The cost to the federal government of keeping all of its secrets was more than $11 billion last year, according to publicly available records. That total does not include costs incurred by the CIA and the NSA and other spy agencies, because those figures are...
The United States has moved significant military reinforcements into the Persian Gulf in order to intimidate Iran and increase the number of fighter jets capable of striking the Islamic Republic after a partial breakdown of nuclear talks last month. "The message to...
The United Nations human rights chief warned on Monday that arms supplies to both the Syrian government and the rebel militias were deepening the conflict and hindering the efficacy of the new plan for a unity government. UN official Navi Pillay condemned the...
At a rally in Paris last Sunday, former Republican presidential candidate and House Speaker Newt Gingrich spoke on behalf of the Mujahadin-e Khalq (MEK), an Iranian opposition group considered a terrorist organization by the US State Department. "This is a massive,...
ExxonMobil has filed an application with the Afghan government to bid on a group of Afghanistan oilfields containing an estimated 1 billion barrels of oil and gas. The official "expression of interest, said Alan Jeffers, a spokesman for Exxon, "is part of our ongoing...
Syria's opposition expressed plans to completely reject the plan for a democratic political transition decided upon by world powers in a meeting called by UN envoy Kofi Annan on Saturday. Many activists and militiamen in the opposition don't accept the so-called...
Only six months after the US military withdrew from Iraq, the country is plagued by violence and extreme corruption that threatens to weaken the state and strengthen violent insurgent groups. About 234 people were killed in Iraq in the month of June, the second...
The presumptive winner of Mexico's presidential election on Sunday, Enrique Peña Nieto, is not likely to make any substantive change away from the US-dominated, militaristic approach to the drug war, as many hoped. Central America has become the most dangerous place...
Iran’s oil minister on Saturday called for an emergency OPEC meeting in response to oil prices falling below $100 per barrel, saying the current market value of oil has become "illogical." The oil minister, Rostam Ghasemi, said that at a recent meeting of the...
World powers agreed on a plan for a political transition in Syria in a meeting in Geneva on Saturday called by UN envoy Kofi Annan. A unity government will be formed according to a democratic process and can include members of the present regime as well as opposition....
