Archive for November, 2009

L’Union européenne a annoncé lundi que les ressortissants de Macédoine, du Monténégro et de Serbie n’auraient plus besoin de visa pour se rendre dans l’UE à compter du 19… »

A television channel dedicated to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has appeared on Arab satellite… »

Settlers and members of Israel’s ruling rightwing party were seething on Sunday over a government decision to impose a temporary ease on West Bank settlement building after months of US pressure. The settler lobby, a potent political force in Israel, is vigorously opposed to any curbs on Jewish settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land and… »

Russia published on 29 November its proposal for a new Euro-Atlantic security treaty that would restrict its ability to use military force unilaterally if the United States and its European allies agreed to do the same. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said the European Security Treaty is needed to replace Cold War-era institutions like NATO… »

By giving Israel veto rights and threatening more sanctions, the U.S. is squandering the best chance we have for a negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear… »

In a rare interview, Ismail Haniya, the deposed Palestinian prime minister and the senior Hamas official in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that he is still hopeful of exchanging Gilad Shalit, a captured Israeli soldier, for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Haniya outlined what he would personally be willing to do for reconciliation with the… »

EU and Chinese leaders have many subjects other than energy to consider at their summit today (30 November). Both sides, though, may eventually find themselves competing for Russian oil. Just last month, a visit to Beijing by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin resulted in energy-related deals worth $3.5 billion (€2.3bn) and an impressively thorough framework… »

Rwanda and France have restored diplomatic relations three years after they were broken in a row over responsibility for the 1994… »

Reaction to the Swiss anti-minaret referendum vote in the wider Islamic community has reflected shock, sadness and concern, but also a determination to try to build… »

Porfirio Lobo, opositor de Manuel Zelaya y candidato del conservador Partido Nacional, se ha convertido en el nuevo presidente de Honduras en las elecciones celebradas este domingo, al obtener el 55,90% de los votos, con el 61,89% de las mesas escrutadas, según el primer informe oficial del Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE).
El TSE indicó que… »

EU officials urged China to do more in tackling climate change at a summit between the two sides on Monday (30 November), while requests for a Chinese currency appreciation appear to have been… »

Somali pirates seized a tanker carrying more than $20 million of crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the United States in the increasingly dangerous waters off East Africa, an official said Monday, an attack that could pose a huge environmental or security… »

During President Obama’s recent visit to China, many in India speculated that an emerging “G2” would leave their nation out in the cold. For all the talk of a new era of Indo-American collaboration, Americans tend to view India through the narrow prisms of two shared concerns — a battle against Islamic extremists, and the… »

Signs of Hamas’s creeping Islamization are everywhere in Gaza, the Mediterranean coastal enclave that Hamas has run by itself since 2007. Hamas-Fatah infighting has diverted Palestinians from their quest for statehood and from presenting a united front at proposed U.S.-brokered peace talks with Israel. With no Palestinian elections on the horizon — a vote scheduled… »

Japan’s latest intelligence-gathering satellite was successfully put into orbit Saturday, replacing an earlier model, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency said. Japan has long relied on the United States for intelligence. But it launched its first pair of spy satellites in 2003, prompted by concerns over North Korea’s missile… »

President Obama has offered Pakistan an expanded strategic partnership, including additional military and economic cooperation, while warning with unusual bluntness that its use of insurgent groups to pursue policy goals “cannot continue.”… »

Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo won yesterday’s presidential elections, extending his three-decade rule of the sub-Saharan Africa’s fourth-biggest oil-producing… »

Sarath Fonseka, Sri Lanka’s former army chief, has formally announced his intention to stand in next year’s presidential election. General Fonseka’s announcment on Sunday sets the stage for a political race against Mahinda Rajapaksa, the incumbent president, who is aiming to take advantage of the government’s recent victory in a 25-year civil… »

Through the Bush years especially, Dubai represented prime evidence of America’s supposedly looming decline. It was building the world’s tallest tower! It was buying American port facilities! It was emerging as the world’s leading banking centre!
Much of this talk was obviously foolish. Dubai acted more as a hedge fund than as a country. It… »

Size matters, of course. For the smaller countries, the financial losses arising from this crisis are a great deal larger in relation to their gross domestic product than they are for the United States. Yet the stakes are higher in the American case. But if the United States succumbs to a fiscal crisis, as an… »

As financiers fly in to broker deals, Dubai’s misfortunes give Abu Dhabi a chance to take political control in the… »

Britain is deeply involved in an escalating war in Afghanistan. The legacy of the Iraq war lives on with the drip-drip of revelations emerging from the Chilcot inquiry. This month the first EU foreign secretary was appointed. A general election is months away. These factors constitute a perfect storm that should result in a public… »

After United Russia held its convention in St. Petersburg on Nov. 20-21, in which “Russian Conservatism” was the main motto, skeptics have been questioning whether conservatism is compatible with President Dmitry Medvedev’s modernization program. Countries adopt their own types of modernization programs based on their own specific political culture, values and history. In Britain and… »

A resolution passed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Friday, which rebuked Iran for building an enrichment site in secret, should serve as a stark warning to the country’s leaders – not just for its strong words, but also for its adherents. The resolution passed 25-3 with Cuba, Venezuela and Malaysia voting against…. »

(PDF) – This SIPRI map presents a snapshot of multilateral peace operation deployments worldwide in September 2009. Using data drawn from the SIPRI Multilateral Peace Operations Database, it shows where missions are taking place, how large they are and which organizations and coalitions are conducting… »

2009 AIDS epidemic update, a Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) publication shows that since 2001 HIV infections have been reduced by:

* 17% worldwide
* 15% in sub-Saharan Africa
* 25% in East Asia
*… »

The strategic and resource-rich Balochistan province continues to remain on the periphery of Pakistan’s projects and perceptions. With both the “dialogue with those who are up in the mountains” and the counter-insurgency (CI) operations failing, the Baloch insurrection persists. Worse, subversion from the Taliban-Al Qaeda in the north of the province has added to the… »

(PDF) – Over the past decade, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has carried out an impressive military modernization effort, providing the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA(N)) with considerable technological capabilities. Recognizing that it takes more than technology to create a capable navy, China has also actively pursued the modernization of its doctrine, organization, and… »

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has accused the West of breaking promises made after the fall of the Iron Curtain, saying that NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe violated commitments made during the negotiations over German reunification. Newly discovered documents from Western archives support the Russian… »

Next Tuesday, President Obama is slated to address the American people in prime time about the war in Afghanistan from West Point. “It is my intention,” he said in a press conference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday, “to finish the job.” Every sign indicates that he will be sending 30,000 or more… »

As Chinese and Latin American companies meet in Bogota this week for the third annual China-Latin America Business Summit, they have reason to be bullish. China continues to be the fastest-growing trade partner for Latin America, helping offset weaker markets like Europe and the United States. Last year, total trade between China and Latin America… »

Iran’s parliament passed a law on Sunday earmarking $20 million to support militant groups opposing the West and investigate alleged U.S. and British plots against the Islamic Republic. The legislation is widely seen as a response to Western criticism of Iran’s violent crackdown against protesters following the disputed June presidential election. Lawmakers started debating the… »

Between 1939 and 1945, shortwave radio transmitters near Berlin broadcast Nazi propaganda in many languages around the world, including Arabic throughout the Middle East and North Africa, and Persian programs in Iran. English-language transcripts of the Arabic broadcasts shed light on a particularly dark chapter in the globalization of pernicious ideas. The transcripts’ significance, however,… »

A new Honduran president chosen Sunday faces the challenge of defending his legitimacy to the world and to his own people, who are bitterly divided by Central America’s first coup in more than 20 years. Porfirio Lobo and Elvin Santos, two prosperous businessmen from the political old guard, are the front-runners. But their campaigns have… »

The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 could be viewed as a last-ditch attempt by the world’s sole remaining superpower to impose order on the region. Instead, the net result was to create a power vacuum, leaving Iraq too weak to counterbalance its neighbors and threatening to destabilize the whole map. Turkey, the old seat… »

Our hopelessly compromised scientific establishment cannot be allowed to get away with the Climategate whitewash – by Christopher… »

In the world’s endless hunt for energy, Turkmenistan is vital. Sitting on massive gas reserves both on land and in its Caspian waters, the country ranks among the world’s largest gas holders in terms of reserves, according to international experts, alongside the likes of Russia, Iran and Qatar. For now, Europe and Russia remain locked… »

Last February, at least 4,000 soldiers serving in the Bangladesh Rifles, a border defense regiment, mutinied and began killing their officers. Fifty-seven officers and 17 other people were murdered by the mutineers, who dumped their bodies in sewers and an incinerator. The violence spread to military camps all over… »

The book “The Invention of the Jewish People,” which spent months on the best-seller list in Israel and is now available in English. Mixing respected scholarship with dubious theories, the author, Shlomo Sand, a professor at Tel Aviv University, frames the narrative as a startling exposure of suppressed historical facts. Professor Sand, a scholar of… »

Climate has been a major driver of armed conflict in Africa, research shows – and future warming is likely to increase the number of deaths from war. US researchers found that across the continent, conflict was about 50% more likely in unusually warm… »

(PDF) – The mission had failed to capture or kill bin Laden. Removing the Al Qaeda leader from the battlefield eight years ago would not have eliminated the worldwide extremist threat. But the decisions that opened the door for his escape to Pakistan allowed bin Laden to emerge as a potent symbolic figure who continues
to… »

German police searched the Munich homes of four Chinese-born men suspected of spying on members of Germany’s Uighur community, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group at odds with the Chinese… »

There is growing clamor in industrial countries for additional border taxes on imports from countries with lower carbon prices. A key factor affecting the impact of these taxes is whether they are based on the carbon content of imports or the carbon content in domestic… »

The presidential and provincial polls, the second set of elections since the ouster of the Taliban eight years ago, were held at a time of escalating insurgency and severe economic stagnation. Insecurity hampered candidates’ mobility and drove down voter turnout. An under-resourced security sector, combined with Taliban military gains, severely limited the ability of Afghan… »

A few days before the Hajj (November 25-30, 2009), Iranian officials deliberately intensified statements calling on Shi’ites, and all Hajj pilgrims to Mecca, to conduct baraa – a kind of political protest against the infidels and apostates instituted by the founder of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini – against the U.S. and… »

The presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia signed a package of deals on Friday to create a customs union with common tariffs, paving the way for a single economic space. The countries’ aggregate GDP is $2 trillion, and their trade turnover is estimated at $900… »

The United Nations nuclear watchdog demanded Friday that Iran immediately freeze operations at a once secret uranium enrichment plant, a sharp rebuke that bore added weight because it was endorsed by Russia and… »

Some sharp comments by a former British ambassador to Washington during the Iraq inquiry have again cast doubt on the strength of the so-called “special relationship” between Britain and the United… »

Beijing is promoting that the Communist Party should build a “study model of Marxism”. Coupled with the visit by a senior party official to Taiwan to discuss – for the first time ever – political models, the signs are clear that China is reforming its own… »

The commanders of Hezbollah’s military wing have leveled blistering criticism at the Shi’ite militant organization’s civilian leadership, amid fears of Israel launching a fresh offensive in Lebanon, Lebanese news outlets have… »