With the launch of her book, Hard Choices, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has commenced her campaign for the U.S. presidency in 2016. She previously sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, but was narrowly defeated by Barack Obama. The four years she subsequently spent as Obama’s Secretary of State have given her…
The national elections in the world’s largest democracy, India, have concluded with the defeat of the Congress Party and a decisive victory for the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP is led by Narendra Modi, the charismatic former chief minister of the state of Gujarat in India’s north-west, which has enjoyed rapid economic…
While Australians were preoccupied with the Budget, the Greens’ Sarah Hanson-Young has introduced legislation in the Senate to recognise same-sex “marriages” contracted overseas. The significance of the South Australian senator’s bill is that it seeks to reverse a 2004 amendment to the Commonwealth Marriage Act 1961, which defined marriage as the union of a man…
The recently-completed election for president of Ukraine, in which a pro-independence candidate, Petro Poroshenko, won a decisive majority in the first round, may pave the way for an end to the separatist strife which has threatened to tear the country apart. Although not well known outside Ukraine, Mr Poroshenko has been a prominent businessman and…
