Greater Middle East

Are you ready for World War 5?

The fearful synergy of regional sectarian war and Great Power rivalries holds the menace of the looming Syria intervention setting off a new global conflagration.

Greater Middle East

Syria chemical attack: rush to judgement

Iran, Russia and conspiranoids left and right line up to call the Syria gas attack a "false flag" op—rushing to judgement before the facts are in, just like those who blame Assad.

South Asia

India: tribal people expel mining company

In a vote ordered by India's courts, the Dongria Kondh tribe overwhelmingly rejected plans by British mining giant Vedanta Resources for an open-pit bauxite mine on their lands.

Greater Middle East

Syria: Nusra Front cleanses Kurds

Up to 20,000 refugees have crossed from Syria into Iraqi Kurdistan, fleeing fighting between Kurdish militias and Salafist factions led by the Nusra Front. 

The Amazon

Peru: oil spill threatens rainforest reserve

Indigenous leaders in Peru’s Amazon protested that a leak from Pluspetrol’s oil operations is causing contamination within the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve.

Africa

Darfur: ethnic war exploding again

Efforts by pastoralist militias to bar refugees from returning to their lands in Darfur have sparked yet a new wave of fighting and displacement—with 250,000 uprooted this year. 

Africa

HRW protests Rwanda aid to Congo rebels

Human Rights Watch reports that the M23 rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo is still receiving assistance from Rwanda despite continued human rights abuses.

Iraq

Iraq: sectarian war escalating fast

Sectarian violence has killed at least 200 in Iraq since the start of Ramadan, and Hezbollah has launched an Iraqi wing to fight al-Qaeda’s networks in the country.