All Blog Posts from World Watch
Twists in China scandal jar party's projected image
Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai attends a plenary session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, March 11, 2012.
(Credit: File,AP Photo/Andy Wong)Allegations that fallen Chinese official Bo Xilai engaged in the wiretapping of Communist Party elites not only add new intrigue to the political scandal set off by the mysterious death of a UK businessman, experts say it also complicates China's efforts to maintain political stability at home and promote its interests abroad.
The drama that began in February took a new turn Thursday, when The New York Times reported that it was the discovery of Bo's efforts to wiretap top Chinese leaders more than anything else that led to his ouster. According to the Times, evidence last August that Chinese President Hu Jintao was being monitored during a phone call led to an investigation that eventually implicated Bo.
Continue »Blind Chinese activist in hiding after escape
In this image made from video, blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng is seen on a video posted to YouTube Friday, April 27, 2012 by overseas Chinese news site Boxun.com.
(Credit: AP Photo/Boxun.com)(CBS News) Blind human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng, who had been under house arrest for 16 months, escaped his home in Shandong province on Sunday with the aid of fellow activists. There were unconfirmed reports that he made his way to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
Singapore newspaper Lianhe Zaobao reported that Chen had entered the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on Thursday evening, citing unnamed sources. Phone calls to embassy officials remain unanswered and the security presence outside the building was the same as usual on Friday morning.
"I am now free. But my worries have not ended yet," Chen said in a video recorded this week that was posted by citizen journalist organization Boxun.com. But he expressed concern that his escape "might ignite a violent revenge against my family."
Continue »Drills throw U.S. into China-Philippine dispute
U.S. and Filipino soldiers are seen on a boat during a joint mock beachfront assault on the shore of Ulugan Bay on Palawan island in the Philippines April 25, 2012.
(Credit: AFP/Getty Images)It could have been just one of the drills regularly held by Philippine and American forces during annual joint military exercises called Balikatan, which literally means "shoulder to shoulder." But this year's exercises took place just as the Philippines and China are locked in a tense standoff over the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, a group of rock formations 124 nautical miles west of Zambales province in the Philippines, believed to be rich in oil and gas resources as well as marine life.
Both countries are claiming ownership of the area, the Philippines on account of its proximity in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and China on historical grounds as evidenced by ancient maps.
Bin Laden's family leaving Pakistan
(CBS News) ISLAMABAD - Osama bin Laden's three wives and 11 children were cleared to leave Pakistan Thursday night, having spent the past year in the south Asian country after U.S. Navy SEALs tracked and killed the world's most hunted terrorist in the northern city of Abbottabad, the family's lawyer told CBS News.
Continue »Modern leaders accused of war crimes
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor looks down as he waits for the start of a hearing to deliver verdict in the court room of the Special Court for Sierra Leone in Leidschendam, near The Hague, Netherlands, April 26, 2012.
(Credit: Pool,AP Photo/Peter Dejong)Former Liberian President Charles Taylor was convicted Thursday of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity for supporting brutal rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone in return for "blood diamonds." Taylor is the first head of state convicted by an international court since the post-World War II Nuremberg military tribunal.
Charles Taylor conviction a warning to strongmen?Taylor is part of a long parade of modern leaders accused of war crimes. The following pages take a look at what happened to some others.
Continue »Pakistani PM conviction may worsen ties to U.S.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, center, waves upon his arrival at the Supreme Court for a hearing in Islamabad, Pakistan, April 26, 2012.
(Credit: AP Photo)Gilani was given a symbolic jail term lasting for less than a minute, but the verdict made it possible for him to lose his job as prime minister, according to analysts and legal experts.
"For reasons to be recorded later, the prime minister is found guilty of contempt for willfully flouting the direction of the Supreme Court," said Supreme Court Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk in announcing the verdict. The judge ordered Gilani to serve time "till rising of the court" - a term which means for the duration of the brief court hearing.
Embattled Pakistani PM convicted of contempt
Pakistan top court charges PM with contempt
Pakistan PM's appeal in contempt case rejected
Some Japanese towns face decade of radioactivity
A volunteer monitors the radiation levels in the exclusion zone near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on March 12, 2012.
(Credit: CBS)(CBS News) As Japan continues to clean up after the deadly earthquake and tsunami that killed nearly 16,000 people on March 11, 2011, one thing is clear: something went really wrong at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and the people who lived nearby will suffer for decades as a result.
The airborne radiation levels in parts of Fukushima prefecture are expected to remain at or close to dangerous amounts at least until 2022, according to a new government report written about in the Japan Times. Government officials project annual radiation dosages to exceed 50 millisieverts in the towns nearest the plant, a level which the government has said makes areas off-limits to the thousands of affected evacuees.
Continue »U.N. diplomats play soccer for Sierra Leone victims
(Watch at left)
After the United Nations voted Saturday morning to expand the observer mission to Syria to monitor a shaky cease-fire, the secretary-general and ambassadors swapped business suits for soccer shorts in the afternoon to benefit the victims of violence in Sierra Leone.
Did they achieve more than they do at the U.N.? Not clear but they put aside politics for a good cause on a sunny day on Randall's Island.
Special Section: The Arab Spring
U.N. mission to Syria goes to regime-held town
Security Council OKs 300 observers to Syria
U.N. chief wants more observers in Syria
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaks during a press conference April 17, 2012, in Luxembourg.
(Credit: AFP/Getty Images)In a letter to the Security Council, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon proposes a supervision mission of up to 300 observers in Syria.
Special Section: The Arab Spring
Syrian activists: Deadly soldier-defector clashes
U.S. Syria policy a tacit nod to Assad's firm grip
Losing the media war in Afghanistan
A soldier from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division poses with a dead insurgent's hand on his shoulder. The image was first published in the LA Times, which received it from an unnamed soldier in the division.
(CBS News) It is said the U.S. military won every battle in Vietnam, but we lost the war. One of the most vivid images of that time is of a U.S. helicopter on the roof of the American embassy as people are climbing on, hoping to be on the last flight out of Saigon.
With its overwhelming firepower both on the ground and in the air, the U.S. has probably won every battle it has fought in Afghanistan. But now there is a 24/7 news cycle. The war, more than in Vietnam, is being fought on the airwaves and in the press. Afghanistan is a largely illiterate country, but for thousands of years people have sat around campfires at night and talked. Stories have passed down for centuries.
Today, every village, no matter how isolated, has a battery-powered radio and every day and every night someone listens to the BBC or VOA and learns the news. The Afghans are illiterate, but they are not naive. After 30 years of war they understand international politics. They understand war. They form their opinions by what they see, or hear about, happening in their country.
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