The Taliban has increased the frequency of its attacks ahead of the national elections on April 5. With election workers being kidnapped, would-be suicide bombers being shot in the streets, and journalists being killed – the future is not looking particularly bright for Afghanistan. The election will mark the first time in the country’s history…
To compound already-bursting tensions between Ukraine and Russia, the Russian oil and gas company Gazprom has raised prices to the country by 37% by cancelling a discount and even threatening to cut supplies entirely. This, according to a statement delivered by Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan, means that Ukraine will be forced to pay $368.50…
Knife-wielding assailants stormed the Kunming railway station in southeastern China on Saturday, resulting in almost 200 casualties. According to Chinese state media, there were more than ten assailants who were dressed in black and were both men and women. The attack is said to be the most sophisticated yet that has ever occurred outside of…
Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych has been impeached by more than two thirds of the Ukrainian parliament, capping off a series of events that did away with the controversial president in a matter of days. The impeachment, however, was soon followed up by an even greater indictment of the president’s actions towards the outraged Ukrainian populace,…
Ongoing violence in Independence Square, or Maidan, in Kiev, Ukraine, has claimed the lives of more than 50 Ukrainian protestors and seen hundreds more injured. The rapid escalation in aggression impetuously put an end to a short-lived truce brokered between the Ukrainian government and opposition party leaders. Though the principal catalyzing factor remains unknown, both…
The global shale gas boom has barely begun. It is already old news in North America, but emerging markets in Asia have found that demand consistently outstrips supply, due not only to scarcity, but also to underdevelopment of existing resources. One of the largest sources of undeveloped energy and mineral wealth lies in the Caspian…
The former Soviet Republics of Central Asia have long been a highway for the lucrative drug trade, but in recent years the routes out of the so-called Golden Crescent have been swelling with increasing traffic of opium grown in Afghanistan. Despite many efforts over the years by both Afghan and American central planners in Kabul,…
Thousands of members of India’s Armed Forces were deployed throughout Kashmir, a region in northwestern India, on the anniversary of the execution of Afzal Guru, a prominent Indian nationalist as well as the alleged mastermind behind attacks carried out against the Indian Parliament in December of 2001. Authorities are said to have instituted a curfew…
The Islamic Republic of Iran has moved part of its navy to the Atlantic Ocean, the stated goal of which is to pass by the coastline of the United States, in what many see as an aggressive tactic. The admiral in charge of the expedition has publically stated that the move should be interpreted as…
The official beginning of the election season in Afghanistan got off to a rocky start. Two aides of presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah were shot dead in the city of Herat in western Afghanistan on February 1. This comes days after former Minister of Water and Energy, and current running mate of candidate Abu Rasool Sayyaf, Ismail Khan, escaped a suicide…
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