The new government has 30 ministers from seven sects. The national unity government is a government for all of Lebanon, and is tasked with restoring confidence in the nation, which fortifies coexistence, the Lebanese people's faith in one another, justice and love, said Prime Minister Siniora in a speech after the official announcement of the […]
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has made his second visit to Central Asia, this time stopping by Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan for the second time. Gas was apparently the only thing on the diplomatic menu. Medvedev and his Gazprom officials are wary of European and Chinese influence and engagement in the region's energy resources, a sphere […]
After six weeks of internal wrangling, the Lebanese government Friday agreed to form a new government. Half of the 30 Cabinet posts will be awarded to the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora with about one-third, or 11, of the ministerial seats going to opposition parties supported by Lebanese Hizballah. The decision means Hizballah […]
The latest news this week is Iraq's demand for a withdrawal timetable from US officials. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that Iraqi National Security Adviser, Muwaffak al-Rubaie, demanded the timetable, saying that Iraq is “impatiently waiting” for the withdrawal of US troops. This comes after Prime Minister al-Maliki's same request, and was “the strongest demand […]
Lebanese armed forces dispatched dozens of vehicles to the Bab al-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen districts in Tripoli Thursday to enforce a cease-fire that killed four in recent gunbattles. Gunfire broke out late Wednesday and spilled over into the morning hours of Thursday as snipers killed at least two civilians of the Alawite community. Fighting had […]
The battle for power, and political influence which begets it, is as old as human civilization. Societies and States are not usually left wanting for people who want to be ‘in charge’ or 'take power.’ However, how this is done, as in the process of acquiring and maintaining political power, depends greatly from one location […]
Wednesday, July 9 brought an outreach session during July 7-9, facilitated by the Group of Eight (G8 ) Summit in Tokayo, Japan. The outreach session was convened at the Windsor Hotel, where the G8 leaders (Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and US) invited leaders from key developing nations to weigh in on energy security and climate change. As […]
Today I have several stories to treat you to; some old, some new, some interesting, some bor…well you get the idea. Last March, Turkmen President Berdymukhamedov announced his country's second military doctrine. The change appears to be in accord with Turkmenistan's recent more open diplomatic and international posture, a strong departure from its recent isolationist […]
Gone are the heady heroin nights of the nineties, and with them, many of the expats who had come East to trade in the drudgery of their suburban lives for a more visceral, tragic version of humanity. Now that the country brims with the Toyota Priuses (Prii? Priux?), hipsters, libel laws, Time Out Magazine, […]
Mexico City's Police Chief, Joel Ortega, resigned today under pressure from the city's mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, to reconstruct the police force. Ortega's firing is a direct result of a botched police operation to catch underage drinking at a nightclub, which prompted a stampede that killed 12 people in late June (see story). Mexico D.F.'s human […]
French President and current EU figurehead, Nicolas Sarkozy claimed an early boost to his country's presidency of the Union yesterday, with the conclusion of the much anticipated ‘European Pact on Immigration and Asylum.’ Of course, it was a watered down version of the document that French immigration minister, Brice Hortefeux, was peddling to Member State governments earlier […]
The June 30 signing by President Bush of House Resolution 2642, the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2008, not only includes the Merida Initative to help Mexico crack down on drug cartels, it also funds wide-ranging American policies of which Latin America forms part of the global war on terror (see the President's remarks here). To […]
Future parliamentary bloc leader MP Saad Hariri filed a legal suit Monday against suspects in the killing of his father, former Premier Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated in 2005, in a bomb blast in Beirut. The case was filed by lawyer Mohammad Mattar, who is representing Hariri, at Examining Magistrate Saqr Saqr's office. The claim […]
Premiering this Wednesday on the Discovery Channel, is episode 1 of Ted Koppel's 4-part series on China's economic growth (and its impact on the US), entitled, The People's Republic of Capitalism. Each successive Wednesday for three weeks, installments 2, 3, and 4 will be aired. If there is a resoundingly persistent mantra here, it […]
Lately there has been much talk on this blog and the FPA site about NATO and its role in Afghanistan, and rightly so, but it has just been simply too long since I have talked about the ‘other’ regional alliance with influence in Central Asia, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The Asia Times wrote a […]