http://www.janes.comA special collection of articles covering State Stability.en-gbCopyright: (C) Jane's Information Group. All rights reserved.http://www8.janes.com/public/images/janes_rss.gifhttp://www.janes.comVisit http://www.janes.comhttp://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20792.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKAn alleged commander in the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) was killed in a clash with Ugandan troops in the Central African Republic, according to Ugandan media reports on 19 November. Okello Okutti, an alleged senior commander of the Ugandan LRA, was killed on 17 November in Obo, near the Central African Republic's border with Sudan, according to New Vision newspaper. In September 2009, Uganda confirmed that Bangui had authorised it to pursue the LRA into the Central African Republic. - 2009/11/20 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20791.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKThe prime ministers of Russia and Ukraine agreed a new gas deal during talks on 19 November, reducing the risk of another gas crisis. A major gas dispute emerged in January 2009 when Russia accused Ukraine of illegally siphoning off gas and cut supplies for several days. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (left) and Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko meet in Yalta, Ukraine, on 19 November. - 2009/11/20 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20793.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKKosovo's government coalition collapsed on 19 November, with the decision of the PDK of Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi to break its partnership with the LDK of President Fatmir Sejdiu. Deputy Prime Minister Rame Manaj of the Democratic League of Kosovo (Lidhja Demokratike e Kosovës: LDK) told Reuters that he had received a telephone call from Deputy Prime Minister Hajredin Kuci of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (Partia Demokratike e Kosovës: PDK) informing him that the party had decided to form ... - 2009/11/20 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20788.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKThree UN-appointed commissioners who will lead an independent inquiry into the 28 September security crackdown in Conakry, will visit Guinea from 25 November to 4 December. As many as 157 civilians were killed in the violent crackdown on people protesting against speculation that junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara would run for the presidency in the January 2010 election, according to local activists. Media reports have also claimed that foreigners - potentially from South Africa, among others ... - 2009/11/20 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jir/history/jir2009/jir10782.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIRIts candid leader, Alain Winants, tells Jane's the nature of the service's role and how he hopes to increase it. Alain Winants, a former criminal lawyer who worked extensively on Belgian prosecutions of war crimes in Rwanda, is the outspoken administrator-general of the small Belgian Security Service (known as the VSSE under its Dutch and French acronyms Veiligheid van de Staat and Sûreté de l'Etat). To counter this "priority for the service", the VSSE has arrived at a working estimate of the... - 2009/11/20 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20789.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKEU leaders on 19 November chose two relatively little-known politicians to fill the high-profile new jobs of EU president and high commissioner for foreign affairs established by the Lisbon Treaty. Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, in office for only 11 months, was chosen as the EU's first full-time president, while Catherine Ashton, the UK's EU trade commissioner for just over a year, was chosen as the bloc's new foreign policy chief. New President of the European Union Herman Van ... - 2009/11/20 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20794.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKOn 19 November, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo stepped down as chair of the two merged ruling political parties and announced former defence secretary Gilbert Teodoro as her successor in the 2010 national elections. He had been a member of the House of Representatives for nine years, heading the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC), which is a part of Arroyo's ruling People's Power coalition. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, centre, poses beside presidential ... - 2009/11/20 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20785.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKTariq al-Hashemi, one of Iraq's two vice-presidents, vetoed the country's new election law on 18 November, casting doubt on whether January's legislative polls can take place on time. Hashemi specifically vetoed Article 1 of the new law, which set the representation in parliament of displaced Iraqis at five per cent. Tariq al-Hashemi, one of Iraq's two vice-presidents, has vetoed the country's election law, potentially delaying the January polls. - 2009/11/19 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20786.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKThe government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) announced political reform proposals on 18 November, but democratic legislators opposed the changes. Nonetheless, the democratic opposition opposes the reforms, arguing that they do not sufficiently show progress towards universal suffrage by the 2017 chief executive and 2020 LegCo elections. In December 2007, the standing committee of China's National People's Congress ruled that the 2017 election of Hong Kong's chief ... - 2009/11/19 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20787.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKThe Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) held discussions on planned counter-terrorism exercises on 18 November, although Uzbekistan's absence points to the limitations on regional security structures. The meeting of representatives from SCO member counties (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) and observer countries was held in the Kazakh city of Almaty. The declining participation in Peace Mission exercises highlights the continuing problems in creating ... - 2009/11/19 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20777.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKOn 17 November, students attacked the National Congress with home-made mortars as pro- and anti-government supporters prepared for a confrontation expected to turn violent on 21 November. Several hundred students marched on Congress to protest at possible diversion of university funding initially proposed by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional: FSLN) government of Daniel Ortega. Moreover, with the FSLN administration not averse to fomenting ... - 2009/11/18 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20778.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKThirteen police officers were injured and more than 200 people arrested in clashes between security forces and protesters in central Athens on 17 November. Thousands of protesters marched through Athens to commemorate a 1973 student rising in which dozens of people had been killed by the military junta in power at the time. Greece has suffered sporadic civil unrest, low-level violence and urban terrorism, including lethal attacks on police officers, since the shooting of a teenager in an ... - 2009/11/18 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20780.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKThe EU and Russia held a summit in Stockholm on 18 November, with the aim of improving relations following the fallout from the August 2008 conflict in Georgia. After the fighting in Georgia, the EU condemned Russian actions as disproportionate, with some member states accusing Russia of human rights abuses. Despite this downturn, the EU remains Russia's primary trading partner, and Russian natural gas accounts for approximately 25 per cent of the EU's needs. - 2009/11/18 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20779.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKIgnoring specific US demands for restraint, on 17 November Israel approved the construction of 900 housing units in the East Jerusalem suburb of Gilo. Settlement activity there is illegal under UN Security Council resolution 242 but Israel, which regards Gilo as a suburb of Jerusalem and not a separate West Bank settlement, does not accept the resolution restrictions in settlement construction in Gilo. In response to the news, using uncharacteristically exasperated language, White House ... - 2009/11/18 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20772.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKDuring the weekend of 14-15 November, Argentine Civil Defence teams battled forest fires in the provinces of Córdoba, San Luis and Catamarca caused by the country's worst drought since 1950. The drought began in 2008 and has worsened steadily in the country's interior, leaving an estimated two million hectares without water and causing growing fears about civil unrest in interior towns dependent on tankers for water supply. A threat of disputes over control of water resources has also risen: ... - 2009/11/17 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20773.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKThe Turkish Court of Appeals was investigating on 17 November allegations that government officials may have illegally ordered wiretaps on court telephones. The reports said an Istanbul court had ordered the installation of wiretaps on the direction of inspectors from the Ministry of Justice in 2008. However, Turkish Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalçinkaya has launched an investigation to determine whether the wiretapping violates the constitution. - 2009/11/17 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20766.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKOn 1 November, Jamaica's police commissioner Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin resigned, drawing attention to the island's problems with gang crime and corruption. Former Northern Ireland police officer Justin Felice, one of three British police officers now with the JCF, was made head of an anti-corruption unit, while 57 police personnel were arrested in 2008 and 36 in the first 10 months of 2009. Reforms have heightened internal tensions within the police, while some cabinet ministers have ... - 2009/11/17 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20771.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKA leaked report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has revealed new fears about the extent of Iranian uranium enrichment activities. The IAEA report into Iran's disclosure about its enrichment facility near the city of Qom was leaked to the media on 16 November, just as pressure is increasing on Tehran to respond to the international community's latest offer to enrich uranium on Iran's behalf. Nevertheless, the leaking of this report will place further pressure on Iran to ... - 2009/11/17 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20775.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKOn 17 November, a bomb blast in Quetta, capital of the Pakistani province of Balochistan, killed one person and injured several others, including Nizam Durrani, Quetta's deputy inspector general. However, a range of actors operate in the provincial capital, including Taliban insurgents, Baloch separatists, criminal groups and members of other Pakistani militant organisations. The Taliban leadership, unofficially known as the Quetta Shura Taliban (QST), which is based in the provincial capital... - 2009/11/17 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20769.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKOn 16 November, Peruvian President Alan García held an emergency National Security Council meeting to discuss the case of a Peruvian military NCO detained for allegedly spying for Santiago. The case of Víctor Ariza Mendoza, a Peruvian air force NCO arrested in October and accused of spying for Chile and treason, has dominated the news agenda in Peru, threatening to worsen already delicate relations between the two countries. Peruvian President Alan García speaks about alleged Chilean spying ... - 2009/11/17 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20759.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKUPCOMING EVENTS Date Posted: 16-Nov-2009 International security events - Week of 18-24 November Event : Visit by Indonesian President Yudhoyono - 2009/11/16 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20762.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKIsraeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared on 12 November that he was ready to resume peace talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Netanyahu was indirectly responding to Assad's statement on 28 October in which he said: "As far as it concerns us in Syria, we have national support to continue talks with Israel." Netanyahu's message was delivered through French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The day after Netanyahu's call, Assad issued a plea for increased French participation in ... - 2009/11/16 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20761.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKAfter calling for his country to "prepare for war" with Colombia, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on 13 November claimed that Colombia and the US had a "diabolical" plan to invade Venezuela. In mid-October, 11 Colombians were kidnapped and killed in the Venezuelan border state of Táchira; in late October, Caracas claimed it had arrested four Colombian spies; on 2 November, two Venezuelan national guards were killed by gunmen near the border; and on 13 November, Colombian authorities detained... - 2009/11/16 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20740.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKCrime figures released on 28 October in Canada have highlighted the problem of gang-related crime in Vancouver in the run-up to the Winter Olympics, to be held in the city in February 2010. Van Loan has called Vancouver "the gang crime capital of Canada". Despite gang-related crime in Vancouver being less of a direct security threat to the Winter Olympics than a terrorist incident or an organised protest, it nevertheless poses a problem for Canadian security services. - 2009/11/16 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20767.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKThe statement that Georgia's military capabilities have improved over the past 12 months is hardly surprising considering that a year ago the military was still reeling from the rapid defeat it suffered against Russian forces. Earlier in November the Russian media, citing sources from the Russian intelligence services and military, reported that Georgia was to receive USD100 million worth of weaponry from United States intermediary companies, with Washington's consent. This was apparently to ... - 2009/11/16 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20752.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKThat 'closure' was achieved with the recognition of Rwasa's National Liberation Forces (Forces Nationales de Libération: FNL) as a political party, his renunciation of armed struggle at a demobilisation ceremony, and the promised sweetener of 33 (mainly minor) positions in government for the group. In fact, such splits are the hallmark of Burundi's political culture, and all the country's main political parties - the FDD, Frodebu and also the Union for National Progress (Union pour le Progrès... - 2009/11/16 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20763.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKOn 12 November, Hanna Nasser, director of the independent Palestinian Election Commission, recommended postponing presidential and parliamentary polls scheduled for January 2010. Hamas opposed his decision to call elections in January, saying that as his term of office expired in January 2009, he had no legitimacy to call the election. Its refusal in part pushed Abbas to call the January election and, while it may revel in this apparent rebuke to Abbas by the electoral commission, Hamas' ... - 2009/11/16 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20758.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKJane's Security Alerts provide a snapshot of global security developments and supplement our assessment of a country's overall stability in our Country Risk Ratings. Despite an ongoing breakdown in diplomatic and trade links between the two countries and a potential for further limited escalation, the risk of all-out war remains low. Jane's Country Risk Ratings shows the stability levels of 10 countries across the world, colour coded to indicate the level of risk. - 2009/11/16 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20760.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWK"[It's like] sending the signal, I'm on my way to another job. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt justifies the secrecy around nominations for the EU's top jobs, 11 November. "Democracy means including all opinions. - 2009/11/16 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20768.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKThe two coalition partners, the Democratic League of Kosovo (Lidhja Demokratike e Kosovës: LDK) of President Fatmir Sejdiu and the Democratic Party of Kosovo (Partia Demokratike e Kosovës: PDK) of Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi, a former Kosovo Liberation Army commander, have been locked in municipal tussles across the country. Veteran Serb leaders from Kosovo enclaves were dismissed last week from the Serb National Council, an official forum for Kosovo Serbs, in a clear sign of further ... - 2009/11/16 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20765.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKThe opening of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party's (NDP) conference on 28 October was accompanied by renewed speculation about who will succeed Hosni Mubarak as president. In October, opposition parties launched a campaign against Gamal Mubarak as a future presidential candidate. Gamal Mubarak (left) may be being groomed to succeed his father, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. - 2009/11/16 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20764.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKPrime Minister Hashim Thaçi said that his Democratic Party of Kosovo (Partia Demokratike e Kosovës: PDK) won 20 of 36 municipalities. President Fatmir Sejdiu's Democratic League of Kosovo (Lidhja Demokratike e Kosovës: LDK) claimed victory in the capital Pristina, winning the mayoralty in the first round with an absolute majority of around 57 per cent of the vote, and a majority in the local assembly. Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi casts his vote at a polling station in Pristina, Kosovo... - 2009/11/16 00:00:00