Are coups still being done anywhere?
Well yes, in Africa, there've been a few in the past year in Guinea, Madagascar and Mauritania.
U.S. President Barack Obama recently announced a cessation in benefits to several of these states as punishment for their illegal and unconstitutional transition in power.

Guinea, situated in West Africa just north of major 90s troublespots Sierra Leone and Liberia, is in a particularly precarious state, after infighting among coup leaders earlier this month, resulted in the coup leader to be shot and seriously wounded.

Southern Sudan, one of the world's most underdeveloped areas, will hold a referendum in 2011 to decide if it will break away from Sudan to form a new nation. This is significant because this is the culmination of long-time tensions between the North and South, with (at the risk of simplifying the state of affairs) the former's people being mostly Arabic-speaking and Muslim, and the latter being mostly non-Muslim. The area has experienced heavy violence and severe humanitarian troubles, raising fears from some who feel this is part of a plot to undermine the fragile peace in the region and intensify conflicts amongst the people in the South with each other.

The South fought a bitter and devastating war with the Sudanese government that lasted over 20 years (from the early eighties to 2005) and killed over a million people. The two sides signed an agreement that has continued till the present, but with one of the conditions being a referendum for secession. It will be tough if the referendum actually succeeds, given the humanitarian problems and violence, so any fledgling South Sudan state will have its work cut out.

Dubai's debt extension request, basically an admission that they can't pay up their debts now, really put a scare on the world and showed just how badly this former global darling has fallen. While the global economy has seemed to have overcome this shock, Dubai's troubles are likely to continue further. Its ruler, with his great, extravagant vision, still seems defiant. Some also believe that this may be the first in a series of national and corporate debt crises worldwide.

Great news in Somalia as a Canadian freelance journalist was just released after over a year in captivity by an armed militia. A ransom was paid and groups like Reporters without Borders had been working to get her release for a long time. The news seemed really bleak back in August, with rumors of her even having been raped and impregnated. It's good that this didn't happen, at least the pregnancy part, but she did claim to have been tortured.

On the other hand, at least 18 journalists experienced a gory fate in the Philippines, after they were killed after being in a convoy with over 50 persons who were stopped, captured and mostly executed by armed militiamen, allegedly hired by a politician. This has to be one of the worst events involving journalists, maybe even unprecedented in modern times. Imagine if this had happened to American journalists, say in Iraq for example, the international outcry would have been even greater.

It's fitting that while I've been dormant on this blog these past two months, tensions have become worse in Iraq, Afghanistan and even East Asia with signs of widening differences involving the U.S., Japan, China and East and Southeast Asia in general.

First, while fighting has continued in Afghanistan and the situation has become so serious that the U.S. military's top leadership is calling for more troops, Asia Times has a crazy article about foreign helicopters ferrying Taliban troops around. The reason: "According to Rahim Rahimi, a professor at Balkh University, America and the United Kingdom are trying to keep all of Afghanistan insecure, so that people feel the need for the foreign forces."

Meanwhile Iraq saw some massive blasts in Baghdad that have come after a relatively long period of relative calm.

As the world struggles to overcome this ongoing economic crisis, China continues to get a lot of attention, or I might say hype, especially over its possible ability to help lead the world economy out of this crisis. It is no exaggeration to say that some have already anointed China as the next superpower, ready to pass the U.S. and take up a leading position in the world equivalent to its historical and cultural standing. Yet as always, it's good to be cautious about China, as these articles from Time magazine show. One asks if China can really "save the world?" while the other reminds people that nothing can be taken for granted about the future.

The ongoing global economic crisis is notable in that developed nations such as the U.S. and big powers like China have been seriously affected. Africa itself is also being affected, especially from the reduction or complete elimination of funding from the developed world. This article from Time magazine (July 13 edition) examines this situation. As a World Bank economist says in the article, people in the West may suffer from the recession, but for people in Africa, it can literally be a matter of life and death. On the other hand, this lack of aid money may be a good thing, for people like Dambisa Moyo, author of Dead Aid, who argues vociferously about the detrimental effect of aid on African governments.
This other piece, also from Time`s July 13 edition, looks at Liberia and shows some good things happening, a far cry from its wartorn 90s. Yet the familiar problems of violence, albeit crimes and not conflicts or all-out war, and corruption are afflicting this nation. But overall, Liberia has come a long way from its recent past and its president, Ms. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, seems like the real deal, so maybe the country will be able to keep on progressing.

I recently read Descent into Chaos, which told the compelling story of how Afghanistan and Pakistan have become so turbulent ever since 2001. It's written by Ahmed Rashid, a renowned Pakistani journalist, and he writes a detailed article in the NY Review of Books on the same issue. Specifically he explains how fundamentalists militants, especially the Taliban, grew to become such a menace and the extent of their power that has seen their influence spread from the NW frontier 'badlands' to deep into Pakistan. From both the book and this article, I can't help thinking that Pakistan is in very deep and dire troubles. And this does not bode well for Afghanistan's stability and security.

This interactive map of China highlights the nation's diversity by showing where the major ethnic minorities live and brief details. Clearly relations between the majority Han and some minorities have been quite negative, especially with the Xinjiang problems this past week and with Tibet.
Despite the number of these minorities, and their large numbers, such as the Zhuang being 15 million-strong, the Han number over 1 billion, making up at least 90 percent of China's population.

That crazy's, sorry I meant Ahmadinejad, win in Iran has been causing a lot of turmoil, within his country and in the U.S. There's been allegations of fixed elections, especially from his main opponent's supporters who have been very worked up over the result. Yet Newsweek here gives a good explanation for why it happened. Sure, a lot of the younger, more educated, urban folk may have been for Mousavi but what about the rest of the society- the rural people, the working class, etc? This is why it's never good to gauge an election by just focusing on a specific sector of society.
As the Newsweek piece says, this may be great news for Israel's leader who can continue to use Ahmadinejad as a significant means to justify an aggressive stance toward Iran and obstruct American attempts to improve relations with Iran.

One of the biggest stories of late is North Korea's continuous saber-rattling, or should it be missile-rattling, provocations that have raised tensions in neighboring countries, even supposed ally China and the U.S. Its recent sentencing of 2 U.S. journalists to 12 years for spying because they were caught doing a story just within North Korean territory seems tremendously daring, like if they're daring the U.S. to fight. It might be a sign of desperation, especially with South Korea's refusal to be taken advantage of by them in recent years and with the leader's poor health including an alleged stroke. One thing, is that this is one of the worst, if not the, and most unjust regimes in the world. Asia Times has a whole bunch of insightful articles here.
To be honest, one wonders if the best thing the rest of the world can do is call the North's bluff and wait for Pyongyang to actually start a war. The South's military superiority along with American support and possibly Japan as well, would easily defeat North Korea and cause an overthrow of their regime.

Violence in Congo taking a big toll, not on human lives, infrastructure and crops, but also eco-system and wildlife like in this lake.

The UK's foreign secretary openly called China an "indispensable superpower" and says China will definitely join the U.S. as one of the two biggest powers in the world, in an interview with The Guardian. It's a bit remarkable for someone of his status to be so frank about China and illustrates the regard and power that China possesses now. The article includes some very interesting comments by David Miliband, especially that Europe may become a third power, thus implying that Europe cannot surpass China on the world stage, and that Europe has not been strategic enough in dealing with China.

So it ends, presumably, for the civil war between the Sri Lanka government and the Tamil Tigers rebels. Searches are on for the rebel leader while mop-up operations are continuing. Unfortunately the end of the war doesn't mean an end to the tensions in that country, or even worldwide. The rebels may decide to continue as a purely guerilla outfit, the government may forego reconciliation efforts and instead disregard human rights and the law in dealing with the Tamil minority, and diaspora worldwide may continue quarrels and even violence, as has possibly happened in Toronto.

The Sri Lanka civil war is probably near to seeing an end, though not without significant human/ civilian tragedies. As the government army closes in on the remaining rebel territory, the rebels and many civilians are becoming squeezed into an ever-shrinking space, which puts more civilians in the line of fire from government bombardment. Things are getting so dire that foreign countries, like the UK and France, and bodies have been sending ministers and envoys to demand a ceasefire.
It's hard to put all the blame on any one side as the rebels don't want to surrender and the government refuses to a ceasefire. The tragedy is not getting too much coverage as it should, though we've definitely selected and run articles on it.

An interesting look at Rwanda's ambitious attempts to modernise, build its economy and try to be the Singapore of Africa. The government sure has a lot of high-powered U.S. corporate friends, as well as Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life. Nevertheless it still is a very poor country, which only makes its disciplined, (relatively) tidy and rather corruption-free society even more admirable. One only hopes that this isn't accomplished with too much authoritarian measures in place.

FT's new China blog

Financial Times' new China blog appears to have some very spot-on and sharp outlooks of China, such as the inadequacy of China's reaction to the financial crisis which articulates some shortcomings of China's economy and its stimulus package. Other posts explain why the threat of social unrest from displaced workers is not so significant and warn against the alluring vision of a gigantic Chinese consumer market.

On the "torture" allegations of the U.S.
Good point and illustrates the rampant hypocrisy of the dressing up of American interrogation techniques.
Of course, I think that it's hard to believe that any intelligence agency or military never uses torture in conducting interrogations on prisoners.

Naval might rendered powerless by pirates

About the pirate menace off the coast of Somalia which has been a major issue in the past year, Vanity Fair carries a good piece on the ordeal of the capture of a French luxury sailboat. Despite the 'happy' ending, the story vividly shows how modern naval power is made impotent by these pirates.
Utilizing a range of vessels, helicopters, planes, commandoes, frogmen and "hundreds of amphibious assault troops", all the French navy could do was arrange for a US$2.15 million ransom in exchange for the successful release of the captured ship's crew, and the eventual capture of a handful of the pirate gang. The main reason for the impotence of the French navy was of course, the reluctance to risk the lives of the hostages, as well as financial factors for the ship's company.
Then the not-so-inconsequential matter of the status of Somalia as a failed nation state with no national sovereign control or rule of law hence, no need to adhere to or fear international laws or sanctions, and by extension Puntland, the pirate haven which was formerly a part of Somalia, also contribute to the pirates' ability to act with such impunity.

With the announcement this past week of a new U.S. strategy on Afghanistan which involves sending 21,000 more troops, there's a feeling among some observers that Afghanistan is looking more like a futile cause, no longer the just war that was in contrast to Iraq. Some feel that there is no real possibility of success in Afghanistan, that things are too messed up that it's even turning into a Vietnam, ironically a comparison that used to be made of the Iraq occupation.
This NATO advisor/ social worker in Afghanistan thinks otherwise, providing a good overview of why setting the goals lower will hurt Afghanistan as well as the success of the U.S. mission.

The fact that the situation there is not very good isn't surprising because it's been worsening for a while, as others including British officers have warned that it could take many years, even decades to make that country stable. What is surprising, and unreasonable is when some will use this set of problems to justify ending the Afghanistan campaign because of these problems, even likening Obama to Bush.
One of the main reasons that Afghanistan is the way it is now is because it was never the focus of the U.S., given how soon it went into Iraq after ousting the Afghan Taliban regime in 2001, and the vast manpower and effort it poured into occupying Iraq while leaving just a few tens of thousands of troops to search for Osama back in Afghanistan. NATO and Canada, due to deficient manpower, equipment, expertise and national support, certainly couldn't deal with Afghanistan adequately as the U.S. hoped for.
Unfortunately time can't be turned back and the rash, impulsive actions of the Bush administration in rushing to invade two countries and succeeding in neither can't be quickly solved. It will be tough for Obama but he would do well to stick with a set strategy and think long-term and for the good of Afghanistan and not be too influenced by the whims of critics on both ideological sides at home.

One of India's worst faults with its democracy is that a lot of its elected parliamentary representatives are literally criminals. About a quarter, according to this article, about a bunch of activists trying to create a solution to this problem, through bringing about laws to promote transparency in choosing candidates to highlighting to the public information on these crooked MPs and

Something about China on a topic that isn't well-known- Guangdong's "Little Africa," which is facing problems in these dire times, mostly from stricter immigration/visa enforcement.

GlobalPost is a new American website which showcases foreign news and issues, covered by its correspondents from all over the world. It's great to see a new media venture which believes that international news is still worthwhile enough to cover in such detail.

All of a sudden, America is who the world turns to now that the global crisis is getting really scary and shows no sign of ending soon, says Thomas Friedman.

And according to a senior South Korean official who he talked to, "The U.S. is still No. 1 in military, No. 1 in economy, No. 1 in promoting human rights and No. 1 in idealism. Only the U.S. can lead the world. No other country can. China can't. The EU is too divided, and Europe is militarily far behind the U.S."

Sri Lanka's long civil war seems to be in its last stages as government forces have now advanced into the last town held by the Tamil Tigers. Having lost their political capital and main military base, the Tigers are just hanging on as a viable military force and now can only fight from the jungles. The civil war may end soon but social and political tensions are sure to remain, so the government's reaction will be important in whether it will be magnanimous and genuine in trying to achieve reconciliation.

Meanwhile the current global economic crisis is having an adverse effect in an unlikely place, specifically the special court in Sierra Leone which is prosecuting war criminals responsible for committing atrocities during its civil war. Charles Taylor, former warlord and President of neighboring Liberia, may benefit from this with his freedom if the court has to be shut down. It is run entirely on voluntary donations from foreign countries, which the article says is the first international tribunal to be funded this way.

Just this week, notorious warlord Nkunda was arrested in Rwanda by authorities, in a surprising act of seeming cooperation between Rwanda and the DRC. This article wonders about the potential cost to the DRC of this, especially its relations with Rwanda and what it might gain from this. This also describes the unease felt by some in eastern Congo over the collaboration with Rwanda.

Finally, a NY Times article looks into whether Nkunda is really going to be punished or if he's just being kept under wraps in Rwanda temporarily. The warlord, whose close ties to Rwanda are clearly mentioned, may be too close an ally to be disposed of by handing him over to Congo or international authorities.

One of world's longest conflicts possibly coming to end

By the above title, I am referring to the ongoing civil war in Sri Lanka which is possibly coming to a close soon as the government's army has won a series of crucial victories over the rebel Tamil Tigers to push them into only a single remaining stronghold. Having been going on for over two decades, with intermittent periods of peace in between, the recent fighting should be really important news, as it seems the government is close to defeating one of the most feared, well-organised and enduring rebel organizations worldwide.

Of course, with much focus on the fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, there hasn't been much mention of the Sri Lankan conflict though there are regular news reports recently. This Toronto Star commentary focuses on the fighting there, describing and alleging significant abuses in place such as the banning of media from war zones by the government.

While military defeat in this conflict will not necessarily mean the total destruction of the Tamil Tiger organization, it will deal a serious blow to them, forcing them into operating almost entirely as a guerilla force and not having any more territory or strongholds to control as they did with parts of the north and the east. The Tigers' defeat also won't erase their cause which is ostensibly that of protecting the rights and safety of the Tamils and fighting for a separate homeland separate of majority Sinhalese dominance.