Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The recent killing of four U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers in Niger tragically highlighted a quiet but lethal conflict in sub-Saharan Africa’s Sahel region. Here in the confluence of the arid and largely forgotten lands of Mali, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania lay a […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The political optics could not have been more contrasting as China selected its leader and Japan elected its Prime Minister. In a grandiose and stunning setting, draped in the trappings of crimson and gold, 2,300 Chinese Communist Party (CCP) grandees predictably anointed Xi Jinping as […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Truth is often stranger than fiction. Indeed elections for new members of the UN’s 47-member Human Rights Council proved yet again that some of the least qualified and most repressive regimes would win coveted seats on the watchdog committee tasked with monitoring human rights and […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — A dangerous and potentially riveting political fault line stretches from Spain across Europe to Ukraine as smoldering separatist movements have gained new strength and standing. From Catalonia in Spain to the eastern regions of Ukraine with Corsica in between, the nationalist rift runs through the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Perhaps it’s the dangerous global threat from North Korean nukes. Maybe it’s political fatigue and crisis overload. Or it could be the escalating ethnic cleansing in Burma. But the long running and brutal Syrian civil war has become largely an afterthought for many delegates at […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — One of the silent tragedies among the conflicts raging in the Middle East, concerns the fate of the ancient and now persecuted Christian communities. Concerns for the forgotten and once vibrant Christian minorities especially in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon are often politely air brushed out […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Truth has become stranger than fiction even here at the United Nations where the recently concluded annual debate of world leaders was both clouded by threats of conflict in Korea and to a backdrop of natural calamities from Caribbean hurricanes to earthquakes. Clearly a week […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler NEW YORK — Taiwan’s socio/economic success story is world renowned. Yet an unfortunate byproduct of Taiwan’s rapid industrial development from the 1960’s through 1980’s involved considerable amounts of air and water pollution. Taiwan’s next challenge strives to create a cleaner environment by widespread policies of going green. In […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Amid the backdrop of global conflicts and humanitarian crises, presidents, prime ministers, and potentates from 193 member states have gathered in New York for the 72nd annual General Assembly of the United Nations. The Autumn Assembly comes at a time of renewed political and humanitarian […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Will there be conflict on the Korean peninsula? Shall the long simmering tinderbox finally explode in a nuclear flash? Or shall everybody step back from the brink, take a deep breath and allow diplomacy to finally defuse this ticking time bomb in Korea? The answer […]
