May 8, 2012

Justice for Liberia, justice for all

Mr. Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, has been convicted of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity. The judgment on April 26 by the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone on the premise of the International Criminal Court in The Hague ...

May 3, 2012

Modest steps at the IMF

The biannual meetings of the world’s leading financial institutions, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, are generally pretty staid affairs — after all, how riled up can gatherings of central bankers and finance officials really get? In recent years, the answer is ...

Mar 30, 2012

Surprising choice for World Bank

U.S. President Barack Obama has named Dr. Jim Yong Kim as his nominee to lead the World Bank. In the past, that would have been the end of the process — Washington spoke and the bank complied. It is still probable that Mr. Kim ...

Feb 18, 2012

Religion an increasing source of strife in Africa

by Gwynne Dyer

Sudan was bombing South Sudan again last week, only a couple of months after the two countries split apart. Sudan is mostly Muslim, and South Sudan is predominantly Christian, but the quarrel is about oil, not religion. And yet, it is really about religion ...

Jan 30, 2012

A countdown in Nigeria

Awave of bombings in Nigeria has highlighted the fissures that threaten to fracture Africa’s most populous nation. The violence has been launched by an Islamic militia, but it has inflamed already widespread economic and political discontent. President Goodluck Jonathan has called for a security ...

Jan 18, 2012

U.S. no longer land of the free

by Jonathan Turley

Every year, the U.S. State Department issues reports on individual rights in other countries, monitoring the passage of restrictive laws and regulations around the world. Iran, for example, has been criticized for denying fair public trials and limiting privacy, while Russia has been taken ...

Jan 16, 2012

Russia as a WTO member

A ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization in mid-December unanimously approved Russia’s request to join the world trade body. It also approved Samoa’s and Montenegro’s entry. It took 18 years for Russia to become a WTO member. This is the first time since ...

Dec 19, 2010

Pernicious 'rogue' offers of aid

by Kevin Rafferty

HONG KONG — China found itself in the unwelcome WikiLeaks spotlight the week before last with sweeping claims against its “aggressive” policies in giving aid to Africa. Johnnie Carson, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Africa, called China “a pernicious economic competitor with ...