Briefing Archive

LAGOS, Nigeria — A key militant group in Nigeria’s troubled Niger Delta region announced a one-month ceasefire Saturday, giving the country’s new president an opportunity to make good on promises to bring an end to the crisis there. The Niger Delta is the center of the oil industry in a country that is the sixth largest producer in the world, but the region is also home to some of Nigeria’s worst poverty. Over the last year-and-a-half, militant groups seeking a share of Nigeria’s oil wealth have sprung up in the delta. The groups have kidnapped Western oil workers and bombed […]

With the international media focused on the violent clashes between left-wing “anti-globalization” activists and German police at the anti-G-8 protest in Rostock this past weekend, another component of Germany’s broad “anti-globalization” consensus will have passed largely unperceived: namely, the neo-Nazis of the National-Democratic Party of Germany or NPD. Under the motto “There is no such thing as fair globalization,” an NPD-sponsored anti-G-8 demonstration had been scheduled to take place in the nearby city of Schwerin on Saturday, the same day as the “leftist” demonstration in Rostock. The NPD protest was, however, cancelled at the last minute, as the state supreme […]

KABUL, Afghanistan — Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday reaffirmed the United States’ long-term commitment to rebuilding Afghanistan and hailed “real progress” made by NATO forces this year against the Taliban insurgency, despite rising violence in the southern and eastern provinces and the arrival of deadly Iranian-made weapons. Gates, on his second visit to the country since taking the helm of the Pentagon, said that after a round of talks with President Hamid Karzai, NATO commanders and other Afghan officials involved in training the national army, he believes the security situation has improved in recent months. “The Afghan alliance offensive […]

Editor’s Note: Corridors of Power, written by World Politics Review Editor-at-Large Roland Flamini, appears every Monday. A PARTING GIFT FOR BLAIR? — At a Friday Council on Foreign Relations briefing in Washington on this week’s G-8 summit, Gene Sperling, former National Economic Council director, and now a CFR senior fellow, said President Bush’s proposal for a series of meetings on climate change are “an attempted parting gift to Prime Minister [Tony] Blair . . . and I think if Blair is trying to look and say he got something out of this partnership, perhaps this is his last chance to […]

DENPASAR, Indonesia — Often praised as a model pluralistic society, Malaysia is showing signs of increased religious tension, and many wonder whether Kuala Lumpur’s reluctance to protect non-Muslims’ rights could lead to serious problems. Non-Muslims make up roughly 40 percent of Malaysia’s 26 million people, and among them follow Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Confucianism and Taoism. Their rights are protected by a civil legal system that runs parallel to the Islamic courts, governed by Sharia. The latter system regulates religious, civil, family, marriage and personal rights for the country’s Muslims. However, the demarcation line between the two systems is somehow blurring, […]

State-sponsored censorship of the Internet has increased significantly in recent years, according to a study of 41 countries conducted during 2006 and 2007 by the OpenNet Initiative (ONI), a consortium of researchers from four major universities, including Harvard and Oxford. “The conclusions from this first year of global testing highlight that Internet filtering is growing in scope, scale and sophistication worldwide,” an ONI summary of its work states. “At least twenty-five of the forty-one countries ONI tested are engaged in some form of technical Internet filtering.”That’s up from just five states conducting systematic filtering five years ago, John Palfrey, executive […]

On May 29, the Russian government very ostentatiously tested two different ballistic missiles, designated the RS-24 and R-500. The Russian media characterized both systems as new versions of existing missiles, modified to penetrate U.S. ballistic missile defenses (BMD) more effectively. First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, the former fefense minster, claimed that “these systems can beat any operational and future missile defenses.” According to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, the new RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile is simply a version of the road-mobile SS-25 Topol (“Sickle”) that had been modified to carry up to 10 multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles […]

HONG KONG — As China grapples with the problem of producing enough electricity to meet the needs of its staggering economic growth, a pollution crisis is beginning to plume over Hong Kong. Power generation in China’s southern province of Guangdong has failed to keep pace with rapid economic development — forcing it to turn to Hong Kong for electricity. As a result, China Light and Power (CLP), Asia’s largest private power utility and the biggest polluter in Hong Kong, is attracting local political criticism for selling an increasing amount of excess electricity to mainland China for profit. In 2006, electricity […]

Editor’s Note: Rights & Wrongs is a new feature covering the world’s major human rights-related happenings. It is written by regular WPR contributor Juliette Terzieff. VENEZUELA MEDIA MAELSTROM — President Hugo Chavez Wednesday lashed out at Globalvision, Venezuela’s last private television station, in a nationally broadcast speech. He called the station an enemy of the state and threatened to shut it down. The Chavez speech came just days after Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) was taken off the air on May 27 to be replaced by a government-run channel. Thousands of Venezuelans have taken to the streets every day this week […]