Restoring Order in Central African Republic

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Last-Ditch Effort Emerges to Restore Order in Central African Republic

BANGUI, Central African Republic — By mid afternoon, a hot breeze blows down empty corridors of the mostly vacant national assembly building here. Hundreds of grim soldiers, their uniforms looted or hidden away, mass in civilian clothes after going AWOL for months. Around abandoned university buildings, idle students loiter, their classes long canceled. The state no longer exists in the Central African Republic. Civil servants do not go to their offices, taxes are not collected and all the schools are closed. There is no budget, no army, no police force, no president, no Parliament, no judges or jails, and at least a fifth of the population has fled. After nine months of violence and well over a thousand dead since early December alone, Christians and Muslims fear and attack one another. Neighbor has turned against neighbor, and every night there are killings.Now, an unlikely experiment in instant nation-building is underway: a vote for president. Inspired equally by desperation and pressure from abroad, a “national transition council” of 135 rebels, rivals, politicians and everyone in between is making a last-ditch lunge for order, hoping to choose a new leader for this fractured country within days.

Nelson Mandela

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Nelson Mandela Dead: Icon of Anti-Apartheid Movement Dies at 95

Nelson Mandela, the former South African president whose stubborn defiance survived 27 years in prison and led to the dismantling of the country's racist and brutal apartheid system, has died. Mandela was 95 years old. South Africa's President Jacob Zuma, who announced Mandela's death, said, "We've lost our greatest son." President Obama spoke shortly after Zuma's announcement, praising Mandela as a man who "bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice. "He no longer belongs to us -- he belongs to the ages," Obama said. Mandela had a number of issues with his health in recent years including repeated hospitalizations with a chronic lung infection. Mandela had been listed in "serious but stable condition" after entering the hospital in June before returning to home to receive continued medical care. In April, Mandela spent 18 days in the hospital due to a lung infection and was treated for gall stones in December 2012. Mandela's public appearances had become increasingly rare as he dealt with his declining health.

Earthquake in Chile

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Magnitude 6.2 Earthquake Hits Chile's Northern Coast

At 11:11 p.m. on Sunday, a earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 shook Chile's northern Pacific shore. Hours before, a stronger earthquake hit the same region which caused and evacuation due to fear of a possible tsunami. The earthquake was the strongest of over 50 aftershocks that followed an earthquake with the magnitude of 6.7 on Sunday afternoon. The earthquake caused minor damage and officials evacuated more than 100,000 people from coastal zones. Chile is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. In 2010, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake and it's resulting tsunami killed more than 500 people, destroyed 220,000 homes, and washed away docks, riverfronts. and seaside resorts. However, this earthquake was much smaller and the country had it under control.

Missing jet

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Malaysia Officials open criminal inquiry into missing jet

The search for Flight 370 turned into a criminal investigation on Saturday, after Malaysia declared that the plane had been deliberately diverted and then flown for as long as seven hours toward an unknown point that was far from the scheduled route (Kuala Lumpur to Beijing). Prime Minister of Malaysia said that he would seek the help of governments across a large expanse of Asia in search for the Beoing 777, which has been missing for a week and had 239 people on board. A satellite orbiting 22,250 miles over the middle of the Indian Ocean received the transmission that, based on the angle from which the plane sent it, came from somewhere along one of the two arcs. One arc runs from the southern border of Kazakhstan in Central Asia to northern Thailand, passing over some hot spots of global insurgency and highly militarized areas. The other arc runs from near Jakarta to the Indian Ocean, roughly 1,000 miles off the west coast of Australia. The plane changed it's course after it took off and the movements of the plane were deliberate actions taken by someone on the plane. The communications system on the plane was disabled as the plane flew over the northeast coast of Malaysia. Also, a transponder aboard the plane abruptly stopped broadcasting its location, altitude, speed and other information while the plane was flying across the Gulf of Thailand. Military radar data shows that the plane turned and flew west across northern Malaysia before arcing out over the wide northern end of the Strait of Malacca, headed at a cruising altitude for the Indian Ocean. The flight was scheduled to land at 6:30 a.m. in Beijing, so when the last signal was received at 8:11 a.m., the plane could have been nearly out of fuel. The search for the jet that took a mysterious course continues.

Crimea referendum

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Wide condemnation after region votes to split from Ukraine

Crimean voters on Sunday overwhelmingly backed a referendum to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. This election was denounced by the United States, Europe, and the Ukrainian government as illegal and destabilizing. Fireworks went off and Russian flags waved over jubilant crowds after the vote, which election officials said stood at 95 percent with more than half of the ballots counted. The vote offered the voters on the strategic Black Sea peninsula the choice of seeking annexation by Russia or remaining in Ukraine with greater autonomy. Ukraine's new government in Kiev called the referendum a "circus" directed at gunpoint by Moscow (referring to the thousands of troops that are occupying the peninsula.). The referendum came two weeks after Russian-led forces seized control of Crimea. Locals say that they fear the new Ukrainian government that took over will oppress them. Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted the referendum was conducted in "full accordance with international law and the U.N. charter." At the United Nations on Saturday, Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution declaring the referendum illegal. President Obama spoke with Putin after the vote, and the White House said it would reject the results of the referendum held "under threats of violence and intimidation."

The natural gas boom in the US

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US Hopes Boom in Natural Gas can curb Putin

The Obama administration is trying to deploy the vast new supply of natural gas in the U.S. as a weapon to lower the influence of the Russian president (Vladimir Putin) over the Ukraine and Europe. The crisis in Crimea has escalated a State Department initiative to use a new boom in American natural gas supplies as a lever against Russia, which supplies 60 percent of Ukraine's natural gas and has a history of cutting off the supply during conflicts. Gazprom (Russia's state-run natural gas company) said it would no longer provide gas at a discount rate to Ukraine. The administration's strategy is to move aggressively to deploy the advantages of it's new resources to undercut Russian natural gas sales to Ukraine and Europe, weakening potential moves by Putin in future years. Although Russia is the world's biggest exporter of natural gas, the U.S, recently surpassed it to become the world's largest natural gas producer, largely because of breakthroughs in hydraulic fracturing technology know as fracking. The article points out that for Russia, energy supplies are an important factor for keeping a hold on Ukraine and other former countries of the Soviet Union. However, Russia is obligated by contract to provide natural gas to Western Europe, and Moscow remains highly dependent on Ukrainian pipelines to get there. The State Department's Bureau of Energy Resources has already helped weakened Putin by lowering Ukraine's dependence on Russia for natural gas supplies by finding other ways and places to get this resource from.

Russia takes over Crimea

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How should the US respond to Russia?

Russia has detached Crimea from the Ukrainian government's control. Vladimir Putin's use from Crimea is unknown; will he incorporate it into Russia, use it as leverage to negotiate a deal with Ukraine? Russia has violated a treaty that it signed with Ukraine which guaranteed that country's borders, in return for which Ukraine gave up it's nuclear weapons. The article suggests that President Obama should cancel his attendance at the G-8 Summit (to be held in Sochi in June) and that Russia's membership in the G-8 should be suspended. The G-8 was created to recognize that Russia was behaving as an honorable member of the international community. However, if Russia's behavior has changed, so should their status. Many people of Crimea will be deeply hostile towards the Russian takeover. What precedent will the U.S. set regarding their involvement in the issue and how should the U.S. respond to Russia?