As drylands get drier and violence grows, new crises resembling Darfur will arise.
The world will experience a growing risk of conflicts over food, energy and water in coming years. The population rises each year by about 80 million people, with most of the increase in impoverished regions already facing environmental stress. Climate change, water scarcity [...]

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That man, Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela, began his love affair with the Bronx during a visit in 2005. Since then, he and his socialist government have funneled millions of dollars of aid to the South Bronx, home to New York’s poorest Congressional district, through Citgo Petroleum, the American subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil [...]

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At its peak in the 12th century, the Angkor kingdom spread across Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Laos and Vietnam. Angkor is the largest pre-industrial city known to man. So how did Angkor mysteriously disappear?
As archaeologist Damien Evans explains, the team’s findings give a stark warning to Cambodia’s corrupt and greedy rulers, and to modern societies worldwide. [...]

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Relations between Australia’s Muslim community and the rest of the population are near to exploding. As they face increasing suspicion and hostility from the rest of the nation, young Australian Muslims are being made to feel like foreigners in their own country. Is Australia’s response to terrorism to blame?

Link to this video.

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The BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China) are emerging as the new powers destined to inherit world economic leadership by the middle of the 21st century.
With China and India combined representing more than one-third of the world’s population (2.4 billion) and undisputed leaders in converting raw materials into finished goods, these Asian giants are headed [...]

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Vladimir Putin hails stability among his greatest achievements as president of Russia. But stability in Russia exists in appearance only, supported by enormous oil revenue and massive propaganda from the government-controlled mass media. Behind the facade lies an unprecedented increase in corruption, a population largely mired in poverty, and a bureaucracy and domestic intelligence apparatus [...]

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What Olmert fears is graphically illustrated by the numbers. According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, its population is 7,282,000, of whom 20.1 percent are Palestinian Arab citizens. On the West Bank and Gaza, an additional 4.2 million Palestinians live.
Hebrew University demographer Sergio DellaPergola projects that by 2020 Jews will compose only 44 percent to [...]

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The European Union cannot agree over how to deal with Russia. That suits the Kremlin just fine
SEEN from outside, one might imagine that the European Union (population 495m, GDP of $16.8 trillion) was a rather intimidating neighbour for Russia (population 142m, GDP of $1.3 trillion). Yet the reality is the other way round. In recent [...]

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With the largest open-cast chromite ore mines in the world, India’s Sukinda valley endures significant pollution; 60 percent of the drinking water is contaminated with carcinogenic hexavalent chromium, affecting nearly 3 million people. Health officials say 85 percent (Times of India) of the population suffers from “pollution-induced” diseases and fatalities, such as gastrointestinal bleeding, tuberculosis, [...]

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