IDN-InDepthNews

By Jutta Wolf
IDN-InDepth NewsReport

BERLIN (IDN) – While the world held its breath in the long drawn political tug-of-war between the White House and Republican Party leaders until beginning of August 2011, Senator Bernie Sanders posted on his website startling findings of a top-to-bottom audit of the Federal Reserve (Fed): The central bank of the United States had dished out a whopping $16 trillion between December 2007 and June 2010 in interest free secret loans to “bail out” American and foreign banks and businesses.

By Baher Kamal and Fareed Mahdy*
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

MADRID/CAIRO (IDN) – While the Palestinian Authority (PA) is focussing its energies on achieving full membership for the state of Palestine in the United Nations in September, the U.S. and Israel appear to be leaving no stone unturned to thwart the plan. They are proposing new talks on condition that the Palestinians abandon their legitimate demand for independence.

Knowledgeable sources believe that the Middle East game was over even before it started. In fact, a reasonable dose of good memory and a quick look at the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would suffice to conclude that it had ended exactly 114 years ago.

By Raúl de Sagastizabal*
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

MONTEVIDEO (IDN) – The WTO member countries are moving towards the Eighth Ministerial Conference in Doha next December, again with no concrete results, even on issues relating to least-developed Countries (LDCs), recognized by the member countries’ ambassadors in the informal meeting of last July 26.

By Rumel Dahiya* 
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

NEW DELHI (IDN) – In an unprecedented move, top four military commanders in Turkey stepped down from their posts on 29 July 2011. Chief of General Staff Gen. Işık Koşaner, Land Forces Commander Gen. Erdal Ceylanoğlu, Naval Forces Commander Adm. Eşref Uğur Yiğit and Air Forces Commander Gen. Hasan Aksay asked to be retired with immediate effect.

By Mirjam van Reisen*
IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint

BRUSSELS (IDN) – The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) is exploring new relationships in order to claim its rightful position in global institutions and act as a spokesperson for the world’s poor and less powerful nations.

Global governance is needed more than ever now that the world’s problems – higher food prices, climate change, the financial crisis and ensuing economic recession – are increasingly travelling across borders.

By J. C. Suresh*
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

TORONTO (IDN) – Pakistan is standing like a rock in the surf resisting growing international pressure to endorse a global treaty that would ban production of fissile material used as fuel for nuclear weapons. Reiterating its adamant opposition, Pakistan has warned that it would boycott any process to negotiate a U.S.-backed treaty outside the deadlocked UN Conference on Disarmament (CD), the sole negotiating forum for multilateral disarmament.