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BY: Vladimir Socor | Eurasia Daily Monitor
A Russian military foothold in Serbia is potentially the most significant result of President Dmitry Medvedev’s October 20 visit to the country. This intention has greater chances of materializing, compared with the Serbian section of Gazprom’s South Stream project, an agreement on which was also signed during Medvedev’s visit. The Serbian government continues rewarding Russia's support for Belgrade on Kosovo.
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BY: SABRINA TAVERNISE and SANGAR RAHIMI | The New York Times
Six U.N. workers, including one American, were among the dead in an attack by the Taliban, officials said.
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BY: Hans-Jurgen Schlamp | Der Spiegel
With the Libson Treaty approaching ratification, the EU needs dynamic and clever people to fill the roles of Council president and foreign minister. However, the old habits of tactical maneuvering by the national leaders risk jeopardizing what should be a fresh start for the EU.
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BY: Massoud A. Derhally | Bloomberg News
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Fouad Siniora condemned both the rocket attack that hit Israel late yesterday and Israel’s shelling of Lebanon in response.
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BY: Liz Sly | Los Angeles Times
The Defense Ministry promises an investigation into the 'security breaches' that allowed suicide bombers to penetrate one of the most closely guarded areas of the city. The death toll rises to 155.
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BY: Oliver August | The London Times
Iraq has expressed an interest in reviving its nuclear technology, bombed into oblivion by Israel in 1981 and the US ten years later. An Iraqi minister says Baghdad has contacted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), based in Vienna, to seek its approval to relaunch a peaceful nuclear programme.
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BY: Benjamin Joffe-Walt | The Media Line
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration has been accused of extensive financial fraud after a dispute between government agencies revealed a $35 billion discrepancy in revenues from the country's oil sales.
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BY: Nasser Karimi | Associated Press
Iran will seek "important changes" in a U.N.-drafted plan to ship enriched uranium out of the country for processing, state TV reported on Tuesday, raising alarm bells among Western leaders who are pushing the deal in hopes of easing concerns over Iran's nuclear program.
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BY: Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti, and James Risen | The New York Times
Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.
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BY: Joshua Partlow | The Washington Post
October became the deadliest month for U.S. troops in the eight-year-old war in Afghanistan when two powerful bombs killed eight soldiers and an interpreter in separate attacks Tuesday.
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Asia Sentinel
Afghanistan's 28.4 million battle-weary people are slightly more optimistic in 2009 – or were, prior to the fiasco that their national election turned into, according to an exhaustive public opinion survey conducted throughout the country in June and July under the auspices of the Asia Foundation.
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BY: Scott Baldauf | The Christian Science Monitor
Zimbabwe's Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara portrayed himself as a mediator while decrying the obstinance of President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
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BY: Mark Tran | The Guardian
The EU today imposed an arms embargo and a visa ban on Guinea's military leaders as new details emerged of killings and rapes allegedly committed by presidential troops at a peaceful rally last month.
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BY: David Francis | World Politics Review
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Christian Democratic Party agreed to form a new government with the upstart conservative Free Democrats on Saturday, setting the stage for major changes in both German domestic and foreign policies.
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BY: Dan Bilefsky | The New York Times
With Turkey’s prospects for joining the European Union growing more elusive and the country reaching out to predominantly Muslim countries with a vigor not seen in years, a longstanding question is vexing the United States and Europe: Is this large, secular Muslim country turning East instead of West?
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BY: Norimitsu Onishi | The New York Times
Under Islamic law, or Shariah, the religious police have administered public canings for such things as gambling, prostitution and illicit affairs. But under a new Islamic criminal code that goes into effect this month, the Shariah police will be wielding a new and more potent threat: death by stoning for adulterers.
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BY: Tom Hussein | The National
The frosty relationship between Pakistan’s two top politicians, Asif Ali Zardari, the president, and Nawaz Sharif, the opposition leader, showed signs of thawing at a dinner on Monday that appeared aimed at silencing an army-fed whisper campaign against the government.
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BY: J C K Lee | Asia Sentinel
An ailing king, a feckless heir, political rivalries and conniving unions make the future uncertain.
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BY: Tracy Wilkinson | Los Angeles Times
The world is eager for President Obama to lift the U.S. embargo on Cuba, which nearly every nation opposes. But though he has relaxed some curbs, for now he still backs the embargo.
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BY: Tim Rogers | The Christian Science Monitor
President Daniel Ortega's move to have the Supreme Court scrap presidential term limits breathes new life into a budding clandestine protest movement.
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BY: Sandro Contenta | Global Post
Questions over Canada’s role in the Afghanistan war and unflattering polls have the prime minister eyeing the exits.