Mohammadi Younus grew up in Ghazni Province, in the east of Afghanistan, and studied medicine in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. He had “a problem with the Taliban… a political problem” during the dark days of their rule, and he landed in jail. He decided to leave the country and crossed into Iran. He bought a fake passport for a little more than two thousand dollars and made it to Turkey. He registere ...

by Ingeborg Beugel on September 11, 2012   Dutch and German politicians like to blame Greece for refusing to stick to the agreements — but, in truth, the Greeks are doing more than they should.   Everyone who talks about Greece these days — even well-intentioned liberals — seems to assume a priori that Greece is somehow “opposing the reforms” and “refusing to stick to the agreements”. With Dutch P ...

By LIZ ALDERMAN ATHENS — Anastasia Kastaniotou, a struggling mother of three, stood near the Greek Parliament building on Wednesday and threw up her hands as she contemplated an €11.5 billion austerity package that her country’s government was trying to tie up this week to keep Greece in the euro.   Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has been scrambling to seal a deal with his coalition government for fres ...

Its neighbors may be suffering, but the euro crisis has created conditions that actually benefit the German economy. Not only is the government enjoying the windfall of negative interest rates on bonds, but unemployment is down and exports are booming. By Stefan Schultz   It's every debtor's dream. When asked for a loan, the bank not only agrees, but actually pays the borrower for their patronage. It s ...

A leaked email sent to the Greek Ministries of Finance and Labor from the Troika says Greek private sector workers should work six days a week and longer hours. The letter, which was published on August 31, shows that the Troika expects the Labor Ministry to implement a number of other new measures. They include reducing the notice period before firing a worker, and cutting certain severance packages by 50 ...

Greece must halt the sweep-operation “Xenios Zeus” and ensure that the right to asylum is guaranteed for persons seeking international protection Brussels, 15 August 2012. On August 2nd the Greek authorities commenced the operation “Xenios Zeus” in the Evros region and Athens. According to Greek officials, the aim of the operation is to seal the Greek border and remove irregular immigrants from the centre o ...

Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo, mayor of Marinaleda plans to march across Andalusia and persuade local leaders to skip debt payments! A Spanish mayor who became a cult hero for staging robberies at supermarkets and giving stolen groceries to the poor sets off this week on a three-week march that could embarrass the government and energise anti-austerity campaigners. Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo, mayor of the ...

Less than three years after the last food crisis peaked, prices—along with hunger and malnutrition—are up again. Don’t (only) blame nature. Just a few years after one major global food crisis, a new worldwide spike in agricultural commodity and food prices is generating both predictable and extraordinary fallout. The search for causes once again leads to a conjuncture of flawed policies–in trade, environmen ...

In the last decade, financiers have speculated billions of pounds in food, helping to make prices dearer and more volatile. Speculation by large investment banks is driving up food prices for the world's poorest people, tipping millions into hunger and poverty. Investment in food commodities by banks and hedge funds has risen from $65bn to $126bn (£41bn to £79bn) in the past five years, helping to push pric ...

It is a nation built on the abolition of slavery, but there are at least 40,000 slaves in the US today. In the opening episode of Slavery: A 21st Century Evil, Al Jazeera's Rageh Omaar investigates food chain slavery, considered the easiest form of slavery to stamp out, in the US. The US has been leading the global fight against modern slavery. But, according to conservative estimates, there are between 40, ...