Both the opposition coalition Georgian Dream and the ruling United National Movement (UNM) of President Mikheil Saakashvili claimed victory in the parliamentary elections held yesterday (1 October). Regardless of the final results, the poll appears to mark the end of the single-party rule in the Western-backed nation. READ MORE

Speech by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at the City College of New York. READ MORE

After four months in power President François Hollande has suffered a massive drop in popularity, his government is split over the eurozone fiscal pact and companies continue to lay workers off. This week is unlikely to see a turnaround — new unemployment figures will be announced on Wednesday and the cabinet will discuss a widely dreaded budget on Friday. READ MORE

The current trajectory of U.S. missile defense will not make the nation safer. In fact, it may waste money on flawed technology while promoting further escalation. READ MORE

On the 21th annual session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, debates around Kazakhstan have become one of the topics that attracted keen interest of human rights defenders. Some MPs proposed to adopt a tough resolution to this country in connection with events in Zhanaozen. READ MORE

One pact which seemed firmly consigned to the history books as recently as five years ago suddenly looks like a good idea again. I am referring to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, originally created over six hundred years ago to counter the threat of a rogue «crusader» state of Teutonic Knights based on the Southern Baltic coast. READ MORE

President Dalia Grybauskaitė and EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger discussed the progress made by Lithuania and all Baltic countries in integrating themselves into the EU's energy system and the creation of regional gas and electricity markets during their meeting in Vilnius on Friday. READ MORE

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s talk at the Russian Foreign Ministry on September 3, when he powerfully stressed the need for his country to strengthen and consolidate its “soft power” (mid.ru, September 3), may look to an outside observer like an optimistic signal and a long-awaited change in Russia’s foreign policy. This benign view, however, could not be more wrong. Rather, the Kremlin is seeking to exploit the Western concept of “soft power”—which basically implies the power of attraction—and reframing it as a euphemism for coercive policy and economic arm-twisting. READ MORE

EU leaders in December signed Croatia's accession treaty, trumpeting the move as a sign the EU's enlargement programme is alive and well despite the euro crisis. READ MORE

The Asia-Pacific Region’s growing global economic and political importance was a clear priority for all those attending APEC 2012 in Vladivostok. Representatives from economies across the globe gathered to discuss its promising future. But recent events in the region have reaffirmed the axiom that great opportunities tend to be accompanied by equally great risks. READ MORE