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In The News

• `BRIC' Nations Summit Seeks to Turn Economic Might Into Clout By: Patrick Donohue | Bloomberg News
  First came the booming economies. Then came the rush of investors. Now the so-called BRIC nations -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- are talking about forming a political alliance.
• Demise of Al-Qa'eda in Sight, U.S. Official Says By: Alex Spillius | The Telegraph
  A senior United States counter-terrorism official has declared that the demise of al-Qa'eda is in sight, as the terrorist group's failure to adapt its violent ideology and tactics has provoked growing dissent across the Islamic world.
• Lebanon Reverses Decisions That Prompted Violence By: Robert F. Worth | The New York Times
  Lebanon’s governing coalition on Wednesday night formally reversed two decisions that had provoked the militant group Hezbollah, bringing the country a step closer to resolving the week-old political crisis that set off the worst factional violence since the nation’s 15-year civil war.
• In Israel, Bush Speaks Of Hope By: Griff Witte and Michael Abramowitz | The Washington Post
  President Bush arrived here Wednesday with a message of hope for Middle East peace prospects, despite fresh violence, scant signs of progress and deepening skepticism among both Israelis and Palestinians that there can be an agreement.
• Void of Leadership, Palestinian Movement Loses Momentum By: Joshua Mitnick | The Washington Times
  Sixty years after Israel's birth, Palestinians continue to press unfulfilled demands for statehood, land reparation and compensation for refugees. But more than any other time since it placed the cause of Palestinian sovereignty at the top of the world agenda, the Palestinian national movement finds itself in a deteriorating state of paralysis.
• High Season for Al-Qa’ida in Yemen By: Mohammed Al-Saadi | The Media Line
  Western families fill up the small and only departure hall of ‘Sana International Airport over the past few weeks, queuing for European and American destinations. They have been instructed to leave Yemen for security reasons, though some have told Yemeni friends they don’t feel threatened.
• A War Over a Wall Defies Truce in Sadr City By: Michael R. Gordon | The New York Times
  This is the war over the wall. It is a daily battle of attrition waged over the large concrete barrier that the Americans have been building across Sadr City in the hope of establishing a safe zone in the southern tier of the Shiite enclave.
• Gates: U.S. Should Engage Iran With Incentives, Pressure By: Karen DeYoung | The Washington Post
  The United States should construct a combination of incentives and pressure to engage Iran, and may have missed earlier opportunities to begin a useful dialogue with Tehran, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday.
• Iran Says It Foiled Attack on Russian Consulate By: Nazmeh Bozorgmehr | Financial Times
  Iran says it has foiled an attempt by an alleged US-sponsored “terrorist” group to bomb the Russian consulate in Rasht in northern Iran.
• Letters From Somalia: Risking Education By: Abdurrahman Warsameh | World Politics Review
  Despite the shelling and pitched battles in the Somali capital, teachers, parents and students are willing to risk life and limb for an education.
• Italian Trial of C.I.A. Operatives Begins With Torture Testimony By: Elisabeth Rosenthal | The New York Times
  A long-delayed trial of C.I.A. operatives and former top Italian intelligence officials moved forward here on Wednesday, as a judge ruled that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi could be called to testify about the abduction of a radical Muslim cleric here in 2003.
• Europe's Single Currency The Economist
  Ten years after the EU's historic decision to adopt a single currency, the European Commission has presented a detailed analysis of the euro's experience to date and launched a debate on how to address the challenges likely to be faced over the next decade.
• A Lineup Aimed at Taming Siloviki By: Francesca Mereu and Max Delaney | The Moscow Times
  The new makeup of the Cabinet and presidential administration resulting from this week's government shakeup is aimed at undercutting the power that political clans within the security services have accumulated in recent years, former security insiders said.
• Moscow Questions the Territorial Status Quo in Crimea By: Vladimir Socor | Eurasia Daily Monitor
  Moscow Mayor Yurii Luzhkov and senior members of Russia’s Duma persist in making territorial claims to Sevastopol, following Luzhkov’s foray into the Ukrainian territory of the Crimea (see EDM, May 13). These continuing statements appear designed to question Ukraine’s sovereignty in Sevastopol, and more broadly in the Crimea, at the Russian-Ukrainian level and even internationally.
• Hopes for Calm in Battered Indian City By: Emily Wax | The Washington Post
  With a dawn-to-dusk curfew stopping everything but funerals a day after seven bombs exploded in this ancient walled city, police and community leaders were hopeful they could prevent an outbreak of communal violence between the local Hindu majority and Muslim minority.
• Burma Junta Kicks Out Aid Foreign Workers By: Kenneth Denby | The London Times
  The Burmese authorities have sealed off the cyclone disaster zone from the outside world, expelling foreign aid workers and placing multiple checkpoints along roads into the Irrawaddy delta, to the despair of foreign diplomats and aid workers.
• Bangladeshi Immigrants Stoke Terror in India By: Sreeram Chaulia | Asia Sentinel
  Investigations into the serial terrorist blasts that killed 80 and injured 216 in the northern Indian tourist city of Jaipur Tuesday point to the Bangladesh-based terrorist group Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami. The trademark style of the attack as well as the local context in Jaipur adds weight to suspicions on the part of the security agencies that Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami is the lead perpetrator.
• Venezuela Offered Aid to Colombian Rebels By: Juan Forero | The Washington Post
  High-ranking officials in Venezuela offered to help Colombian guerrillas obtain surface-to-air missiles meant to change the balance of power in their war with the Colombian government, according to internal rebel documents.
• Echoes of Colombia in Mexico Drug War By: Oscar Avila | The Chicago Tribune
  Even as the body counts spiral in northwestern Mexico, a single killing in Mexico City raised the stakes. Edgar Millan Gomez, acting national police chief, was assassinated at home last week, the highest-ranking official to be killed since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006.
• High Soy Prices Idling Biodiesel Plants By: Jonathan Starkey | NYU Newswire
  Although the plant can produce 30 million gallons of biodiesel annually, using the oil from crushed soybeans, it sits idle, victimized by the same high prices that have brought prosperity to the Stadheim farm. Soy oil now costs so much that the plant's biodiesel products can't compete with the price of ordinary diesel fuel.

In Commentary

• Australian Eggs for a Korean 'Basket Case'? By: Leonid A Petrov | Asia Times
  Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's revamp of Australia's foreign policy has lessened the country's focus on Washington and redirected it to some odd places, for example Pyongyang, where a food crisis could be a boon for the major grain exporter.
• Good Morning, Vietnam By: Duncan Currie | The Weekly Standard
  April 30 marked the 33rd anniversary of Saigon's fall to the North Vietnamese Communists. The former capital of South Vietnam is now called Ho Chi Minh City, a name that better reflects Vietnam's past than its present and future.
• The Downside of Joining the Superpower Club By: Victor Mallet | Financial Times
  Being a superpower is not all pomp and pleasure. There is more to it than attending summits, deploying aircraft carriers and overthrowing irritating regimes in the Caribbean with which you disagree.
• Historical Tremors By: Simon Winchester | The New York Times
  The wreckage in Dujiangyan, China, stands as a tragic monument to a culture that turned its back on its remarkable and glittering history.
• The Terrified Monks By: Nicholas D. Kristof | The New York Times
  The Terrified Monks When U.S. President George W. Bush visits China for the Olympics, he should strongly encourage serious negotiations between Beijing and the Dalai Lama.
• Getting Japan to Capitalize on Its Innovation By: Andrei Hagiu and Robert Dujarric | The Japan Times
  As they lament the West's obsession with China and prepare to host the Group of Eight in July, Japanese fear becoming a minor planet in the Chinese orbit.
• No Right to Be There By: Desmond Tutu | The Guardian
  With a terrible record of torture and disappearance, Sri Lanka doesn't deserve a seat on the UN human rights council. It should be voted out.
• Putin's Tall Order By: Alexei Bayer | The Moscow Times
  One curious feature of Russia's bureaucracy is that the more incompetent an official is, the more likely he is to be rewarded and promoted. This rule has endured under various regimes, from the 19th century to the Soviet period and on to present-day Russia.
• Germany's Taliban Trial: From Murat Kurnaz to Cüneyt Ciftci By: John Rosenthal | World Politics Review
  When it emerged in mid-March that the perpetrator of a deadly suicide attack on American troops in Afghanistan had come from Germany, the American media showed remarkably little interest.
• Will Bush Get Engaged? By: Laura Rozen | Foreign Policy
  When it comes to the Middle East peace process, the Bush administration has held firm on its refusal to talk to its enemies. Now, though, in the waning days of office, engagement with radicals doesn’t look nearly as bad as it once did. And if it works, Bush would have Israel to thank.
• Egypt's Unrest in Perspective By: Amr Hamzawy and Mohammed Herzallah | The Washington Post
  Notwithstanding its geopolitical significance, Egypt has experienced unprecedented civil unrest in recent months and, despite its strong relationship with the United States, democratization efforts have effectively hit rock bottom in the nation.
• Roadmap to Nowhere By: Daniel Levy | International Herald Tribune
  This is one of those times of maximum mismatch between the optimistic rhetoric of peace process declarations and expectations and the gloomy reality of daily experience and prospects on the ground.
• The Great Sedition By: Mshari Al-Zaydi | Asharq Alawsat
  It seems that Hussein Shariatmadari was right when he said, "If anything happens, the Americans and Israelis will regret it. Hezbollah is just a sample of what might take place. This can be compared with what we can do".
• The Squeeze on the Middle East's Moderates By: David Ignatius | The Washington Post
  Watching the news from Lebanon, it's poignant to read the title of a new memoir by Jordan's former foreign minister, Marwan Muasher, "The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation."
• Coups and Counter-Coups By: Kaveh L Afrasiabi | Asia Times
  The Saudi Arabian accusation of an Iran-inspired "coup" by Hezbollah in Lebanon is a misnomer. The more apt description would be a government coup, inspired by the United States, and Hezbollah's successful "counter-coup".
• We Can't Let the Dissidents Down By: Francisco 'Pepe' Hernandez | Miami Herald
  U.S. funding targeted for the promotion of democracy in Cuba is not reaching Cuba's dissidents. The Cuban American National Foundation's findings in a recently concluded study, which reviewed the expenditures of four of the Cuba Democracy Program's largest recipients, demonstrates that 83 percent of the funds intended for helping democracy activists in Cuba bring about a transition in their country were spent in Miami or abroad.
• To Find Renewed Relevance, Mexican Left Must Lose López Obrador By: Patrick Corcoran | World Politics Review
  The Mexican political class doesn't agree on much, but no one denies that the country's political left today is a hopeless mess.
• What I Learned in Belfast By: Jonathan Powell | Prospect Magazine
  The tenth anniversary of the Good Friday agreement has produced plenty of self-congratulation about peace in Northern Ireland (NI), but it has also smoked out a critical analysis of the deal by people like Charles Moore, Dean Godson, Peter Hitchens, Melanie Phillips and Max Hastings.
• Democracies Don't Let People Die By: Daniel Henninger | The Wall Street Journal
  Among the Western intellectual classes in the U.S. and Europe, there is no idea more routinely mocked than George Bush's proposition that what the world needs today is more democracies.

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