On July 7 powerful explosions in Abadan shook Turkmenistan’s political landscape. Following clear attempts to cover up the incident, a few days later the Turkmen regime had to admit that the incident had caused “some casualties.” Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov demoted several government ministers, threatening... MORE

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership’s apparent failure to rein in reckless borrowing by local administrations has raised serious questions about the efficacy of the country’s stimulus package—and the viability of its vaunted economic model. Last month, the National Audit Administration (NAA) disclosed that regional... MORE

Despite the Pakistan government’s proscription, the Islamic charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) has stepped up its overt anti-Indian and anti-Western rhetoric, holding mass protest rallies across Pakistan as its leaders continue to give provocative speeches in various public forums to fuel Jihadi sentiments and threaten Indian and... MORE

Possibly recognizing that intelligence breakdowns played a major role in the elimination of Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders, the al-Qaeda’s Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF) recently released a training tool entitled “The Security and Intelligence Course.” Many jihadi internet forums posted the course’s... MORE

Georgian media-freedom watchdogs, criticizing the espionage investigation against three local photographers (“Three Photographers Charged With Espionage In Georgia,” EDM, July 14), have crossed the line beyond their own mandate. This group now seeks publication of the classified evidence and an “independent review” of the case... MORE

Georgia’s official presidential photographer, another photographer who is an Internal Affairs Ministry contract employee, and the Tbilisi representative of the European Pressphoto Agency (EPA), are in pre-trial detention since July 7 on charges of espionage. On July 9 the Internal Affairs Ministry briefed the media... MORE

The Russian government is still looking for the ways to solve the armed resistance problem in the North Caucasus. The government, however, makes no attempt to understand the core issues of the region, seeking instead a quick fix using administrative methods and force. This time,... MORE

Russia has been hit by a number of manmade disasters. The worst is the sinking on July 10, of an old Bulgaria riverboat on the Volga River in Tatarstan. The Bulgaria was built in Czechoslovakia in 1955 and was rundown by age and neglect with... MORE

Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka is facing the greatest crisis of his seventeen years in office. With inflation rampant, hard currency unavailable, bank reserves dwindling, power cuts caused by non-payment of electricity costs to Russia, and growing dissatisfaction with his rule among the population, media speculation... MORE

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on July 5 opened a criminal case against a former business of current opposition leader and former Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, the United Energy Systems (UES). The SBU alleged that the UES tried to embezzle $405 million, adding that... MORE