The mighty FT has a very interesting story today about the exposure of an extremely worrying arms deal in the Ukraine. Regular readers will be well aware that I’ve been hoping that the Ukrainian revolution may lead to us discovering much more about the Viktor Bout system – Kuchma’s Ukraine was, next to Transdnistria and…

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Eurosavant has an excellent post on the Iraqi elections: sensible, measured and rich in links. See also Straight Banana, with an interesting analysis of the unlikely similarities between the British and EU constitutions. Or there’s Chris Lightfoot with a statistical view of immigration and the media. Compare and contrast Greg of Belgravia Dispatch‘s messianic ravings:…

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The Periscope has the following comment on a post about Moldova: “The communist President Vladmir Voronin, is afraid of war, he is not the actual Warlord of the situation, compared to the Board of Directors, he is sitting privately anticipating his own thoughts of crime? I only meant he is a practicing magician of Russian…

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So says Doug Farah in a new post over at his blog. Farah states that Kellogg, Brown and Root are still using the Bout system in Iraq despite public protestations that all the contracts were cancelled. Regular TYR readers will recall that this should come as no surprise: back when they first said the contracts…

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From the Torygraph, an interesting report on the latest European Constitution poll. ICM’s survey, the first to be carried out using the actual question to be asked in the referendum, showed 39% in favour and 41% against – radically better figures than any previous poll. Naturally… “The ICM findings will fuel the debate over the…

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1. Yes, It Wasn’t Any Worse Than We Thought Indeed, quite a lot of people voted (latest figure 57% or perhaps somewhat less depending on reports). And there was no bloodbath comparable to (say) the slaughter of pilgrims in Najaf last year… 2. But That Ain’t Saying Much ..but some 44 persons were blown up…

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