In an incident that looks like it could be linked to two stories recently discussed on this blog, Russia's energy policy in Central Asia and Islamic militant groups based in the region, a 20-mile section of a natural gas pipeline, which travels from western Kazakhstan into Russian territory, was shut down late yesterday after an […]
It seems that the Bush Administration has given up its rigidity when it comes to troop numbers in Iraq (maybe they read my last post!). As Time and CNN.com reported this week, the US is withdrawing troops from Iraq. But don't get excited yet; this only means that levels are returning to their original number […]
It seems that some municipalities are governed by criminal organizations. According to the Attorney General's Office, drug cartels control 80 municipalities. However, Mexico has more than 2,500 municipalities and controlling 80 of them is far from controlling the entire country. In spite of this, a qualitative interpretation of these events would suggest that things are […]
Freedom House put two new reports out in June of interest: Nations in Transit 2008 Annual Report and Supporting Freedom's Advocates?: An Analysis of the Bush Administration FY2008 Budget Request for Democracy and Human Rights (Follow the link down the page and download the pdf under ‘Past Reports’) These reports are linked in an unfortunate […]
Fuad Siniora's government declared Wednesday day off to welcome the return of the prisoners from Israel. NOW Lebanon has more on the matter. At 9 a.m. Wednesday, five Lebanese prisoners , Samir Kantar, a Lebanese Palestinian Liberation Front Member who has been detained for murder in Israel since 1979; and Khodor Zidan, Maher Kurani, Mohammed […]
Khaled Saghieh, a columnist for Al-Akhbar wrote one of the best editorials I read lately on the present situation. Those who have followed the developments in Lebanese politics from the end of the July war till last week must have felt really anxious about seeing the national unity government become a reality on the […]
Two interconnected, disturbing trends concerning Islamic militants from Central Asia committing violent and terrorist acts in and around the Afghanistan/Pakistan border are becoming more visible by the day. The first is the report from unidentified two US senior military officials based in the Middle East that Al Qaeda has stepped up its recruitment in Central […]
Have I been completely missing something or has everyone lost their minds regarding this whole Zimbabwe sanctions situation? Russia and China resisted putting on sanctions on Mugabe and now Britain and the US have been openly questioning Russia's fitness to belong to the G8. Normally level-headed commentators have been feverishly proclaiming their disappointment in Russian […]
The exile is backsort of. Newly reincarnated as the exileD, it is run out of "Putin-proof" Panama. Fuelled by paypal donations from readers, the first edition came out on July 14, Bastille Day. Exile fans can be reassured, at least for now: despite bitter avowals to quit Russia for good, the issue contained […]
On Friday, we discussed Russian President Medvedev's recent three nation visit to Central Asia, a visit that seemingly had one thing on its mind; gas and oil. A couple weeks ago, EU representatives made their second major stopover in a matter of months to Turkmenistan to discuss energy, specifically gas reserves for the Nabucco pipeline […]
After three weeks here in South Africa, this evening I will board a South African Airways plane bound for Washington, DC's Dulles International Airport via Dakar, Senegal. If all goes well I will land at 6:00 am eastern time tomorrow, Tuesday, at which point I’ll hope that I can get to BWI in time to […]
President Sleiman met his counterpart, Bashar al Assad in Paris at the Union for the Mediterranean. It was agreed to [finally] establish diplomatic ties between the two countries. If that will indeed happen at some point in the future, it's an important step in the right direction. President Sarkozy hailed it as a victory, but […]
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