Last month was the 333rd consecutive month that global temperatures were above the 20th century average, and 2012 will almost certainly be the hottest ever recorded in the US. Hurricanes, heatwaves, wildfires and droughts blistered farmlands and ruined crops from Kansas to Assam, and Britain has had its wettest summer and driest spring to date.

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid released a statement Tuesday night in which he boasted about his efforts to help Israel explain Operation Pillar of Defense to the international community and accused Avigdor Liberman’s Foreign Ministry of failing to cooperate with him. “I am trying to help in the public diplomacy effort with the foreign press,” Lapid wrote. “But despite my request, the Foreign Ministry did not agree to give me its message sheet so I could coordinate my positions with the official spokesmen.”

It is wrong to suggest Australia has to choose between the US alliance and collaborating with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. We can do both, but the trick lies in how we manage that. Greater engagement with Southeast Asia would augment our relationship with the US and China.

About 500 foreign journalists arrived in Israel over the weekend to cover Operation Pillar of Defense, the Government Press Office reported on Monday. The GPO said the new arrivals are joining some 1,400 members of the media in the region to cover Israel and the Middle East.

Southeast Asian leaders endorsed a controversial human rights pact on Sunday during an annual summit in which they also focused on bruising territorial rows and deadly unrest in Myanmar. The leaders also plan to launch talks on a planned free trade zone that covers ASEAN and six other countries including China, Japan, and Australia.

President kibaki, PM raila and mediator kofi Annan: No one disputes the fact that the power sharing arrangement did not turn out as expected as Kibaki and his side of the coalition grabbed more power than envisioned in the coalition and basically reduced Raila to a minority partner.

Students improved their knowledge of the UN values, as well as their negotiation and communication skills at the Model UN Conference simulating a debate at the UN Security Council on issue of Palestine membership to the UN. The conference was held today at the Yerevan State University (YSU).

It was inevitable as governments and the militants fighting governments became more adept at social media that they’d end up using Twitter and YouTube against each other. The problem is that in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, the very real war can come across as farcical on Twitter, as the two sides go at each other.