Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Five years after the Arab Spring revolutions which swept the Middle East, the expansive North African country of Libya has descended into a dangerous downward spiral in which competing governments, militias, and terrorist elements are all part of a chaotic witches’ brew on the doorstep […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council has tightened the economic sanctions noose on North Korea in response to the Pyongyang regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile proliferation. The fifteen member Council voted unanimously to slam a wide range of economic, scientific and trade bans on the reclusive communist […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — President Barack Obama promised yet again to fulfill his election pledge in closing the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo, Cuba. This time he means it. With less than a year ticking on the presidential time clock, Obama plans to release some of the 95 remaining […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Despite some recent military successes against the Islamic State (ISIL) forces, both the security and the humanitarian situation in Iraq remain fragile and precarious. That’s the assessment from Jan Kubis, the UN special representative in a sobering report to the Security Council on the road […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Reversing the trend of economic mismanagement, ending a fifteen year debt impasse with foreign lenders, calming a percolating political crisis over the disputed Falkland/Malvinas islands in the South Atlantic, and overcoming the image of unpredictability, Argentina’s new conservative government faces serious obstacles in reintroducing Argentina […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — While recessionary winds continue to buffet the world economy, many countries are still prospering due to innovative policies which have embraced economic growth and expanded economic opportunities and grown the middle class in places as disparate as East Asia and South America. Yet, the United […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Five years after the onset of the pro-democracy revolts against authoritarian rulers in much of the Middle East, the heady warm breezes of the Arab Spring have been replaced with swirling ill winds sweeping the region from Tunisia to Iraq. Governments were toppled, chaos ensued, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler NEW YORK — Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates slammed both the Obama Administration and the presidential primary candidates calling for long-term realism in America’s fight against the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) terrorism. “I think that the president has all along underestimated ISIS, has underestimated the degree […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address, the annual speech to a joint session of Congress, has emerged as more of a political pep rally than a clear overview of America’s standing in the world both domestic and foreign. The address was touted as […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Not one week into the New Year, the North Koreans jolted global concerns as well as the Richter scale with a nuclear weapons test. While the underground blast shook the remote Punggye-ri region near the Russian border, the political reverberations of the bomb have been […]