Writing in Grani.ru, a newspaper critical of the Kremlin, Ilya Minshtein has an Aesopian take on the Russia Ukraine gas dispute. Every new year's eve, Russia and Ukraine stage a seasonal pantomime in which Russia threatens to cut off gas or impose market rates unless Ukraine pays off its energy debts and stops tapping […]
There are serious divisions between factions in the CNDP, the main rebel group that has been waging war against the Democratic Republic of the Congo's troops and wreaking havoc throughout the eastern DRC. These fissures threaten to break apart the rebel opposition. Although Kinshasa probably sees this as good news — Laurent Nkunda's sometimes-ruthless CNDP […]
The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS has released its 2008 report on the global AIDS epidemic. The prognosis for Africa? Real improvement in many ways, but nowhere near enough.
This is not a tradition, so don't expect any funny jokes next Tuesday. Quote Peter Feaver, on my new favorite FP blog (or second fave, after Madam Secretary, especially the post about Hillary and knee-high boots): Walt may be guilty of a common academic fallacy of inference: if I did not read about it in […]
The Chinese government released a report in one of their official publications detailing the number of arrests for ‘endangering state security’ in the past year and unfortunately the news was not good for the Uighurs of Xinjiang Province. According to the report 1,154 Xinjiang citizens were indicted for crimes against state security in 2008, which […]
… the LA Times profiles a teenage girl in Tyre, Lebanon, named Hiba Qassir, who is studying at a high school backed by Hezbollah. She comments on her various ambitions, including becoming a film director, and calls martyrdom “the shortest way to heaven”. The summary bit below the headline (I am not sure what the […]
Regional leaders continue to cast a wary eye toward Guinea, where a military junta has taken control after last month's coup. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has condemned the coup and has suspended Guinea's membership in the regional body until constitutional order is restored in that country. ECOWAS follows the lead of […]
So, is Jacob Zuma going to face corruption charges or not? The possibility certainly is still strong, though the ANC has vowed to fight any such reinstatement of graft accusations against their presumed future presidential candidate. But what stands out most in the latest salvos in this increasingly byzantine drama is the absolutely blistering and […]
There is a new website, Global Post, committed to international affairs. The Global Post Africa page is well worth your time.
Business Day reports that business confidence in South Africa is at a six-year low. I am actually surprised that things in South Africa are not worse given the calamitous tone of forecasts in the United States. Perhaps this is just the beginning, and South Africa faces a grim long-range economic picture. Or possibly South Africa's […]
… the former speaker of the Knesset reflects on the meaning of the conflict of Gaza for him and his children.