International Features

Ahead of a planned nuclear meeting in Vienna, Iran slammed the West’s use of the language of “sanctions and threats” against its nuclear program. “So far western powers have achieved nothing by resorting to the language of threats and sanctions against Iran. The West is aware that this language is obsolete and useless,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hassan Qashqavi told reporters …

Countercurrents.org The rising tide of communal violence from the decade of 1980 has consolidated the communal politics, politics in the name of religion. The party riding on the chariot of religious nationalism became the second largest party and tasted power at center for six long years and is now entrenched in few states and is knocking at the door of …

Is there a threat of Talibanisation engulfing the entire region?I think it has already engulfed our region. I think there’s a need for a very clear thinking (on this issue of Talibanisation). In India, there are two kinds of terrorism: one is Islamic terrorism and the other Maoist terrorism. But this term terrorism, we must ask, what do they mean …

“If there is to be peace and a better world, real democracy needs a wake up call among the people. An aroused public has to provide a choice that reflects majority values and interests or minorities will not only continue ruling Obama, but make things much worse than they are now.” Seven million jobs vanish from the economy in two …

“Israeli archeologists who care for the integrity of their profession (there still are some) protested this week that the digging is proceeding in a thoroughly unprofessional way: the work is done in an unscientific hurry, artifacts found are not examined properly and systematically, the sole aim is to uncover evidence as quickly as possible to support the Jewish claim to …

Having returned from the Kingdom, four weeks in an abaya and hijab, I am angry and frustrated. As an analyst specializing in Saudi Arabia I knew much of what to expect, thus covering and not being able to drive were nonissues. Landing in Jeddah I dropped ten degrees body temperature switching from linen to an abaya. Four weeks later, I …