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BY: Choe Sang-Hun | The New York Times
North Korea’s leader gave an unusually exuberant welcome this week to the prime minister of China, whose trip was intensely monitored by the rest of the world for progress on efforts to halt North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
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BY: Daniel McDowell | World Politics Review
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recently responded to criticisms of its policies toward the world's least developed countries (LDCs), by reforming its approach to "development" lending. The fund has long been a favorite target of civil society groups, who claim that the institution has no expertise in formulating development policy, that its stringent conditions often worsen already dire economic situations, and that its governance structure is highly undemocratic.
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BY: Howard Schneider | The Washington Post
In the two years since it seized power here, the militant Hamas movement has undercut the influence of the Gaza Strip's major clans, brought competing paramilitary groups under its control, put down an uprising by a rival Islamist group, weathered a three-week war with Israel, worked around a strict economic embargo -- and through it all refused a set of international demands that could begin Gaza's rehabilitation.
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BY: Jonathan Cook | The National
Tensions over control of the Haram al Sharif compound of mosques in Jerusalem’s Old City has reached a pitch unseen since clashes at the site sparked the second intifada nine years ago.
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BY: Philip McCrum | ISN Security Watch
Long ignored next door, the spillover effect of the Yemeni conflict has Saudi Arabia on the defensive as it seeks a way to keep the unstable country's insurgency from rocking the region.
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BY: Anthony Shadid | The Washington Post
In a dramatic illustration of shifting authority in the Green Zone, once an American preserve here, Iraqi soldiers confronted a security detail contracted by the U.S. government, detained four of the guards and beat them in a standoff last week that lasted at least two hours, according to Iraqi officials, the company and the U.S. Embassy.
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BY: Peter Baker and Jeff Zeleny | The New York Times
President Obama told Congressional leaders on Tuesday that he would not substantially reduce American forces in Afghanistan or shift the mission to just hunting terrorists there, but he indicated that he remained undecided about the major troop buildup proposed by his commanding general.
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BY: Kamal Nazer Yasin | ISN Security Watch
After several years of almost glacial progress on Iran's nuclear file, negotiations are suddenly kicking in to gear after major revelations; and now it’s a scramble to maintain the momentum.
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BY: Mike Pflanz | The Christian Science Monitor
Idelphonse Nizeyimana, the 'Butcher of Butare,' was handed over to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on Tuesday, one day after being arrested in Uganda.
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BY: Erik German | Global Post
Rivals in one of Africa’s oldest territorial feuds met for talks in Austria recently but longtime observers of the battle to control Western Sahara say the fight is far from over.
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BY: David Smith | The Guardian
Robert Mugabe, subject to targeted sanctions by America and the EU, made the unusually conciliatory remarks in a speech at the opening of Zimbabwe's parliament.
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BY: Emrullah Uslu | Eurasia Daily Monitor
The recent election in Greece resulted in a convincing victory for George Papandreou’s Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK). Despite the fact that Turkish-Greek relations were not a major issue during the election campaign, Ankara closely monitored the election. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stated that Turkey has excellent relations with Greece: “Despite some existing difficulties, during the PASOK’s period in power I am sure that Turkey and Greece will maintain good relations”.
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BY: Andrea Dudikova | Bloomberg News
Czech President Vaclav Klaus’s threat to block the Lisbon Treaty may damage the country’s standing six months after its government collapsed while holding the European Union presidency, said political analyst Jiri Pehe.
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BY: Megan K. Stack | Los Angeles Times
The head of one of Russia's most respected human rights organizations smeared the reputation of Ramzan Kadyrov when he blamed Kadyrov for the death of a fellow activist, a Moscow court rules.
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BY: Haroutiun Khachatrian | Eurasianet
Recent comments by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan on the status of the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh suggest that the peace process remains at an impasse. That, in turn, could complicate Armenian-Turkish reconciliation efforts.
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BY: David L. Stern | Global Post
The mutual muscle flexing and claims of eternal brotherhood of nations notwithstanding, Zapad 2009, as well as a meeting last month between the two leaders in the Russian resort town of Sochi, indicated instead that relations between Russia and Belarus remain rocky.
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BY: Lydia Polgreen | The New York Times
First there was the electoral drubbing at the hands of a center-left juggernaut. Next came the recriminations, with party leaders taking nasty, public swipes at one another in dueling magazine articles, op-ed articles and talk show appearances. Then came the agonizing debate: should the party lurch rightward to consolidate its base, or rush toward the center to attract moderate voters? And finally, the purge: party members who do not make the ideological cut are cast out or pushed aside.
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BY: Kunda Dixit | Asia Sentinel
Up here in the mountains of Nepal, global warming is not an abstract scientific theory; it has become a fact of everyday life. Its effects are visible everywhere: in snow-capped mountains that are turning into stark, exposed rock, and in new lakes that have made traditional yak-herding routes impassable.
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BY: Ed Johnson | Bloomberg News
The U.K. called on Sri Lanka to allow hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tamil civilians held in camps since the end of the civil war to leave and said it will only fund emergency work at the centers after monsoon rains end.
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BY: David Schenker | The Daily Star
Despite Syrian efforts to shape the environment of the engagement, regardless of the individual interlocutor, the Obama administration has presented a unified front it its representations to Damascus.