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BY: Ahmed Rashid | Asia Sentinel
The army and the civilian government are once more at odds over policy towards the US and India, the insurgency in Baluchistan, and how to deal with militant Punjabi groups who are linked to the Taliban. Moreover, still unresolved and now an issue of growing international concern, is the sanctuary being given to Afghan Taliban in Pakistan.
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BY: Sabrina Tavernise, Mark Landler, and Helene Cooper | The New York Times
President Hamid Karzai’s concession of the need for a runoff election in Afghanistan appears to have prevented his country from slipping into paralysis, but has created a new landscape of risks and uncertainty.
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BY: Sudarsan Raghavan | The Washington Post
Driven by fear, persecution and economic woes, hundreds of mostly Muslim African migrants are embarking on perilous journeys to seek asylum and jobs in Israel. They are part of a global migration of the poor and oppressed to wealthier nations and continents, and Israel is becoming an increasingly popular destination.
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BY: Judith Evans | The London Times
Yemen is set to be the first country in the world to run out of water, providing a taste of the conflict and mass movement of populations that may spread across the world if population growth outstrips natural resources.
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BY: Sahar Issa | McClatchy
Iraq's parliament failed again Tuesday to vote on legislation that would allow Iraqis to cast ballots directly for candidates in parliamentary elections scheduled for January, rather than choosing political party lists that don't name the candidates.
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BY: Robert Marquand | The Christian Science Monitor
Iranian negotiators played it tough on the second day of "brass tacks" talks on their nuclear program Tuesday. Some diplomats had been hoping for a breakthrough, with a deal sealed to send a large portion of Iran's nuclear fuel abroad for further processing. Instead, Iran appeared to shift the playing field.
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BY: David Corn | Mother Jones
What do hawkish conservatives in the United States and the top officials of the Tehran regime have in common? Both groups don't trust the French.
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BY: Mxolisi Ncube | World Politics Watch
After a meeting of its leadership committe last Thursday, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's mainstream Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party announced that it was temporarily pulling out of the coalition with President Robert Mugabe's ZANU (PF) and the smaller MDC faction led by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara.
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BY: Chris Hildebrand | Diplomatic Courier
Africa is going nuclear. Morocco are both considering launching nuclear energy programs. Egypt’s nuclear program, while perhaps behind South Africa’s, has the most potential for new growth, due in large part to international interest in securing a prolific contract to build an Egyptian nuclear power plant facility. At around $2.5 billion per reactor, the “nuclear renaissance” has reached Africa.
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BY: Judy Dempsey | The New York Times
Poland, smarting after President Obama announced last month that he would scrap Bush-era plans to deploy an antiballistic missile system in Eastern Europe, will accept an offer to host parts of a new, more mobile, missile defense system, Polish officials said Tuesday.
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BY: Thomas Seibert | The National
The voluntary return of Kurdish rebel supporters to Turkey from exile in northern Iraq could mark the beginning of the end to a war that has plagued the country for 25 years and cost tens of thousands of lives, officials and observers say.
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Der Spiegel
The Danish Energy Agency approved Russia's controversial Nord Stream pipeline across the Baltic Sea on Tuesday. The line will deliver Russian natural gas to Western Europe but has drawn massive criticism from Eastern European countries who fear Moscow will use it as a political weapon.
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BY: Dierdre Tynan | Eurasianet
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is undergoing a metamorphosis that could transform the Islamic militant group into a far more dynamic foe for Central Asian governments, as well as for the US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
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BY: Shaun Waterman | ISN Security Watch
President Obama is still weighing whether to send additional troops to Afghanistan to extirpate al-Qaida, but the really decisive battle in the war with the terror network was joined this weekend - and US forces aren’t even there.
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BY: Jane Perlez | The New York Times
As Pakistani soldiers fought their way into the forbidding heartland of the Mehsud tribal territory on Tuesday against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, they faced the most ferocious fighters in Pakistan, men whose ancestors were legendary for never succumbing to the British.
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BY: Pamela Constable | The Washington Post
Here in Punjab province, political reality is more complex. The region is home to the main opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, and an influential religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami. It is also the base for several militant Islamist groups, such as Lashkar-i-Taiba, that are now officially banned but were once sponsored by the state to fight India and other foes.
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BY: John M. Glionna | Los Angeles Times
The neighboring nations are engaged in a tense struggle for superiority, and the rift is widening: It's cultural, it's political and, recently, it's gotten personal.
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BY: Viola Gienger | Bloomberg News
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the U.S. won’t withdraw some of its troops from Japan unless the new government honors previous commitments, raising tension with an ally that wants a more equal relationship.
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BY: Ioan Grillo | Global Post
Almost two months after Mexico decriminalized the possession of small amounts all major narcotics — including marijuana, cocaine and heroin — the most notable thing is how little has changed.
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BY: Andre Soliani | Bloomberg News
Brazil’s largest political party and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party took a “big step” toward an alliance for the 2010 presidential election, the head of Brazil’s lower chamber Michel Temer said.