Archive for May, 2009

First ever report exclusively focused on the global human impact of climate change calculates more than 300 million people are seriously affected by climate change at a total economic cost of $125 billion per year… »

Just four years ago, the defense establishment decided to carry out a seemingly elementary task: establish a comprehensive database on the settlements. Brigadier General (res.) Baruch Spiegel, aide to then defense minister Shaul Mofaz, was put in charge of the project. For over two years, Spiegel and his staff, who all signed a special… »

the North Korea nuclear issue is quite unique if compared with the Iranian nuclear problem because Pyongyang has dual aims and objectives. In addition to the security and political objective, enlisting continuous economic assistance from the outside world became equally important and indispensable. In other words, the North’s nuclear program is intended not only to… »

The three major findings are:

1. Cybersecurity is now one of the major national security problems facing the United States;
2. Decisions and actions must respect American values related to privacy and civil liberties; and
3. Only a comprehensive national security strategy that embraces both the domestic and international… »

There could be 200 million of these climate refugees by 2050, according to a new policy paper by the International Organization for Migration, depending on the degree of climate disturbances. Aside from the South Pacific, low-lying areas likely to be battered first include Bangladesh and nations in the Indian Ocean, where the leader of the… »

The Economic Report on Africa 2009 (ERA 2009) is organized into two parts. Part I examines global economic developments and their implication for Africa (chapter 1), analyses recent economic and social trends (chapter 2) and highlights emerging development challenges to the continent in 2008 (chapter 3). The thematic part of this edition of ERA, Part… »

Turkmenistan blames Russia for blowing up the pipeline, which carries more than half of its most valuable export, by cutting the gas flows without enough warning. Russia’s gas export monopoly Gazprom denies any wrongdoing and it has said it hopes to resolve the issue through talks. The company has avoided making detailed public statements on… »

El cambio sistémico en Asia Central no se ha traducido en una restructuración general de sus economías. En ausencia de reforma institucional, los mercados paralelos, la corrupción y las mafias amenazan la estabilidad… »

The relationship between the charismatic US president and Germany’s no-nonsense chancellor has been marked by tension since Barack Obama’s visit to Berlin as a presidential candidate last year. Differences over Obama’s itinerary in Germany suggest his ties with Angela Merkel remain… »

Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah on Friday said the Shi’ite militia receives weapons from Iran ‘unconditionally’ and blasted Arab governments for their unwillingness to supply Lebanon with… »

Mariam Abou Zahab, chercheuse associée au CERI-Sciences Po, fait le point sur la lutte contre les talibans en Afghanistan et au… »

Rakhat Aliev is the former son-in-law of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev and former senior official in the Kazakh government. However, for the last three years, he has been in open conflict with Nazarbaev, and he recently published a scandalous tell-all book about the long-time Kazakh leader entitled “Godfather-In-Law.”… »

Turkey is likely to give up problematic claims to the Nabucco gas pipeline project, the only way forward for the European Union-backed plan trying to push ahead of Russia’s rival ‘South Stream’ project. Turkey is seeking to use 15% of all natural gas flowing through the nearly $11 billion Nabucco pipeline in exchange for letting… »

Between 2003 and 2007 France issued licences worth more than 446 million euros (623 million dollars) for arms exports to Israel. This made France by far the largest supplier of weapons to Israel in the EU.
Patrice Bouveret from the French Centre for Research on Peace and Conflicts (CRDPC) in Lyon says that these sales are… »

To prevent a regime imbued with an absolute ideology from gaining possession of the “absolute weapon” is Israel’s paramount priority. Everything must be done, even a unilateral military strike, to prevent or at least delay Iran’s acquisition of such a weapon. This Israeli conviction on what it considers an existential issue stands in stark contrast… »

Le secrétaire général d’Interpol, Ronald K. Noble, a estimé vendredi 29 mai à Rome que la piraterie maritime était un problème de criminalité organisée contre laquelle il fallait lutter par un “renforcement des lois”, et pas seulement par des moyens… »

A local official and an influential prayer leader in Iran’s capital, Tehran, have each accused the United States of involvement in a deadly mosque bombing in southeast… »

Experts from Washington have called on the EU to be more daring and propose closer ties with its large Eastern neighbour. But European Commission officials told EurActiv that the current mood in Europe was not exactly in tune with such an… »

A broad coalition of civil society groups, as well as some U.S. lawmakers, is fighting what they call a “blank cheque” from the U.S. to expand funding for the International Monetary Fund… »

On the day before the first anniversary of the May 2008 Sichuan earthquake, China’s Information Office of the State Council released a white paper entitled, “China’s Actions for Disaster Prevention and Reduction”. According to the white paper, frequent natural disasters in China and around the world have caused enormous losses of life and… »

If Israel attacks Iran this will mean that Iran will strike right and left: the US ships in the Gulf, the Gulf oil installations, and the US military bases. Naturally Iran will launch a tirade of its missiles against Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, as Saddam Hussein did in the war to liberate Kuwait.

The… »

Israeli military historian Martin Van Creveld in “The Transformation of War” popularized the view that large-scale conventional military operations have become outmoded and… »

A PKK landmine kills six soldiers, sending the Turkish military on a brief offensive and many leading politicians ducking for cover under the same comment: The PKK needs to lay down its arms before a consensus can be… »

Un total de 132 trabajadores de las Naciones Unidas fallecieron el año pasado en operaciones de mantenimiento de la paz, la cifra más elevada de toda la historia de la organización, que ha visto morir a 2.588 personas en las 63 misiones abiertas desde 1948. Así lo ha recordado el secretario general de la ONU,… »

Iran signed a memorandum of understanding in Baghdad with Iraq and Turkey to link power and energy networks with… »

Muslim scholars in Britain have urged the country’s imams to stress the importance of local and European elections during their sermons, warning that a low turnout could lead to “openly anti-Muslim parties” gaining national and international… »

Construction has been started on a 1,740 kilometer pipeline from Iran through Turkey and on to consumers in Europe to carry Iranian… »

La Conferencia de Desarme de la ONU, el foro multilateral de negociación para la seguridad internacional, ha acordado en Ginebra un plan de trabajo para lograr un tratado de desarme nuclear, después de 13 años de parálisis debido a las diferencias entre las grandes potencias y los países en… »

By the end of June, Iraq’s forces will again be in control of their cities — and many Iraqis wonder if they are up to the task. Publicly, the U.S. military insists it has full confidence in Iraq’s army and police to cope with security challenges after the June 30 deadline for American combat troops… »

The United Nations says a team of independent experts mandated to probe alleged war crimes in Israel and Gaza will leave for the Middle East over the weekend.
UN spokesman says the mission led by veteran prosecutor Richard Goldstone is expected to start its work next… »

At a time when President Barack Obama is on a mission to improve America’s battered image in the Muslim world – his major address in Cairo comes three days before the Lebanon poll – it would be a mistake to punish voters for making what the US considered to be the wrong choice.

Some European governments… »

Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat said on Friday the chance of reaching a peace deal on the divided island by the end of 2009 or early 2010, is “quite… »

Barack Obama has repeated his call for Israel to stop settlement construction after holding talks with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president. Declaring that Washington was a “stalwart ally” of Israel, the US president nonetheless said that “stopping settlements” was part of Israel’s responsibility under the 2003 “road map” peace… »

Les députés italiens battent tous les records dans la capitale alsacienne : ils sont les mieux payés, les moins assidus et les plus… »

Vingt ans après la répression du mouvement étudiant de 1989, le pouvoir s’oppose avec fermeté aux appels lancés par des citoyens qui réclament «toute la lumière» sur les… »

Poised after last year’s election to push back against the National Rifle Association’s heavy firepower, the Democrats have in rapid order conceded ground on the gun issue. They’ve allowed concealed-carry weapons in national parks, considered easing gun restrictions in the District of Columbia, and turned back a campaign pledge on gun-record transparency. The moves, which… »

Russia is using its planned South Stream project to solidify its position in Central Asia in order to block the development of Nabucco. The analyst, however, said the current economic climate made the $10.7 billion Nabucco project the more attractive… »

The nomination Thursday of a virtually unknown lawyer as the next U.S. ambassador to Japan was greeted with more concern than optimism by experts and the… »

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council (P5) plus Japan and South Korea have started talks on the text of a draft resolution in response to the recent nuclear test by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), diplomats said… »

Belarus’s president told his Cabinet ministers on Friday to stop bowing down to Russia and seek partners in other countries after a dispute over a $500 million… »

Amnesty International alleges in its new human rights report that Italy has embraced racism by not respecting the basic human rights of Roma… »

Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi called on Friday for the creation of a Somali exclusion zone as part of efforts to fight piracy in lawless waters off the Horn of Africa country.

Speaking at an African regional summit, Kadhafi said he will “submit to the world a plan consisting of respecting the economic waters of Somalia in… »

Climate negotiations are to begin in Bonn with pressure building for the US to deliver deeper emissions… »

Based on projections from the EIA, members of the OPEC could earn $462 billion of net oil export revenues in 2009 and $526 billion in 2010. Last year, OPEC earned $968 billion in net oil export revenues, a 42 percent increase from 2007. Saudi Arabia earned the largest share of these earnings, $285 billion, representing… »

The Polish government is pushing hard to reach agreement with the United States over stationing a battery of Patriot missiles near Warsaw by the end of this year, despite President Barack Obama’s decision to examine the costs and reliability of deploying a separate, and controversial, missile defense system in Eastern… »

US President Barack Obama has announced plans for securing American computer networks against cyber… »

More than 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final throes of the Sri Lankan civil war, most as a result of government shelling, an investigation by The Times has revealed. The number of casualties is three times the official… »

The first comprehensive report into the human cost of climate change warns the world is in the throes of a “silent crisis” that is killing 300,000 people each year. More than 300 million people are already seriously affected by the gradual warming of the earth and that number is set to double by 2030, the… »

President Barack Obama remains by far the most popular world leader among people in major Western nations and is the one political figure on whom people consistently pin their hopes in the economic crisis, according to new polls conducted for the International Herald… »

India’s economy grew 5.8% in the first three months of the year compared with the same period last year, which was better than had been… »