Section: The Huffington Post (USA)
Bank Of Russia Hikes Rate To Aid Sinking Currency
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bank of Russia has drastically raised its key interest rate to 17 percent from 10.5 percent to try to boost its currency, which has been plunging along with oil prices. The moves comes after the ruble has shed roughly 50 percent of its value since January, battered by Western sanctions imposed over the conflict in Ukraine...
Here Is Xi’s China. Get Used to It.
The prevailing mood among China-watchers in 2014 was one of anxiety and skepticism. The year began in the shadow of Chinese assertiveness in the East and South China Seas. Economic concerns quickly took over: by February the property market seemed on the verge of an epic collapse thanks to the previous year’s sharp monetary tightening. At...
Death Toll In Eastern Ukraine Up To 4,707: UN
GENEVA (AP) — Fighting in eastern Ukraine has killed at least at least 4,707 people since the conflict began in mid-April and more than a quarter of the recorded deaths have come since a much-ignored cease-fire, U.N. rights investigators said Monday. A new report from the U.N. team in Ukraine says at least 1,357 of the fatalities have been...
Smart Power through Inclusivity in an Increasingly Volatile World
The brutality of ISIS, Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and the Ebola epidemic are issues that give us the sense that we are returning to a harsher and more violent world of “realpolitik” than what we have witnessed during the last couple of decades. Decision makers are constantly faced with the difficult task of how to most...
Russia Denies One Of Its Military Planes Nearly Collided With A Passenger Jet
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s Defense Ministry on Sunday denied Swedish claims that for the second time this year a Russian military aircraft had nearly collided with a passenger jet over Sweden, insisting that the two planes were never less than 70 kilometers (42 miles) apart. Scandinavian Airlines, which was operating the commercial flight, also...
How Countries Around The World Are Coping With Falling Oil Prices
Every week, The WorldPost asks an expert to shed light on a topic driving headlines around the world. Today, we look at the impact of a steep decline in oil prices. On Friday, the price of benchmark crude oil dropped to new five-year lows. The price of oil has been plummeting for months, leaving oil-producing nations around the world aghast at...
Bury Lenin’s Body: The Symbol of Communism Should No Longer Mock Humanity
MOSCOW — Red Square remains one of the globe’s most iconic locales. Enter by walking past the statue of World War II general Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov on horseback. The Kremlin dominates on the right, GUM Department Store on the left, and St. Basil’s Cathedral looms in front. Before the Kremlin wall is a small, squat,...
Russia Reaches Out To Europe’s Far-Right Parties
VIENNA (AP) — A Russian loan to France’s National Front. Invitations to Moscow for leaders of Austria’s Freedom Party. Praise for Vladimir Putin from the head of Britain’s anti-European Union party. As the diplomatic chill over Ukraine deepens, the Kremlin seems keener than ever to enlist Europe’s far-right parties in its...
Bury Lenin’s Body: The Symbol of Communism Should No Longer Mock Humanity
MOSCOW–Red Square remains one of the globe’s most iconic locales. Enter by walking past the statue of World War II general Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov on horseback. The Kremlin dominates on the right, GUM Department Store on the left, and St. Basil’s Cathedral looms in front. Before the Kremlin wall is a small, squat,...
Weekend Roundup: Coming Clean on Torture Makes America Stronger, Not Weaker
The soft power of America’s open society has once again come to the rescue of its hard power misadventures, this time by coming clean on the post-9/11 practice of torture. As China and several other countries intensify their crackdown on the Internet and open expression in general, the U.S. offers a lesson: honest criticism fortifies the...
