Ashish Kumar Sen

Central African Republic negotiating for surrender of warlord Kony

The Central African Republic says it is negotiating the surrender of warlord Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) who is the subject of a U.S.-aided manhunt, but the Obama administration said Thursday it has "little reason to believe" the Ugandan rebel is part of the talks.

November 21, 2013

Terrorists slaughter African elephants, use ivory to finance operations

A growing number of terrorist groups in Africa are turning to the illegal trade of elephant tusks to finance their operations, cashing in on a massive demand for ivory spurred by a burgeoning, wealthier middle class in Asia.

November 13, 2013

Debris, destruction in Philippines slow flow of aid

Food, water and medical supplies trickled into hard-hit areas of the Philippines on Tuesday, as the U.S. dispatched an aircraft carrier group to lend aid and the U.N. appealed for $301 million in emergency assistance to help survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, which killed at least 2,000 people.

November 12, 2013

Pakistani Taliban chose Malala plotter as new leader

Pakistani Taliban militants have named a hard-liner opposed to peace talks and linked to the shooting of a Pakistani schoolgirl as successor to their leader who was killed in a U.S. drone strike last week.

November 7, 2013

Syrian war refugees find crowds, crime, contagion at camps

Kilian Kleinschmidt, a hardened veteran of international humanitarian crises, finds it too painful to listen to the stories of death and destruction from refugees fleeing Syria's relentless civil war, as they flood across the border to a crowded camp in northern Jordan.

November 5, 2013

Iraqi premier asks U.S. for arms, intel to battle al Qaeda

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki urged the U.S. Thursday to provide his government with counterterrorism aid, including intelligence sharing, to help it tackle a rising tide of al Qaeda-inspired violence.

October 31, 2013

Iraqi government complicit in deadly attack at Camp Ashraf on Iranian refugees, report shows

The Iraqi government was complicit in a deadly attack on a camp for unarmed Iranian dissidents north of Baghdad on Sept. 1 in which gunmen appeared to have used U.S. weapons, according to an investigation led by a Washington-based human rights lawyer.

October 30, 2013

Chinese president persecutes activists despite promise to tackle graft

Chinese President Xi Jinping promised to tackle corruption in the country's vast communist power structure, yet in his seven months in power, Chinese authorities have cracked down on activists who fight for honest government.

October 29, 2013

North Korean activity signals plan for another rogue nuclear weapons test

Increased activity at North Korea's main underground nuclear test site suggests that the rogue communist nation is preparing to conduct another illegal atomic weapons blast, according to a report by a Washington-based research institute.

October 24, 2013

Obama likely to deny Pakistani request to stop drone strikes

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to ask President Obama to end U.S. drone strikes against suspected terrorists in Pakistan and mediate a long-standing dispute with India when the two leaders meet at the White House on Wednesday.

October 22, 2013

Clerics encourage hungry Syrians to eat dogs and cats

Syria's civil war has become so dire that some Islamic clerics are telling starving Syrians to eat cats and dogs.

October 16, 2013

Kidnapping of Libya’s prime minister shows militias’ power

The abduction of Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan in Tripoli on Thursday by heavily armed gunmen on the government payroll underscores the power militias wield in the North African nation two years after the ouster of dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

October 10, 2013

State Dept. knocks election in Azerbaijan

The Obama administration said Thursday that the election of Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev to an an unprecedented third term fell short of international standards.

October 10, 2013

U.S. suspending aid to Egypt to signal displeasure

The Obama administration said Wednesday it is suspending hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid, including the delivery of defense equipment and cash, to Egypt in an attempt to nudge the interim government in Cairo to pave the way for an inclusive, democratically elected government.

October 9, 2013

Azerbaijan: An American ally in a sea of threats

In an increasingly polarized world, the small Caspian Sea nation of Azerbaijan is a tantalizing study in contradictions.

October 7, 2013

EU diplomat wary of Iran’s overtures to West

The European Union's foreign policy chief warned Monday against rushing to ease economic sanctions on Iran following last week's diplomatic breakthroughs between the Islamic republic's new leadership and the West.

September 30, 2013

Alliance of rebel groups calls for an Islamist Syria, not a U.S.-backed democracy

Eleven Syrian rebel groups, including a powerful al Qaeda affiliate, have rejected the Western-backed opposition coalition, calling for a new Syria under Islamic law and dealing a severe blow to U.S.-led efforts to support a democratic alternative to embattled President Bashar Assad.

September 25, 2013

Wolf calls for arrest of Sudanese leader at U.N. General Assembly

A senior House Republican wants the Obama administration to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is accused of war crimes, if he arrives in the U.S. to attend a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly this week.

September 23, 2013

Sudan’s Omar Bashir, accused of war crimes, puts U.S. in bind with visa request

An accused war criminal wants to address the U.N. General Assembly this week, and the Obama administration doesn't know what to do with him.

September 22, 2013

Kerry tells U.N. to focus on ridding Syria of chemical weapons, not on sarin attack

Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Thursday urged the U.N. Security Council to ignore Russia's questions about the source of chemical weapons used in the Syrian civil war and to back quickly the plan to rid Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime of its stockpile.

September 19, 2013