206. On Friday, Manmohan Singh was sworn in as India’s prime minister. Mr. Singh is the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to office after serving a full five-year term. The Congress Party unexpectedly romped to victory by a big margin in the world’s largest exercise in democracy. Instead of an unwieldy and […]
Embedded video from <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/video” mce_href=”http://www.cnn.com/video”>CNN Video</a> Nandan Nilekani, Co-Chairman of Infosys and author of Imagining India, spoke with Fareed Zakaria about India’s economic potential on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS. Nilekani argues that India’s democracy is a strength in economic development, the country’s population is an asset not a liability and its “strategic opportunity is […]
Embedded video from <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/video” mce_href=”http://www.cnn.com/video”>CNN Video</a> United States President Barack Obama recently nominated Republican Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. as the next ambassador to China. President Obama reached into the Republican ranks for a key foreign policy position and likely removed one of his strongest potential challengers in the 2012 presidential campaign. During the […]
Yesterday, the Czech Republic hosted a joint EU-China summit that was originally scheduled for December. The meeting was delayed then because of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s meeting with the Dalai Lama. This time, China made clear to tell the EU to stay out of its internal business. 2 main topics were on the agenda: the […]
Moody’s reports that, since the onset of the crisis, Latin American and Caribbean sovereigns sustained negative rating actions in only 5 out of 27 cases, versus 12 out of 21 in Eastern Europe. Similar trends can be found at the other major rating agencies (S&P and Fitch).
Nuclear-arms talks between the United States and Russia get underway today in Moscow. The negotiating teams are discussing a replacement for the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) that expires in December. Talks will address stronger verification procedures and might also tackle the issue of reducing both deployed warheads and stockpiles held in reserve. […]
The biggest land grab since the scramble for Africa is taking place under the sea. Last Wednesday was the ten-year deadline for most countries to submit claims over seabeds. States that have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea are able to claim extensions to their continental shelves beyond the normal […]
The internal power struggles in the Kremlin are still surprisingly hard to understand and predict. President Dmitry Medvedev was Vladimir Putin’s handpicked successor (Putin was constitutionally prevented from seeking a third consecutive term in office in 2008). At the time, many outside analysts and experts believed Medvedev would simply implement Putin’s desired policies and actions. […]
Thanks to my colleague Roger Scher for sending me an article from today’s New York Times concerning “Love Land” (I wrote about it yesterday: here). It turns out Chinese authorities have had enough and have ordered the park to close. Read more here.
A lot is going on in the Rising Powers at the moment, so why not begin the week with a survey of key developments and important news articles?
China is to have its first-ever sex theme park, to be called “Love Land”. For a traditional country, the development seems quite radical. The purpose of the park, located in Chongquing province, is to educate people about sex. The park’s manager explains: “We are building the park for the good of the public… to help […]
The New York Times features an article today by Andrew E. Kramer concerning Russia’s gas worries. Kramer explains that as gas prices (not to be confused with oil prices) fall, Russia’s state-run gas company Gazprom will suffer. The main reason is because Gazprom is contractually obligated to purchase gas from its Central Asian former-soviet neighbors […]
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