Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS It has always been a heated topic how Japan interprets what they did in World War II, including the invasion to China and the attack on Pearl Harbor. This year is the 70th anniversary of World War II and it is brining the public’s attention back to this topic. Japanese Prime
After a 60% drop in oil prices between June 2014 and January 2015 which led to a post-2009 low of $45 per barrel, oil prices have returned to a price of $60 per barrel. In Jizan, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi claimed that “markets are calm now” and that “demand is
Two major developments in West Africa’s Ebola crisis have occurred in the last few days. First, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday that it had approved the use of a rapid diagnostic test kit for Ebola, in the hopes of correctly identifying victims of the disease. Second, Liberia reopened its borders on Monday,
The worst drought in a decade has brought some Central American nations on the brink of an emerging food crisis. The prolonged drought has resulted in a loss of 55 to 75 percent of maize and bean crops which has affected the food security and nutrition for almost two and a half million people in
A study in malaria treatment in Myanmar—where the battle against malaria is the fiercest—revealed a worrying fact that among the 940 malaria samples, 39 percent of malaria infection carries a mutation, enabling resistance to artemisinin, a front-line treatment against malaria and key weapon in the global control and eradication effort. The study, published on Feb
The year 2015 will mark the end of one of the world’s most ambitious projects since the Marshall Plan and the restructuring of post-World War II economies. The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) that were first established at the dawn of the 21st century ushered a new chapter in global development efforts focused on providing a
RT Global Resources, the subsidiary of a Russian state conglomerate—Rostec, recently won the tender contract for constructing the first oil refinery in Uganda. With an investment scale of $3 billion, this oil refinery is expected to produce 60,000 barrels a day once completed in 2020. There were 75 candidates involved in competing for this contract,
In the face of ominous stagnation and deflation, “monetary policymakers are reaching for their interest rate levers and digital money-printing tools in a bid to stave off recessions and debt deflationary dynamics.” The Swiss have already un-pegged the franc from the Euro, and the Swedish Riksbank is beginning a program of bond-buying in attempts to
The Greek government has requested as six month loan extension of a bailout agreement several years old, under which other Eurozone nations agreed to lend Greece badly needed money to help curb its deficits in exchange for reforms to the Greek economy and government. Greece’s current program of loans expires on February 28th, and a
In April 1982, a brief undeclared war commenced between Argentina and Britain over the Falkland Islands (known as the Malvinas in Argentina).The Falkland War stemmed from both nations claiming the Falkland Islands as their territory and resulted in over 900 casualties. The war ended in June of the same year after the British liberated the
Nigeria was expected to hold its new elections on February 14th. However, a week before the scheduled election, Nigeria’s national security advisor urged the electoral commission to delay the election for six weeks to March 28th. The Security Chief, Sambo Dasuki, said the reason for the delay was that still half of the biometric cards
Oil has built modern civilization faster than any other resource known and used by mankind. It has built our skyscrapers and our cities, brought us closer to the sky, and used in every aspect of our daily lives. But as any other natural resource, it suffers from scarcity and volatile price changes, all because of
Photographer: Marwan Naamani/AFP/Getty Images The first week of February witnessed a huge gain in oil prices, after the decline of 52% in the past seven months. Oversupply is one of the main reasons of this huge drop in prices. At the same time, OPEC’s (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) decision to not cut oil
UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon recently declared 2015 the “year of sustainability”. With the COP20 conference in Lima barely in the rearview mirror, the Geneva Climate Change Conference impending (scheduled for 8-13 February 2015), and the COP21 conference in Paris (December 2015) on the horizon, climate change has become undeniably one of the most prominent
The Tunisian legislature has approved a unity government on Wednesday, February 4th, 2015. Out of 217 delegates, 166 voted in favor of the government, with 30 voting against and 8 abstaining. Under the new government, the cabinet will be composed of ministers from both the secularist Nidaa Tounis (“Call for Tunisia”) and the islamist Ennahda
The United Nations has designated February 6th as the International Day of Zero Tolerance on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) after a year of awareness campaign. The campaign was launched in 2014 to fight against the practice of FGM, which is concentrated in 29 African countries, Middle East, and some countries in Asia. This practice is
Hans Island is an uninhabited island located in the Kennedy Channel and it is currently being claimed and disputed between Canada and Denmark (on behalf of Greenland). The geographic location of Hans Island does not appear to clearly belong to either Canada or Denmark. However, the nearest populated place to the island is a Canadian city known
Alyssa Ferreira – New York University Abu Dhabi Alyssa was born in the United States to a Korean mother and Portuguese father, and later moved to Sao Paulo, Brazil, where she finished high school. Currently, Alyssa is living in the United Arab Emirates, where she is double majoring in Political Science and Economics at New
