NATO’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has called for a new strategic partnership with Russia, the BBC reports.
In his first major foreign policy address as NATO chief, Rasmussen called for a “joint review” with Moscow of global security challenges. He was speaking in Brussels the day after the US announced it was shelving plans for controversial missile defence bases in Poland and the Czech Republic.
“I would like Russia and NATO to agree to carry out a …

Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai has acknowledged fraud in last month’s election, admitting some election officials “were partial to me”, the Daily Mail reports.
But Karzai defended the integrity of the election as final results showed him in a comfortable victory.
He spoke to reporters on the day after full preliminary results showed him with a 54 per cent of the vote, well above the 50 per cent threshold needed to avoid a runoff with leading challenger Abdullah …

Japan’s new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has announced his Cabinet lineup, picking a veteran lawmaker and party ally as Finance Minister and a fellow party leader as his Foreign Minister, the AP reports.
Hatoyama, who took office today, named Katsuya Okada as Foreign Minister and Hirohisa Fujii as Ffinance Minister. Though Okada has never held a Cabinet post, Fujii was finance minister under a coalition government in 1993-94, the only time in its 55-year history that …

Leaders of the Democratic Party of Japan and the People’s New Party agreed today to start talks on forming a tripartite coalition along with the Social Democratic Party leader, Japanese news agency Kyodo reports.
New PNP leader Shizuka Kamei said that in the day’s meeting, DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama, who is poised to become Japan’s next prime minister in mid-September, asked him to create a coalition together and that he accepted the offer.
The two leaders met for …

The left-wing Democratic Party of Japan, lead by Yukio Hatoyama, has won the parliamentary elections in a devastating blow to the ruling party, BNONews reports.
The opposition have secured 245 seats according to initial official results, which is a majority of the lower house of the Parliament. 241 seats were needed for a majority.
Hatoyama is therefore projected to become the Prime Minister.
The ruling party, right-wing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), have only 56 seats so far. Head …

Japan lurched towards one of its biggest post-war political upsets this morning, as the Prime Minister, Taro Aso, called a snap election which is almost certain to result in the defeat of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party for only the second time in more than half a century, the Times reports.
Aso’s decision came after the LDP suffered a humiliating defeat in elections yesterday for the Tokyo metropolitan assembly. The results confirm the trend suggested all …

US President Barack Obama opened his first Moscow summit on Monday, a series of meetings sure to test his diplomatic skills like no other but already set to deliver some tangible progress on nuclear arsenal reductions and help for the fight in Afghanistan, the AP reports.
Obama will be laying a wreath at Russia’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and sitting down for hours of meetings with President Dmitry Medvedev. The full-scale, two-day U.S.-Russia summit is …

Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) have finally equated stalinism and nazism, saying that the Soviet Union was as guilty of Second World War as nazi Germany, and that both stalinism and nazism brought about crimes against humanity and genocide.
The organisation based their conclusion on the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 1939 which they said was the precursor to the conflagration, the Daily Mail reports. The pact, named after the Soviet and Nazi foreign ministers …

The world media is full of statements by country leaders condemning the “coup” in Honduras and calling for restoration of “democracy” and reinstating the President. What none of those seem to understand is that what happened in Honduras was democracy in action.
The core of the political crisis in this Central American country 7.5 million is the fact that a left-wing President, Manuel Zelaya, tried to pull an illegal “non-binding” referendum on changing the constitution. The …

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi enjoyed a resounding victory in provincial elections after Italians overlooked the allegations of sleaze swirling around him, the Telegraph reports.
In a key test of whether Berlusconi had been harmed politically by a series of scandals involving his links to a string of young women, Italians voted in local elections and handed nine more provinces to his centre-Right People of Freedom party.
That pretty much shows that Italians are sensible people who …

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told the “defeated” presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi to support the Iranian regime, or be cast out.
Khamenei told Mousavi to stand beside him as he uses Friday prayers at Tehran University to call for national unity, the Times reports. Army of Basiji – Islamic volunteer militiamen – are also expected to be bussed in to support the Ayatollah.
It was unclear last night what 67-year-old Mousavi would do or even …

A two month campaign for presidential election began on Tuesday in Afghanistan – on 20th August the people get to decide who is going to run the country for the next five years.
According to AP, current President Hamid Karza is the frontrunner, although he has some 40 opponents, main challengers being the former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.
Hamid Karzai has been Afghanistan’s President since the ouster of the Taliban regime …

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered an investigation into claims of fraud in last week’s presidential election, Jerusalem Post reports.
According to the newspaper, Khamenei ordered the Guardian Council to examine the allegations by pro-reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims widespread vote rigging in Friday’s election. The government declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner in a landslide victory.
Mousavi wrote an appeal to the Guardian Council, a powerful 12-member body that’s a pillar of Iran’s …

Iran’s capital Tehran saw the most serious unrest for last 10 years yesterday, when thousands of supporters of the presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi came to the streets to protest the election, which they call “rigged”. According to the Times, they fought the police armed with batons and stun grenades, set fire to police vehicles and threw stones at government buildings.
The newspaper said that clashes continued late into the night and fires of rubbish burnt …

Yesterday’s Iranian presidential election was reportedly won by the incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but his main rival Mir Hossein Mousavi promised not to bow to the “dangerous scenario” and claimed there were irregularities in the poll, the Daily Telegraph reports.
According to official tally, Ahmadinejad had won almost 21.8 million votes, which is more than 63% of the total.
Mousavi, however, declared himself the winner before the official results were released. “I’m warning that I won’t surrender to …

46 million Iranians have a chance to vote for country’s future today, as 45,000 polling stations in presidential election opened at 8AM local time (4:30 British Summer Time).
Iranians have the choice to either vote for hardliner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to stay on power, or make a choice between three others. Ahmadinejad’s closest rival is pro-reformist Mir Hossein Mousavi, who is more open to improving ties with America.
Challengers to Ahmadinejad’s presidency also include a conservative Mohsen …