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Leading Indicators: Off the Radar News Roundup

Judah Grunstein | Bio | 04 Feb 2010

- China and Serbia signed the preliminary contracts for a power-station project valued at $1.25 billion.

- South Korea will formally turn over eight light attack aircraft to the Peruvian air force on Friday. South Korea offered the planes as a gift, in an effort to raise its profile as an arms provider in South America. The planes date back to the Vietnam War era, and had already been retired from the South Korean air force.

- Meanwhile, Russia has become the top arms exporter to South America, largely as a result of increased sales to Venezuela. U.S. arms sales to the region have been reduced due to restrictions imposed on various countries for failure to cooperate fully with counterterrorism efforts.

- A village in Calabria, Italy, has adopted a policy of welcoming refugees and immigrants as a way to reverse its population decline. Despite initial successes, the Calabrian Mafia is not pleased.

- Nigeria's Niger Delta insurgency has ruled out talks with Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, because he has not been mandated by the country's ailing and absent president to negotiate on the issue. This is just one of many serious issues that the country's power vacuum has left unattended, but there's something refreshing about an armed insurgency being such a stickler for constitutional process.

- The president of a national engineering association warned that, in the absence of measures to increase capacity, South Africa's rapid urbanization will result in water shortages by 2019, with demand exceeding supplies by 2025.

Researched by Kari Lipschutz.