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Archives for February 2016

NATO ships to combat migrant-smuggling networks in Aegean

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Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Griff Witte | 11 February 2016 | THE WASHINGTON POST BRUSSELS —NATO dispatched warships to the Aegean Sea on Thursday to target people-smuggling operations, marking the most direct intervention by the military alliance in Europe's efforts to control the huge wave of migrants seeking to reach the continent's shores. The operation — cobbled … [Read more...] about NATO ships to combat migrant-smuggling networks in Aegean

The Death of the Most Generous Nation on Earth

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James Traub | 10 February 2016 | FOREIGN POLICY Little Sweden has taken in far more refugees per capita than any country in Europe. But in doing so, it’s tearing itself apart. The Swedish Migration Agency in Malmo, the southern port city on the border with Denmark, occupies a square brick building at the far edge of town. On the day that I was there, Nov. 19, 2015, hundreds … [Read more...] about The Death of the Most Generous Nation on Earth

World hunger: What are the most undernourished countries?

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Ashley Kirk |10 Feb 2016 | THE TELEGRAPH The world is still blighted by hunger, with some countries having almost half their population unable to get enough food on a daily basis There are around 795 million people who are undernourished around the world, the majority of which are in Africa and Asia. This number has fallen by 167 million over the last decade, with … [Read more...] about World hunger: What are the most undernourished countries?

Moscow Just Razed Its Small Businesses and Became Even Blander

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Masha Gessen | February 10, 2016 | THE NEW YORKER While most of Moscow slept Monday night, the city government razed ninety-seven small commercial buildings that housed stores and cafés. Seven more are slated for destruction later in the month. The businesses in these buildings employed up to several dozen people each, so upward of a thousand Muscovites woke up unemployed. … [Read more...] about Moscow Just Razed Its Small Businesses and Became Even Blander

Eritrea: Court Rules in Favour of Dutch Human Rights Advocate

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Reinhardt Jacobsen | 10 February 2016 | IDN AMSTERDAM (IDN) - A Court in Amsterdam struck down Meseret Bahlbi lawsuit against Mirjam van Reisen, Dutch professor and human rights advocate. The judge found that she was not guilty of libel and slander and that the youth party of the Eritrean regime can be seen as a means of collecting intelligence abroad. The decision comes … [Read more...] about Eritrea: Court Rules in Favour of Dutch Human Rights Advocate

Chechen special forces are on the ground in Syria and ‘have infiltrated Isis cells’, says Ramzan Kadyrov

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Nadia Beard Moscow | Monday 8 February 2016 | THE INDEPENDENT The report and its rebuttal by the Kremlin show cracks in the official narrative about Russia’s presence in Syria and suggest Mr Kadyrov has spun out of Moscow’s control     Chechen special forces loyal to Vladimir Putin are on the ground in Syria, embedded inside Isis-controlled territory … [Read more...] about Chechen special forces are on the ground in Syria and ‘have infiltrated Isis cells’, says Ramzan Kadyrov

Changing Tides

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Robbie Gramer | February 8, 2016 | FOREIGN AFFAIRS Russia's Growing Stronghold in the Black Sea Just two years ago, when Russia annexed Crimea, NATO saw its tenuous, 25-year-long attempt to forge a partnership with the Eastern power dissolve overnight. Since then, to respond to Europe’s dangerous new security climate, NATO has looked to the Baltic states, where … [Read more...] about Changing Tides

The Dictators Who Love America

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Stuart A. Reid | Feb 8, 2016 | THE ATLANTIC Authoritarian leaders like the Gambia's Yahya Jammeh seem to relish the West's wealth. Why doesn’t the United States use that against them? For those of us lucky enough to live in democracies, it is comforting to imagine foreign dictators as wholly foreign. The world seems less complicated when an autocrat fits the … [Read more...] about The Dictators Who Love America

When Bob calls the kettle black

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Ra'eesa Pather | 05 Feb 2016 | MAIL & GUARDIAN The trouble is Mugabe probably knows that, according to international laws, he’s not much better than those he is criticising. Some of the most powerful leaders in the world sat around him, chortling as he candidly dissed the West and bursting into applause when he told them Africa would no longer accept a position of … [Read more...] about When Bob calls the kettle black

U summit of ghosts, guns and Mugabe’s angels

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Adekeye Adebajo | 08 February 2016 | BUSINESS DAY THE recently concluded African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa was a tale of political ghosts. The outgoing AU chair, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, started off this theme when he told United Nations (UN) secretary-general Ban Ki-moon that Africans "are also human, not ghosts". After bemoaning the … [Read more...] about U summit of ghosts, guns and Mugabe’s angels