The Fragile States Index, produced by The Fund for Peace, is a critical tool in highlighting not only the normal pressures that all states experience, but also in identifying when those pressures are pushing a state towards the brink of failure. By highlighting pertinent issues in weak and failing states, …
FOR THE first time in a decade, developing countries have received more money from developed countries than they returned as interest on debt. But losses caused by declining terms of trade continued to offset the gains in aid. The United Nations secretary general's report, however, cautions this turnaround in resource …
CARE INTERNATIONAL president Malcolm Fraser, who made a recent fact-finding visit to Somalia, has appealed for the UN peacekeeping force there to be increased to 15,000 and for deployment of about 500 observers in the country. He warned that unless UN aid workers receive adequate protection from marauding, local gunmen, …
THERE was this jeepney driver in the Philippines who, along with an exceptionally devout pastor, knocked on heaven's door for entry. St Peter went through their credentials and bestowed a heavenly smile on the driver, allowing him to pass through the pearly gates. But, to the pastor, St Peter said, …
The climate over parts of Turkey was severely affected in 1991-92 by heavy smoke billowing from Kuwaiti oil-wells set ablaze in the Gulf War. Hunay Evliya, a chemistry professor in the southern Turkish town of Adana, said the smoke led to black rain and the winter was the coldest recorded …
A US high-level military planning group has issued a report strongly recommending the development of nuclear weapons for specific use against Third World enemies. Some of the proposed weapons include an electromagnetic pulse bomb that can knock out enemy communications and other electronic gear at low risk to human beings …
WAR HAS emerged as a major child-killer in the 1980s. Some 1.5 million children died in conflicts; Five million were turned into refugees and another 12 million were rendered homeless. War caused just five per cent of the civilian deaths during the First World War; 50 per cent in the …
