Focus on Arak: 4 Myths about Iran’s Plutonium Reactor

Syrian peace talks are scheduled to take place in Geneva on Jan. 22, but fragmentation among the rebels is already threatening to them. The disparate rebel groups have competing agendas and leadership, and they do not recognize the legitimacy of other groups. Lack of unified opposition leadership makes a peace deal unlikely, and if one is signed by representatives at the talks, most rebel fighters will probably ignore it.

CYBER WAR

Using a computer to carry out an attack or theft, once the exclusive domain of the technologically savvy, is set to expand dramatically. New cybercrime services allow an aspiring thief to simply order the cybercrime he or she wants from online providers, lowering the technical barrier to having a credit card or virtual currency account to pay the thief’s fees.

As Japan shifts from nuclear power to natural gas, the country hopes to regain energy independence by leveraging its potentially significant deposits of methane hydrates. Tokyo is investing considerable resources in finding ways to harness the energy stored within this “fire ice.”

With all the attention of media and government centered on the Geneva agreement between world powers and Iran, other important developments in the Middle East tend to be overlooked. In Turkey, the Erdogan government’s foreign policies are in tatters and the prime minister is making domestic policy decisions that appear on the surface to be inexplicable.

North Korean officials released a video last weekend depicting an American veteran coerced into confessing “crimes” he committed during the Korean War. Merrill Newman, an 85-year-old retired bank executive from California, ran covert operations against Pyongyang, where he armed anti-communist guerrillas. He was arrested while traveling through North Korea early this fall and detained for more than a month. While the international agenda has been dominated by Iran and Sino-Japanese tensions, North Korea has been seizing this opportunity to grab the spotlight on the world stage.

Large-scale foreign aid efforts led by the West are borderline dysfunctional, while entrepreneur-centered lending scaled to individuals has brought families out of poverty with notable efficiency. Building over years of work, this quiet revolution in finance is starting to gain the traction reformers need to rein in failing global aid bureaucracies.