North Africa
Libya sees explosive growth of ISIS
ISIS forces in Libya have doubled over the past year, now reaching up to 6,000 fighters, according to Gen. David M. Rodriguez, head of US Africa Command.
Author: Bill Weinberg
The Caucasus
Nagorno-Karabakh in Russo-Turkish game
As the worst fighting since a 1994 truce breaks out in Nagorno-Karabakh, Turkey’s President Erdogan asserts himself as protector of Azerbaijan, pledging to back Baku “to the end.” (Map: Wikipedia)
South Asia
Pakistan: government caves to Islamist protesters
Pakistan's government succeeded in persuading thousands of protesters occupying downtown Islamabad to stand down by pledging not to reform the country's blasphemy laws.
Greater Middle East
Syria: CIA-armed rebels vs. Pentagon-armed rebels?
Is the Kurdish-Arab fighting in northern Syria pitting the Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces against FSA-aligned Islamist factions armed by the CIA?
Greater Middle East
Palmyra: not a ‘liberation’
The taking of Palmyra from ISIS by Assad regime forces backed by Russian air-strikes means the city's transfer from one genocidal entity to another, say activists on the ground.
Europe
Karadzic conviction sparks protests in Belgrade
The Hague tribunal found Radovan Karadzic guilty of genocide on the anniversary of the start of the 1999 NATO bombing campaign against Serbia—to angry protests in Belgrade.
Africa
Horn of Africa water wars leave Somalia dry
Ethiopia has completely halted the flow of water into Somalia by closing the gates on irrigation dams along the Shabelle River—leaving dry a key agricultural region.
The Caribbean
Is Obama really helping Cuban dissidents?
Obama's embrace of Cuban dissidents allows the Castro regime to to more easily paint any push for greater democracy on the island as part of an imperial agenda.
Europe
Brussels terror boon to GOP
Republican presidential hopefuls rushed to exploit the Brussels attacks, with Ted Cruz calling for police surveillance of Muslims and Trump actually broaching nuclear strikes.
Palestine
No, Clinton is not to ‘right’ of Trump on Israel
Paul Waldman's Washington Post commentary on Clinton's AIPAC speech accuses her of being to the "right" of Trump on Israel, but Trump is actually playing to the paleocon right.
Greater Middle East
War criminal Erdogan calls for Assad trial
Turkey's President Erdogan, escalating to genocide in his counterinsurgency against the Kurds, called for the prosecution of Syria's Assad by the International Criminal Court.
Greater Middle East
Erdogan exploits terror wave —of course
Erdogan cynically blames the mounting terror attacks in Turkey on Kurdish miitants—as Europe grooms his consolidating dictatorship as a buffer state to keep refugees at bay.