Erdogan is playing with fire as he belittles the popular protest spreading among a cross-section of secular Turkey and totally opposed to his highly personalized/autocratic mix of hardcore neoliberalism and conservative religion. The prime minister now deriding demonstrators as "looters" is the same man who said Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak "must listen to his people" and Syrian President Bas

Italy’s new premier Enrico Letta is on a collision course with Germany after vowing to end death by austerity, and warned that Europe itself faces a “crisis of legitimacy” unless it charges course.

“Italy is dying from fiscal consolidation. Growth policies cannot wait any longer,” he told Italy’s parliament. He said the country is in “very serious” crisis after a decade of stagnation and warne

The key legal document that defines refugees, the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, defines a refugee as a person who has a well-founded fear of persecution in their homeland because of their race, religion, nationality of membership of a particular group.

The convention – forged in 1951 in the aftermath of world war two – does not offer protection to those claiming to be endanger

Forecasts of global temperature rises over the past 15 years have proved remarkably accurate, new analysis of scientists' modelling of climate change shows.

The debate around the accuracy of climate modelling and forecasting has been especially intense recently, due to suggestions that forecasts have exaggerated the warming observed so far – and therefore also the level warming that can be exp

French police searched the Paris apartment of IMF chief Christine Lagarde on Wednesday as part of an investigation into her awarding of a 2008 arbitration payment to a businessman supporter of ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, her lawyer said.

Lagarde, who at the time was Sarkozy’s finance minister, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in ending a judicial battle against billionaire Bernard Tapie and

Servals have the longest legs of any cat, relative to their body size. Most of this increase in length is due to the greatly elongated metatarsal bones in the feet. The toes are also elongated, and unusually mobile, helping the animal to capture partially concealed prey. Another distinctive feature of the serval is the presence of large ears and auditory bullae in the skull, indicating a particul

Pope Benedict on Monday urged the international community to end what he called the endless slaughter in Syria before the entire country became a "a field of ruins."

He made the appeal in particularly strong terms during a yearly "state of the world" address to diplomats accredited to the Vatican.

He said Syria, where the United Nations estimates that 60,000 people have been killed, was "to

Sandy represented extreme weather conditions that crippled the emergency response facilities of the government-- nationally and locally. No one had the foresight to plan ahead for such a wide spread storm disaster. Scientists and realistic politicians are now saying that Sandy like events will be increasing in frequency as the earth continues to heat up due to global warming and the use of fossil

President Obama and Mitt Romney seemed determined not to discuss climate change in this campaign. So thanks to Hurricane Sandy for forcing the issue: Isn’t it time to talk not only about weather, but also about climate?

.. it’s a good idea to hedge your bets on the future with some low-tech options to keep your lifestyle gracious and enjoyable in disasters both natural and man-made.

So, in light of Frankenstorm Hurricane Sandy, I thought I’d share a few prep tips for your consideration.

If it’s too late for you for this storm, get them in place for the next one, and for a future that’s sure to be more vuln

The flooding in subways and tunnels in Lower Manhattan was so severe that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has asked a team of specialists skilled at draining flooded areas from the Army Corps of Engineers to help New York City officials.

On Tuesday afternoon, two hydrologists and two mechanical engineers from the corps were in a government jet headed to New York. The jet was expected t

I happened to travel (by car - how else?) last week from Bennington through Brattleboro, Vermont, and down into a de-industrialized corner of northwestern Massachusetts. There were at least three major highway bridge re-construction projects (and many lesser ones) still underway along the route from last year's Hurricane Irene, which devastated Vermont. There's a fair chance that Vermont will get

Radiation from Japan’s nuclear accident has turned up in seaweed on the coasts of California, Washington and other parts of the West Coast of North America.

The ocean is so big … how could this be happening? Why didn’t the gigantic Pacific Ocean better dilute Fukushima radiation?

A 1955 U.S. government report concluded that the ocean may not adequately dilute radiation from nuclear accident

Globally, and in Australia, concerns have been raised about the impact of climate change on the effectiveness of fixed protected areas.

This report investigates the possible future impacts of climate change on Australia's system of formally protected conservation areas, the National Reserve System (NRS), and the consequences of these impacts for the development and management of the

If, as many scientists predict, currently inaccessible sea lanes across the top of the world become navigable in the coming decades, they could redraw global trading routes -- and perhaps geopolitics -- forever.

This summer will see more human activity in the Arctic than ever before, with oil giant Shell engaged in major exploration and an expected further rise in fishing, tourism and regional