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BY: Justin Frewen | World Press
The first decade of the 21st century has not been a good one for the United Nations. The past 10 years have seen U.N. credibility take a serious battering.
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BY: William Young and Robert F. Worth | The New York Times
Iran fired a new salvo on Wednesday in what is becoming a bizarre propaganda war over the supposed defection and later return of an Iranian nuclear scientist, with Iran’s semiofficial media suggesting that he was a covert operative who had provided “valuable information” about the Central Intelligence Agency’s inner workings.
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BY: Sudeshna Sarkar | ISN Security Watch
Two governments in two years and a failed election to choose a third clearly illustrates the lack of faith in Nepal’s major political parties.
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BY: Mohammed al Qadhi | The National
The north of the country, mainly Sa’ada province, has endured six rounds of fighting since an on-and-off war erupted in 2004. The last round lasted until a truce was brokered in February.
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BY: David E. Sanger | The New York Times
The absence of serious progress this year has sown new doubts, here and abroad, that Mr. Obama will be able to reach even the scaled-down goals he set for America’s mission in the time he laid out in his speech at West Point seven months ago.
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BY: Joshua Partlow | The Washington Post
A transit trade deal reached by the two neighbors Sunday is the latest milestone in a rapidly changing relationship long characterized by distrust and ill will -- and one that could have broad consequences for how they confront their shared Taliban insurgency. Officials from both countries now speak with marked optimism about the prospects for collaboration.
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BY: Josh Kron | The New York Times
According to the United Nations, Somalia produces the third most refugees in the world, behind Afghanistan and Iraq, and Uganda is a natural haven for them.
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BY: Savious Kwinika | The Christian Science Monitor
ousands of Zimbabweans are fleeing back home after two days of xenophobic violence in Johannesburg, South Africa, reminding many of the 2008 anti-foreigner riots that killed more than 60 people displaced more than 200,000.
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BY: Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Seungwon Chung | The Long War Journal
Being an African Union peacekeeper in Somalia must be one of the world’s worst jobs, even in a down economy. The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is a bootstrap operation whose troops face rocket attacks, suicide bombers, and improvised explosive devices.
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BY: Peter Baker | The New York Times
Before Afghanistan and Iraq, there was Kosovo, the preoccupation of Washington a decade ago but largely off the radar screen in recent times. Eleven years after NATO drove out Serbian forces and two years after Kosovo declared independence, the young nation is struggling to consolidate its position on the map and looking for American help.
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BY: Benjamin Birnbaum | The Washington Times
The Obama administration is standing firmly in Kosovo's corner ahead of Thursday's International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision on the legality of its unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia.
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BY: Henry Chu | Los Angeles Times
European banking authorities are set this week to reveal which of the European Union region's banks are in good shape and which aren't, in a bid to reassure investors worried that the continent's financial sector is a disaster waiting to happen.
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BY: David Marples | Eurasia Daily Monitor
The approach of a new election always leads political analysts in Belarus to revisit a familiar question: is regime change possible or remote?
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BY: Dierdre Tynan | Eurasianet
The Pentagon has issued a pre-solicitation notice for a counter-terrorism training compound near Osh worth between $5 million and $10 million.
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BY: David S. Cloud | Los Angeles Times
The U.S. will freeze assets of businesses and individuals associated with the North Korean regime, and collaborate with banks to stop illegal financial transactions. The high-level visit is aimed to show resolve to North Korea in the wake of the sinking of a South Korean warship.
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BY: Richard S. Ehrlich | Asia Sentinel
After passing laws intended aimed at fugitive Premier Thaksin, Democrats now find the laws may be used against them.
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BY: Bikash Sangraula | The Christian Science Monitor
The Nepal election on Wednesday failed to secure enough parliamentary votes to select a new prime minister. A runoff is scheduled for Friday.
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BY: William Booth | The Washington Post
The car bomb that exploded near the U.S. border in Ciudad Juarez last week was a sophisticated device never before seen in Mexico, triggered by cellphone after police and medical workers were lured to the scene, according to Mexican and U.S. investigators.
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BY: Manfred Ertel | Der Spiegel
Cuban President Raul Castro has begun releasing 52 imprisoned dissidents. Is this the hoped-for signal of liberalization? Critics of the regime do not believe that a sea change is in the works. Instead, they fear it is just a tactical move designed to weaken the opposition.
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BY: Tim Rogers | Global Post
The constitution prohibits the president from seeking re-election next year, but the ruling Sandinista party, which Ortega and his wife micromanage like a family business, has made it clear it intends to remain in power for a longtime.