Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — “He showed me what it means to be a President who serves with integrity, leads with courage and acts with love in his heart for the citizens of our country,” intoned former President George W. Bush in an emotional eulogy at his late father’s state […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The Russian Navy has harassed and seized three Ukrainian vessels in the narrow waters linking the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov. The surprise incident in the Kerch Strait off occupied Crimea has reignited tensions between the two neighbors and refocused diplomatic attention on […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS —The continuing crisis in Yemen, a country beset with tribal fault-lines, jolted by sectarian clashes, and magnified by a clash of cultures between Arab monarchies and the Islamic Republic of Iran, has shaken the Arabian peninsula to the core. Now after five years of warfare between […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler MONTREAL — World leaders met in Paris to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armistice which ended the Great War in 1918. The solemn gathering convened by French President Emmanuel Macron at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider, saw 80 heads of state among them President Donald Trump, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler NEW YORK — The results of the U.S. midterm elections did not follow the predictable script outlined by the mainstream media and most pollsters, namely that the ruling Republicans and President Trump would be soundly rebuked by a restive electorate. Rather a complex outcome offered gains for both […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Burma’s human rights situation is deteriorating despite consistent pressures by the United States and the wider international community to stem the humanitarian crisis. In a rare address before the Security Council, Marzuki Darusman, human rights Rapporteur for Burma, aka Myanmar, presented a report which details […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — What was expected to be a quiet but informational meeting on the plight of political prisoners in Cuba, was suddenly jolted into chaos by table thumping and harangues hurled at an American Ambassador by Cuban regime diplomats packing the audience. A sober human rights presentation […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — In a riveting election for new members of the Human Rights Council, the General Assembly voted for 18 new members. Yet, given that all prospective candidates were unopposed, the perfunctory ballot simply selected a list of states where everyone won, including some notorious human rights […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — It didn’t have to be this way. An oil rich, economically prosperous middle class country, once a stable Latin American democracy, is disintegrating into a socialist dystopia plagued by hunger, corruption, hyper-inflation and churning political unrest. While petroleum remains Venezuela’s major export, now tragically it’s […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — In a week of speeches which swirled from the sublime to the ridiculous or were simply just boring, the recent UN General Assembly debate reached some notable exceptions. Among the sonorous drone of 193 addresses, either restating the obvious or repeating by rote the contemporary […]