Despite New Pledges, Aid to Fight Ebola Lagging

Despite mounting pledges of assistance, the continuing spread of the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa is outpacing regional and international efforts to stop it, according to world leaders and global health experts.

French Add Voice to Global Climate Action

As if to highlight the reality of climate change, the rain came pouring down here as demonstrators prepared to rally for political action to combat global warming.

Georgia’s Female Drug Addicts Face Double Struggle

Irina was 21 when she first started using drugs. More than 30 years later, having lost her husband, her home and her business to drugs, she is still battling her addiction.

Surprisingly Equal, Surprisingly Unequal

Thomas Piketty, a French economist who works on wealth and income inequality, has triggered a debate on the distribution of income and wealth in many countries. This is no small issue because views on income inequality and concomitant redistributive preferences are crucial to the design of tax and transfer systems.

OPINION: Free Scotland, Nuclear-Free Scotland

After a two-year referendum campaign, Scots are finally voting Thursday on whether their country will regain its independence after more than 300 years of “marriage” with England.

Rattled by Russian Expansionism, Tashkent Looks East

Russia’s aggressive actions toward Ukraine are vexing Central Asian states.

OPINION: At Last, New Faces at the European Union

At last, after the obligatory summer break, the European Union (EU) has some new faces to fill the top vacancies on the team that began to emerge from the May 25 parliamentary elections.

Mideast Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone Remains in Limbo

After four long years of protracted negotiations, a proposal for a nuclear weapons-free zone (NWFZ) in the strife-torn Middle East remains in limbo - and perhaps virtually dead.

OPINION: A New European Foreign Policy in an Age of Anxiety

The appointment of Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini as the new European Union foreign policy chief offers the opportunity for an overhaul of EU foreign and security policy.

NATO Poised to Escalate Tensions over Ukraine

The NATO summit that took place at the end of last week in Wales was supposed to celebrate the end of a long, draining war in Afghanistan. But with the presidential election still up in the air in Kabul, NATO couldn’t enjoy its “mission accomplished” moment.

New Anti-Discrimination Law Could Worsen Situation for Georgia’s LGBT Community

Georgia’s LGBT community is sceptical that recently-introduced anti-discrimination legislation hailed by some rights groups as a bold step forward for the former Soviet state will improve their lives any time soon.

New Operation Could Hide Major Shift in Europe’s Immigration Control Policy

‘Mare Nostrum’ – the largest search and rescue immigration operation ever carried out in the Mediterranean Sea – has become an issue of bitter brinkmanship between human rights groups and anti-immigrant lobbies.

OPINION: Sanctions and Retaliations: Simply Unconscionable

The crisis in Ukraine is a man-made disaster created by world leaders who have been trying to pull Ukraine apart - either towards Europe or Russia.

OPINION: Iraq On the Precipice

The catastrophic events in Iraq that are unfolding daily are more significant than at any point in recent memory.

In Azerbaijan, ‘Family Is the First Fear’ of LGBT Community

The 19-year-old Azerbaijani man claims he awoke one morning in mid-August to the sound and feel of gasoline splashing on his body and his mother angrily screaming. Through a sleepy haze, he saw her burning a piece of paper. Suddenly, he alleged, his mother’s intentions became clear; he was about to be burned to death for being homosexual.

With Sewing and Sowing, Self-reliance Blooms in Central Asia

In the small rural village of Svetlaya Polyana, not far from the city of Karakol in Issyk Kul Province, north-eastern Kyrgyzstan, there is no sewage system and 70 percent of households lack access to hot water.

OPINION: Civil Society Calls For Impartial Inquiry on Air Crash and Catastrophe in Ukraine

It is ironic that at this moment in history when so many people and nations around the world are acknowledging the 100^th anniversary of our planet’s hapless stumble into World War I, great powers and their allies are once again provoking new dangers where governments appear to be sleepwalking towards a restoration of old Cold War battles.

Europe’s Two-Time Turnabout on Syria/Iraq

Is this one of those rare occasions where policy-makers self-critically correct a gigantic blunder? Or is it a cold turnabout guided by pure self-interest?

Will Climate Change Denialism Help the Russian Economy?

The recent call from Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev for “tightening belts” has convinced even optimists that something is deeply wrong with the Russian economy.

OPINION: Why Kazakhstan Dismantled its Nuclear Arsenal

Today is the fifth observance of the International Day against Nuclear Tests.

The Time for Burning Coal Has Passed

“People have gathered here to tell their politicians that the way in which we used energy and our environment in the 19^th and 20^th centuries is now over,” says Radek Gawlik, one of Poland’s most experienced environmental activists. “The time for burning coal has passed and the sooner we understand this, the better it is for us.”