Blackwater trials failing to produce convictions. Yemen resource conflict highlighted in two reports. Arms thought to be destined for Nigerian Delta intercepted. Karzai presses ahead with ban on private military companies, drawing mixed response. All this and more in today's security briefing.
The rescue of trapped Chilean miners after two months underground inspired both national unity and worldwide acclaim. But as the afterglow fades Chile’s government faces an equally monumental set of tasks, says the Chilean scholar Patricio Navia.
The popular rejection of Nicolas Sarkozy’s abrupt changes to France’s pension system is rooted in the institutional and ethical flaws that underlie the reform, says Patrice de Beer.
Former Iraqi foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, sentenced to death. Ex-‘child soldier’ pleads guilty at Guantanamo. UK police receive terror training. Transparency international ranks war-torn countries as 'most corrupt'. All this and more in today’s security briefing.
Further accusations of Tehran’s deep involvement in two ongoing wars. Tibetan student unrest over proposed language policy causes headaches for Beijing. Violence continues unabated in the streets of Karachi. All this and more in today’s security briefing.
"If we’ve done as much with as little resources as women have, think what we could do with more. Women are the energy of the future… its up to women to show what women’s leadership in the UN can do." Charlotte Bunch
Security policy in Afghanistan may be powered by sublimated imperial nostalgia, but most of the really valuable practical memories and lessons of empire have long since been forgotten. A review of three recent books on the Taliban
A can of worms is opened at the 54th London Film Festival
A delicate papal visit to Britain was in the end a diplomatic success. All the more reason to examine the ideas it advanced, says Michael Walsh.
The triumphant rescue of Chile's entombed miners is also, for the country's political elite, a turning-point in its history. But the narrative of instant renewal evades some of Chile's darker and more complex realities, says Malcolm Coad in Santiago.
In Tbilisi, memories of the bitter conflict with Russia in August 2008 are fresh, but everywhere too are signs that forces of change are pushing Georgia in new directions. Jonathan Wheatley takes the measure of a fluid political moment.
