over the world, with hundreds of thousands on the streets from Santiago to Montreal, from Moscow to Tokyo and everywhere in between. Sudan, after having recently divorced its southern neighbour is a country not know for its human rights and police leniency, so it is encouraging that even here things are moving, even if carefully.

Read the report
Reporters Without Borders is today releasing a report on the crisis in the western state of Arakan, a copy of which it gave yesterday to National League for Democracy parliamentary representative Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently on a four-day visit to Paris, the last leg of a European tour that ends tomorrow.

Almost half a million people were on the streets in protest July 1, 2012, marking the day this territory was handed back to Chinese sovereignly by the British 15 years ago. It’s not that people are displeased at that changeover, it’s what ‘one does’ these days to show the power-holders that everything is not quite in order, with the insistent demand, let’s get it right!

Revolution, Uprising, Protest Movement, Crisis, Armed Insurgency, Civil War, and many other variations of titles have been used over the past 15 months to describe events in Syria. There have been many disagreements on Syria over this span of time, but there is no disagreement over the fact that Syria has been the central event on the global political scene.

The President of the Republic of Argentina, the President of the Federal Republic of Brazil and the President of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, in consideration of and in accordance with what is set out in the Ushuaia Protocol on Democratic Commitment, have decided to suspend the Republic of Paraguay from the right to participate in the organs of MERCOSUR.