Geopolitical Monitor - Politics - Geopolitical Analysis on Political Issues Facing Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas, and the Middle East

ASTANA May 29, 2008 (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan has ratified a treaty with Azerbaijan allowing Kazakh crude to be pumped through a pipeline linking Azerbaijan's Caspian coast to Turkey's Mediterranean coast, the presidential administration said.

May 29, 2008 (EuroNews) - Five countries around the Arctic rim have agreed to let the United Nations decide their conflicting territorial claims over the region’s seabed.

WASHINGTON May 29, 2008 (Lesley Wroughton, Reuters) - World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Thursday announced $1.2 billion in loans and grant financing to expand its assistance to poor countries struggling with the effects of soaring fuel and food costs.

TBILISI May 28, 2008 (RIA Novosti) - If Russia does not agree to a Georgian proposal to change the peacekeeping format in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone, Tbilisi could declare Russian peacekeepers occupiers, a Georgian MP said Wednesday.

May 28, 2008 (AP) - Declining oil reserves and investment have forced Indonesia to quit the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries even as other members cash in on soaring global prices, the energy minister said today.

May 28, 2008 (VOA News) - Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif says the ruling coalition has agreed to remove President Pervez Musharraf from power.

May 28, 2008 (Mark John, Reuters) - NATO troops should not be left to shoulder police tasks in Kosovo, the U.S.-led alliance said on Wednesday as signs grew that a European Union plan to take over police duties there faced months of delay.

May 28, 2008 (AFP) - Nepal was set for historic change Wednesday with a new assembly dominated by former Maoist rebels poised to sweep away the Himalayan kingdom's 240-year-old monarchy and declare a republic.

MIANZHU, China May 27, 2008 (Tyra Dempster, Reuters) - New aftershocks toppled 420,000 houses and injured dozens in southwest China on Tuesday, heaping destruction and fear on a region struggling to recover from the country's worst earthquake in decades.

STOCKHOLM May 27, 2008 (Xinhua) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that Russia has no territorial claim to the Arctic, according to reports reaching here from Copenhagen.