Information Related to "World News and Trends - September/October 2006"
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The world: on a winding road to nowhere
The state of the world is visibly deteriorating in front of our eyes. The signs are difficult to ignore. You can watch them on your TV screens and read about them in the headlines. Most people know something awful is happening to their world, but can't put their finger on what it all means.
One of the latest big crises to hit the media is a sinister terrorist plot to blow up passenger jets bound from Britain to the United States, apparently designed to explode in midair or over several major American cities, potentially taking far more lives than 9/11 did.
British authorities, in cooperation with their American counterparts, were able to discover and counter the threat. More than 20 people are in custody. The financial costs to the airlines will undoubtedly prove monumental. A whole range of highly inconvenient, but very necessary, new security measures look inevitable.
Baghdad has been suffering about 1,000 tragic deaths a month on average. Then in July, according to CNN, that figure jumped to 1,700. Next door, some observers believe Iran is only six to 12 months from having the capacity to construct nuclear bombs. North Korea has been firing test missiles, and previous reassurances about the demise of the Taliban in Afghanistan now ring somewhat hollow. As always, several points in Africa are in violent turmoil or civil war.
In many ways it's a world going mad. Nuclear weapons appear on the verge of proliferating on a major scale. According to an Aug. 1 article in the International Herald Tribune, "Over the past few years, Pakistan has been hard at work building a powerful new plutonium reactor that when completed will be able to produce enough fuel to make 40 to 50 nuclear weapons a year." Archrival India is also planning to expand its production to similar levels.
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