EU heaps new sanctions on Syria - by Dan Murphy

The European Union announced stepped-up sanctions against the Syrian regime today that, to my eyes, looks like a preliminary step to more serious sanctions on Bashar al-Assad and those around him.

In a statement, Catherine Ashton, the EU's representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said "Today's decisions will put further pressure on those who are responsible for the ruthless campaign of repression in Syria. The measures target the regime and its ability to conduct the appalling violence against civilians. As long as the repression continues, the EU will keep imposing sanctions."

The EU also explained that the "Syrian regime's continued use of violence against civilians" prompted the new measures. One wonders if war crimes indictments are not far off. Muammar Qaddafi of Libya and members of his circle were hit with International Criminal Court (ICC) indictments far sooner during that country's uprising, and if only half of the reports coming out of Syria are to be believed, Mr. Assad long ago passed Qaddafi's triggering threshold.

For more: EU heaps new sanctions on Syria - CSMonitor.com

Turkey's EU hopes drift amid financial uncertainty

If a project has no deadline, is it really a project? What do you call a negotiation process in which the partners can't talk about key issues? These are existential times for Turkey's campaign to join the European Union -- an ambitious vision that has become increasingly ambiguous.

At a time when Greece's survival in the eurozone is in jeopardy, it seems academic to debate a Turkish entry to European ranks that some Turks feel won't happen in their lifetime, if at all. The more pressing question is whether the suitors should, as with any soured romance, call it quits or rekindle the flame.

When accession talks began in 2005, the idea was that Turkey's Muslim population would enrich the continent, culturally and economically, with Turkey itself destined to become a European-style democracy that could serve as an east-west bridge. More than six years later, doubt haunts hope. Economic troubles mean that Europe, where skepticism toward the Turkish bid was already building, has little energy to expand, while in Turkey reform efforts have slowed and the nation has sought to carve out a leadership role in the Middle East.

"Without a deadline, without a final aim, there is no process," said Cengiz Aktar, a political science professor at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul. "There can't be an endless project."

For more: Turkey's EU hopes drift amid financial uncertainty | CTV News

Syrian troops retake control of suburbs outside Damascus - Is Assad ready to pack his bags?

Syrian troops reasserted control Monday of rebellious suburbs outside Damascus, retaking some districts amid stiff resistance as the opposition reported dozens killed in fierce fighting.

Armed rebels were falling back to avoid the government’s onslaught, said opposition activists, as regime tanks and troops pulled into rebel bastions near the capital.

“We’ve entered the stage of street war,” said an opposition activist in the Damascus suburb of Duma, who asked not to be named for security reasons. “Today, one side is gaining control, tomorrow the other side. Today, the regime is in control.” The increase in violence came as diplomats in New York prepared to debate Syria’s future.

On Tuesday, the United Nations is scheduled to consider an Arab League plan, backed by Western nations, that calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad to relinquish power as part of a transition to a unity government and the holding of new elections. The Syrian government has condemned the blueprint as an affront to its sovereignty.

For more: Syrian troops retake control of suburbs outside Damascus - latimes.com

Spain's tourism sector gets boost from Arab revolts

Spain is getting a boost to its hugely important tourist industry as northern European sunseekers shun popular resorts in Egypt and Tunisia because of anti-government uprisings there.

The country has struggled in recent years to compete with beach destinations in Egypt's Red Sea and Tunisia's Mediterranean coast which are cheaper and of a similar flying distance from its key markets like Germany and Britain.

But since the unrest sweeping the Arab world began in Tunisia in early January, tourists have been changing their travel plans, and Spain, especially the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco, has been one of the main beneficiaries.

For more: AFP: Spain's tourism sector gets boost from Arab revolts

Crises in the Balkans: While you were watching Egypt...

observers have noted that some of the protestors that brought down Egypt's president used the clenched-fist logo of Otpor, the well-organised, foreign-financed civic resistance movement that helped topple Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. Parts of the Serbian press, notes Florian Bieber, an academic who works on Balkan affairs, have claimed that former Otpor activists helped train some of the opposition groups. 
 

With the world's attention on the Arab world, the political instability gripping much of the western Balkans has largely been ignored. Yet so serious is the unrest here—including mass demonstrations in Belgrade, Tirana and Skopje—that one diplomat told me his country’s foreign ministry had asked him if he thought that Egypt-style revolution might sweep northwards into the Balkans. (His answer was an emphatic “no”.) 

For more: Crises in the Balkans: While you were watching Egypt... | The Economist

Middle East unrest as it happens

Libya, Bahrain, Iraq,Yemen, Algeria, Jordan and Iran are the latest countries to be hit by popular protests inspired by the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Follow the BBC minute-by-minute coverage of all the latest events from across the Middle East and North Africa, where several regimes are facing huge challenges from their people.

For more: BBC News - Middle East unrest as it happened

Egyptians, Inspired by Tunisia, Use Facebook to Set Up Protest March Today

On Facebook, more than 85,000 people have pledged to attend a nationwide antigovernment protest planned for today Jan. 25, in Egypt.

The Middle East is walking into an anxious week after a busy weekend, one that saw authoritarian regimes from Algeria to Yemen experience the ripple effect of the fall of Tunisia's President, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.

Large antigovernment demonstrations broke out in Jordan, Yemen and Algeria, while more men —
particularly in Egypt and Algeria — have joined the ranks of self-immolators inspired by Mohammed Bouazizi, the Tunisian whose suicide sparked that country's revolution. "What is very important about what happened in Tunisia, regardless of whether it spreads, is that it certainly raised a lot of hope among Egyptians and among other Arab people in different countries," explains Hassan Nafaa, a political-science professor at Cairo University and a vocal critic of the regime of President Hosni Mubarak.

Beyond the wave of protests, that hope has found a voice in independent newspapers across the region and in new, audacious political demands made by opposition groups. In Jordan and Yemen, analysts say, verbal attacks by opposition groups show an unprecedented confidence and ferocity, including calls by Jordanian opposition members to have an elected Prime Minister and turn King Abdullah of Jordan's nominally constitutional monarchy into a real one.


For more: Egyptians, Inspired by Tunisia, Use Facebook to Set Up Protest March - TIME

Tunisia riots offer warning to Arab governments

Nervous Arab leaders watching young Tunisian demonstrators force an ageing strongman into sweeping concessions are wondering if their own old established formula of political repression will have to change too.
There seems little likelihood that Tunisia's violence will soon spread and unseat autocratic governments from Rabat to Riyadh, partly as opposition movements are weak and demoralized.


No one thinks Tunis is the Arab world's Gdansk, heralding a toppling of dominos of the kind that swept eastern Europe in 1989. Yet some wonder how long the region's unpopular rulers -- from absolute monarchs to ageing revolutionaries clinging to power -- can rely on the hard, old ways to stay in power.


For more: Tunisia riots offer warning to Arab governments | Top News | Reuters

EU-Digest/Politico: "Turkey teaching the US and EU some lessons in Middle East Diplomacy" - by Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

For the complete report from POLITICO.com click on this link

When Erdogan does come to Washington, Obama would do well to listen to his Turkish visitor about the current state of play in the strategically vital Middle East. Erdogan will come to Washington not only at a time of strong domestic support for his government and the ruling Justice and Development Party, a moderate Islamist party that has dominated Turkish electoral politics in this decade, but also at a time of increasing influence for Turkey in the broader Middle East — while America’s influence in the region continues to decline. This opening to the broader Middle East has been very strongly in Turkey’s interest. Expanding trade and investment links to Iran, Iraq, Syria and other regional states has boosted the growth of Turkey’s economy and reinforced its status as an “emerging market” of international significance. Moreover, closer ties to Middle Eastern countries, along with links to Hamas and Hezbollah, have made Ankara an increasingly important player across a wide spectrum of regional issues. Erdogan wants to position Turkey to act as a mediator between its Muslim neighbors and the West — including the United States, which needs to move beyond nice speeches by Obama and undertake concrete diplomatic initiatives to repair its standing in the Middle East.

There is an important lesson here for the Obama administration. America no longer has the economic and political wherewithal to dictate strategic outcomes in the Middle East. Increasingly, if Washington wants to promote and protect U.S. interests in this critical region, it will have to do so through serious diplomacy — by respecting evolving balances of power and accommodating the legitimate interests of others so that U.S. interests will be respected. Turkey’s Middle East policy provides a valuable model of what that kind of diplomacy looks like. Note EU-Digest: the EU can also learn a lesson from this kind of diplomacy instead of still blindly following the established US policies for that area.

Market Watch: US Newspaper circulation declines 7% - by David Wilkerson

For the complete report from MarketWatch click on this link

The average daily circulation of U.S. newspapers declined 7% in the six-month period ending March 31, according to the latest data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, reflecting an increased rate of decline over the last two measured periods. The data indicate that in the midst of a shift in consumer behavior that has led more people to get their news and information online, a depressed economy has induced still more readers to cancel their newspaper subscriptions. Among 395 daily U.S. newspapers, the average circulation totaled 34.4 million, compared with a total of 37.1 million in the March 2008 reporting period, according to preliminary figures, the ABC said.

In the six months ended Sept. 30, daily circulation was down 4.6% from the same period a year earlier. In the March 2008 period, daily circulation fell 3.6%.

With 557 U.S. newspapers reporting their Sunday numbers, average circulation fell 5.4% in the March 2009 period, to 42.1 million.