INTERNATIONAL

  Kim Sung-hwan, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea and President of the Security Council for the month of February, delivers a Council press statement strongly condemning the nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten UNITED NATIONS, Feb 12 2013 (IPS) – North Korea, which conducted its …

The RQ-7B Shadow 200 tactical UAV is wheeled off the runway after a reconnaissance mission in Iraq Aug. 11, 2008. Credit: U.S. military/public domain UNITED NATIONS, Feb 7 2013 (IPS) – The “drone”, one of the eminently controversial lethal weapons deployed by the United States in its war against terrorism, is obviously a dirty word in the U.N. lexicon. So …

The overthrow of the Saudi royals is finally a possibility. In an excerpt from a new Brookings Institution briefing book for Obama’s second term, Bruce Riedel on what a catastrophe it would be for Obama. Saudi Arabia is the world’s last absolute monarchy. Like Louis XIV, King Abdullah has complete authority to do as he likes. But while a revolution …

Children like this boy in Gaza face the worst of water scarcity. Credit: Eva Bartlett/IPS   ABU DHABI, Jan 16 2013 (IPS) – The volatile politics of the Middle East have long been dominated by the fluctuating fortunes of a single commodity: oil.   But when the oil-blessed region runs out of water, there could be a change in the …

  In October 2011, 16-year-old Tariq Aziz attended a gathering in Islamabad where he was taught how to use a video camera so he could document the drones that were constantly circling over his Pakistani village, terrorizing and killing his family and neighbors. Two days later, when Aziz was driving with his 12-year-old cousin to a village near his home …