Media Roundup

As President Obama prepares to meet with President Xi Jinping of China, a commission is recommending steps that could raise the cost of the theft of American industrial secrets.

In an address on Thursday, President Obama will attempt to lay out his justification for drone strikes, which have been in decline since 2010, and what they have achieved.

President Obama faces mounting bipartisan pressure for the U.S. to become more deeply involved in Syria’s civil war, with a key Senate panel pushing through legislation Tuesday that would clear the way for the administration to supply weapons to rebels fighters in the Mideast nation.

Leftist rebel Reinel Usuga surrendered this month because he was afraid of dying in battle and being buried in an unmarked grave even as rebel leaders negotiate a possible peace agreement that would make such a death pointless -- perhaps even absurd.

Two Spanish tourists have been kidnapped in Colombia while driving in La Guajira, near the Venezuelan border. The kidnappers contacted the hostages' family and identified themselves as members of the left-wing rebels Farc, Colombian authorities say.

The Mexican government poured army troops -- and high-level delegations -- into western Mexico on Tuesday in a bid to take back control of a region long besieged by a deadly drug cartel.

Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s president, on Wednesday said he was exhausted and had no intention of flouting the constitution by remaining in office beyond the end of his second term next year.

The giant copper mine that the Afghan government has made the centerpiece of its plans for building an economy nearly from scratch is at least five years behind schedule and the state-owned Chinese company that won the bidding has missed key deadlines in its still-secret contract with the Afghan government.

A key North Korean military official arrived in Beijing on Wednesday as a “special envoy” of leader Kim Jong Un, state-run media reported. The trip comes amid new signs of strain between the traditional allies.

Burmese are celebrating an end to their long international isolation with the first state visit to the US by a Myanmar president in almost 50 years.

An alleged disruption of oil flows between the two countries shows that their quarrels are far from over.

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy are named in connection with post-election violence in a long-awaited report investigating human rights abuses.

The lack of economic diversification throughout sub-Saharan Africa means that despite South Africa’s pledges to help Nigeria make the automotive sector the West African nation’s flagship industrial target, it may be difficult to do so, experts say.

As spy scandals go, the one in Moscow last week (May 14) could set a new record for oddity and senselessness.

Sweden's capital was hit with a third night of riots, as unrest that began in a relatively small suburban borough north of Stockholm predominantly populated by immigrants spread to several other pockets of the city.

The stepped-up support President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has received from Iran and Hezbollah appears to have fortified his belief that he can hang on to power and prevail militarily.

A former president supported by Iran’s moderates and considered a founding member of the Islamic republic was disqualified Tuesday from running in the coming election, generating surprise and tension.

Saeed Jalili, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, has declared his candidacy for the June 14 presidential election. The forever revolutionary is fiercely loyal to hardliner Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

America’s imminent self-sufficiency in energy is a major game changer for global geopolitics and economics.

President Obama will deliver what aides say is a major national security speech on Wednesday. It’s unlikely to redefine the war on terrorism, but it might clarify some of the lingering ambiguities about that seemingly endless conflict.

The model is a product of a long-term process of U.S. ambivalence toward the outside world.

Judged by the world’s inaction, climate sceptics have won. That makes their sense of grievance more remarkable. For the rest of us, the question that remains is whether anything can still be done and, if so, what?

Guatemala’s highest court, ruling on appeals filed by the defense, has annulled former dictator Jose Efrain Ríos Montt’s 80-year sentence for genocide and crimes against humanity.

Modern history is the story of how liberal democracy, originating in Britain and America, spread around the world. This may sound like an absurd fantasy. In actuality, this Whiggish narrative of progress underpins most newspaper editorials, political commentary and speeches in the West.

In China, the rich can pay a fine and have a second child. The poor face menstrual monitoring and state-mandated abortions.

For ambitious young Cambodians, Chinese is becoming the obvious second language to master.

Asia meets in Thailand to discuss water, as the threat to water security mounts.

Disputes over territorial sovereignty are among the thorniest of all diplomatic disagreements. While the sovereignty disputes in the South and East China Seas involve seemingly non-negotiable claims, the resources surrounding the islands can nevertheless be shared, nurturing habits of closer regional cooperation in the process.

Another apparel factory has collapsed in a poor Asian country, killing three workers, and I fear I’m partly to blame.

The most fascinating aspect of the war in Syria this month – and perhaps also the most significant in terms of long-term regional geopolitics -- is the direct involvement of Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shiite party and resistance group that is closely allied to Iran and Syria.

A trip to Yemen, Syria and Turkey is illuminating, but also raises many questions.

It’s a rule of thumb in Middle East conflicts that whenever peace talks are announced, each side steps up the fighting so it can grab as much territory as possible before the cease-fire lines are drawn.

The Syrian Electronic Army and other Middle Eastern hackers are targeting the U.S.—and succeeding.

Israel has experienced many leadership crises in the past but even in periods of anger, frustration and vast disappointment with the leaders there was still hope.