Southeast Asia
Burma: will ceasefire wind down opium war?
Burma’s regime signs a "national ceasefire" with ethnic rebels in the opium-producing north ahead of historic elections—but the biggest rebel armies didn’t sign on.
Author: Bill Weinberg
Mexico
Mexico: narcos in assassination attempt on ex-gov?
Fernando Moreno Peña, ex-governor of Mexico's narco-stronghold Colima state, survived an assassination attempt. Two predecessors were not so lucky.
Greater Middle East
US sells Turkey ‘smart bombs’ (to use against Kurds)
The Pentagon announces the sale of 900 "smart bombs" to Turkey just as Ankara is preparing to move against US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria.
Iran
US embraces Iran as (ironic) ‘peace’ partner in Syria
Iran is invited to the US-backed Vienna "peace" talks on the Syria war—seeming to confirm suspicions that cooperation against ISIS was the real motive behind the nuclear deal.
North Africa
Meanwhile in, um, Benghazi…
Missiles and mortar rounds were fired into a crowd of anti-Islamist demonstrators in central Benghazi, killing six and injuring many more.
Europe
Obama’s nuclear upgrade: Euro-missiles redux?
Revelation of Washington's plan to station missile-capable nuclear warheads in Germany was met with a Russian threat to deploy ballistic missiles in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.
Palestine
Bibi’s Holocaust revisionism: media complicit?
The New York Times, in its coverage of Bibi Netanyahu's fictional claims about the Holocaust originating with the Mufti of Jerusalem, gives undue weight to the theory's few proponents.
Africa
South Sudan: oil wealth as threat to peace plan
South Sudan's opposition charges that a plan by President Salva Kiir to redraw the country's internal borders aims at keeping oil wealth in the hands of his Dinka followers.
Planet Watch
Retreat on Arctic drilling —push to open ANWR
The Interior Department announced the cancellation of two pending Arctic offshore lease sales—as Alaska's governor makes a new push to open the ANWR to oil companies.
Greater Middle East
AKP-ISIS collaboration in Ankara massacre?
Several PKK sympathizers have been arrested in connection with the Ankara suicide blasts—but the Turkish left charges that the ruling AKP collaborated with ISIS in the attack.
Greater Middle East
Lines drawn in imperial scramble for Syria
The US and Russia each groom their own rival proxy forces to fight ISIS and the Nusra Front—which in turn pledge to turn Syria into "another Afghanistan."
Greater Middle East
Amnesty charges Syrian Kurds with ethnic cleansing
Amnesty International accuses Syrian Kurdish forces of ethnic cleansing against Arabs and Turks in areas liberated from ISIS, raising pressure on Kurdish authorities for an accounting.