Cornell plans to add between one and three international universities as partners to its recently approved New York City tech campus over the next five years, Provost Kent Fuchs said in an interview Friday.

The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies celebrated its 50th anniversary by announcing that it will offer a new postdoctoral fellowship in global affairs and reaffirming Cornell’s commitment to internationalism.

Mixologist Milos Baalc shuts his eyes to Vodka Eyeballing.

Mixology Master Milos spotlights delicious drinks from around the world.

Last May, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Rabigh City, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia awarded Cornell a grant to fund the KAUST-Cornell Center for Energy and Sustainability. Through the grant, Cornell receives $5 million dollars every year for five years from KAUST for sustainability research.

According to Prof. Lynden Archer, chemical and biomolecular engineering and a co-Principal Investigator of the of the center, KAUST is a university that the Saudi Arabian King Abdullah commissioned and is now in its early stages of construction. The university felt that it was important to develop research partnerships with leading schools around the world, using the Singapore-MIT alliance as a model.

My recent trip to Iran as part of an academic delegation has confirmed my belief that while tensions abound in our world, “people-to-people” exchange is ever more important.

Our world is polarized along lines drawn by our race, ethnicity, religious convictions, politics, gender, sexual orientation and many other attributes. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the current tensions defined by the intersection of the Judeo-Christian and Islamic worlds. The events of last week in India are just the most recent manifestations of these tensions. How to respond to this polarization?

Overview

Five of the nine Chinese oil workers who were kidnapped on Oct. 18 in the Kordofan region of Sudan, which is adjacent to Darfur, were killed on Monday. There are conflicting reports on how the Chinese were killed, with China asserting that they died in a failed rescue attempt and the Sudanese government stating that they were executed by their captors. Of the remaining four hostages, two were injured and escaped and two remain with the unidentified kidnappers. Accor-ding to the Associated Press, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, who reported the executions, has blamed Darfur rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement. The organization has denied any involvement, and tribal chiefs in the area are currently negotiating with the kidnappers.

Sound Off

One of the things that have made this election especially interesting has been the extent to which it has been followed around the world. Even excluding Obama's and McCain’s international tours, worldwide expectations and interest are at an unusual high. This phenomenon can be traced to a variety of factors, but the events of the last eight years under President Bush probably lie at the core of foreign interest. International figures have made their endorsements, from the Mayor of London to Iranian officials, with even Al-Qaeda weighing in.

Over the last three months, Wall Street has taken America on a wild ride, dragging the world along with it. Setting records for the lowest drops and highest rises, the unstable market has left the economy in disarray and many are wondering what will come next. From an imploded housing market, to the collapse of multi-national corporations like Merrill Lynch, the effects are being felt across the globe.

Origin

While Wall Street has been left reeling in the wake of plunging stock indexes, what caused the recession? Many have traced the collapse of banks and the subsequent economic decline to the stagnant credit markets generated by subprime loans.

What does the U.S.-India Nuclear Deal mean?

This past week, amongst the chaos of the bailout and financial crisis, the Senate approved the pending nuclear deal between the United States and India. In the final several years of the Bush Administration, cooperation with India has been one of the administration’s key goals. This nuclear deal, which entails the transfer of technology for the development of India’s nuclear industry, signals a marked shift for U.S. policy both in terms of proliferation and regional partners.