Armed Conflicts

Culture Becomes Latest Front in Afghanistan’s War

By Giuliano Battiston
Another kind of war, less explosive than bombs and more subtle than night raids, is taking place in the Central Asian country of Afghanistan: a war of cultural influence. Its means are financial sponsorships and other support for cultural and artistic events.

Hope, Scepticism Over U.S.-Russian Accord on Syria Conference

By Jim Lobe
The surprise accord reached by the U.S. and Russia in Moscow Tuesday to try to convene an international conference to resolve the two-year-old civil war in Syria as soon as the end of this month has been greeted with equal measures of hope and scepticism.

Scolding with One Hand and Bribing with the Other

By Thalif Deen
When a Southeast Asian country was riddled with corruption in a bygone era, there were rumours that government officials routinely offered receipts every time they accepted a bribe.

Still Homeless, Two Decades Later

By Amantha Perera
The camp should not have been difficult to find. We were told to drive straight on the road that leads north away from the town of Puttalam, 140 kilometres from Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, and we would come upon the settlement of internally displaced people.

Women Taking the Lead in Northern Pakistan Province

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
“Women in Pakhtun society have traditionally helped their men in hard times,” declares former Pakistani lawmaker Shagufta Malik. They are doing so again, and how, going by their hectic campaigning activity in northern Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Giving Extremists a Second Chance

By Muhyadin Ahmed Roble and Yusuf Ahmed
At 18, Farah Osman should not be a battle-hardened soldier. He should not have spent the last seven years fighting for the Somali Islamist extremist group Al-Shabaab, or have been trained by foreign jihadists in handling and repairing weapons and improving his shooting skills.

Decade After Iraq, Right-Wing and Liberal Hawks Reunite Over Syria

By Jim Lobe
Ten years after right-wing and liberal hawks came together to push the U.S. into invading Iraq, key members of the two groups appear to be reuniting behind stronger U.S. military intervention in Syria.

OP-ED: War and Peace in Colombia and Venezuela

By Clara Nieto
The crisis in Venezuela caused by the violent opposition of followers of Henrique Capriles, who is accusing President Nicolás Maduro of election fraud, and peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas in Havana, are occupying the attention of national and foreign media.

Europe Urged to Step into Breach of Failed Mideast Peace

By Mitchell Plitnick
The Oslo peace process has failed and Europe must take stronger leadership in the Middle East, according to a distinguished group of former European leaders that is pushing for a stronger and more independent European stance on the Israeli occupation.

U.N. Accused of Playing Down Nuke Disarmament Conference

By Thalif Deen
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is one of the most vociferous advocates of a world free of nuclear weapons.

Obama Seen Unlikely to Sharply Escalate Intervention in Syria

By Jim Lobe
Despite renewed pressure by hawks in Congress and the media, U.S. President Barack Obama appears determined to avoid sharply escalating U.S. involvement in the ongoing civil war in Syria.

Fragile States Show Signs of Progress Toward MDGs

By Joe Hitchon
Twenty of the world’s most fragile states, including those currently affected by conflict, have achieved one or more of the development targets outlined under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the World Bank said this week.

Sudanese Rebels Prepare for War

By William Lloyd-George
A rebel coalition in Sudan has declared war on the government less than a week after it attacked Sudanese forces. “Now there is a fully-fledged war in the new south of the north,” Yasir Arman, a leader of one of the armed groups in the alliance, told IPS, adding that the rebels now control a southern stretch of the country.

Rohingyas At Home and Nowhere

By Simba Shani Kamaria Russeau
Rendered the nowhere people in their own homeland, thousands of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar are fleeing inhuman living conditions, lack of humanitarian aid and rising sectarian tensions in their country. And the very state that is supposed to protect them now stands accused of ‘ethnic cleansing’.

Hamas ‘Talibanising’ Gaza

By Mel Frykberg
The Islamist resistance group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is being accused by its Palestinian Authority (PA) rivals in the West Bank of Talibanising Gaza and turning the coastal territory into a new Muslim Brotherhood neighbourhood.

U.N. Says Somalia Famine Killed Nearly 260,000

By AJ Correspondents
Almost 260,000 people, half of them young children, died of hunger during the last famine in Somalia, according to a U.N. report that admits the world body should have done more to prevent the tragedy.

Taliban Show Patients No Mercy

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
Akbar Shah was sitting with his sick wife in the gynaecology ward of the Agency Headquarters Hospital in Bajaur Agency, a division of northern Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), when a bomb ripped through the facility, scattering patients, doctors and medical supplies.

As Hunger Strike Spreads, Obama Again Denounces Guantanamo

By Jim Lobe
With at least 100 detainees now participating in a three-month-old hunger strike, U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday reiterated his earlier denunciations of the Guantanamo detention facility and blamed Congress for preventing its closure.

Some Hear Death Knell for a Two-State Solution

By Mitchell Plitnick
Despite indications that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is committing a substantial amount of time and effort to revive the long-stalled Israel-Palestinian “peace process", a growing number of experts believe a two-state solution is no longer viable and the lack of a realistic discussion of the issue in the United States is leaving the country without an alternative policy.

Syria Says PM Escapes Car Bomb Attack

By AJ Correspondents
Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi has survived a bomb attack that targeted his convoy in central Damascus, Syrian state media report.

OP-ED: How Bin Ladin’s Jihadist Message Continues to Lure the Vulnerable

By Emile Nakhleh
The surviving Boston Marathon bomber reportedly told authorities the U.S. “war on Islam” drove him and his brother to commit their terrorist act. Their linking the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with a perceived global war on Islam is at the heart of the Jihadist message Bin Ladin and Al-Qaeda issued to the Muslim world almost two decades ago.
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