World View: Japan's Leadership Shifts Sharply Right in a Return to Nationalism

Japan's conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), led by Shinzo Abe, won an overwhelming election victory in the Diet (the Lower House of parliament) on Sunday, gaining 320 out of 480 seats, or 2/3 of the house. This is a "veto-proof majority," in the sense that the LDP can override and pass a bill even if it's defeated in the Upper House. The LDP was returned to power after ruling Japan for 50 years, before it was ousted in 2009. 17 Dec 2012

World View: Memories of the Slaughter at Beslan, North Ossetia

One of the saddest stories I covered in the last decade was the terrorist attack on September 1, 2004, on a school in Beslan, a small city in the Russian province of North Ossetia. The attack took place over three days. Islamist terrorists took control of a large elementary school, and all the children were held as hostages in the gymnasium. 16 Dec 2012

World View: Outrage Grows U.S. Did Not Jail Anyone at HSBC Bank

HSBC, a bank headquartered in Britain, with huge presence in the United States, settled with the Department of Justice on Thursday over money-laundering charges that supported a breathtaking array of international criminal and terrorist activity -- including drug cartels in Mexico and Colombia and illegal financial transactions for terrorists in Iran, Sudan, Myanmar and Libya. HSBC violated the Bank Secrecy Act and the Trading with the Enemy Act, involving hundreds of thousands of transactions that laundered billions of dollars. 15 Dec 2012

World View: Japan Scrambles F-15 Jets to Challenge Chinese Surveillance Plane

It's very hard to get past the feeling that China is planning something major very soon. In the South China Sea, China has established a strong military presence, and has threatened to board and seize foreign ships that enter its "territorial waters" -- which they claim are the entire South China Sea, even areas that historically belonged to other nations. And now China has escalated the confrontation in the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands with a surveillance plane. 13 Dec 2012

World View: Darfur War May Explode into Full-Scale Genocide

Violent protests by hundreds of students in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, were broken up by police using heavy teargas on Wednesday. The increasingly potent protests, four days so far, were protesting the mysterious deaths of four deaths on December 7 of four Darfuri students, and the disappearance of two others. 13 Dec 2012

World View: North Korea Launches Long Range Rocket

North Korea unexpectedly launched its long-range rocket test on Wednesday morning, after having announced on Sunday that it was extending its launch window to December 29. 12 Dec 2012

World View: Egypt's Opposition Plans Mass Rally in Cairo on Tuesday

Opposition leaders are not mollified by Sunday's announcement by Egypt's president Mohamed Morsi that he was rescinding his constitutional decree that gave him dictatorial powers. 11 Dec 2012

World View: Arab League Votes $100 Million Monthly Aid to Palestinian Authority

The members of the Arab League voted on Thursday to provide the Palestinian Authority with a $100 million monthly "financial safety net." 10 Dec 2012

World View: Morsi Cancels Decree, not Sharia Referendum

Seeking to end the turmoil of the last few days on the streets of Cairo, late on Saturday, Egypt's president Mohamed Morsi revoked the controversial constitution decree of last month, giving himself dictatorial powers. This was one of the two demands of the opposition protesters. 9 Dec 2012

World View: Assad's Chemical Weapons Too Old for Use?

There have been growing fears in the last week that a desperate Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was positioning chemical weapons for use in the near future, but some experts are suggesting that the weapons are too old to be used effectively. 8 Dec 2012