Category: Featured

By Katherine Dunn, International News Services

Anti-piracy organisations are hailing as a victory the conviction in
their home country Sweden of the founders of the world's largest 'torrent'
digital fire-sharing site The Pirate Bay. But the case is really just
another round in an ongoing game of whack-a-mole that has seen national law
unable to contain transnational intellectual property rights infringement.

By Paul Cochrane, in Muscat, Oman

While construction workers are downing tools throughout most Arab states bordering the Persian Gulf and the future of massive infrastructure projects is in jeopardy, the Sultanate of Oman is bucking the regional trend by investing billions of dollars to bolster its nascent tourism sector, aviation and industrial base.

By Thompson Ayodele, in Lagos

As the Group of 20 top industrialised and developing economies prepared to meet in London, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon warned them that "the economic crisis may soon be compounded by an equally severe crisis of global instability." A key problem is that trade is deteriorating every day and political pressures demand import restrictions to protect employment. This is no way out: such protectionism would make this particular depression ‘Great’. 

By Lorraine Mallinder, in Montréal

As the polar ice cap continues to shrink, the five nations surrounding the Arctic Ocean are hurriedly positioning themselves for what is shaping up to be one of the biggest geopolitical brawls of the coming years.

By Keith Nuthall , International News Services

In tough recessionary times, publishers sensibly look to the bottom line. Agencies such as International News Services offer quality well-priced global coverage. Publications gain access to more than 40 experienced journalists worldwide, and the amount they need to spend can vary according to budgets and editorial demands.

By Keith Nuthall, International News Services

In tough recessionary times, publishers sensibly look to the bottom line. Agencies such as International News Services offer quality well-priced global coverage. Publications gain access to more than 40 experienced journalists worldwide, and the amount they need to spend can vary according to budgets and editorial demands.

By Eric Lyman, in Poznan, Poland, for ISN Security Watch

 As countries battle to come up with a plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions in 2009, attention will almost surely begin to focus on two main players that hold the fate of the international process in their hands: the US and China.

By Russell Berman, in Washington DC

USA president-elect Barack Obama has promised a robustly multilateralist foreign policy for America having assumed office on January 20, but one of the more complicated relationships he will have to navigate will be with the United Nations. Facing constant criticism for a unilateral, go-it-alone attitude toward diplomacy and world opinion, the Bush administration has had a largely adversarial relationship with the UN.

By Paul Cochrane, in Dhaka, Bangladesh

The old dictum goes – ‘one man's loss is another man's gain’. Curiously, in a globalised world in the midst of a financial downturn, this saying is particularly true, with certain countries unexpectedly benefiting from an otherwise near universal crisis.

By Alan Osborn

We should have known better than to believe the French last year when they said they wanted a new, reformed common agricultural policy with lower subsidies for farmers. That, incredibly, was what French president Nicholas Sarkozy said in September 2007. 

Incredible is right.

A year later Paris has thrown such pledges into the dustbin.