All Blog Posts from World Watch
Can the U.N. keep Israel-Palestine talks going?
During his Middle East trip, Ban Ki-moon focused on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The U.N. Secretary-General was met with protesters in Gaza, who attacked his convoy with sticks and shoes, but was applauded by schoolgirls at a U.N.-run school in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Continue »Syria's economy under siege amid crackdown
A reeling economy is beginning to take its toll on residents of Damascus, Syria.
(Credit: AFP/Getty Images)This story originally appeared on Global Post.
DAMASCUS, Syria -- As parts of Syria suffer the effects of the regime's vicious military assault, Damascus is a city looking on. A faltering economy, however, has put many thousands out of work and daily life is slowly deteriorating.
The most widespread sight on the streets of Damascus these days is the plastic sheeting that covers miles of pavement. Sheltered from the rain, underneath men sell cigarette lighters, pirated DVDs and trinkets. The customs police that once hounded such illegal peddlers are nowhere to be seen. It is a sign of what has become a wider breakdown in organized economic life in the capital.
Recent explosions at several fuel pipelines in the Homs region have severely disrupted supplies of diesel, particularly to the huge generators providing electricity to Damascus and to dozens of towns around the capital.
Continue »Iran allegedly cuts off Internet access
(Credit:
CBS News)
Iran has cut off access to the Internet, leaving millions of people without email.
A source inside the country confirmed this morning that Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo email is no longer available. Ditto for Facebook. So far, the government has not made any announcement about the service interruption.
But cyber-sophisticated Iranians are still able to circumvent the government by using proxy servers over VPN connections.
"The interesting thing is that when asked, they deny the fact that all these services are all blocked," an Iranian contacted by CNET said. The source asked to remain unidentified.
Continue »Syria rebels bloodied, battered, but defiant
Syrian rebels drag away a wounded fighter after a battle with President Assad's military forces in northern Syria, Feb. 8, 2012.
(Credit: CBS)
CBS News correspondent Clarissa Ward was on the front lines with Syrian rebels Wednesday as they battled President Bashar Assad's forces near a city in the country's north. She saw the poorly armed group of men - most of whom have no military training - engage a military checkpoint manned by professional Syrian soldiers.
The clash ended with the rebel fighters retreating, dragging four of their comrades back as they died from wounds.
Syria's opposition and the so-called Free Syrian Army that supports it are facing daunting odds, both in the north and further south in Homs, the nation's third largest city and the focus of much of the Assad regime's reprisals against the uprising which began almost a year ago. But they won't back down.
Continue »Report: U.S. to slash Iraq Embassy staff
The US flag is raised during a formal dedication ceremony attended by the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, at the new US embassy amid heavy security, in Green Zone, on January 5, 2009 in Baghdad, Iraq.
(Credit: Photo by Getty Images)"Over the last year and continuing this year the Department of State and the Embassy in Baghdad have been considering ways to appropriately reduce the size of the U.S. mission in Iraq, primarily by decreasing the number of contractors needed to support the embassy's operations," said embassy spokesman Michael W. McClellan.
Continue »Iran: We can attack U.S. interests "anywhere"
Iranian soldiers chant anti-Israeli and anti-U.S. slogans on the first day of celebrations marking the 33th anniversary of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's return from exile at Khomeini's mausoleum in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 1, 2012.
(Credit: AFP/Getty Images)
The Iranian ambassador to Russia reportedly said Wednesday that his country has the means to attack U.S. interests "anywhere in the world."
Ambassador Seyed Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi told reporters in Moscow that it would only exercise such capability if attacked by the United States, according to the Reuters news agency.
"The Americans know what kind of country Iran is. They are well aware of our people's unity," Sajjadi said. "And that's why Iran is fully able to deliver retaliatory strikes on the United States anywhere in the world."
Iran's parliament summons Ahmadinejad - a first
Iran: New U.S. sanctions "psychological war"
Intel chief: Pressured Iran might strike in U.S.
Pakistani fishermen reel in 40-foot whale shark
Pakistani fishermen use cranes to pull the carcass of a whale shark from the waters at a fish harbour in Karachi on February 7, 2012. The 40-feet whale, weighing about 6-7 tons, was found dead in Arabian Sea in the port city of Karachi.
(Credit: ASIF HASSAN/AFP/Getty Images)Pakistani fishermen needed at least five cranes to reel in a 40-foot-long whale shark from the waters at a harbor in the port city of Karachi on Tuesday, according to the Express Tribune newspaper.
The massive whale shark, which was said to weigh between 6 and 7 tons, was found unconscious ten days ago about 150 kilometers from shore, according to the owner of a local fishery. By the time the fish was pulled out of the water, it was dead.
Continue »Syria's Christians stand by Assad
A Syrian woman presents a national flag to Syria's Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun during a mass held at a Greek Orthodox church in Damascus on January 9, 2012.
(Credit: JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images)This story originally appeared on Global Post.
DAMASCUS, Syria -- As the announcement was made Saturday evening that Russia and China had vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning the actions of the Syrian regime, some Christians inside the country celebrated.
One man from the western Syrian town of Qatana called his relatives to say "mabrook," or congratulations, on the result of the vote. A lounge bar in Damascus offered two alcoholic drinks for one in a happy hour offer.
But in Christian homes around the country the prevailing sentiment is one of relief rather than delight -- they link the survival of the Assad regime to their own.
"Thank god for Russia. Without Russia we are doomed," said a Christian woman from Damascus recently.
As a fellow minority, Christians have long supported the Alawite regime in order to ensure protection and rights for themselves. The Alawite are a Shiite sect of Islam.
"Look what has happened in Iraq and now in Egypt," said the woman. "Assad in power means that won't happen here."
Continue »Mexican party taps first woman for presidential run
Mexican presidential candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota celebrates her victory with her counterparts Santiago Creel, left, and Ernesto Cordero from the National Action Party during a press conference in Mexico City Feb. 5, 2012.
(Credit: AFP/Getty Images)"It's Josefina!" read the headlines in Mexico today, after the ruling National Action Party chose Josefina Vazquez Mota as the party's first female presidential candidate ahead of elections on July 1.
Vazquez Mota, 51 -- a mother of three, avid Twitter user, and a former radio anchor, congresswoman and education secretary -- faces an uphill battle for the presidency. Her contenders are the photogenic Enrique Pena Nieto, 45, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the party that ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, from the left-of-center Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) who narrowly lost to President Felipe Calderon in 2006.
Continue »Cold weather could impact Russia protest
Opposition activists protest against the alleging mass fraud in the December 4 parliamentary polls in central Moscow, on December 10, 2011.
(Credit: YURI KADOBNOV/AFP/Getty Images)(CBS/AP) Low temperatures could put a deep freeze in the amount of demonstrators for a protest against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin slated for Saturday as told by opposition leaders, Reuters reported.
With temperatures possibly falling to minus 13 degrees Celsius, the number of demonstrators participating in the march "For Honest Elections" could be reduced. That protest is competing with pro-Putin rallies in Moscow.
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