Recent Posts

Kosovo Failing to Punish Violent Crime, BIRN Finds

Police and prosecutors in Kosovo are struggling to solve violent crimes, particularly when they occur in a northern pocket of the country populated mainly by Serbs, according to a BIRN analysis of crime data illustrated in an interactive map. Violent crime in Kosovo frequently goes unpunished, particularly in the Serb-majority …

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Spring Remains on Hold for Turkey’s Opposition

The ‘springtime’ predicted by the opposition did not arrive in Turkey’s May 14 elections – and in the May 28 presidential run-off, the odds are stacked against them. “Spring will come again” was the motto of the opposition’s presidential candidate, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. But Turkey’s twin elections on May 14 for …

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China Wants to Thread the Needle on Ukraine

Beijing Struggles to Balance Its Ties to Russia and Europe On April 21, China’s ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, proclaimed that whether Crimea is part of Ukraine “depends on how the problem is perceived.” He added more fuel to the fire by saying that “ex-Soviet countries don’t have an effective …

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China and the Axis of the Sanctioned – How America’s Divide-and-Rule Strategy in the Middle East Backfired

A photo Beijing released on March 6th of Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a seismic shock in Washington. There was the Secretary-General of the Chinese Communist Party standing between Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, and Saudi National Security Adviser Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban. They were awkwardly …

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