Patrick Moore

Also by Patrick Moore

• September 16, 2005

  Western Balkans: Is There Life Outside The EU?

  EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has said the EU must live up to its commitments, but whether that is likely to happen soon is another matter Signs are growing that the EU and some western Balkan countries are losing their attraction for each other. This could prove a blessing in disguise if the Balkan states take advantage of the opportunity to challenge old dogmas and explore new alternatives.

• September 09, 2005

  Serbia-Montenegro: What's Behind The 'Robbery Of The Century'?

  Defense Minister Prvoslav Davinic Serbia and Montenegro has been rocked in recent weeks by a scandal involving corruption in the Defense Ministry. The affair has already begun to impact on Serbian domestic politics and on relations between Belgrade and Podgorica.

• September 06, 2005

  Kosovo: A Crisis Of Leadership?

  Kosovo's President Ibrahim Rugova announced on 5 September in Prishtina that U.S. military doctors have diagnosed him as having "localized lung cancer." Should he lose his fight or choose to leave office, Kosovars will be hard-pressed to find a suitable successor.

• September 05, 2005

  China: Frustrated Citizens Take To The Streets

  Traditionally China's 900 million peasants have served as the power base of the Communist Party Scarcely a month goes by without news coming from rural China of often-violent protests by locals over corruption, land-grabs, taxation, or environmental issues. The authorities are struggling to stem this rising tide of challenges to abuses that are probably inherent in any one-party dictatorship.

• August 26, 2005

  Serbia: Government Crisis Suggests Early Elections

  Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica (file photo) A crisis has emerged in Serbia's six-party minority government that has led to the expulsion of one of the smaller parties. Speculation now centers on whether the latest developments will lead to the early parliamentary elections that many observers have long predicted for later in 2005.

• August 25, 2005

  Asia: Trouble In The Neighborhood?

  China is rapidly making use of its growing economic strength to increase political and military clout. The impact of this is already evident in much of the Asia-Pacific region.

• August 18, 2005

  Serbia-Montenegro: The More Things Change...

  Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica (file photo) Controversy has emerged in Serbia over the government's apparent political deal with former Serbian and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and over some remarks by a government minister against independent journalists.

• August 17, 2005

  China: Dying In The Mines

  A miner rests during the Daxing rescue effort (file photo) Scarcely a month seems to go by without news of at least one coal mining disaster somewhere in China. China's coal mines are the most dangerous in the world. Official statistics put the annual toll of on-the-job deaths at about 7,000, but some foreign NGOs say the real figure is probably closer to 20,000, Radio Free Asia's Mandarin Service (RFA) recently reported. Even the official figures are 10 times those of India, 30 times those of South Africa, and 100 times those of the United States, according to the "Los Angeles Times" of 16 August.

• August 15, 2005

  China: Acting To Keep Out 'Harmful Information'

  The government under President Hu Jintao is keeping new media under wraps (file photo) The Chinese authorities have made it clear again recently that political rather than economic considerations are paramount in media affairs. Moves to keep foreign capital and influence out of the media appear to be at sharp variance with China's commitment as a new member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to open its markets.

• August 05, 2005

  Bosnia-Herzegovina: Karadzic's Wife Tells Him, 'Give Yourself Up'

  Ljiljana Karadzic in 1998 Both the wife of war crimes indictee and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and the current Republika Srpska president have called on Karadzic to surrender. Many wonder why these pleas came precisely at this time.

• August 05, 2005

  Serbia and Montenegro: The Politics Of Churches And Helicopters

  Church on Mount Rumija The Army of Serbia and Montenegro recently provided helicopters to help construct an Orthodox church in Montenegro. The ensuing controversy shows once again how politically explosive ostensibly religious issues can still be in parts of former Yugoslavia.

• August 02, 2005

  Asia: China Rediscovers Its Maritime Heritage

  China has been steadily building up its surface and submarine fleets in recent years A recent U.S. Defense Department report suggests that China is seeking to become a regional sea power. Perhaps the most surprising thing about this development is that it took so long. In recent decades, China has been exploring a maritime tradition that it largely abandoned centuries ago.

• July 28, 2005

  Balkans: Karadzic And Mladic Are 'Everywhere But In The Hague'

  Radovan Karadzic Ten years have passed since former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his former military commander General Ratko Mladic were indicted by the Hague-based war crimes tribunal for genocide and other war crimes. The two fugitives remain at large, despite the obligation of NATO-led peacekeepers and the various governments in the region to arrest the indictees and send them to The Hague. Many people wonder why the most powerful military alliance in history and a host of governments seeking Euro-Atlantic integration remain unable to catch the two.

• July 22, 2005

  Asia: Is China Becoming A Regional Military Threat?

  A new U.S. Defense Department study suggests that China's military buildup is making it a potential threat to regional security in East Asia. Recent remarks by a senior Chinese general about possibly launching a nuclear war with the United States also cast doubt on China's otherwise carefully promoted image as a peaceful country.

• July 18, 2005

  Bosnia-Herzegovina: What Future For Bosnia?

  Bosnia's haunting past still looms over its future 18 July 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Most observers of the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina agree that there is room for improvement. That, however, seems to be where agreement both begins and ends.

• July 12, 2005

  Bosnia-Herzegovina: Marking The 10th Anniversary Of The Srebrenica Massacre

  About 50,000 people attended ceremonies on 11 July in Srebrenica and nearby Potocari in Bosnia-Herzegovina to mark the 10th anniversary of the killing of about 8,000 mainly Muslim males by Serbian forces in the worst single atrocity in Europe since the end of World War II.

• July 02, 2005

  Balkans: The Dimming 'European Perspectives'

  Children playing in downtown Belgrade Signs are increasing that one of the casualties of the EU's current crisis will be its expansion into the western Balkans. It is not clear whether all concerned have faced up to the implications of such a development.

• July 01, 2005

  Albania: Country Prepares To Elect A New Parliament

  On 3 July, Albanians will select a new legislature after a close and exceedingly hard-fought election campaign. As polling before the vote came to an end, the two leading parties were running neck and neck, while the public generally views the entire political elite as corrupt communist-era holdovers.

• June 27, 2005

  Serbia: Belgrade's Ambiguous Response To Srebrenica

  Thousands of Serbs were shocked by the 2 June television broadcast of a video proving that the Serbian paramilitary police unit called the Scorpions took part in the July 1995 massacre of about 8,000 mainly Muslim males at Srebrenica in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina. The reaction of official Serbia to the "smoking gun" of Serbian involvement in the killings has nonetheless been mixed.

• June 17, 2005

  EU: No Room In For The Balkan States?

  The draft of the final declaration of the EU summit held in Brussels on 16-17 June made no specific mention of the accession plans of Croatia or Turkey and gave only tacit approval to Romania and Bulgaria's hopes for membership. People in the western Balkan countries are likely to regard this omission of more advanced candidates as a sign that their own EU aspirations are now on hold, if not altogether dead.

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