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Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Europe | S Ossetia releases OSCE observers - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8009596.stm

South Ossetia Georgia OSCE

shared by Argos Media on 21 Apr 09 - Cached
  • Two OSCE observers detained on Tuesday by separatist forces in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia have been freed, an OSCE spokeswoman says.
  • Earlier, South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity said the OSCE personnel were being held for "illegally crossing the Georgian-South Ossetian border". The monitors are overseeing a ceasefire agreement between Georgia and Russia.
  • Twenty-eight OSCE military observers have been based in Georgia since 1992, but following last year's conflict, the South Ossetian authorities have denied them access. Russia, which has thousands of troops in the territory, has also objected to their presence.
Pedro Gonçalves

Turkey sanctions France over genocide bill - Europe - Al Jazeera English - 0 views

www.aljazeera.com/...20111222222932233659.html

France Turkey Armenia

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 23 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • France is home to around 500,000 citizens of Armenian descent and they are seen as a key source of support for Sarkozy and the UMP ahead of presidential and legislative elections in April and June next year.
  • The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) issued a statement of concern about the French vote setting a precedent and warned that the "criminalisation of debates on history's true course, even of obviously false and offensive statements about a nation's tragic moment, is not conducive to better understanding" among people and states.
  • Franco-Turkish relations are often tense - Sarkozy is a firm opponent of allowing Turkey to join the European Union - but 1,000 French firms work there and trade between the two is worth 12 billion euros per year. Much of Europe, including France, is facing recession amid a sovereign debt crisis, but Turkey enjoys growth rates in excess of eight percent and, with 78 million people, it is a huge potential market.
Pedro Gonçalves

Kyrgyz vote wins 90 percent support, Russia wary | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...idUSTRE65P3AE20100628

Kyrgyzstan Russia Central Asia

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 28 Jun 10 - Cached
  • Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, whose country shares U.S. fears about Islamist militancy in Central Asia, said the political system set up by Sunday's referendum could bring extremists to power or cause the collapse of the state.
  • Interim leader Roza Otunbayeva, speaking before the first results were known on Sunday, said Kyrgyzstan -- which lies on a major drug trafficking route from Afghanistan -- had embarked on a path to establishing a "true people's democracy."
  • Official results showed that with almost all votes counted, 90.6 percent of voters backed a new constitution paving the way for a parliamentary election in October.
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  • The 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the referendum was transparent and the high voter turnout signaled the resilience of Kyrgyz citizens.
  • Medvedev, speaking after a G20 summit in Toronto, said: "I do not really understand how a parliamentary republic would look and work in Kyrgyzstan."Will this not lead to a chain of eternal problems -- to reshuffles in parliament, to the rise to power of this or that political group, to authority being passed constantly from one hand to another, and, finally, will this not help those with extremist views to power?"In its current state, there are a host of scenarios for Kyrgyzstan, including the most unpleasant scenario -- going up to the collapse of the state," Medvedev said.
  • His remarks contrasted with the immediate support shown by the Kremlin for Kyrgyzstan's new government after the April 7 uprising that overthrew President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
  • Under the new charter, Otunbayeva -- the first woman to lead a Central Asian state -- will be acting president until the end of 2011. A former ambassador to the United States and Britain, she has struggled to gain control of the south, Bakiyev's family stronghold, even though she was born in Osh.
Pedro Gonçalves

Al Eisele: Why Kazakhstan Is Front and Center at the Global Nuclear Security Summit - 0 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...hstan-is-front-a_b_533531.html

Kazakhstan Nuclear Weapons

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 13 Apr 10 - Cached
  • even though Kazakhstan is hardly a shining example of democracy - Kazakhstan's parliament made Nazarbayev de facto president for life in 2007 with veto powers over any legislation and immunity from criminal prosecution - he was the first foreign leader to renounce the possession and use of nuclear weapons.
  • On August 29, 1991, four months before the Soviet Union collapsed and 38 years after Mrs. Koloskova witnessed the Soviets' first thermonuclear explosion, Nazarbayev shut down the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site.
  • And in 1995, after his country inherited the world's fourth largest nuclear arsenal, he declared that Kazakhstan was a nuclear free country and returned 40 heavy bombers and more than 1,400 nuclear warheads for intercontinental and intermediate range missiles to Russia for destruction. He later destroyed 148 ICBM silos across Kazakhstan and underground test tunnels at Semipalatinsk, as part of the Nunn-Lugar Program.
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  • At the same time, he approved a secret joint operation with the U.S. code named Project Sapphire, which removed 1,278 pounds of highly enriched uranium to the U.S..
  • Kazakhstan also has the Caspian Sea region's largest recoverable oil and gas reserves as well as the world's second largest deposits of uranium.
  • And it is flexing its diplomatic muscles as it became in January the first predominantly Muslim nation and the first former Soviet Union state to assume the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Europe | Moldova court orders poll recount - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7995906.stm

Moldova Vladimir Voronin

shared by Argos Media on 13 Apr 09 - Cached
  • The Constitutional Court in Moldova has ordered a recount of the country's parliamentary election results, after days of anti-government protests.
  • The initial count after last Sunday's election was won by Moldova's ruling Communists, with almost 50% of votes. But opposition groups have dismissed calls for a recount, saying it is an attempt to mask election fraud.
  • Despite the opposition claims, observers from the European security body, the OSCE, concluded that the vote had been generally fair. However, unrest during the week prompted President Vladimir Voronin to ask for a recount.
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