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The top 10 hot spots plus 5 runners-up

| January 4, 2013 | 0 Comments
The top 10 hot spots plus 5 runners-up

The wars and rumours of war that will shape 2013 By Wolfgang Depner This piece opens with a proviso. Efforts to predict the future course of human events, no matter how sophisticated they might be, enjoy a less-than-satisfactory record, notwithstanding the recent accomplishments of poll aggregator Nate Silver in forecasting the outcome of the presidential […]

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A sobering report on UN goals

| January 4, 2013 | 0 Comments
A sobering report on UN goals

Jon Lane is the former executive director of the UN’s Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council. WaterCan presented him with the Michael Lubbock Award in October in Ottawa for his contributions in the field of international water and sanitation. The following are excerpts from his acceptance speech. I started work in water and sanitation in […]

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Biodiversity in a bottle

| January 4, 2013 | 0 Comments
Biodiversity in a bottle

Utterly unperturbed, Lili Ana Rodrigues gently pries open the roof of a handmade wooden bee box, slices off paper-thin peaks of miniature mountains made of charcoal-coloured parchment, and carefully inserts a plastic syringe into what should be the dangerous, inner domain of several hundred wild bees. The inner hive is, in fact, pulsating with tiny […]

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Arctic sovereignty: Who owns what?

| October 4, 2012 | 0 Comments
Arctic sovereignty:  Who owns what?

By Laura Neilson Bonikowsky The Arctic is a stable region of eight nations that generally exhibit mutual trust and co-operation. The key body concerned with the dialogue among these states is the Arctic Council, whose members include, in addition to the eight Arctic nations (Canada, U.S., Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Russia and Iceland), permanent participants […]

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The Arctic, country by country

| October 4, 2012 | 0 Comments
The Arctic, country by country

Our eight-country primer takes you to each of the council’s member states and offers a breakdown of their Arctic territory, interests and claims. By Laura Neilson Bonikowsky   CANADA Area: 9,984,670 sq km Population: 34,476,688 (2012) Canada’s frigid Arctic is definitely something to get hot and bothered about. It makes up more than 40 percent […]

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Norway and Russia: high North, low tension

| October 4, 2012 | 0 Comments
Norway and Russia: high North, low tension

By Else Berit Eikeland In September 2010, Norway and Russia signed the treaty on maritime delimitation and co-operation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean. The treaty was an historic milestone. It resolved what for several decades had remained the most important outstanding issue between Norway and Russia: the maritime boundary between the two […]

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Women at the wheel

| October 4, 2012 | 0 Comments
Women at the wheel

The world’s top-10 most powerful female politicians By Wolfgang Depner   Why do so few women enter politics? This familiar, yet frustrating question looms large behind this list of the 10 most powerful female leaders currently holding office around the globe. Some have blamed the absence of women in politics on pervasive patterns of social […]

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Rape as a weapon of war: then and now

| June 28, 2012 | 0 Comments
Rape as a weapon of war: then and now

“It has become more dangerous to be a woman fetching water or collecting firewood than a fighter on the frontline.” — UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Margot Wallström, 2012 UN BACKGROUND REPORT The victims of modern armed conflict are far more likely to be civilians than soldiers. According to UN Action Against […]

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Ebullient Sri Lanka: making up for lost time

| June 28, 2012 | 0 Comments
Ebullient Sri Lanka: making up for lost time

If you are lucky enough to have a week in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital city, you can: • See more vividly coloured gems in one hour than you’ll see in a lifetime — small piles of cut sparkling sapphires (deep blue to pink, yellow and orange), topaz, moonstones from several dollars to $125,000 (for 50-carat […]

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The Big Six Goals: Canada’s priorities in the U.S.

| June 28, 2012 | 0 Comments
The Big Six Goals: Canada’s priorities in the U.S.

Canada and the U.S. have the closest and most integrated partnership in the world. As Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on a recent visit, “We are partners, neighbours, allies and, most of all, we are true friends.” A recent Gallup poll found that the American public agrees, with 96 percent of Americans having a positive […]

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