Focus on Arak: 4 Myths about Iran’s Plutonium Reactor

Popular protests in Bulgaria are giving the newly elected socialist government no opportunities to revive the country’s beat-up and backward economy, which has been hit hard by the euro crisis. A deep-rooted culture of corruption risks stripping the government of any legitimacy. The economy will suffer the consequences.

The U.S. government’s decision last week to blacklist the radical Islamist group Boko Haram is likely to aid the Nigerian government’s efforts to stop the violence that has ravaged the impoverished yet oil-rich West African nation over the past four years. Nigeria needs all the help it can get to stop Boko Haram from further undermining the security of West Africa.

Following cues from the United States and Japan, Europe’s central bank has moved to a record-low interest rate in a bid to resuscitate the eurozone economy. Yet economists warn that a rate cut alone might not be enough to stave off disaster and that the European Central Bank should consider adding unconventional measures already being used in Washington and Tokyo.

The political stalemate that has plagued Lebanon’s government for the past seven months is slowing momentum for exploration and exploitation of resources in the Levant Basin, which could help alleviate the country’s acute economic and energy woes. Lebanon’s energy holdings could yield large quantities of natural gas and recoverable oil, but the country must overcome strong political tides to take hold of this energy lifeline.