The International Crisis Group (ICG) sells itself as "working to prevent conflict worldwide" but there is one country where their mission looks more like promoting rather than preventing conflict. Exhibit A is their report on Venezuela, released on Friday.

There is a lot wrong with this report -- most of it reads like a statement from the Venezuelan political opposition, rather than a neutral

One member of staff working for Helena Homes reported entering the home of an older tenant living in sheltered housing to discover he had hanged himself on the back of the bathroom door.

“We do have some of the very most deprived people in the whole country. These people have more or less just given up. Some of them are just starving to death. It’s very distressing when someone stops paying th

One of the biggest problems the U.S. is having right now in fixing the housing crisis is the same banks that caused it.

For the record, it’s not some secret Obama conspiracy to turn America into Islamic colony as one “prominent” attorney in Idaho tried to convince me it was or one of Alex Jones’ conspiracies involving the Illuminati or the Freemasons. It’s the banks and the government trying

The teachers voted by an overwhelming majority to defy the dictatorial actions of the government, which has placed teachers under martial law and invoked civilian mobilisation measures, attempting to force teachers back to work. Any teacher who goes on strike now faces imprisonment of up to five years and dismissal. Education Minister Konstantinos Arvanitopoulos (New Democracy, ND) said on Wednes

Coutts’ stance is that this was a freak chain of events that could easily have been avoided and is therefore not a great threat to the America’s Cup writ large. Not everyone agrees. One of the AC72′s most outspoken critics is Scott MacLeod, president of Force 10, a sports-marketing business, who has represented corporate sponsors in every Cup going back to 1992. “I told them that they had the wro

In those first minutes, they'll be stunned. Eyes fixed in a thousand-yard stare, nerve endings numbed. They'll just stand there. Soon, you'll notice that they are holding their arms out at a 45-degree angle. Your eyes will be drawn to their hands and you'll think you mind is playing tricks. But it won't be. Their fingers will start to resemble stalactites, seeming to melt toward the ground. And i

The yen hit a four-year-low of 101 against the U.S. dollar on Friday, extending losses beyond the key 100-mark amid signs that Japan's bid to reflate its economy is finally leading domestic investors to look for higher yields elsewhere.

According to data from Japan's Ministry of Finance, Japanese investors became net buyers of foreign bonds in the last two weeks, buying 309.9 billion

"I hope like hell that whoever survives this thing and wins it changes the boat class to anything safer than these God-forsaken death traps."

That statement from a crew member - on the condition of anonymity for himself and the team - summed up the general reaction to the death of 36-year-old Artemis sailor Andrew Simpson when the hulls of his America's Cup team's training yacht sna

It is perhaps premature to announce the death of the US pivot to Asia, but the patient looks less than healthy. The US effort to orchestrate a win-win economic and security regime in Asia through selective and constructive pressure on China is being undercut by an ally that sees its importance, security, and prosperity eroding as China rises.

That nation is Japan, which is threateni

In recent months financial firms in Britain, including banks and insurers, have announced thousands of lay-offs.

Major British banks have led the way. Barclays announced in February plans to cut 3,700 jobs, while HSBC recently carried out 3,160 lay-offs. Lloyds, 39 percent controlled by the government, announced 550 redundancies in the middle of March after 1,340 positions were eliminated in J

One feels sympathy for U.S. President Barack Obama. Whatever he does in Syria, he is doomed. Had he intervened a year ago, as many pundits demanded, he might presently be in the midst of a quagmire with even more pundits angry at him, and with his approval ratings far lower than they are. If he intervenes now, the results might be even worse. Journalists often demand action for action's sake, see

.. imagine that millions of Americans walk around each day wearing the equivalent of a drone on their head: a device capable of capturing video and audio recordings of everything that happens around them. And imagine that these devices upload the data to large-scale commercial enterprises that are able to collect the recordings from each and every American and integrate them together to form a mi

"The idea that we would still maintain forever a group of individuals who have not been tried, that is contrary to who we are. It is contrary to our interests and needs to stop," he said.

"Now that is a hard case to make because I think for a lot of Americans the notion is: out of sight, out of mind. And it is easy to demagogue the issue. That's what happened the first time it came u

Why did the invasion of Iraq result in cultural destruction and killings of intellectuals? Convention sees accidents of war and poor planning in a campaign to liberate Iraqis. The authors argue instead that the invasion aimed to dismantle the Iraqi state to remake it as a client regime. Post-invasion chaos created conditions under which the cultural foundations of the state could be undermined. T

The Illuminati were amateurs. The second huge financial scandal of the year reveals the real international conspiracy: There's no price the big banks can't fix

Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premi