NATO members took important decisions during the April 3-4 summit, celebrating the Alliance's 60th anniversary. Following intense negotiations to ameliorate Turkey's reservations, on April 4 NATO leaders named Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Ramussen as their new Secretary-General. Turkey's agreement sparked controversy in Turkey as... MORE

It took an eleventh-hour lobbying effort by the separatist leader of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity to avert a serious fiscal crisis in the breakaway republic. On March 26, Kokoity led a delegation from South Ossetia to meet the Minister of Regional Development, Victor Basargin and... MORE

In his second speech of the year, the Amir of the al-Qaeda-allied Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, has criticized President Obama’s Iraq plan as deceitful and announced a new military campaign entitled “The Good Harvest” (al-hanein.info, March 17). The campaign is designed... MORE

President Viktor Yushchenko was vexed when European Commission President Jose Barroso suggested that he and Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko should make peace for the sake of Ukraine's stability. "I don't want to get advice on what to do anywhere in Europe, this is humiliating,"... MORE

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) says it places high priority on making Mexico an important link in its widely publicized “win-win” expansion into Latin America. This was evident during Vice President Xi Jinping’s February stop-over in Mexico City. In reality, however, after 37 years... MORE

As China expands its engagement throughout Africa, it increasingly finds itself involved in African conflict zones either by design or accident.  This involvement takes essentially three forms: Chinese participation in UN peacekeeping operations, Chinese weapons, especially small arms, which make their way into conflict zones,... MORE

On April 1 the first face-to-face meeting of presidents Barrack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev took place before the G20 summit in London. In an official joint statement after their meeting Obama and Medvedev announced their intention to "move beyond Cold War mentalities" and work together... MORE

Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin has pulled back at the last moment from the brink of a separate deal to put Russia in the driving seat of negotiations on Transnistria. The March 18 joint declaration by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Voronin, and Transnistria leader Igor Smirnov... MORE

Turkish President Abdullah Gul's visit to Iraq might be regarded as a turning point in Turkey's Kurdish issue, perhaps more than its implications for improving Turkish-Iraqi ties (EDM, March 24). On the plane to Baghdad, Gul reportedly used the word "Kurdistan" to describe the Kurdistan... MORE

On March 17, Congressmen Adam Schiff, George Radanovich and Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairmen Frank Pallone and Mark Kirk introduced a resolution to the U.S. House of Representatives co-sponsored by over 70 House colleagues to recognize the Armenian "genocide" of 1915. The resolution is identical to... MORE