Life for Italy’s Roma community remains dire. Makeshift camps, most located in the north, are populated with despairing residents. But some organizations are making an effort to improve conditions and turn the tide.
Though little is being said officially, rapprochement between Taiwan and China seemed to have passed the point of no return. Economically, the “two areas” are bonding as never before. But the trend is making the United States, and parts of the Taiwanese public, increasingly uneasy.
Russia is struggling with low birth rates and the national population is dropping. Though President Vladimir Putin has warned about the trend, the birth rate remains low. But spending time at the maternity ward in Pushkino suggests all is well with the world.
At first glance, skyscraper-laden Grozny glitters and gleams, belying a 10-year war that destroyed more than half the city and exalting the ironclad rule of Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov. But dig a little deeper and paradoxes begin to appear.
Rich in natural resources, the Central Asia state must pull off a delicate balancing act to maintain its distance from Iran’s powerful Islamic influences. But as a leading intellectual points out, the country’s tradition is secular.
Yielding to IOC and global pressure, Saudi Arabia has finally decided to let women compete in the Olympics. Part of the reason is a Saudis desire to play a pivotal role in Middle East affairs. But what’s new, and startling, is a report that the kingdom may not have many years left as an oil exporter.
What links Occupy Wall Street to Tunisia to Syria isn’t just the devices and technology that allow people to communicate with each other, but a culture that encourages personal expression at the expense of politics, media, and conventional institutions.
Unlike his immediate predecessor, Vladimir Putin will be handicapped by Western disdain for his methods and ambitions, long seen as hostile. But Putin is expected to use that hostility to redouble his efforts to court Ukraine as an economic partner.
