'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
As President Obama visited Israel to achieve some movement on the Israeli-Palestinian question, not so far away, another of the world's most intractable conflicts simmered, threatening to boil over outside of the media spotlight. This is the ongoing low-grade conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Reports of widespread election irregularities continued to roll in Tuesday as the ballot count from Sunday's parliamentary vote neared its conclusion. The extremist Svodoa Party is virtually assured of having a bloc of seats in the next parliament, further straining relationships between Ukraine and the European Union.
The recent editorial "Blue helmets at the ballot box" (Comment & Analysis, Thursday) describes our observers here at the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as "Europeans" and "election inspectors." However, the OSCE is the world's largest regional security organization and includes among its participating nations the United States and Canada, as well as countries from Central Asia.
Ukraine's parliamentary election was marked by an uneven playing field and biased media coverage that reversed many of the democratic gains the country had made earlier, international observers said Monday.
Did you know that the uberclean United Nations, whose blue-helmeted troops have been charged with everything from rape to theft in Third World countries, is going to have an affiliate help us run our elections?
European officials planning to monitor the U.S. presidential election are howling about intimidation, after they got a blunt warning this week: If you mess with Texas, you might end up in jail.
Those who fear that voter fraud will play a corrupting role on Election Day shouldn't worry. The Europeans are coming to save the day.
Not a single opposition politician won a seat in the Belarus parliament in a weekend vote that was roundly condemned by international observers and looks set to deepen the former Soviet nation's diplomatic isolation.
Riot police on Monday were breaking up an opposition protest contesting Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's victory in Russia's presidential election and arresting dozens of participants, including prominent opposition leaders.
Sunday's parliamentary elections presumably are aimed at moving Kazakhstan toward a more open and democractic system — but some voters here aren't buying it.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday criticized Russia for a parliamentary election she said was rigged and said election gains by Islamist parties must not set back Egypt's push toward democracy after the fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak this year.
Kyrgyzstan's north-south political rift is on display, as defeated southern candidates call for a new presidential election because of irregularities in Sunday's vote that returned a northern politician to power.
Almazbek Atambayev may have won Kyrgyzstan's presidential election, but his moment of glory was soured Monday by a stinging assessment from international vote monitors and news of protests in the turbulent south of the country.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili accuses Russia of staging violent attacks across the administrative boundary lines (ABLs) of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Despite a cease-fire agreement that ended the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, relations are tense - and getting worse. Renewed violence could risk the "reset" in U.S.-Russian relations, undermining cooperation that is critical to preventing proliferation by Iran and in hot spots such as Afghanistan and Libya.
An international review showing wide variances of Internet freedom gives Finland the best marks for making citizens' access to a broadband connection a legal right.
