Search-and-rescue operations are under way off the coast of Hawaii after two Marine CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters on a nighttime training mission collided, with six people aboard each aircraft.
French police have blocked 200 undocumented immigrants, mostly from the African country of Eritrea, from entering French territory at the main border with Italy.
The famous 1972 “Nixon to China” moment, in which President Richard Nixon opened up relations with the Chinese Communists to peel them away from the Soviet Union’s orbit, is often considered a major turning point in the Cold War. Since that time, those who guide U.S. foreign policy have mostly seen China as a long-term partner in a future, global system with America as the first among equals. The American eagle and Chinese dragon would rise together with “constructive engagement.”
The op-ed’s authors state that they are already promoting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) abroad. “In speaking about these agreements, we often use the word ‘values,’” they write. “We promote transparency, public participation, accountability and the rule of law, and we advocate for our host countries to join us in setting the global standard.”
Federal Reserve policymakers meet Tuesday and Wednesday, and markets are looking for clues about when Chairwoman Yellen will raise short term interest rates. However, globalization makes that decision far less important for the economy and stock prices than in years past.
Contents: Darfur genocide overshadows women’s empowerment summit in South Africa; History of Darfur genocide; Rwanda versus Darfur versus Central African Republic civil wars; Everyone prepares for the worst, as Greece bailout talks collapse again
Fighting continues to escalate in east Ukraine as Russian soldiers and pro-Russian rebels violate the alleged peace agreement established in February as at least seven Ukrainian soldiers died and almost 30 were wounded in the fresh fights.
The Sunday Times of London published a report on Sunday saying British intelligence has cancelled “live operations in hostile countries” and recalled its agents after Russia and China successfully cracked over a million classified files stolen by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
A series of attacks in Afghanistan this weekend have left top Taliban officials, a district governor, and multiple police officers dead. The Taliban launched a summer offensive and has not relented despite the government’s desperation to negotiate peace.
Keith Broomfield, who had no military training, is believed to be the first U.S. citizen to die fighting alongside Kurdish forces against ISIS.
PARIS, France– Over 100,000 people attended the “Iran Freedom” rally in Villepinte, Paris on Saturday showing a strong opposition standing to the Islamic fundamentalist Iranian Regime. The event was sponsored by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
The two men—that is, we think they were men—were holding their last meeting. They met in an odd structure in the middle of a green meadow. One half of the structure was built as an American-style gazebo, in white wood,
Tigers, lions, a hippopotamus and other animals escaped from the zoo in Georgia’s capital after heavy flooding destroyed their enclosures, prompting authorities to warn residents in Tbilisi to stay inside Sunday. At least 12 people have been killed in the disaster, including three zoo workers.
This week, the United States Treasury placed sanctions on three Lebanese men and two companies they work with for their “key” roles as part of the terrorist group Hezbollah and its support network.
The long standoff between intransigent Greek socialists and their increasingly exasperated creditors appears to be reaching an end, judging by the commentary after an International Monetary Fund meeting this week. It sounds as if the Greeks are running out of cards to play.
Seoul, the bustling capital of South Korea, is now reportedly a “ghost town” due to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak. The disease killed over 10 people and sickened 126 others.
A new poll has found that Russian public opinion towards mass murderer Josef Stalin has turn alarmingly positive during the tenures of President Vladimir Putin, a leader who has publicly lamented the fall of the Soviet Union and invaded and reconquered multiple regions of various post-Soviet states.
Contents: Druze community split on Syria war after al-Nusra attack; History of the Druze religion; Jihadist Attack on Druze population could bring Israel into Syria war
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a crowd of supporters on Saturday: “I’ve stood up to adversaries like Putin and reinforced allies like Israel.”
The Pentagon announced Saturday that six Guantánamo Bay detainees, all Yemenis, had been transferred out of the military facility and into Oman, bordering their native country. Among the group were two men believed to have served as bodyguards for Osama Bin Laden.
Last week fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, entered a village in Idlib province in the north-west of the country and shot dead at least 20 villagers from the Druze community. They had earlier forcibly converted hundreds of Druze to their fundamentalist variant of Sunni Islam.
On Thursday, over five hundred years after Spain’s Jews were told to convert to Catholicism or leave the country, Spain offered the descendants of Jews who left the country the right to Spanish citizenship, according to the Jerusalem Post.
During a previous look at the cyber-security faceplant that led to Chinese hackers running wild in the Office of Personnel Management system, I thought the story of hundreds of millions of tax dollars spent to implement security software so far behind schedule that it is already obsolete sounded uncomfortably similar to the HealthCareDotGov debacle.
From June 18th through June 20th over 5,000 historical reenactors will gather in central Belgium to commemorate the 200th anniversary of perhaps the most famous battle in world history, Waterloo – and a small group of dedicated, history and horse loving Americans will be an important part of the spectacular festivities. At least one member of the British Royal family will be in attendance along with the King and Queen of Belgium, the King and Queen of the Netherlands, the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, various high ranking official from both France and Germany, and other dignitaries from across Europe.
The already-terrible tale of the “Pearl Harbor” hacker attack launched against U.S. federal government systems just got worse. The Chinese invaders pulled off a second massive security breach that may have given them access to “sensitive background information submitted by intelligence and military personnel for security clearances,” according to the Associated Press.
Libya is more Hillary Clinton’s disaster than Barack Obama’s, although that does not let him off the hook for agreeing to her push for intervention. Neither of them had the faintest, foggiest clue what to do with the ruins of the country after Moammar Qaddafi was ousted.
