Month: November 2015

Russia Tries to Sow a Trans-Atlantic Divide     Russia’s standoff with the United States will grow more complicated this quarter as Moscow tries to soften the Europeans on sanctions over Ukraine even as it escalates its military involvement in Syria. Moscow’s ...

The rift between Russia and Ankara is growing after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet that allegedly violated its airspace. On Nov. 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the attack would have “serious consequences for Russian-Turkish relations.” There has been ...

U.S. military advisors will begin training five Ukrainian mechanized battalions and one special operations forces battalion in Lviv on Nov. 23, a Ukrainian presidential representative said, Sputnik reported Nov. 7. The training will follow the framework of the recently completed ...

Forecast Mexican organized crime groups will continue to exploit Mexico’s energy industries despite recent government efforts to stop the theft. Among Mexico’s various crime groups, organizations in the Tierra Caliente region will increasingly be the primary perpetrators of fuel theft. ...

Nigeria has been getting a lot of bad press lately, owing largely to the militant Islamist group Boko Haram’s abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls in April, part of a brutal campaign of kidnappings, bombings, and murder. But while these ...

Algeria belongs to the locals. Arriving in Algiers’ Houari Boumediene International Airport, it’s readily apparent that the facility wasn’t designed with tourists in mind. Distractions found in other regional airports, such as high-end shopping, restaurants and souvenir kiosks are absent. Loitering ...

Bavaria is one of those rare places where the monumental and the austere coexist, where tradition is strong but so is the desire for innovation. It is a place where villagers gather to continue the folk practice of erecting tall ...

Up to three gunmen stormed the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, the capital of Mali, taking as many as 170 occupants hostage Nov. 20. They reportedly entered the hotel using diplomatic license plates – a security oversight likely observed by ...

On the evening of Friday, Nov. 13, eight people armed with assault rifles and suicide vests attacked several targets in Paris,France, killing 129 civilians. At least five of the attackers were French nationals and two were Belgians; all eight appear ...

A Russian Su-24 fighter jet was shot down near the Turkish-Syrian border on Nov. 24. According to a statement issued by the Turkish General Staff, the downed warplane was warned 10 times in five minutes by two intercepting Turkish F-16s ...