Olivia Sterns is a freelance journalist living in London. She covers a wide variety of topics, ranging from politics and pop culture, to finance and the arts. She has worked as the host of NYCTV's "City Scoop," a reporter for the Forbes Video Network, travel editor of ABC News online and the host/producer of Plum TV's "Collector" and "Morning, Noon & Night" shows. Her articles have been published on Forbes.com, CNN.com ABCNews.com. She is currently getting a master's in global politics at The London School of Economics, where her research interests include Middle Eastern and Central Asian politics, sustainable development, and women's issues.

Blog Entries by Olivia Sterns

Rocky Reasoning in Jerusalem

Posted October 13, 2009 | 12:41 PM (EST)


Last week a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council kindly gave me a ride home from Ramallah to Jerusalem, and stopped at the Mount of Olives so my friend and I could see one of the best views of the Old City.

We told him we had wanted to visit...

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Ashraf Ghani Is Afghanistan's Best Hope

Posted August 20, 2009 | 10:31 AM (EST)


Over the past four months, Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai has run an inspirational, issues-based presidential campaign.

In the mist of an ethnicity-based political system, built on deal-making and tribal loyalty, he has truly "introduced a new kind of politics to Afghanistan."

The result is nothing...

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"Green Shoots" of Democracy in Afghanistan

1 Comments | Posted August 6, 2009 | 12:23 PM (EST)


Summer in Afghanistan is known as "fighting season," but this year it's also voting season. You wouldn't have known it following the news coming out of the country.

With barely two weeks left before the elections, the contest is heating up and the media is finally beginning to notice...

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Paralyzed From the Chest Down, Man Bikes 500 Miles For Stem Cell Research

2 Comments | Posted July 28, 2009 | 04:55 PM (EST)


One week after graduating from high school Luis Gonzalez-Bunster suffered a terrible car accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down.

Now fifteen years later Luis remains in a wheelchair, but is more hopeful than ever for a cure.

Thanks to exciting new clinical trials and the recent...

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Thoughts on Facebook from China

3 Comments | Posted July 22, 2009 | 10:31 AM (EST)


(I tried to post this from China last week, but the Huffington Post was blocked there from every computer I could find.)

Two weeks ago the Chinese government shut down Facebook in response to the uprising in Xinjiang. According to state media, the decision came after a Facebook group appeared...

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Egypt's Green Live in Garbage

1 Comments | Posted July 8, 2009 | 12:40 PM (EST)


Tens of thousands of people living in heaps of steaming trash in Cairo are quietly cleaning the city far better than Egyptian sanitation services could ever dream.

They are known as the "Zabaleen" (Arabic for garbage collectors) and they earn a living sorting and recycling the majority of Cairo's 10,000...

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Revolution? No. Regime Change? Maybe

7 Comments | Posted June 16, 2009 | 01:25 PM (EST)


It's difficult to draw any conclusions from the rapidly unfolding election crisis in Tehran. Not even the regime has any idea what is going to happen, but perhaps that's the most important point.

The announcement of a partial re-count yesterday signals that the regime's power is on shaky ground....

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Pakistan's Problem with Taliban Denial

1 Comments | Posted June 1, 2009 | 09:43 AM (EST)


The Taliban's attack on the Intelligence Services in Lahore last week significantly escalated their fight against the Pakistani government. In upping the ante though they may have accidentally triggered public support for the military.

For months now the Taliban have been gaining ground; from their heartland in the rugged...

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Syria's Softer Side: The Obamas Should Embrace The Assads

5 Comments | Posted May 19, 2009 | 11:00 AM (EST)


As President Obama turns his attention to the Middle East peace process one country is glaringly absent from his schedule: Syria.

For all the face time he is spending this month with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Egyptian President Mubarak and Palestinian Chief Mahmoud Abbas, Pres. Obama would do well...

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"Service Taxi" Across the Syrian Border: Damascus to Beirut

2 Comments | Posted May 4, 2009 | 07:26 AM (EST)


I recently found myself packed like a sardine with 7 strange Syrian men in a maroon-colored Denali hurdling across the border from Syria to Lebanon. Well, almost hurdling.

To be sure, the driver was speeding and swerving every chance he got, burning similarly overstuffed sedan-size "service taxis" in the dust,...

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Bad News for Girls

Posted April 8, 2009 | 08:59 AM (EST)


In the past week a series of disturbing events around the world have spelled bad news for girls.

A video of a teenager being flogged in the Swat, and the clouded case of Pres. Karzai "legalizing rape" offered more evidence that women's rights are retreating in Pakistan and...

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The G-20 & Africa: Rethinking the Aid Model

Posted March 31, 2009 | 05:56 PM (EST)


Long before Detroit's CEOs flew their corporate jets to D.C. to ask for a bailout, Pres. Mobutu regularly chartered Concordes to court Western donors to increase aid for Zaire.

The response in Washington to the automakers was an outcry of hypocrisy and a re-examination of the prospects of...

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