HONG KONG — Hong Kong ‘s elections are shaping up with all the pomp and ceremony of a Canto-pop star singing numbers from a Looney Tunes cartoon. And the result is about as forgone as Bugs Bunny surviving a bullet from Elmer Fudd. However, this territory’s third attempt at delivering some kind of democracy since the British packed their bags and left almost a decade ago is drawing in a cast of characters that Warner Bros. would be proud of and breathing some much needed fresh air into a poll described by many as rigged. In one corner sits current [...]
WASHINGTON — Concern in Washington about political freedom in the energy-rich former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan is growing, including among the new Democratic leadership of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. World Politics Review has learned that Sen. Joe Biden last week sent a personal letter to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev airing his frustration over the slowness with which the transformation toward “transparent democracy” is occurring in Kazakhstan, the second-largest of the former Soviet republics. Biden’s office is refusing to release the letter to the press. However, in a telephone interview, the Delaware Democrat’s chief of staff, Alan Hoffman, acknowledged the [...]
Following the success of an outlet in Karachi, Pakistan, Cafe Coffee Day, India’s No. 1 retail coffee shop chain, said last month it would open 19 new outlets in neighboring Pakistan, a move that would have been inconceivable even two years ago. But that’s how far talks between India and Pakistan have come since the two nations almost went to war in 2002 following an attack on Indian Parliament by suspected Kashmiri militants, who India says were backed by Pakistan. Since then, the two sides have held four rounds of talks, the most recent of which ended last Wednesday (March [...]
