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Arbroath: Scotland’s original declaration of independence

The Scottish diaspora celebrates National Tartan Day today, a celebration that includes Australia, Canada and the United States, of the Scots who have spread around the world.  In this video professor and author Ted Cowan talks about the historical links of the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath and the American Declaration of Independence, and the possibility that Arbroath influenced American independence. The Declaration of Arbroath is a letter to Pope John XXII stating Scotland’s status as an independent, sovereign state. It’s weighted this year, as Scotland debates separation from England in a referendum to be held in September.

“Sunflower” occupation stymies China/Taiwan rapprochement

International affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe writes in today’s column: It was only a matter of time before the efforts by Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou to improve relations with Beijing came up against the brutal truth that the vast majority of the island’s 23 million people do not want to be part of China. Many Taiwanese have watched with increasing unease as Ma, elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2012, has chipped away at the walls of animosity carrying over from China’s civil war in 1949 when the Kuomintang (KMT) government fled to the island after defeat by Mao Zedong’s Communists.

Afghan policeman kills photo-journalist, injures reporter

A police commander today shot two journalists covering Afghanistan’s election for the Associated Press, killing German photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus and injuring Canadian reporter Kathy Gannon.  Said an Associated Press statement by Gary Pruitt: It is with grief and great sadness that I let you know that photographer Anja Niedringhaus has been killed while working in Afghanistan. Anja and Kathy Gannon, regional correspondent for Pakistan and Afghanistan, were in Khost covering the run-up to the presidential elections in Afghanistan when, it appears, they were targeted and attacked. Kathy survived, but Anja died. Kathy is being treated at a hospital. Niedringhaus becomes

China: anti-corruption drive — or bid for unrivalled authority?

International affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe writes in today’s column: In authoritarian states there is always a fine line between campaigns against social cancers such as corruption, disposing of political rivals in the process, and riding the upheaval to unchallenged personal power. In China the anti-corruption drive of President and Communist Party leader Xi Jinping is now well on the way to becoming a drive for unrivalled authority. Xi’s ousting of his rivals and gathering of power in his own hands has reached the point where even retired party leaders are voicing concern that he has gone too far. On Monday

Rwanda revisited 20 years later.

I could say it seems like just last year, but it’s been twenty years this month that the first journalists headed into Rwanda, on news that a mass slaughter of one ethnic group by another was taking place. A civil war turned genocidal and an estimated 800,000 would die in just 100 days in the small central Africa country. The mass killing ended when Paul Kagame’s forces swept in from neighbouring Uganda and took control of the country, but the ongoing conflict carried on across the border in eastern Congo, and continues to this day with various factions and proxy

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