Nearly 900 civilians were killed across Iraq in September as sectarian violence worsened, raising the death toll for 2013 to more than last year's total, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
The first major survey of American Jews in more than 10 years finds a significant rise in those who are not religious, marry outside the faith and are not raising their children Jewish — resulting in rapid assimilation that is sweeping through every branch of Judaism except the Orthodox. [....]
By Stephanie Clifford, New York Times, Sept. 29/30, 2013
Time's lede: Factories are finding that years of doing business overseas has withered what once was a thriving textile and apparel work force in the United States.
[....] what appeared to be a low point in a long campaign to rein in reporters and chill their sources may turn out to be a very big blessing in disguise.
The Iran Primer @ The U.S. Institute for Peace, Sept. 23-27, 2013
In an all-time first for Iranian diplomacy, new Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif has been chronicling his visit to New York on his Facebook page for Iranians back home. On September 26, Secretary of State John Kerry and Zarif held their first meeting on the sideline of talks between Iran and the world’s six major powers. Zarif later wrote about the encounter and the rest of his day.
The following is a translation by USIP's Maral Noori. [....]
Five members of Security Council said to be close to agreement on dismantling Syria's chemical-weapons stockpile.
Al Jazeera, 26 Sept., 2013
Diplomats at the UN say the five permanent members of the divided Security Council appear to have reached agreement on a resolution to require Syria to dismantle its chemical-weapons stockpiles.
Your window on the general debate of the 68th session of the General Assembly!
This site offers access to the speeches of the Member States delivered from the UN Headquarters in New York. Each speaker has a dedicated page featuring the statement, a video and downloadable sound files (.mp3) in six languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish).
The site is continuously updated and content will be searchable by date or country/entity.
By Alison Shale & Jack Ewing, New York Times, Sept. 23, 2013
BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel took steps on Monday to form a new government, a day after she scored a stunning personal triumph in German national elections that cemented her position as the most powerful politician in Europe.
Ms. Merkel became the only major European leader to be re-elected twice since the financial crisis of 2008, winning a strong popular endorsement for her mix of austerity and solidarity in managing the troubled euro zone.
By Michael Erard, The 6th Floor: Eavesdropping on The Times Magazine @ nytimes.com, Sept. 23, 2013
In my Riff for this past weekend’s magazine, I write about the history of online comments and how they came to often take such an off-putting form. Here are some things we could adopt to help build a better commenting environment: [....]
MEXICO CITY — Mexico, whose economic woes have pushed millions of people north, is increasingly becoming an immigrant destination. The country’s documented foreign-born population nearly doubled between 2000 and 2010, and officials now say the pace is accelerating [....]
