Human Interest

CROSS the boundaries of the former Yugoslavia and you face a few hassles.

"It might be a strip of sand without even a jetty but a small stretch of the Pacific coast now harbors Bolivia's dream of regaining a coast and becoming a maritime nation. The landlocked Andean country has won access to a desolate patch of Peru's shoreline, fueling hopes that Bolivia will once again have a sea to call its own. President Evo Morales signed a deal yesterday with his Peruvian counterpart, Alan García, allowing Bolivia to build and operate a small port about 10 miles from Peru's southern port of Ilo. The accord, sealed with declarations of South American brotherhood, was a diplomatic poke at Chile, the neighbor that seized Bolivia's coast and a swath of Peruvian territory in the 1879-84 war of the Pacific."

Part I: The story of Somalia's decline from stability to chaos and the problems facing its people at home and abroad.

Part II: The ongoing civil war has caused serious damage to Somalia's infrastructure and economy. Thousands of Somalis have either left as economic migrants or fled as refugees. Within Somali, more than a million people are internally displaced.

Tags: devolution, political, states, unit 4 political, migration, refugees, Somalia, Africa.

Only one of the 10 iconic Caltrans caution signs emblazoned with the image of an immigrant father, mother and daughter running for their lives remains. They once dotted Interstate 5.

THE SIX-DAY WAR increased Israel’s territory threefold. The “borders of Auschwitz” were gone; the vulnerable nine-mile narrow waist acquired a thick cuirass with the mountains of the West Bank. Israel soon annexed East Jerusalem with some surrounding land; it did the same with the Golan Heights in 1981.

Tags: Israel, Palestine, borders, political, Middle East.

Differences between countries or the borders separating them are often distinguishable from the International Space Station.

In April 1994, South Africa held its first democratic elections and all races went to the polls to bury apartheid for good. But hopes of a new dawn have been tarnished by fraud and corruption at the highest levels.

You probably already know that Chile is a rather long (or tall) country, but I bet you don't know just quite how long it is. From north to south, Chile extends 4,270 km (2,653 mi), and yet it only averages 177 km (110 mi) east to west.

"The political parties come and go but the values of the regional cultures are always at play."

This week, soldiers from Germany and Belgium are settling into a new posting in Lithuania as part of the latest NATO troop deployment. Will their hosts—and the region—feel more secure as a result of their presence?

GOP Lawmaker Says Macedonia ‘Is Not a Country,’ Macedonia Goes Ballistic « | Foreign Policy | the Global Magazine of News and Ideas

Homi Kharas, John McArthur, and Krista Rasmussen explore the the extent to which, if recent trends persist, people will be left behind on meeting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

Calling out human rights violations shouldn’t stray into bias against Jews.

​The state of emergency in place since last summer’s coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan resumes today for another three months, following a decision by the country’s security council. Emergency rule has now been extended four times. Over its course, more than 50,000 people have been arrested, and twice as many sacked from government jobs, including over 7,000 dismissals over the past week. On the anniversary of the coup Mr Erdogan said emergency rule would lapse only when “we no longer need to fight terrorism”, and vowed to reinstate the death penalty and “rip off” the coup plotters’ heads. Using the crisis as cover, the government has already locked up leading Kurdish politicians; the secular opposition may be next. Mr Erdogan accuses its leader, who recently led the biggest protest in years, of siding with Turkey’s enemies. The failed coup increasingly resembles a successful one—for the other side.

Tags: political, MiddleEast, Turkey.

This is the story of how Sudan became two nations, and of an ongoing conflict in the Nuba Mountains that has changed the lives of millions of people. In parts 2–5 of our VR series, We Who Remain, follow the lives of four people living through the war: http://ajplus.co/nuba360. Produced in partnership with Nuba Reports and Emblematic Group.

Once Latin America’s richest country, Venezuela can no longer feed its people, hobbled by the nationalization of farms as well as price and currency controls. The resulting hunger and malnutrition are an unfolding tragedy.

"After four-plus years of fighting, Syria's war has killed at least hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions. And, though it started as a civil war, it's become much more than that. It's a proxy war that has divided much of the Middle East, and has drawn in both Russia and the United States. To understand how Syria got to this place, it helps to start at the beginning and watch it unfold."

The president is expected to sign his new, more limited rule Monday.

We could take human error out of the redistricting process entirely. Why don't we?

It would be easy enough to do. The only thing lacking is the political will.

This week, soldiers from Germany and Belgium are settling into a new posting in Lithuania as part of the latest NATO troop deployment. Will their hosts—and the region—feel more secure as a result of their presence?