It had been a while since Russia pulled out the “sanitary regulations” card to ban imports over a spat with one of its neighbors. But on June 6, after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko publicly voiced his fury at Russia’s raising of energy prices, Russia imposed a ban on dairy products from Belarus, sparking a so-called milk war that has seen tensions between the former allies escalate daily
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Recession boosts global human trafficking, report says
The global financial crisis has increased the worldwide trade in trafficked persons, says a State Department report released Tuesday. The State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report also says trafficking has increased in Africa and slaps six African nations on a blacklist of countries not meeting the minimum standard of combating trafficking. The report, mandated by Congress, features data and statistics from 175 countries around the world regarding the amount of human trafficking that goes on within their borders.
Unbowed, Ahmadinejad Shows Up in Russia
On Tuesday, amid reports of escalating violence and protest across his country, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad slipped into a plane and jetted off to Yekaterinburg, a Russian city nestled in the Ural mountains. Iran seethed in the aftermath of Ahmadinejad’s disputed election victory last weekend even as foreign journalists were officially barred from reporting street protests a day after the largest demonstrations seen in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Meanwhile, the powerful Guardian Council is investigating allegations of poll fraud, and has suggested a partial recount — a solution main opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi has rejected.
Russia vetoes U.N. mission in Georgia
The rift between Russia and Western powers over Georgia burst back into full view on the U.N. Security Council when Russia vetoed a resolution that would have extended the U.N. observer mission in Georgia
Obama’s November 7, 2007, speech on the ‘American Dream’
It’s wonderful to be here today. I feel right at home in Bettendorf, which is just a stone’s throw from my home state of Illinois.
U.N. tightens sanctions on North Korea
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday to expand and tighten sanctions on North Korea after that nation’s recent nuclear test.
Could General Motors’ Stock Rise Again?
GM stock has been delisted, dumped from the Dow, and is pretty much worthless. But with government backing, as they say, even pigs can fly. Indeed, just days after filing for bankruptcy, General Motors Corp
In Russia, a Recession-Plagued Town Revolts
After waiting half an hour in a line of 20 people at the dusty ATM, Eduard Markov finally walks away with his old leather wallet bulging with rubles. Like thousands of others in the northern Russian industrial town of Pikalyovo, the 44-year-old clay quarry worker had not been paid in three months. But now he at least has enough to buy the basics — meat, vodka, noodles, oil and fruit — from shops that just a few days ago were empty of customers.
Rio Tinto to China: Thanks, But No Thanks
Xiong Weiping, the chief executive officer of China’s largest aluminum company, Chinalco, spent the better part of the last four months doing something no other CEO of a state-owned Chinese company had ever done.
Russia’s Military Promotes an Officer Accused of War Crimes
On the morning of February 4, 2000, four months into the Second Chechen War, Russian troops hoping to flush out a group of retreating Chechen rebel fighters began pounding the village of Katyr-Yurt with 550-lb and 1,100-lb unguided bombs.