Globe Trot 05.04

Name: WORLD
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"But you don't look Jewish." That's the common refrain to Ethiopian and other African Jews. Here's a fascinating look at the struggles of non-white Jews occasioned by the new documentary 400 Miles to Freedom. The film's website has an extended trailer and upcoming screenings.

Muslim Brotherhood outreach to the United States: The story continues.

Can bad guys change course? That's the question in Burma (also known as Myanmar), and there are some encouraging signs that the military junta, which has been one of the most brutal regimes in the world, is melting, or stepping back, or something: President Thein Sein, who took power 14 months ago, now says he will probably step aside when his term ends following elections in 2015. On Thursday, longtime political dissident Aung San Suu Kyi and 42 newly elected colleagues from the National League for Democracy (NLD) officially took their seats in parliament for the first time.

Afghanistan policy "at war with itself"-that's Max Boot on President Obama's speech at Bagram Air Field earlier this week: "I fear that President Obama may have put his objective of troop withdrawal ahead of his competing objective of stabilizing Afghanistan and 'delivering justice to al-Qaeda.'"

UN envoy Kofi Annan's six-point peace plan in Syria is "on track," reports the Associated Press, but don't believe it. Heavy weaponry remains in place, and of 300 UN ceasefire observers needed, only 150 have been recruited, and only 24 are in place.

Weekend reads:

Read for yourself the 17 declassified documents taken during the raid in Abbotabad that killed Osama bin Laden . A few decades ago the United States led the world in rare earths production, but today China produces more than 90 percent of the world's supply. Here's how Beijing cornered the rare earth's market. Profiles in preparedness: WORLD's Jill Nelson finds most people living in Israel "not prepared" for a possible confrontation with Iran.

Listen to Mindy Belz discuss international issues on WORLD's radio news magazine The World and Everything in It.

Mindy Belz

Mindy, a former senior editor for WORLD Magazine, wrote the publication’s first cover story in 1986. She has covered wars in Syria, Afghanistan, Africa, and the Balkans and is author of They Say We Are Infidels: On the Run From ISIS With Persecuted Christians in the Middle East. Mindy resides in Asheville, N.C.

@MindyBelz