U.S. and the World
Secret BP Blowout in Azerbaijan Preceded Gulf of Mexico Disaster
Before this year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, a similar blowout involving another BP operation, in Azerbaijan, took place in 2008 that the company tried to keep secret.
Classified cables from State Department officials... read more
12 Drug Cartel Suspects Extradited from Mexico to U.S.
A dozen individuals were extradited over the past week to the U.S. from Mexico to stand trial, be sentenced or serve sentences for narcotics-related crimes. The 12 extraditions included Oscar Jacobo Rivera Peralta , Ricardo Valdez Torres and Alf... read more
Yemen Accused of Diverting U.S. Counter-Terrorism Aid
The government of Yemen has been accused by American diplomats of diverting U.S. funds for counterterrorism efforts to wage war against northern rebels.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) exposed the illegal diversion after reviewing classified State ... read more
Armenians Given Go-Ahead for Lawsuit over Turkish Genocide Insurance Benefits
A class action lawsuit involving the nearly century-old Armenia genocide has been cleared to proceed in U.S. federal court after a panel of appellate judges reversed its own decision from last year.
Lead plaintiff Vazken Movsesian and other ... read more
25 Injured in a Protest…Far, Far Away
The tranquility of Easter Island in the South Pacific was shattered last week when Chilean police evicted local citizens, who have sought the return of control of their ancestral lands. Protesters have occupied more than a dozen properties, incl... read more
Only U.S. Prisoner of War in Afghanistan Appears in Video
U.S. Army Private Bowe Bergdahl has surfaced again in a new Taliban video, following his capture on June 30, 2009, or shortly thereafter. Bergdahl, the only known American POW in Afghanistan, appears in four seconds of the footage with a noticea... read more
Navy Causes Controversy by Changing ‘Persian Gulf’ to ‘Arabian Gulf’
The U.S. Navy has ticked off a lot of Iranians. Quietly, the Navy changed its policy on the name of the body of water separating Saudi Arabia from Iran—what commonly has been referred to as the Persian Gulf. Now all naval personnel are supposed ... read more
Americans Killed in Afghanistan in November Equals Last 7 Years of Novembers
This past November was the worst of any November for U.S. deaths since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001. In fact, the number of American soldiers killed in November 2010 equaled the U.S. death toll of all the Novembers from 2003 through 2009... read more
State Dept. Cable Fingers Chinese Leaders in Attack against Google
When Google and 30 other large U.S. corporations became the target of an elaborate computer attack, observers speculated that China’s government was behind the hacking. It turns out that this speculation may have been spot on.
A secret cable... read more
German Party Wants U.S. Ambassador Sent Home: Who is Philip Murphy?
Philip Murphy’s days as U.S. ambassador to Germany may be numbered. However, many of the media accounts have misrepresented Murphy’s position. Among the thousands of diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks was one that the media characterized as... read more
U.S. Judge Settles 25-Year-Old Lawsuit against Philippine Dictatorship
Nearly 10,000 Filipino survivors of the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship or their relatives may finally see some of the money owed them after first filing a lawsuit in the mid-1980s. Marcos’ estate has avoided paying the plaintiffs nearly $2 billio... read more
WikiLeaks Cables Confirm Suspected U.S. Warfare in Pakistan and Yemen
U.S. officials have long denied the existence of American military operations inside Pakistan and Yemen, for fear of upsetting the local Muslim populations. But the recent publication of State Department cables by WikiLeaks proves that U.S. forces... read more
Obama Fought to Protect Bush Officials from Torture Charges in Spain
After a human rights group in Spain tried to get six former Bush administration officials tried for justifying torture of terrorism suspects, Obama officials, along with Republican lawmakers, lobbied the Spanish government to drop the criminal cas... read more
Nigeria on Verge of Indicting Dick Cheney in Bribery Scandal
Former Vice President Dick Cheney and officials from five companies, including Halliburton, face indictments in Nigeria for their roles in allegedly bribing government officials to win a $6 billion liquefied natural-gas contract.
A Nigerian ... read more
China Rescues U.S. Coal Industry
Coal is becoming an increasingly unpopular source of energy in the United States because of its danger to workers and to the environment. But the Chinese government considers these factors irrelevant. And so, China is poised to become a big inve... read more
WikiLeaks Revelation: Does Iran Really Have Missiles that Threaten Europe?
Can Iran really strike deep into Russia or Western Europe with a ballistic missile? This is one of the many questions raised in the wake of Wikileaks’ latest file dump of U.S. government documents, in which hundreds of American diplomatic cables... read more