AU/SIS International Communication Program

globalpost:

DURBAN, South Africa — The BRICS group of emerging economies on Wednesday called for “full and unimpeded” access for humanitarian groups in Syria, a sign that what began as an economic bloc to rival Western powers may be embracing an increasingly political role.

During a day of talks in coastal Durban, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa focused in their public statements almost exclusively on economic issues, mainly plans for a BRICS development bank that could serve as an alternative to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund for the developing world.

But a final joint communiqué differed starkly in tone and content. The 13-page document addressed a range of geopolitical issues, from concerns about military threats against Iran, to support for efforts to stop drug trafficking in Afghanistan, to worrying about instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Wading into Syria, BRICS take on political role

Photo by Getty Images

humanrightswatch:

fotojournalismus:

Schoolchildren attended class in a makeshift school in a poor neighbourhood on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan on March 27, 2013.

[Credit : Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press]

Pakistan is one of the world’s most dangerous places to go to school. There are too many global attacks on schools »

globalpost:

ALGIERS, Algeria — Amid the wrangle over who will be Algeria’s next president, anxieties are stirring about a mighty force that could shake things up, if not take over entirely: the Algerian military.

Seventy-nine-year-old Abdelaziz Bouteflika is the country’s longest-serving president, in office for nearly 14 years. But concerns over his health are mounting as politicians and security officials debate the wisdom of the aging leader running for a fourth term in fresh polls slated for 2014.

Speculation is rife that the army, which staged a coup after democratic elections in 1992, sparking a years-long civil war, could again seize the helm to steer the country through a potentially volatile succession crisis that could destabilize Africa’s largest country.

Will Algeria’s army be the dark horse in next election?

Photo by Getty Images

ukinusa:

UK military chiefs meet with US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel at the Combined Chiefs of Staff Committee hosted by U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin E. Dempsey at the National Defense University at Fort McNair, Washington, DC. This is the first of meeting of its kind since 1948 and was called to discuss strategic challenges the UK and US militaries may face together in the future. During his Visit, Hagel presented UK General Sir David Richards, Chief of Defence with a Secretary of Defense medallion.

(Photo via US Secretary of Defense on Flickr)

crisisgroup:

Failure Has Many Fathers: The Coup in Central African Republic

from Crisis Group’s blog, The African Peacebuilding Agenda

by Thierry Vircoulon, Central Africa Project Director

On Sunday, 24 March 2013, the Seleka rebel alliance in Central African Republic (CAR) took the capital, Bangui. President Francois Bozizé fled to Cameroon. A number of South African troops in Bangui were killed in a fight with the rebels. Seleka leaders now claim to be in control of the government. One of its leaders, Michel Djotodia, reportedly declared himself president and stated he would remain in that role for three years. The African Union imposed sanctions on the coup leaders and urged others to do the same.

Q: What is Seleka?

The Seleka – which means alliance in the national language, Sango – is a coalition of several armed groups such as the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR), the Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP) and the Wa Kodro Salute Patriotic Convention (CPSK), joined by fighters coming from Chad and Darfur. This coalition came from the northeast of the Central African Republic and reached the doorstep of the capital city, Bangui, at the end of December 2012.1

The emergence of the Seleka coalition results from the absence of solution to the problem of the armed groups of northeastern CAR; the lack of a program of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) for these fighters; and a crippled security system. The leaders, the components and the initial demands of the Seleka have been features of the Central African political and security landscape for a long time. For instance, the disarmament of the fighters has been planned since the agreements of Libreville in 2008, but it has never taken place due to the lack of political will of the Bozizé regime. The rebels of the Seleka mainly come from the northeast of the country. This region is geographically isolated, historically marginalized and almost stateless. The lack of governance in the Vakaga and Haute Kotto regions, the permeable borders and the widespread contraband of weapons and other goods constituted the perfect terrain for the development of armed groups, giving rise to the Seleka.

FULL POST (Crisis Group)

(via strategicsocialllc)

globalpost:

NEED TO KNOW

Koreas cut off. North Korea has severed its last remaining channel of communication with the South, since “war may break out at any moment.” As of today, calls to the military hotline used to liaise on the countries’ shared industrial complex will go unanswered.

That’s one way to block out unwelcome advice. North Korean officials earlier warned the South’s President Park Geun-hye that she’d better “watch her tongue” after urging Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambitions. North Korea would never be so indiscreet, of course: its politburo has announced that it will meet in the coming days to discuss an “important issue” and a “drastic turn” – though on what or when that’ll be, it’s remaining typically tight-lipped.

WANT TO KNOW

DOMA or don’t? The US Supreme Court will soon complete its hearings on same-sex marriage, on which basis justices will have to decide whether to strike down or uphold the Defense of Marriage Act. Today’s session will focus on whether legally wed gay couples should be denied federal benefits because their marriage does not fit DOMA’s legal definition of “a union between a man and a woman.”

A ruling on both that and yesterday’s case (the legality of California’s ban on same-sex marriage) is due by the end of June. Here’s what SCOTUS might or might not decide.

Myanmar’s Muslims are under attack. The government has imposed curfews in three more towns where mosques and Muslim-owned shops and homes have been the target of violence, the escalation of riots that began in Meikhtila one week ago. The UN’s special envoy says the attacks are no indiscriminate rampage, but have been staged with “brutal efficiency.”

The people whipping up anti-Muslim malice the loudest are nationalist Buddhist monks. GlobalPost goes inside their efforts to divide Buddhist from Muslim.

His bad. David Petraeus, the former CIA director who resigned abruptly four months ago when he could no longer conceal an affair with his biographer, has apologized for, well, all that. In his first public address since the unpleasantness, Petraeus said he was “keenly aware that I am regarded in a different light now than I was a year ago,” and that if so it was no one’s fault but his own.

He deeply regrets what happened, Petraeus says, but “life doesn’t stop with such a mistake. It can and must go on.” Does this show of humility mean that the general believes his once illustrious career can and must go on, too?

STRANGE BUT TRUE

It’s not magic, it’s science. Researchers at the University of Texas say they’ve created a real-life invisibility cloak, just like the ones fantasized about by sci-fi fans, oh, forever. OK, so it’s not just like those: for a start, it only works in microwave light. (Don’t ask us to explain exactly how. Something to do with scattering incoming light waves, apparently.)

The developers say the same technique could in principal be applied in visible light, but only to very tiny objects. Objects only micrometers big. Objects so small as to be practically… invisible, in fact.