The two legal battles for Julian Assange
The increasingly familiar founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange now finds himself confronting two separate potential legal battles. The first is whether he or his website can be held criminally liable for publishing thousands of documents stolen from the US Defence Department’s classified database. The second is whether he is guilty of sexual abuse towards two [...]
Lord of War: the trial of Viktor Bout
According to Russia, Viktor Bout is just a successful air freight businessman. But according to the United States, he is the world’s most notorious illegal arms dealer. Nicolas Cage’s character in the movie Lord of War was loosely based on his life. Now the Russian is facing trial in New York after being captured in [...]
The consequences of the Wikileaks revelations
Last week, five newspapers have published the first installment of a total 251,287 leaked documents from the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks. The documents, known as cables, are messages between the US government and its 274 embassies throughout the world, mostly from the last decade though dating back to 1966. But with more to come in the [...]
Some quietly successful countries
While a lot of attention is paid to economically-troubled countries like Greece, Ireland and even America, little mention is made of the countries that are doing well. Such nations are quietly purring along with reasonable growth rates, low unemployment and healthy governments. They are not the new economic rock stars like China and Brazil. They [...]
Friends for hire
Moving online has opened up a world of opportunities. Clothes, music, movies, and dates can all be found at the click of a button. But friendship? There’s a new one. Challenging the notion that friendship must be earned is US-based website RentAFriend, where friendship can blossom – for a fee. Renta-what? Conceived by American entrepreneur [...]
America’s problem
The world’s biggest economy is in deep trouble. The government and Federal Reserve have effectively tried everything they can to fix the problem but have failed. That problem is weak consumer demand, which has been caused by the demise of America’s middle class. Now it seems the question is not whether the American economy will [...]