July 17

According to the latest CDI update on Afghanistan, the security situation is deteriorating everywhere that counts. The spotlight remains on Israel's two-front war, and British PM Blair and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan are now calling for an 'international stabilization force' to enter southern Lebanon. An AP report in USA Today claims that a ceasefire-peacekeeping solution might actually be feasible. This first-hand account of ethnic relations in Abkhazia describes two nations willing to talk, yet locked in a pattern of political conflict. In Kosovo, anti-Serb reprisals increase, and the 'the Balkan cycle of hate and revenge rolls on'. Six months ago, powerful voices in Europe demanded that the West 'stop coddling Belarus', however political repression and violence are no less severe.