Europe
Forgotten history: Muslims who sheltered Jews
The group "I Am Your Protector" marked Holocaust Memorial Day by celebrating the often forgotten stories of Muslims who helped Jews to survive during the Nazi genocide.
Author: Bill Weinberg
Greater Middle East
US must choose between Turkey and anti-ISIS fight
The US aids Syrian Kurds against ISIS even as it acquiesces in Turkey's counterinsurgency against allied Kurdish forces just across the border—undermining anti-ISIS unity.
Greater Middle East
Counterpunch: platform for Assad regime flack
Counterpunch runs a piece of abject revisionism on the Syrian Revolution by Bouthaina Shaaban, official public relations advisor for the genocidal regime of Bashar Assad.
East Asia
Taipei presses South China Sea territorial claims
President Ma Ying-jeou's provocative visit to the disputed Spratly Islands seems aimed at pressing the incoming Tsai Ing-wen to adopt a "one China" position.
Greater Middle East
Kurds caught in Russo-Turkish game… again
With Turkey insisting that the Syrian Kurds be barred from upcoming Geneva peace talks, Russia is pressing for their participation—while pursuing its grisly campaign of aerial terror.
Mexico
Was Chapo’s overture to Hollywood fatal?
Chapo Guzmán was apparently tracked down and apprehended after Mexican authorities intercepted his communications with Sean Penn and other show-biz heavies.
Greater Middle East
Regional powers exploit Bahrain protests
Shi'ite protesters have repeatedly mobilized in Bahrain to demand the release of imprisoned dissident cleric Sheikh Ali Salman—ignored by the foreign media except in Iran.
Afghanistan
Taliban drive to re-take Afghan opium heartland
The Taliban are pushing deeper into Sangin district of Afghanistan's Helmand province—a strategic stronghold due to its wealth in opium production.
Greater Middle East
Erdogan exploits Istanbul terror —of course
Prime Minister Erdogan exploited the ISIS terror attack in Istanbul for illogical propaganda against the PKK—as his military presses its bloody counterinsurgency in Turkey's east.
Greater Middle East
Syria: ‘peace’ declared amid carnage, starvation
The State Department named "bringing peace" to Syria as a 2015 accomplishment—as Russian air-strikes continue on schools, and starvation sets in behind rebel lines.
Mexico
El Chapo re-capture: ‘Mission Accomplished’?
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto echoed George Bush's famously premature "Mission Accomplished" line in announcing the recapture of fugitive drug lord "Chapo" Guzmán.
North America
Paiute land at issue in Oregon militia showdown
The take-over of federal lands in eastern Oregon by a right-wing militia builds on a rancher land-grab that began when the Paiute Indians were usurped in the 1878 Bannock War.