During the presidential campaign Vice President-elect Joe Biden predicted, "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy." This wasn't just another gratuitous allusion to the impending Camelot 2.0, but an apt comparison. A new, young president is a standing temptation to foreign powers seeking to find his limits.
Premier Wan under fire from own party;
Sudanese rebels target China's interests
Islamists in Saudi face their day in court;
Hezbollah in our Hemisphere;
Kazakhstan eases Coalition burden;
Creeping progress on Nagorno-Karabakh
Iranian coalition-building;
Israel thinks the unthinkable;
Hard times for Ahmadinejad;
An Indo-Iranian divorce?
November 7 marks the first anniversary of the Georgian government's use of force to break up peaceful opposition demonstrations in the heart of Tbilisi. Opposition groups have announced renewed public action against President Mikheil Saakashvili on that date, with the added objective of bringing him to account for his disastrous military confrontation with Russia in August. Georgia's image in the West as a developing democracy will be influenced by the ability of the government and the opposition to mark this anniversary in a peaceful manner.