INTERNATIONAL

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 5, 2011 (IPS) – When Russia and China exercised a rare double veto against a Western resolution aimed at punishing Syria, the two big powers were repeating a similar feat derailing two earlier resolutions: one against Myanmar (Burma) in 2007 and the other against Zimbabwe in 2008. The Myanmar resolution was critical of that country's deplorable human …

Russia and China’s veto of the UN Security Council resolution which condemned Syria over its brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters and contained a weak reference to the possibility of sanctions against Damascus proved (again) one thing – that despite torrents of soaring rhetoric to the contrary by our leaders, international politics is not about doing what is right and in …

Pinning its hopes on the sole support of the US, Israel risks a collapse if it is ever withdrawn – much like apartheid-era South Africa, prominent scholar Professor Noam Chomsky warns. ­He recalls how South Africans felt safe to ignore a UN embargo and corporations pulling out of their country throughout the 1980s, as long as the Reagan administration continued …

When the going gets tough the weak get hammered. As the United States' military occupation of Afghanistan falters with the Taliban launching a series of successful attacks on US targets, many wonder whether President Barack Obama, in a deep quagmire over his failure to salvage the crumbling economy, is now planning a war on Pakistan or at least parts of …

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 27, 2011 (IPS) – If Palestine fails to achieve full statehood recognition at the United Nations, the only other viable option is to get "enhanced" observer status with the 193-member General Assembly, the U.N.'s highest policy making body. But that proposed new status has already triggered Israeli and Western fears that Palestinians may also logically win the …