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BY: Ethan Bronner | The New York Times
As the Obama administration tries to broker a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there is a dark truth lurking: force has produced clearer results in this dispute than talk.
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BY: Mitchell Prothero | The National
Hizbollah’s discovery of at least three eavesdropping devices planted in southern Lebanon by the Israeli military last weekend has inflamed an already tense border situation as the Lebanese armed forces fired anti-aircraft weapons at unmanned Israeli drones sent to survey the situation.
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BY: Anthony Shadid and Nada Bakri | The Washington Post
The Iraqi parliament failed for a second time Monday to vote on an election law crucial for organizing elections in January that will choose a new parliament and serve as a milestone in American plans to withdraw combat troops from the country.
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BY: Bill Roggio | The Long War Journal
"Iraqi security forces detained a wanted man in central Basrah," an official at Multinational Force Iraq told Voices of Iraq. "The man, a suspected member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, carries arms and munitions from a neighboring country into Iraq with the aim of backing the militias and armed groups."
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BY: Oliver August | The London Times
President Obama’s pledge to withdraw US troops from Iraq and end combat operations there by September 2010 is under threat because of increased levels of violence and bickering within the Iraqi parliament.
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BY: Sabrina Tavernise and Helene Cooper | The New York Times
Under heavy international pressure, President Hamid Karzai appears set to concede as early as Tuesday that he fell short of a first-round victory in the nation’s disputed presidential election, but the path to ensuring that the country has credible leadership remains uncertain, American and European officials said Monday.
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BY: Jeffrey Fleishman | Los Angeles Times
The Vienna gathering seeks a deal under which Russia would enrich uranium for Iran. But Tehran says that if talks fail, it will accelerate its enrichment capabilities.
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BY: Richard Spencer | The Telegraph
In an escalation of tensions, the head of the Revolutionary Guard, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said his security officials had documents linking Britain and America to Jundullah, the militant group which claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing on Sunday.
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BY: Ginger Thompson | The New York Times
On Monday, the administration unveiled a new policy in Sudan, outlining an effort that officials said was aimed at ending the mass human suffering there, promoting a definitive peace and preventing Sudan from serving as a haven for terrorists.
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BY: Ahmed M.I. Egal | The Media Line
The Western Powers and the UN Security Council persist in deluding themselves that the TFG remains the “government” of Somalia and that it is capable of mounting an effective fight against the extremists of Al-Shabaab and its allies, notably the Hizb-al-Islam of Hassan Dahir Aweys.
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BY: Andrew Meldrum | Global Post
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai vowed he would not attend cabinet meetings with President Robert Mugabe to protest the government’s hounding of Bennett and others. Even though Bennett was released on bail late Friday, Tsvangirai said other issues needed to be resolved before he and his MDC party returned to full cooperation with Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party.
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BY: Matt Lewis | Politics Daily
Since the time of Ataturk, the government has aspired to join the world's great powers. Yet even while looking to the world's great Western powers instead of the Arab capitals for inspiration, the Turkish government has used authoritarianism, instead of democracy, as a counterweight to the Turks' tendency toward theocracy.
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BY: Anes Alic | ISN Security Watch
Standing at the door of the EU and NATO clubs, Macedonia’s reception largely depends on one thing: compromise over the long-running name dispute with neighboring Greece. Meanwhile, regional stability hangs in the balance.
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BY: Yigal Schleifer | Eurasianet
The once-vital relationship between Turkey and Israel is going through a distinctly frosty period. The chill began after the invasion of Gaza earlier this year, which Ankara criticized harshly. But now ties between the two Middle East allies are diving further and some experts are wondering if the relationship is coming to end.
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BY: Andrew Rettman | EU Observer
Poland is keen for the EU's new diplomatic corps to be a unique type of institution, to take half its staff from national capitals and to gobble up parts of the European Commission's development department.
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BY: Matt Stone | World Politics Watch
When Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin invited Western energy companies to help develop natural gas fields in Siberia's Yamal Peninsula in late September, many Western observers viewed it as an admission of defeat.
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BY: Nicholas Kralev | The Washington Times
So far, the 'reset' of the relationship has been mostly on the U.S. side and that remains the case after [Mrs. Clinton's] meetings," said Angela E. Stent, director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.
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BY: Salman Masood | The New York Times
The Pakistani Army said Monday that it was progressing in its push into the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan, but it acknowledged that it was meeting strong resistance.
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BY: Tracy Wilkinson | Los Angeles Times
Representatives of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and the de facto government that replaced him in a coup returned to negotiations Monday, but the two sides remained deadlocked over whether to return Zelaya to power.
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BY: Phil Clothier | Prospect
A referendum on independence is due, but saying farewell to the “free baguette” may prove unpalatable to many in France's neo-empire.