Website of the Week

The Economist - Topics Index 

http://www.economist.com/topics 

The Topics Index of The Economist magazine provides links to selected current and past full-text articles, as well as analysis and commentary on an array of subjects.

Registration (free) is required and provides access to up to six articles each week. Great for students doing research on any subject, and interesting for anyone looking for feature stories/analysis/commentary that don't make the daily news.

Below are some selected articles:

Syrian Civil War -
"Who are the Syrian opposition?"
Jul 19, 2013

 Excerpt/Summary: [Provides detailed info on specific groups]

• Rebel groups now number in the hundreds and possibly thousands, and occupy a spectrum from moderates fighting to topple the regime to extremists motivated by sectarian aims. 
• Sometimes rebel groups work together; at other times they clash. 
• The sectarian nature of the conflict is deepening as ever more foreign fighters flock to Syria to support the regime (whose core is Alawite, the esoteric Shia sect to which the Assad family belongs) or the opposition (which, like Syria's population, is majority Sunni). 

Eyesight and Eye Health

The Q&A: Dr Geoff Tabin and Dr Sanduk Ruit: Visionary
Aug 19th 2013

Excerpt/Summary: [Two doctors discuss their project to rid the world of preventable blindness]

• The world has around 40m blind people
• 90% of blind people live in the developing world.
• 85% of the blindness in the world could be corrected or could have been prevented.
• Half of all blindness is from treatable cataracts.

Review by Rachael Smithey, SWC Librarian