A line of 150 trucks waits to enter Kazakhstan. It takes so long to clear customs here that each rig usually only makes two round trips a month. And yet, contrary to appearances, documented discrepancies suggest the checkpoint is a smuggler’s paradise.

• February 9, 2011

An updated report commissioned by French President Nicolas Sarkozy will recommend that the Group of 20 economies undergo a major structural overhaul while also expanding the powers of the International Monetary Fund to deal with financial crises, according to one of the report's authors.
France, which holds the G-20's rotating presidency this year, has made overhauling the international monetary system, damping the volatility of commodities prices and improving global governance its top priorities. The report's authors include former IMF managing directors Michel Camdessus and Horst Kohler as well as former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. They will present their proposals to French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde in advance of the Feb. 18-19 meeting of finance ministers from the G-20 industrialized and developing nations. The set of recommendations will expand on a report presented to Sarkozy two weeks ago.

• February 8, 2011

Georgia is waiting for many-billion investments into its power economy: it wants to build 15 hydroelectric power stations and become the largest electrical energy exporter in the region, Business-Georgia reports.

• February 8, 2011

The Polish President has said he wants to hold a four-way summit with France, Germany and Russia during the Polish EU presidency as part of a Polish-model 'ostpolitik' for the union.

• February 8, 2011

A square, an angry crowd, banners, the bitter smell of burning, the grinding noise of manoeuvring tanks, blood: this time it's Cairo, but for the last three decades we have seen similar images from a range of autocracies under threat, from the Shah's Tehran, Deng Xiaoping's Beijing and Ceausescu's Bucharest to the uprisings of the last couple of years in Iran, Tunisia, and now Egypt.

• February 7, 2011

A square, an angry crowd, banners, the bitter smell of burning, the grinding noise of manoeuvring tanks, blood: this time it's Cairo, but for the last three decades we have seen similar images from a range of autocracies under threat, from the Shah's Tehran, Deng Xiaoping's Beijing and Ceausescu's Bucharest to the uprisings of the last couple of years in Iran, Tunisia, and now Egypt.

• February 7, 2011

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan led a large rally Monday demanding the return of several islands held by Russia since the end of World War II and calling the recent visit there by Russia's president an outrage.

• February 7, 2011

A new U.S.-Russia nuclear-arms-control treaty went into effect Saturday, securing a key foreign-policy goal of President Obama and raising hopes among officials on both sides that it will provide the impetus for Moscow and Washington to negotiate further reductions.

• February 7, 2011