WESTERN EUROPE
In Briton the Iraq Inquiry, which is investigating the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, in an effort to keep proceedings clear of party politics has affirmed that British leader Gordon Brown and other senior ministers wouldn't testify until after the next general election.
Meanwhile on the climate front Yvo de Boer a top U.N. climate official says the 193-nation Copenhagen Global Warming Summit that ended last weekend outlined a way forward for negotiators and succeeded in mobilizing emergency funds for poor nations to prepare for climate change. The last hour limited accord brokered by Obama is being set aside amid acrimony over the failure to reach a legally binding deal.
In Greece President Karolos Papoulias declined his Macedonian counterpart's invitation for a visit last week saying such a trip would be possible only after the name dispute between the two countries was resolved.
Meanwhile on the financial front Greek Parliament began discussions late last week on the country's 2010 budget, aimed at finding a way out of the current financial crisis. While internationally, World stock markets rose amid mounting optimism about the speed of the U.S. economic recovery. In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 0.9 percent, Germany's DAX rose 0.4 percent and the CAC-40 in France was 0.7 percent higher. Earlier, all major Asian markets rose strongly in the wake of advance on Wall Street.
SOUTH-EAST EUROPE
President Boris Tadic submitted Serbia's EU membership application on Dec. 22nd to authorities in Sweden, the current holder of the rotating EU presidency. Meanwhile in Macedonia Ali Ahmeti, the only candidate for the post, was re-elected last week as leader of the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) a governing (as of 2008) political party in Republic of Macedonia. Ahmeti expressed hope that during Spain's EU presidency, which starts on January 1st, the long-standing name dispute between Macedonia and Greece will be resolved and Macedonia "will finally become a member of NATO and will start talks on full-fledged EU membership."
The Court of BiH convicted two Bosnian Serbs last week for war crimes committed against Bosnian civilians in the Kalinovik area during the 1992-1995 conflict. Also the Court has charged a group of Bosnian Muslims with terrorism and illegal weapons trafficking. According to the indictment, radical Muslim Rijad Rustempasic organized the group to carry out attacks aimed at destabilizing the country. Meanwhile the European Court of Human Rights ruled last week that the constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), created as an annex to the Dayton Peace Agreements, discriminates against minorities.
Croatia's presidential elections are to go to a second round run-off on January 10th as neither of the two leading candidates - opposition Social Democrat contender Ivo Josipovic nor the long-time mayor of Zagreb, Milan Bandic - won more than 50 per cent of the votes in last week’s poll.
Romanian incumbent President Traian Basescu of the Liberal Democratic Party (PDL) has been sworn in to a second term in office (December 21st). Meanwhile Albanian Opposition Socialist Party (SP) leader Edi Rama filed a lawsuit last week against Prime Minister Sali Berisha, accusing him of libel. Rama says Berisha has "repeatedly and publicly offended" him.
Saudi Arabia has established diplomatic relations with Kosovo with Saudi Ambassador to Albania Abdullah Abdulaziz Alabdulkarim handling duties for Kosovo as well. He said his country has great respect for Kosovo and will continue providing economic support.
Meanwhile in Bulgaria an estimated 3,000 tobacco farmers blocked one of the country’s main highways last week (December 21st) to protest subsidy cuts planned for 2010.
US/CANADA
A top U.S. military officer Adm. Mike Mullen has said he does not assume Iran's brief seizure of an Iraqi oil well is part of an orchestrated plan in Tehran to threaten its neighbors. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has also said that any military strike on Iran, whether by Israel or the United States, should be a last resort.
In the US Senate Democrats passed a landmark health care bill in a climactic Christmas Eve vote that could define President Barack Obama's legacy and usher in near-universal medical coverage for the first time in the country's history. Meanwhile President Barack Obama last week ordered the federal government to rethink how it protects the nation's secrets, in a move that was expected to declassify more than 400 million pages of Cold War-era documents and curb the number of government records hidden from the public.
On the ‘War on Terror’ front President Barack Obama's commitment to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by next month may be delayed until 2011 because it will take months for the government to buy an Illinois prison and upgrade it to hold suspected terrorists. Meanwhile the State Department's internal watchdog has criticized the agency's nearly $2 billion
anti-drug effort in Afghanistan for poor oversight and lack of a long-term strategy.
In a sharp change of position, the head of Canada's main opposition party has said in an interview that he was not keen on trying to trigger an election next year. The comments by Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff mean it is likely the minority Conservative government -- which needs the support of opposition legislators to stay in power -- will be able to push through its budget early next year.
LATIN AMERICA
An Ecuadorian private television station critical of President Rafael Correa came back on air last week after a three-day suspension that fueled concern among government critics over press freedom in the Andean country. Its license was initially revoked over accusations that it incited violence during protests in October.
Meanwhile Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has threatened to expel Japanese carmaker Toyota unless it produces an all-terrain model of 4x4 vehicles used for public transport in poor and rural areas. Last week Chavez also accused the United States of violating Venezuela's airspace with an unmanned spy plane and ordered his military to be on alert and shoot down any such aircraft. The Pentagon has declined to comment on Chavez's accusations while the Colombian Defense Minister Gabriel Silva and armed forces commander Freddy Padilla have said that a
Colombian aircraft couldn't fly the kind of espionage mission described by Chavez.
The US Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens has visited deposed President Manuel Zelaya as part of a bid to find a solution to the political crisis gripping the impoverished Central American nation.
Meanwhile Cuba's foreign minister called President Barack Obama an "imperial and arrogant" liar for his conduct at the U.N. climate conference, a reflection of the communist island's increasingly fiery verbal attacks on the U.S. government.§
In Briton the Iraq Inquiry, which is investigating the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, in an effort to keep proceedings clear of party politics has affirmed that British leader Gordon Brown and other senior ministers wouldn't testify until after the next general election.
Meanwhile on the climate front Yvo de Boer a top U.N. climate official says the 193-nation Copenhagen Global Warming Summit that ended last weekend outlined a way forward for negotiators and succeeded in mobilizing emergency funds for poor nations to prepare for climate change. The last hour limited accord brokered by Obama is being set aside amid acrimony over the failure to reach a legally binding deal.
In Greece President Karolos Papoulias declined his Macedonian counterpart's invitation for a visit last week saying such a trip would be possible only after the name dispute between the two countries was resolved.
Meanwhile on the financial front Greek Parliament began discussions late last week on the country's 2010 budget, aimed at finding a way out of the current financial crisis. While internationally, World stock markets rose amid mounting optimism about the speed of the U.S. economic recovery. In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 0.9 percent, Germany's DAX rose 0.4 percent and the CAC-40 in France was 0.7 percent higher. Earlier, all major Asian markets rose strongly in the wake of advance on Wall Street.
SOUTH-EAST EUROPE
President Boris Tadic submitted Serbia's EU membership application on Dec. 22nd to authorities in Sweden, the current holder of the rotating EU presidency. Meanwhile in Macedonia Ali Ahmeti, the only candidate for the post, was re-elected last week as leader of the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) a governing (as of 2008) political party in Republic of Macedonia. Ahmeti expressed hope that during Spain's EU presidency, which starts on January 1st, the long-standing name dispute between Macedonia and Greece will be resolved and Macedonia "will finally become a member of NATO and will start talks on full-fledged EU membership."
The Court of BiH convicted two Bosnian Serbs last week for war crimes committed against Bosnian civilians in the Kalinovik area during the 1992-1995 conflict. Also the Court has charged a group of Bosnian Muslims with terrorism and illegal weapons trafficking. According to the indictment, radical Muslim Rijad Rustempasic organized the group to carry out attacks aimed at destabilizing the country. Meanwhile the European Court of Human Rights ruled last week that the constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), created as an annex to the Dayton Peace Agreements, discriminates against minorities.
Croatia's presidential elections are to go to a second round run-off on January 10th as neither of the two leading candidates - opposition Social Democrat contender Ivo Josipovic nor the long-time mayor of Zagreb, Milan Bandic - won more than 50 per cent of the votes in last week’s poll.
Romanian incumbent President Traian Basescu of the Liberal Democratic Party (PDL) has been sworn in to a second term in office (December 21st). Meanwhile Albanian Opposition Socialist Party (SP) leader Edi Rama filed a lawsuit last week against Prime Minister Sali Berisha, accusing him of libel. Rama says Berisha has "repeatedly and publicly offended" him.
Saudi Arabia has established diplomatic relations with Kosovo with Saudi Ambassador to Albania Abdullah Abdulaziz Alabdulkarim handling duties for Kosovo as well. He said his country has great respect for Kosovo and will continue providing economic support.
Meanwhile in Bulgaria an estimated 3,000 tobacco farmers blocked one of the country’s main highways last week (December 21st) to protest subsidy cuts planned for 2010.
US/CANADA
A top U.S. military officer Adm. Mike Mullen has said he does not assume Iran's brief seizure of an Iraqi oil well is part of an orchestrated plan in Tehran to threaten its neighbors. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has also said that any military strike on Iran, whether by Israel or the United States, should be a last resort.
In the US Senate Democrats passed a landmark health care bill in a climactic Christmas Eve vote that could define President Barack Obama's legacy and usher in near-universal medical coverage for the first time in the country's history. Meanwhile President Barack Obama last week ordered the federal government to rethink how it protects the nation's secrets, in a move that was expected to declassify more than 400 million pages of Cold War-era documents and curb the number of government records hidden from the public.
On the ‘War on Terror’ front President Barack Obama's commitment to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by next month may be delayed until 2011 because it will take months for the government to buy an Illinois prison and upgrade it to hold suspected terrorists. Meanwhile the State Department's internal watchdog has criticized the agency's nearly $2 billion
anti-drug effort in Afghanistan for poor oversight and lack of a long-term strategy.In a sharp change of position, the head of Canada's main opposition party has said in an interview that he was not keen on trying to trigger an election next year. The comments by Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff mean it is likely the minority Conservative government -- which needs the support of opposition legislators to stay in power -- will be able to push through its budget early next year.
LATIN AMERICA
An Ecuadorian private television station critical of President Rafael Correa came back on air last week after a three-day suspension that fueled concern among government critics over press freedom in the Andean country. Its license was initially revoked over accusations that it incited violence during protests in October.
Meanwhile Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has threatened to expel Japanese carmaker Toyota unless it produces an all-terrain model of 4x4 vehicles used for public transport in poor and rural areas. Last week Chavez also accused the United States of violating Venezuela's airspace with an unmanned spy plane and ordered his military to be on alert and shoot down any such aircraft. The Pentagon has declined to comment on Chavez's accusations while the Colombian Defense Minister Gabriel Silva and armed forces commander Freddy Padilla have said that a
Colombian aircraft couldn't fly the kind of espionage mission described by Chavez.The US Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens has visited deposed President Manuel Zelaya as part of a bid to find a solution to the political crisis gripping the impoverished Central American nation.
Meanwhile Cuba's foreign minister called President Barack Obama an "imperial and arrogant" liar for his conduct at the U.N. climate conference, a reflection of the communist island's increasingly fiery verbal attacks on the U.S. government.§
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Business and Politics in the Muslim World (BPM)refers to the project entitled, "Globalized Business and Politics: A View from the Muslim World.' The blog development project has been undertaken and jointly developed by the Gilani Research Foundation and BPM as a free resource and social discussion tool.
Please Preview your comments before posting.
Business and Politics in the Muslim World (BPM)refers to the project entitled, "Globalized Business and Politics: A View from the Muslim World.' The blog development project has been undertaken and jointly developed by the Gilani Research Foundation and BPM as a free resource and social discussion tool.
Please Preview your comments before posting.
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