ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Analysis EUROPE Jan. 27: Eurozone finance ministers will meet in Brussels one day before all EU finance ministers meet. Jan. 27: Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and his Serbian counterpart, Ivica Dacic, are expected to meet in Brussels for another round of talks to normalize bilateral relations. Jan. 28: The EU-Russia summit will take place in Brussels. Jan. 30: The EU-U.S. Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership conference will take place in Brussels. Jan. 31: The Munich Security Conference will start in Munich and continue through Feb. 2. Feb. 2: Moldova's autonomous region of Gagauzia will hold a consultative referendum on the effects of Moldova's foreign policy on Gagauzia's independence. FORMER SOVIET UNION Jan. 28: Political directors of the Group of Eight (G-8) will meet in Moscow. Jan. 28: The regular meeting of Azerbaijani-Hungarian Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation is expected to take place in Baku. Jan. 28: Ukraine will hold an extra

The Panama Canal locks in Colon, 110 kilometers (68 miles) northwest of Panama City, Jan. 17. Expansion of the canal could cease at the end of January if Panama does not agree to pay $1.6 billion in unforeseen costs. (RODRIGO ARANGUA/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Significant delays to the Panama Canal expansion project are increasingly likely as negotiations between the multinational construction consortium, Spanish financiers and Panamanian authorities drag out. The Grupo Unidos Por el Canal consortium is threatening to stop work at the end of January after already extending the previous deadline past Jan. 20. According to the Panamanian Dispute Adjudication Board, which is arbitrating the negotiations over who will cover cost overruns, a work stoppage could mean that the canal will not be completed until as late as 2020. Because the project has been delayed once already, from an estimated completion date of 2014 to mid-2015, a postponement of a year or so would be well within the bound

Ukrainian policemen block a road in Kiev on Jan. 27. (ROB STOTHARD/Getty Images) Summary With an extraordinary session of parliament set for Jan. 28 to discuss the opposition's demands, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich is facing a crucial decision on how to resolve the political standoff. The opposition continued its calls for Yanukovich's resignation and early presidential elections as anti-government demonstrations continued throughout the country over the weekend. Regardless of how the domestic political situation plays out in Ukraine, the country and any leadership that represents it will continue to have to cooperate with both Russia and the European Union. Analysis Protests continued to spread over the weekend. Demonstrators are still blockading regional administrative buildings throughout the western and central part of the country, while cities in the east and south that are traditionally pro-Yanukovich began to experience protests as well. Despite the protests&#

Fighters with the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta celebrate news of a successful operation against the Nigerian army in 2008. (PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Threats against oil infrastructure by a militant group in Nigeria's oil-producing south have once again raised concerns about the reliability of Africa's top oil exporter. The Nigerian militant group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, commonly known by its acronym MEND, threatened Jan. 27 to attack Nigerian oil infrastructure and halt crude oil production by 2015. The militant group retains the capability to conduct limited attacks against Nigerian military personnel and isolated energy infrastructure, but it no longer possesses the organizational cohesion and covert political backing it had in the mid- to late 2000s that enabled it to disrupt hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil production per day. Analysis Before issuing its threat Jan. 27, MEND had been remarkably quiet in

Melbourne, January 27 : Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space flights has banned Chinese nationals from boarding it, as the officials fear that their rocket technology might get stolen, it has been revealed. Tycoons from China, who are willing to pay 250,000 dollars for the tickets, have been told that they cannot board the flights because of anti-espionage regulations in the US, News. com. au reported. Virgin's craft has a rocket engine and is seen as a potential military technology by the US's International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which was introduced during the Cold War to bar people from China, Iran and North Korea from having access to weapons technology. A Virgin Galactic salesman based in Hong Kong said that they have received calls from people in China, but they have told them that people with a Chinese passport won't be allowed to go on the space voyage. The salesman added that the willing Chinese tourist have been advised to get another nationality'

Not too long ago, the phrase "electronic army" would have conjured up visions of a 1980s cyber-dystopian film -- the kind featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger and a lot of fog machines. But today the idea of an electronic army has been adopted outside the realm of entertainment, as a group called the Syrian Electronic Army, which supports Bashar al-Assad's regime, has successfully managed to temporarily cripple the online operations of companies like Twitter and The New York Times. Perceived digital warfare is escalating as a sophisticated breed of attack against corporations, governments and individuals. The Survey on the Global Agenda tells us that people over 50 are more worried about it than the under-50s, but the shift to the cloud and the rise of the "Internet of things" mean that virtually all of us could be affected. Until quite recently, most people and organizations with a web presence were operating their own servers. That meant that as the web developed i

By Scott Kaufman  - " Raw Story" - In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Bayer CEO Marijn Dekkers said that his company’s new cancer drug, Nexavar, isn’t “for Indians,” but “for western patients who can afford it.” The drug, which is particularly effective on late-stage kidney and liver cancer, costs approximately $69,000 per year in India, so in March 2012 an Indian court granted a license to an Indian company to produce to the drug at a 97 percent discount. Bayer sued Natco Pharma Ltd., but in March of last year, the High Court in Mumbai denied its appeal. Bayer CEO called the compulsory license issued by the Indian court “essentially theft,” then said “[w]e did not develop this medicine for Indians…[w]e developed it for western patients who can afford it.” Nexavar costs approximately $96,000 per year in the United States, but Bayer assures “western patients” that they can have access to the drug for a $100 copay. The United States International Trade Commission

By RT  - " RT " - The NSA agency is not preoccupied solely with national security, but also spies on foreign industrial entities in US business interests, former American intelligence contractor, Edward Snowden, has revealed in an interview to German TV. Edward Snowden chose the German ARD broadcaster to make his first TV interview ever since he became a whistleblower. The interview was made in strict secrecy in an unspecified location in Russia, where Snowden is currently living under temporary asylum. “There is no question that the US is engaged in economic spying,” said Snowden, from a teaser aired late on Saturday. If an industrial giant like Siemens has something that the NSA believes “would be beneficial to the national interests, not the national security, of the United States, they will go after that information and they'll take it,” the whistleblower said, giving an example. Edward Snowden disavowed participation in any future publications of the documents he wi