The Vatican’s diplomatic corps is among the oldest in existence, with some of its bilateral relationships, such as with Spain, dating to the 15th century. More than once, people have questioned the need for the Vatican to have such a sovereign standing. Yet arguments in favor of the Vatican’s unique status are also abundant, including its track record for making a difference […]

All Coca-Cola wanted to do was to wish consumers a happy new year, but instead it ended up stirring anger in [...] Russia and Ukraine, over [...] Crimea […] In a new year’s message on VK, the most popular Russian social media network, Coca-Cola published a map of Russia that did not include Crimea. Faced with barrage of criticism [...], it published the map again on Tuesday [...] including Crimea, and apologized.

From the mundane to the bizarre, everything seemed to include a hashtag in global development this year.

Ai Wei Wei, the renowned Chinese artist who is currently visiting refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos […] has been sharing pictures and videos on his personal Instagram account, drawing attention to the plight of the thousands of refugees risking stormy waters to escape war and hardship.

More than 124,000 Chinese undergraduates are studying in the United States, according to the Institute of International Education. Many are affluent […] but a growing number are […] children from lower middle-class families who are looking for an alternative to an overcrowded and unforgiving Chinese educational system.

The international security agenda and the theoretical ways to study it have expanded tremendously since the end of the Cold War. Once the strict control of the global east-west military ideological rivalry lifted, various new threats and ways to analyze them emerged. These were the issues discussed in a three-day workshop organized recently by the International Relations Council of Turkey.

The recent bill passed by Congress aims to clamp down on the visa waiver program with provisions that essentially discriminate against Iranians. The ACLU calls H.R.158, passed last Tuesday by overwhelming support (419 yes), as a measure calling for "blanket arbitrary discrimination based on nationality and national origin."

Thanks to a group of inventors in South Africa, where as much as 11 percent of the population lives in shacks and fast-moving fires spread easily [...] Over the past three years, the team has developed a modified, networked fire alarm system known as Lumkani. The system is designed to alert neighbors, emergency responders, and entire informal communities to fires faster and more efficiently [...]