December 10
Taliban to attend Paris meeting on Afghanistan
Patrick Quinn and Amir Shah / Associated Press
The Taliban will attend a meeting in France to talk about Afghanistan’s future but will not discuss peace and reconciliation, the militant group’s spokesman said Monday.
Egypt army gets temporary power to arrest civilians
Marwa Awad / Reuters
In the interest of maintaining security and order during a constitutional referendum planned for Saturday, the Egyptian government has granted the military the authority to arrest civilians and transfer detainees to prosecutors. The order “will revive memories of Hosni Mubarak’s emergency law…under which military or state security courts tried thousands of political dissident sand Islamist militants.”
Iran launches web video channel, Mehr
BBC News Technology
Iran has launched a domestic video-sharing website, Mehr, where citizens can share short videos. The new service is run by state broadcaster IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) and joins a similar local service, Aparat. However, YouTube still remains popular despite being blocked since 2009.
North Korea: On the net in world’s most secretive nation
Dave Lee / BBC News
What is it like to surf the internet in the most secretive country on Earth? The short answer is – strange, at least by the rest of the world’s standards. But as North Koreans begin to put their lives at risk just to connect to the outside world, it could mark a dramatic moment in the country’s history.
US diplomat hopes song can win over Pakistan
Damon Wake / AFP
A US official is taking a novel approach to diplomacy in Pakistan — singing in a local language to build bridges in one of the world’s most dangerous countries, where anti-Americanism runs rampant.
Doha summit launches climate damage aid
New Scientist
The latest summit to stop climate change, held in Doha Qatar, over the past two weeks has been roundly slammed. There was one breakthrough: developing countries won a promise from developed ones that they would compensate them for losses and damage caused by climate change.
1990 climate change predictions turn out to be accurate
Emma Woollacott / TG Daily
In a blow to those people who believe that global warming predictions are just a lot of hot air, an international team has established that predictions made 20 years ago are turning out pretty accurate.
U.S. Intelligence Agencies See a Different World in 2030
Nicole Gaouette / Bloomberg
New technologies, dwindling resources and explosive population growth in the next 18 years will alter the global balance of power and trigger radical economic and political changes at a speed unprecedented in modern history, says a new report by the U.S. intelligence community.
On Our Flashpoint Blog
Event recap: The FIIS Working Group Winter Symposium
Ashley Boyle
On December 4th, the Financial Intelligence and Information Sharing (FIIS) Working Group hosted its winter symposium at the American Bar Association in Washington, DC. Six speakers presented on a broad range of counter-threat finance and anti-money laundering (CTF/AML) topics to a packed room of experts and practitioners.
A Breakdown of EIA’s new Annual Energy Outlook Report
Yong Wang
In November, the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook report announced positive prospects for U.S. energy, specifically the U.S. overtaking Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer before 2017. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Agency (EIA) added to the good news this week with their Annual Energy Outlook 2013 Early Release Overview.
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