By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — In what can only be described as a plague on both your houses, an UN investigative panel has issued a specific and sickening verdict on the ongoing violence in Syria’s civil war. The report blames both sides in the conflict, the Assad family regime, as well as a […]
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Shots of the treacherously swirling seas off Korea’s southwestern coast in the film “Roaring Currents” — about an epic battle in which Adm. Yi Sun-sin’s iron-clad turtle boats withstood a Japanese fleet — conjure images of how the overloaded ferry the Sewol sank in those same waters in April. Unlike the […]
By John J. Metzler VIENNA, Austria–The countdown started in Sarajevo in June 1914, the conflagration followed in August. The assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serb nationalist set in motion a series of events in which the great European powers marched, with near lockstep, into a war which would devour seventeen million people, […]
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com History is full of such twists, turn and reversals. What are we to think of an American four-star general, medals and ribbons dripping from his chest, showing up in Hanoi talking up the idea of the U.S. shipping arms to the regime that dealt the U.S. the worst humiliation in U.S. […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Grace Vuoto The summer of 2014 has been difficult for the 2016 Democratic presidential frontrunner, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In just a few months, she is losing her commanding lead over the possible Republican nominees. While still ahead, the gap is narrowing. How did this happen? Quite simply, she […]
ST. NAZAIRE, France — Far from the sputtering conflict, the war of words, and the diplomatic jousting between Russia and the West over the future sovereignty of Ukraine, there’s a lucrative business deal unfolding in the French Atlantic port of St. Nazaire. There amid the construction cranes and buzzing machine shops of one of France’s […]
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The visit of Pope Francis to Korea coincides with the 69th anniversary tomorrow, Friday, Aug. 15, of the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II. The eyes of the world will be on the pontiff as he celebrates Mass in Daejeon’s World Cup Stadium on Asian Youth Day while […]
PARIS — The headlines seem from another era, if not century; that of Christian persecution by militant Islam in the Middle East. Yet the modern political responses to this age-old conflict appear ambivalent to what’s emerged as an organized attempt by the militant Islamic State of Syria and Levant to impose a caliphate both on […]
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Conflict between Israel and the Hamas bears some startling resemblances to that between North and South Korea. Think about it: Israel and North Korea are both essentially client states. Israel couldn’t fight anyone, could not exist surrounded by Arab enemies, without all the arms the U.S. has been pouring into the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Grace Vuoto On the recent episodes of NBC’s America’s Got Talent the female judges, former Spice Girl band member Mel B. and former supermodel Heidi Klum are salivating over young male performers. This is part of a larger social trend whereby older women are dating younger men — and also talking […]