Archive for the ‘World current affairs’ Category
Forgotten world (39): Algeria
October 12th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
Civil war broke out in Algeria in 1992 after the army cancelled elections that Islamist parties were set to win. Up to 200,000 people died in an orgy of violence that pitched the army, and its secular supporters, against some 27,000 fundamentalists, with the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) as the leading organisation. Today the main […]
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Forgotten world (38): Lithuania
October 11th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
Travelling from north to south, Lithuania is the third of the three Baltic states. Like the other two, it was absorbed into the Soviet Union in 1940, regained its independence with the collapse of the USSR in 1991, and became a member of the European Union in 2004. Lithuania has a population of 3.4 million […]
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What did North Korea explode?
October 10th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
This morning’s “Mirror ” newspaper reported: “Korean tyrant Kim Jong-il was yesterday accused of a brazenly defying the world after his country’s first nuke bomb blast. The huge 15-kiloton underground explosion – the same size as at Hiroshima – came despite international leaders pleading with him not to go ahead.” However, the “Guardian” newspaper said: […]
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Forgotten world (37): Latvia
October 10th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
Travelling from north to south, Latvia is the second of the three Baltic states. Like the other two, it was absorbed into the Soviet Union in 1940, regained its independence with the collapse of the USSR in 1991, and became a member of the European Union in 2004. Latvia has a population of only 2.3 […]
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Forgotten world (36): Estonia
October 9th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
On seven occasions now, I’ve had a week-long feature on NightHawk devoted to parts of the world that tend to be under-reported or even forgotten. You can check out the previous 35 entries here. This week, I plan to run an eighth series of postings on this theme. Travelling from north to south, Estonia is […]
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What do Uzbekistan and Liechtenstein have in common?
October 7th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
Apparently they are the only two countries in the world that have the dubious honour of being doubly landlocked – that is, goods must pass through two other countries to reach a port. Not a lot of people know that! Now I’ve visited most countries in Europe but not Liechtenstein (am I missing anything?). However, […]
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Two facts about the UN
October 3rd, 2006 by Roger Darlington
This morning, I was on the way to a meeting at the Foreign Office when I passed Westminster Central Hall opposite Westminster Abbey. I saw two young tourists taking photographs and struck up a conversation. I found that they were from South Korea, so I told them two things that they didn’t know – and […]
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Forgotten world (35): Xinjiang
September 15th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
Most people have never heard of Xinjiang, an autonomous region of China, but it is the nation’s largest region and takes up about one sixth of its territory (some 1.7M square kilometres). The name literally means ‘New Frontier’ and it is situated in the north-west corner of China, north of Tibet. It is a sparsely […]
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Forgotten world (34): Somalia
September 14th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
All that many people – especially Americans – recall about Somalia is that US forces went in there in 1993 to attempt to restore order among the feuding warlords and suffered losses which soon drove them out and inspired the Hollywood movie “Black Hawk Down” [my review here]. Comprised of a former British protectorate and […]
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Forgotten world (33): Colombia
September 13th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
Think of Colombia and most people think of drug barons and Marxist insurgents. There are still plenty of both in the country – but it is changing. The hardline stance of President Alvaro Uribe against leftist rebels and the demobilisation of more than 30,000 rightwing paramilitary fighters have seen kidnappings drop 73% and murders fall […]
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