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The EU should become the central international player in Bosnia, with a Special Representative taking over the responsibilities of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) which should be closed this year. Ensuring Bosnia’s Future: A New International Engagement Strategy,* the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the dangers Bosnia faces in 2007, after a very difficult 2006 and with new tensions looming with the approach of Kosovo’s final status decision. At risk are the survival of a unified Bosnia and the stability of much of the Western Balkans, as the Peace Implementation Council (PIC), responsible for guiding...

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP - NEW REPORT Pristina/Brussels, 10 November 2006: The Kosovo final status process could break down if the decision is pushed much into 2007. Kosovo Status: Delay Is Risky,* the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the situation as UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari prepares to present a final settlement package for the international protectorate. The Contact Group (the U.S., UK, France, Germany, Italy, Russia) that has sponsored the process must at minimum deliver timely endorsement of the package, and the UN Security Council must pass a resolution superseding resolution 1244 (1999) to allow the UN Mission...

After Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed a bunch more this summer...after Israel responded with its assault on Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon...after Israel's stock market dropped 10 percent in the first week of...a strange thing happened to Israel's capital markets: nothing. The stocks quickly recovered almost all their early losses. So did those in Egypt, Kuwait, Dubai, and Qatar. Even the Saudi Tadawul, which shed more than 6 percent in the days after the fighting started, climbed soon after (and 6 percent wasn't that big a deal since it had doubled last year and was looking to resettle)....

The belief in a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian or Arab-Israeli conflict persists like a demonic possession. Those who believe Israel essentially confronts an ongoing siege, religiously rooted in Islam, adduce evidence for that view overwhelming rates of anti-Semitism in every Arab country, Nazi-style anti-Semitic propaganda and imagery throughout the Arab world, majorities of Palestinians saying they favor suicide bombings and the dissolution of Israel, and so on. But for true believers in a peaceful solution, evidence does not avail. Whether motivated by an impatience with Israel s existence (possibly tinged with anti-Semitism) and its perceived costs for Western stability...

PRISTINA, Serbia-Western powers and United Nations should allow Kosovo to create an army as part of resolving the final status of the disputed province, a think tank said in a report Friday. The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said that the final status determination should outline the steps that will be taken to develop a small Kosovo defense force, which would be limited in its size and capabilities. The international community "must avoid creating a weak state," the ICG warned. It proposed that the force should be made up of up to 3,000 personnel and have no tanks,...

For a long time the proponents of Kosovo’s independence have acted as if the game was up, that all that remained was for the “international community” to settle on the formula for independence—and for Serbia to sign on the dotted line under pressure. Until recently, many old Balkan hands in the world’s capitals that matter expected that by the end of 2006 it would be all over. There are recent signs, however, that “it” won’t be over that soon, and that the outcome is by no means preordained. It did not look that way when the United Nations abandoned its...

As Nepal catches its collective breath after weeks of turmoil, renewed attention is focusing on the country's Maoist rebels and their decade-long violent insurrection aimed at toppling the monarchy in favour of a communist republic. In the view of some analysts, the Maoists have the upper hand politically now that King Gyanendra has bowed to popular pressure -- applied in part by their alliance of convenience with mainstream political parties -- and has begun ceding absolutist rule. Yesterday, the King appointed Girija Prasad Koirala, a feeble and sickly 84-year-old politician, as Prime Minister as the first step to restoring multiparty...

(Brussels, DTT-NET.COM)- A prestigious think-tank said that Kosovo’s independence must be imposed on Serbia, because of impossibility of reaching any agreement between Kosovan Ethnic Albanians and Serbian authorities on the future of UN administrated province. “To create a stable Kosovo, the international community must dare to impose independence rather than attempt finessing Pristina and Belgrade’s differences with an ambiguous and unstable settlement,“ International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report published on Friday. ICG says that agreement between all parties remains desirable in theory, “it is extremely unlikely that any Serbian government will voluntarily acquiesce to the kind of independence,...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The rushed drafting of Iraq's new constitution has deepened sectarian rifts and is likely to fuel the Sunni-led insurgency and hasten the country's violent break up, a leading think-tank said. "Instead of healing the growing divisions between Iraq's three principal communities -- Shiites, Kurds and Sunni Arabs -- a rushed constitutional process has deepened rifts and hardened feelings," the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report. Iraq "appears to be heading toward de facto partition and full-scale civil war" said the report, unless Washington makes "a determined effort to broker a true compromise between Shiites, Kurds...

The International Crisis Group said in a report that Al Qaida has taken over parts of the Arab League state. ICG reported that the Al Qaida network, based in the capital Mogadishu, has been abducting foreign aid workers. "The threat of jihadi terrorism in and from Somalia is real," the report said. "Since 2003, Somalia has witnessed the rise of a new, ruthless independent jihadi network with links to Al Qaida."

NAIROBI (Reuters) - A new group of al Qaeda-linked "jihadis" or "holy warriors" has won a foothold in Somalia and though small may flourish if stable rule does not return to the anarchic Horn of Africa nation, a report said on Sunday. The "new, ruthless independent jihadi network" is run from the capital Mogadishu by a militia boss trained in Afghanistan and has already killed several foreign aid workers, the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank said. "Ultimately, the threat of jihadi terrorism from Somalia can only be addressed through the restoration of stable, legitimate and functional government," added the ICG...

On this Memorial Day weekend, we think back and remember the valiant courage and heroic sacrifices of those United States Military men and women who gave their all for us. War is almost always bloody. But the peace it can bring soothes some of the pain for those left behind.This is all the more reason to regret a situation in which fecklessness squanders the gains paid for in blood. A prime example is found in Kosovo, where the United Nations has played a leading role.The Deutsche Welle yesterday relayed a report from the Brussels-based International Crises Group (ICG) that says...

WASHINGTON -- The pro-world government group known as Citizens for Global Solutions has given campaign contributions to four Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee now opposing John Bolton's nomination as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. In addition, according to Accuracy in Media (AIM), billionaire currency manipulator George Soros made financial contributions to six of eight Democratic members of the committee.

Soros Shadow Party Stalks DeLayBy Richard PoeFrontPageMagazine.com | April 12, 2005 On the day that Terri Schiavo died — victim of a court order condemning the brain-damaged woman to death by thirst and starvation — Representative Tom DeLay of Texas did what few politicians have the courage to do these days. He spoke his mind."This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most," DeLay told Fox News on March 31. "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior." DeLay’s strong language worried some Republicans. They pointed...

[World News]: As the first month of emergency rule in Nepal, imposed by King Gyanendra after sacking the government led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Feb 1, draws to a close, a coordinated international response to the suspension of democracy and civil rights in this Himalayan kingdom is taking shape. On Tuesday, India let it be known that it has decided to freeze military aid to Nepal. On the same day, Britain made a similar announcement. While the US has not yet officially declared its intentions, it is likely to put on hold the planned $24 million aid...

The new Bush doctrine — George Soros We may be wrong. This is a possibility that Bush refuses to acknowledge. His denial appeals to a significant segment of the American public. An equally significant segment is appalled. This has left the US not only deeply divided, but also at loggerheads with much of the rest of the world, which considers our policies high-handed and arbitrary President George W Bush’s second inaugural address set forth an ambitious vision of the role of the United States in advancing the cause of freedom worldwide, fuelling worldwide speculation over the course of American foreign...

The UN-administered Serbian province of Kosovo could collapse back into war unless it becomes an independent state, an international research group warned in a report to be officially published on Monday. "The situation in Kosovo is increasingly dangerous, threatening wide-scale unrest and even renewed war," the International Crisis Group wrote, criticizing world leaders for acting too slowly on the issue. The Brussels-based group said in a 40-page report available on its Web site that Kosovo should not return to Belgrade's rule or be partitioned and that "any possible unification of Kosovo with Albania or any neighboring state or territory will...

WASHINGTON -- The growing insurgency against U.S. forces in Iraq is fed by nationalist feelings and widespread distrust of the United States, the private International Crisis Group said Wednesday. Challenging the Bush administration, the crisis group said, "The insurgency is not confined to a finite number of fanatics isolated from the population and opposed to a democratic Iraq."

Members of an international panel studying United Nations' operations say the group hopes to lay down clear rules declaring when it is legal for a nation to use pre-emptive military force in its own defense.     The issue grows out of the international controversy over the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq without a final U.N. Security Council resolution explicitly authorizing the war, said panel member Gareth Evans, a former foreign minister of Australia.     "I expect the panel to be giving close consideration to what those rules are and how they should be applied and whether an effort should be...

The United Nations is facing some of its most intense scrutiny over the administration of Kosovo. Serbs and ethnic Albanian leaders -- barely in dialogue with each other -- see the UN as unfit to run the province. UN Security Council members are pressing for policy changes to maintain their goal of a multiethnic entity. A number of outside experts, meanwhile, regard the council's mandate for Kosovo as an inherent contradiction that must be revised soon. United Nations, 13 August 2004 (RFE/RL) -- When Soren Jessen-Petersen takes over on 16 August as the UN's sixth administrator of Kosovo, he will...