Yanukovych’s Legacy: Empty Coffers, Imminent Bankruptcy

Revelations of secret amnesty deals for 187 veterans of the Irish Republican Army have cast an ominous shadow over Northern Ireland’s hard-won peace and could shatter its delicate unity government. Resurgent turmoil in the region would pose a dangerous distraction for the British government, which is fighting secessionist sentiment in Scotland ahead of an independence referendum there. 

Special Economic Analysis
by Peter Warburton, PhD

Concerns about China’s financial sector have resurfaced in recent months as another trust product, Credit Equals Gold No.1, failed and its investors were bailed out at the last minute by an unidentified third party. Most recently, Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy Science & Technology is rumored to have become the first company to default in China’s domestic corporate bond market. Examples such as these have fueled widespread speculation that China is on the brink of a financial collapse.

The announcement this week by Abdelaziz Bouteflika that he will run for the Algerian presidency settled one area of uncertainty: The 77-year-old incumbent almost certainly will win re-election in April. Yet several emerging issues suggest that the oil-rich country could be headed for turmoil, among them a split between the army and the intelligence apparatus, declining oil production, a rising al-Qaeda threat, increasing public discontent and Bouteflika’s own questionable health.

Responding to public outcry stoked by inaccurate media reports, President Barack Obama is weighing four options to reform a National Security Agency program tracking hundreds of millions of U.S. phone records. LIGNET assesses that each option weakens or destroys this important counterterrorism intelligence effort.

The United States and its European allies will have to find other ways to intervene in Ukraine if they intend to apply real pressure on Russia in response to its military occupation of Crimea. Following four fruitless emergency UN Security Council meetings, Ukraine’s interim government is left pleading for help while Russia stands ready to wield its veto power to counter any potential UN action.

The deadly machete attack Saturday at a southwestern China train station is a worrying development in the standoff between ethnic Han Chinese and Muslim Uighurs in the remote, autonomous region of Xinjiang. A blade-wielding gang of eight Uighur extremists managed to kill 33 people and injure scores more before police were able to stop them.