Bye bye and thank you!

Guys! We’ve had to let go of our beloved blog, as it’s proving too much work at the moment for us. Instead, those of you who speak Finnish, might want to check out a new blog by one of our members 🙂 Thanks for reading Conflict Kids and all the best!! XX CK team
http://ulkopolitist.wordpress.com/

EU and US cover-up organized crime in Kosovo?

According to a story by Andrew Willis at the EUObserver, the US and EU have been aware of  senior politicians in Kosovo having connections to organized crime.

Especially concerning are the allegations over organ trade.

“Serb prisoners held in special detention camps were killed and had their organs extracted for sale on the international black market in the 1990s”, writes Willis.

You can read the rest of the story here.

We are very happy…

…That Russian Duma has passed START and the treaty is on it’s way to being ratified!

More from the Associated Press:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i4y1m6-VlHGU_2izbiz1AMjux6aA?docId=0c7e718212fd4758b61cc603c7dbff95

New spin doctors on the block

http://spindoctorate.wordpress.com/

Another LSE MSc graduates’ collaborative blog from 2009. Wonder how we didn’t come across it earlier!

The real diplomatic skills

Check out the Foreign Policy: The diplomats’ guide to planning a walkout on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s U.N. speech.

Couldn’t they just agree that everyone gets up when the US goes “1…2…3… OK we´re off!”

Robert Fisk invented the Wikileaks 30 years ago

Ah, Mr Fisk. In one article you demonstrate nearly all of the reasons I dislike your writing. It doesn’t get much better than this paragraph:

That La Clinton should want her State Department slaves to play secret agents on the poor old UN donkey – the beast that forever clip-clops on stage to mop up America’s failed policies in the Middle East, this decrepit skyscraper on the East River packed with enough asbestos to kill a nation of peacekeepers, this bureaucratic shambles with its pathetic Secretary-General whose English is still in need of vast improvement – shows what an utterly worthless institution the US State Department has become.

via Robert Fisk: Stay out of trouble by not speaking to Western spies – Robert Fisk, Commentators – The Independent.

Nokia and Hezbollah

Image via CrunchBase

A tale about Israeli recruitment of a Lebanese spy under the pretense of working for a “Finish telecoms company”.

via Islamic Resistance In Lebanon – Official Web Site.

UN: Convention on Enforced Disappearance enters into force today – US yet to sign

The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance entered into force today, 23rd December 2010, one month after Iraq was the last of the required 20 countries to ratify the agreement. 97 countries have signed it so far. Two additional countries have since ratified it.

Mural of disappeared law students in Buenos Aires

A happy day for Obama!

The much-debated START* treaty passed in the US Senate today, much to President Obama´s liking.

Obama has been campaigning for reduction of strategic weapons for years, and The Guardian was even speculating, whether he would take the next step towards pressing the Senate on a comprehensive test ban trety next year.

New name, same old dodgy business

Blackwater in action again…

According to the Der Spiegel reportage on leaked Wikileaks cables, Blackwater, now called Xe Services, exported military helicopers illegally to Afghanistan from Germany.

Charming.