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MENASource

Apr 28, 2015

Top News: New Lawsuit Against Mubarak to Investigate Political Crimes

By EgyptSource

The Administrative Court of the State Council referred on Tuesday the lawsuit filed by Samir Sabry to the State Commissioner’s Authority, seeking a legal opinion. In the lawsuit, Sabry demanded that the President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi form a fact-finding committee to prepare a report on corruption crimes committed under former President Hosni Mubarak. 

MENASource

Apr 28, 2015

EconSource: Gulf Banks Tighten Credit for Small Firms as Cheap Oil Bites

By EconSource

Banks are tightening lending conditions for small, private companies in the Gulf, a sign that the region’s economies are not escaping damage from the plunge of oil prices.

Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama, Sept. 4, 2014

NATOSource

Apr 28, 2015

Allies Worried About Britain’s Drift From Global Stage

By Steven Erlanger, New York Times

Its military reach has diminished. It has played little role in confronting Russia over Ukraine and strictly limited its response to crises in the Middle East and Africa.

NATO Security & Defense
Finnish missile boat Tornio, July 10, 2012

NATOSource

Apr 28, 2015

Finnish Navy Fires Depth Charges at Suspected Submarine Near Helsinki

By Andrew Marszal, Telegraph

Finland has fired warning shots at a suspected foreign submarine off the coast of Helsinki in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Northern Europe Russia

MENASource

Apr 27, 2015

Syria: Is Assad Slipping?

By Frederic C. Hof

Recent tactical setbacks by Assad regime forces in northwestern Syria are reviving—for the first time since early 2013—fin du régime hopes and speculation. Reporting from the region suggests that arms transfers from Gulf powers and Turkey are enabling rebels to overcome exhausted and exposed Syrian Arab Army units.

Syria

UkraineAlert

Apr 27, 2015

Ukraine’s PR Problem Isn’t Just a PR Problem

By Andrew Kornbluth

Ukraine has a problem with global public relations. Despite its fundamentally compelling narrative—a recent democracy defending itself against a much larger, authoritarian neighbor—the country’s efforts remain uncoordinated, unprofessional, and unfiltered. Even as the state relies on a worldwide diaspora in its struggle for survival, it shows few signs of effectively harnessing its expatriates and the […]

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Apr 27, 2015

Dying to Get to Europe

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Libya’s ‘slave trade’—exodus of migrants from Africa—is a European crisis, says Atlantic Council’s Mezran A European commitment to save lives is “backfiring” as human traffickers continue to pack boats full of migrants fleeing desperate situations in Africa and the Middle East, says Atlantic Council analyst Karim Mezran. Traffickers have exploited instability in Libya to funnel […]

European Union International Organizations

UkraineAlert

Apr 27, 2015

Let’s Go “All In” on Ukraine

By Jeffrey Gedmin

In October 1949, as the defeated forces of Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan and Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Republicans in Congress blamed Harry S. Truman for losing China. Some demanded a pivot from Europe to Asia in US foreign policy. Truman might have been persuaded a few years […]

Russia Ukraine
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, April 23, 2015

NATOSource

Apr 27, 2015

A Challenge in the South for NATO

By Jim Hoagland, Washington Post

[T]he turmoil sweeping the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean today threatens to transform Europe’s strategic outlook on security matters.

France Italy
Italian frigate Carlo Bergamini, Oct. 25, 2011

NATOSource

Apr 27, 2015

Italy’s New Defense White Paper Calls for Military Leadership in the Mediterranean

By Tom Kington, Defense News

Italy’s new defense white paper, its first in 13 years and which calls for Italian military leadership in the Mediterranean, has made a timely debut just as European leaders debate how to combat trafficking in the region.

Italy North Africa