Category: Blogs

As ISIS Upends States in the Mideast, Boko Haram is Doing the Same in Africa

By New Atlanticist

Governments and Media, Seized With Iraq-Syria Crisis, Are Paying Scant Attention in Nigeria In the ninety days since ISIS militants suddenly seized Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, international news media, governments, and even last week’s NATO Summit have swung their attention and agendas to debating how to counter the explosive growth of the group’s apparent capacities […]

Russian Court Orders Ukrainian Pilot-Soldier to Undergo Psychiatric Evaluation

Nadiya Savchenko Will Refuse to Submit to ‘Illegal’ Exam, Her Lawyer Says A Russian court has sent Ukrainian soldier and pilot Nadiya Savchenko for a “forensic psychiatric evaluation” at the Moscow institute where Soviet authorities for years performed abusive treatments on political dissidents. Savchenko says she will refuse to submit to the examination, which she […]

Ukraine, Facing Russia on Its Own, Takes the Risk of Truce and Compromise With Moscow

By James Rupert

A Cease-Fire, if It Holds, Could Let the Kremlin Strengthen Its Grip on the Donbas Region When Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko attended the NATO Summit on Friday, it was clear that the Alliance had chosen not to offer his country the weapons it needs to fight the Russian troops and paramilitaries who have invaded his […]

Top News: Riot Police Force Houthi Protesters Off Airport Road; Hadi Fires Head of Special Forces

By MENASource

Yemeni riot police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse Houthi protesters blocking the road between the capital and Yemen’s main airport on Sunday, in an escalation of weeks of protests. Warplanes also bombed armed Houthi rebels in al-Jawf province, killing thirteen, according to government sources.

Top News: Egypt Orders Arrest of Men over ‘Gay Marriage’ Video; Forensics Release Test Results

By EgyptSource

Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat ordered Saturday nine men suspected of participating in an alleged same-sex wedding party to be held in preventative detention and examined by the forensics department

EconSource: Egypt Needs $12 Billion in Next 5 Years to Address Electricity Crisis

By EconSource

Follow the latest in economic news and developments about the Arab transition countries. 

Africa’s Islamic State?

By J. Peter Pham

Even as, coming out of the annual NATO summit in Wales, the United States and its allies are promising to ratchet up their response to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, another militant group, Boko Haram, is rapidly gaining ground in Africa, achieving many of the same operational and strategic successes that have made […]

The Hunger Strike

By Amr Hamzawy

The hunger strike is a final means by which those held in pre-trial detention can call for their freedom, an end to their injustices, and guarantees of due process and a fair trial in their cases. It is a means for them to demand that arbitrary restrictions imposed on them are lifted, or that they […]

Yemen: Protests and Mistrust of Government Hamper Another Arab Struggle Toward Stability

Months After ‘National Dialogue’ Opened a Path Forward, Ill-Prepared Reforms Ignite New Turmoil Eight months after Yemen sparked hope for its stabilization with a broad political accord for a new, federal state, that agreement has eroded into massive protests that threaten to undermine the earlier progress. Tens of thousands of Shia tribesmen from Yemen’s Houthi […]