IAEA Official: ‘We’re Not Prepared’ to Verify Nuclear Agreement

Natural disasters are depressing global productivity, and the world’s poorest nations are proving particularly vulnerable. The devastation caused by extreme weather — brought to the forefront of public awareness in the aftermath of the catastrophic Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines — exposes the need for better preparedness and the importance of greater coordination by the multitude of organizations offering assistance.

Special Economic Analysis
by Peter Warburton, PhD

Hopes among Thailand’s business community that the Thaksin era had ended have proved premature. Thaksin Shinawatra, the exiled former premier and telecom billionaire who was ousted in the 2006 military coup, still exerts strong influence over Thai politics through his sister, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Thailand faces a stark choice: either to persevere with electoral democracy which will almost guarantee that Thaksin’s regime is upheld, or plunge the nation into a dangerous phase of renewed civil conflict which will deter foreign trade and investment.

While Iran is perceived in the West as a conservative country, over the past decade it has seen a dramatic rise in serious drug abuse and associated HIV infections. It was ignored by the regime for years, but heroin use and the spread of HIV from dirty needles in Iran have reportedly reached epidemic proportions.

While the United Nations has grand plans for a multinational peacekeeping force in Mali and the French have hopes of withdrawing their troops soon, Islamist militants in the West African country have other designs. French security forces are still engaged in daily combat with al-Qaeda affiliates and finding huge caches of insurgent arms buried in the Sahara. The United Nations stability force, meanwhile, is understaffed at less than half of its authorized strength.