In recent weeks, most Indians have been subject to mass amounts of information and opinion on the Naxalite problem in the country. The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and the Home Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram have both stated recently on the record that the Naxal insurgency within the country is the gravest internal threat that India has ever faced. Dealing with this threat in the future will require measures on government���s part that are at the same time more expansive and more definitive. It has been painfully obvious for some time now; state police forces have battled to no avail to curb the threat.

In 2010, Nigeria will complete 50 years since it first started exporting crude oil from Oloibiri in Rivers State. The present state of its economy shows that the financial windfall obtained from oil exports have not boosted the economic growth of the country. In fact, it has lead to environmental degradation, corruption, wide spread poverty and conflict. 

Soon after the workshop on Climate Change and Water Stress in the Eastern Himalayan River Basins in Kathmandu, I left on a family holiday to Kenya. This was the African Safari we had been dreaming about�€�. seeing the Big Five, apart from giraffes, zebras, hippos�€�. Little did I think that climate change and water stress would continue to occupy my thoughts.

Former President Pervez Musharraf�€™s admission that Pakistan has been using US military aid intended for the �€˜war on terror�€™ to strengthen defences against India, is a candid reinforcement by a Pakistani leader of a fact which should come as no surprise to the Indian establishment. 

The first few weeks of September were host to a series of mudslinging events between Syria and Iraq. The Iraqi administration accused Syria of housing Ba�€™athists suspected of perpetrating the August truck-blasts in Baghdad; the Syrians challenged them for concrete evidence. Iraq then demanded that Syria hand over the suspects and Syria responded with a flat refusal. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki went so far as to request for an international tribunal to settle the dispute but the Syrians insisted that they would not betray those who took sanctuary within their territory, as Maliki himself had done during Saddam�€™s reign. 

Chinese President Hu Jintao has promised the people of China a politically and socially stable society. The government is working towards its goal of �€˜hexie shehui�€™ meaning �€œa harmonious society�€ through sustainable development and people�€™s welfare programs. These days China is witnessing an unprecedented number of public protests, demonstrations and violence. These displays of social friction seem to be multiplying every year. Will this brewing unrest culminate in another violent spectacle like the Tiananmen Square tragedy? That seems unlikely at this time; however these displays of public frustration do represent a fundamental threat to a harmonious Chinese society - today and in the years to come, if the issues behind them are not addressed.

When Barack Obama was elected the 43rd President of the United States, there were many who started scripting the start of a new era; an era which would offer a lot of diplomacy, dialogue and discussion. He was seen as the man who would undo a lot of the actions made by the Bush Administration and would again start making friends across the globe. This included a vast majority sitting in the continent south of the United States as even they were looking forward to the start of better ties with their northern brother. It�€™s almost a year now since that historic election, but little has changed.

Sundeep Waslekar comments on the question of Turkey's membership of the European Union.