Recent Posts

Egypt arrests relatives of American activist Mohamed Soltan

The latest arrests come three months after Egypt released Soltan’s cousins from arbitrary detention. Egyptian security forces have raided the homes of Egyptian-American activist Mohamed Soltan’s relatives and arrested two of his cousins in what his US-based advocacy group Freedom Initiative described as a “campaign of retaliatory aggression.”

Read More »

Japan, US agree to extend deal on military base payments

Washington and Tokyo have decided to extend an agreement on Japanese financial support for thousands of US troops stationed in the country. In a statement released on Wednesday, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the agreement, which had been due to expire next month, would be extended for a …

Read More »

Intense Fighting Reported Outside Yemen’s Marib

Intense fighting has been reported along several fronts outside the Yemeni city of Marib, controlled by the Saudi-backed Yemeni government of President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi. Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who control the nearby capital of Sanaa, have been trying to capture Marib and strategic points surrounding it, including oil and gas …

Read More »

In Serbia, State’s Ties to Crime Become Hard to Miss

Under Aleksandar Vucic’s Progressives, the line between the state and organised crime has become increasingly blurred, raising the question – is Serbia a mafia state? According to the Hungarian sociologist Balint Magyar, in a ‘mafia state’ “The state itself, at the top, works as a criminal organisation.”

Read More »