Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Security in Benghazi, the eastern Libyan city where four Americans were killed Sept. 11 in a terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate, has decayed to the point where Westerners are fleeing, assassinations and kidnappings are rife and residents worry that U.S. drone strikes on jihadist targets are imminent.
Few people keep Queen Elizabeth II waiting, especially when she has issued a personal invitation, but President Ronald Reagan managed to do so in 1982 without causing any lasting damage.
Five European nations summoned Israeli ambassadors on Monday to denounce Israel's latest settlement construction push, deepening the rift between the Jewish state and European allies over the Palestinians' successful U.N. statehood bid.
The Pakistani government on Monday distanced itself from an offer by one of its Cabinet ministers to pay $100,000 for anyone who kills the maker of an anti-Islam film, saying the offer does not represent official government policy.
"Spies and Commisars" serves up a rich witch's brew of intelligence intrigue and chicanery, bubbling with rogue characters who changed names (as well as claimed nationalities and mistresses) about as often as most folks change socks.
British police stood poised Wednesday to arrest WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should he step out of the Ecuadorean Embassy — but authorities conceded he is beyond their grasp as long as he stays inside.
A Russian-operated ship said to be carrying military helicopters to Syria appears to have turned back after its British insurer removed coverage for the vessel, U.K. officials said Tuesday.
Britain has come under criticism for inviting the king of Bahrain, whose Gulf state has engaged in a brutal crackdown on political dissent, to a lunch Friday celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee.
Former hotshot editor Rebekah Brooks drew Prime Minister David Cameron closer into Britain's tabloid phone hacking scandal Friday, saying he had offered her some support after the uproar over illegal journalistic practices forced her to quit.
Congo's security forces committed serious human rights violations - including killings, acts of torture and arbitrary arrests - surrounding the country's tense national elections last year, the U.N. said in a report released Tuesday.
Iran has halted oil shipments to Britain and France, the Oil Ministry said Sunday, in an apparent pre-emptive blow against the European Union after the bloc imposed sanctions on Iran's crucial fuel exports.
Egyptian authorities barred a British woman from leaving Egypt on Friday because she is on a list of people under investigation over ties to foreign nonprofit groups accused of fomenting unrest in the country, an airport official said.
Pakistan's prime minister appealed for support Friday from the country's parliament in a standoff between his beleaguered government and the armed forces, saying lawmakers had to choose between "democracy and dictatorship."
England's former secretary of education, Kenneth Baker, ignited a controversy last month by proposing that the Holocaust be removed from school curricula, lest it cause students to think badly of modern-day Germany.
It isn't saber-rattling by Iran that's making noise in the Middle East, but rhetoric-rattling. Nobody does it better. The latest purveyor of big malarkey is the chief of the Iranian navy, who would execute the Iranian threat to close the Strait of Hormuz in answer to the Western sanctions against Iran for its work on a nuclear weapon.
