· January, 2008

Stories about International Relations from January, 2008

Ukraine: A Porous Border

  24 January 2008

Ukrainian news site Korrespondent.net posted a translation of a Sunday Times story on Ukraine's porous borders and illegal migration. The English-language original has received 16 reader comments so far, the Russian translation - 88 comments. While many readers admitted that the problem of illegal migration existed in Ukraine and that corruption among officials contributed to it, most did not seem happy about the Sunday Times' story.

Egypt: Ashamed of Being Egyptian

  24 January 2008

“Right now I’m once more feeling ashamed, ashamed of Egypt’s complicity with the Israelis, ashamed because I know that everytime a human being dies in Gaza, an Egyptian has had a hand in his/her death,” writes Egyptian blogger Eman.

EU, Mauritania: Faraway Fishing

  23 January 2008

Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian fishers are robbing Mauritania of its fish – all because “the EU has methodically depleted fish stocks in its own waters, and now, it is buying fish quotas from poor countries in the third world,” Jonathan Newton reports.

Bahamas, Cuba: Double Speak

  23 January 2008

“Such obvious double speak is trite in the 21st Century. And to state that in a country that is of the ‘western liberal ilk’ is quite presumtuous”: Rick Lowe at WeblogBahamas.com is unimpressed with the Cuban Ambassador's statement about the island's recently held elections.

Ukraine: Euro 2012 To-Do List

  22 January 2008

Orange Ukraine lists what needs to be done to accommodate the Euro 2012 visitors (from 400,000 to 1 million) in Ukraine: “As of this moment, Kyiv has 4,000 hotel rooms. What is required is all the logistics incl. infrastructure (roads, parking, planes, trains, etc.) and upgrading facilities such as hospitals...

Japan: The Whistle of the Middle East

  22 January 2008

The sport of handball is receiving the kind of attention from the media and general public it never has before in Japan, as well as in Korea. The dispute came to light when Korea and Japan together appealed to the International Handball Federation for replay of the Olympics qualifiers of...

Cambodia: National Symbol On Sandal

  22 January 2008

Cambodian netizens are angry with the Vietnamese who are selling sandals that have Angkor Wat printed on them. The temples at Angkor appear on Cambodian flag and currency notes.

Russia: Rating Western Democracies?

  21 January 2008

“Stung by Western assessments that Russia is becoming less free, Moscow officials say they will create a new organization of their own to ‘rate’ democracy in the U.S. and other Western countries,” Window on Eurasia reports.