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MENASource

Oct 23, 2014

Photo Essay: Countdown to Tunisia’s Parliamentary Elections

By Christine Petré

Tunisians will head to the polls to elect a parliament on October 26, the first election since the adoption of the post-revolution constitution earlier this year. After polarization intensified in 2013 on the heels of two high-profile political assassinations, the upcoming parliamentary elections mark a critical step toward consolidating Tunisia’s democracy.

North Africa

MENASource

Oct 23, 2014

Top News: Libyan Army Advances into Benghazi

By MENASource

Libyan army troops have pushed into Benghazi, the first time in two months since Islamist militias took control of the eastern city. Pro-government forces forced the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council from one of its most prominent positions in a move that one commander called “deeply symbolic.”

MENASource

Oct 23, 2014

Top News: Ajnad Misr Claims Wednesday’s Cairo University Blast

By EgyptSource

Ajnad Misr claimed responsibility for a blast at Cairo University Wednesday. The operation was part of a “Retribution is Life” campaign that targets “criminal,” security forces, the group said in a statement released on its Twitter account.

MENASource

Oct 23, 2014

EconSource: Libya’s Oil to Flow Despite Struggle Between Rival Governments

By EconSource

Common interest in maintaining oil revenues flowing is keeping Libya’s oil exports on track, while the struggle for control of Libya’s state-run energy sector between rival governments in Tripoli and the east continues.

MENASource

Oct 23, 2014

Tunisia’s Elections Amid a Middle East Cold War

By Youssef Cherif

With the Tunisian elections mere days away, political parties face a skeptical population fed-up with politics after a turbulent three years since the revolution that ousted Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Short of resources for their electoral campaigns, parties search for their appropriate patrons as the country tries to fend off a deepening economic crisis.

North Africa
Airbus CEO Thomas Enders at the Atlantic Council, April 30, 2014

NATOSource

Oct 22, 2014

Airbus Chief Hits Out at German Defense Policy

By AFP

The head of European aerospace giant Airbus, Thomas Enders, lashed out at what he saw as Germany’s risk aversion in matters of defence policy in a magazine interview Wednesday.

Germany

MENASource

Oct 22, 2014

Top News: Explosion outside Cairo University injures ten

By EgyptSource

An explosion occurred in the vicinity of Cairo University on Wednesday, leaving 10 injured, reported state television. The blast, which occurred outside the university’s main gate, left four police officers, two conscripts and four citizens injured, state television reported, citing the ministry of interior.

Portuguese F-16s of Squadron 201

NATOSource

Oct 22, 2014

Russian Spy Plane Violates NATO Air Space

By Sam Jones and Richard Milne, Financial Times

A Russian maritime spy plane flew into Estonian territory on Tuesday in the most serious violation of Nato airspace by Moscow since the end of the cold war.

NATO Northern Europe

MENASource

Oct 22, 2014

Syria’s Role in the Battle Against ISIS

By Frederic C. Hof

For over three years the Obama administration viewed the struggle for Syria as something well worth avoiding. Even as Assad-regime atrocities piled the bodies high and drove millions from their homes—enabling an aggressively murderous caliphate to arise in the east while Iran, Hezbollah, and their Syrian client solidified a grip on the west—the administration focused […]

Syria

New Atlanticist

Oct 22, 2014

Turkey Moves Toward Helping Syria’s Kurds—and Calming Its Own

By Sabine Freizer

Ankara’s Handling of Syrian War Has Revived Its Own Kurdish Conflict Turkey’s promise Monday to let Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas cross its border to defend the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani against the Islamist army of ISIS provides a rare sign of hope for saving Turkey’s moribund peace process with its own Kurds. Turkey’s refusal until […]

Syria Turkey