Regions

Yesterday, President Hugo Chávez continued his travels overseas, spending the day in Russia. During his time there he announced that Venezuela will recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. A brief war with between Russia and Georgia in August 2008 led to the separation of these two regions. More information is available in today’s […]

In the United States, issues of Arctic resource management are rarely national issues, let alone ones that could decide an election. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildelife Refuge in Alaska comes up as a hot button topic now and then, but is hardly as sensitive as oil drilling in Norway. The Norwegian elections on September […]

Stories worth reading as you head into the weekend: Is there instability among the destabilizers? It appears so in the southern Somalian port city of Kismayo where there are serious divisions between armed Islamist factions. From South Africa: “This week, a South African call-center business, frustrated by persistently slow Internet speeds, decided to use a […]

A Palestinian Authority-funded radio station launched a new televised satire that pokes fun at the government, religion, and sex. Actors on the “Homeland on a Thread” show imitate government officials, including PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Chief Negotiator Saeb Erakat. Even though the television station requested permission from the PA to run the most controversial […]

Today’s newspapers are all buzzing with one news: Russia has stated that sanctions against Iran are unlikely.  Newspapers, like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov on Thursday as saying Moscow wouldn’t back any new rounds of tough sanctions against Iran in the United Nations Security […]

I can’t think of anyone in any government in Pakistan’s history openly rejecting anything proposed by Washington before Pakistan’s current President, Asif Zardari publicly and strongly rejected Obama’s new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Speaking to Financial Times, President Zardari correctly pointed out when he said: “Afghanistan and Pakistan are distinctly different countries and cannot […]

That was the slightly exaggerated headline that the popular online newspaper Gazeta ru gave to GM’s decision to sell off the majority stake in Opel to Magna, a consortium of Candadian-Austrian businesses and Russian state controlled Sberbank. In its triumphalism, news of the sale brings into stark relief the contradictions of the new Russia, whose […]

Dubai’s metro rail opened (grandly – how else) today. Construction on the system will continue, but as of today residents and tourists can take the train along Sheikh Zayed road. Yale graduate student Tabitha Decker points out, rightly, that the metro’s significance as evidence of investment in public goods represents a slightly different Dubai than […]

Visit http://www.brookings.edu/lang/arabic.aspx to read Brookings’ content in translation. Very exciting.

Former Israeli Diplomat Alon Pinkas supported the idea of Palestinian state-building from the “ground up” but rejected as unfeasible a unilateral Palestinian declaration of statehood, he said in an interview with Middle East Progress. Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad recently expressed the need for Palestinians to develop preliminary institutions needed for a future independent state, including […]

Today’s links-heavy quick hits from across Africa: The United Nations Development Policy and Analysis Division’s World Economic and Social Survey (WESS) has devoted its entire 2009 edition to the issue of climate change. IRIN has a nice summary. Treveor Manuel, South Africa’s former Finance Minister, who now carries the cryptic title of “Minister to the […]

A new INSS report outlines recent changes in the motives of Israeli Arabs who assist terrorist organizations. In the past, many of these Israeli-Arab spies were motivated by promises of money and/or drugs. However, the recent arrest of Rawi Sultani indicates a shift from monetary to nationalistic motives. While attending a camp run in Morocco […]