Atlantic Council

Moscow and Kiev are once again on a collision course over gas supplies. WaPo:

Russia and Ukraine appear to be heading for a new collision over natural gas that could disrupt supplies to Europe this winter, with Russia threatening to stop selling the fuel to Ukraine on Jan. 1 if it does not repay more than $2 billion in debt.

Echoing similar measures used in Iraq, the U.S. will begin funding militias in remote areas of Afghanistan to help fight the Taliban. 

The New York Times yesterday published a letter by Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris, assailing Caroline Kennedy's status as apparent frontrunner for the Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Clinton.  The author termed it "surprising and not very democratic, to say the least." 

India is playing it close to the vest with information on last month's deadly terrorist attacks in Mumbai.  Interpol secretary general Ronald Nobel says that his agency has been kept out of the loop, BBC reports.

Hopes are high that a new Afghanistan strategy and 30,000 extra U.S. troops will prove to be a turning point in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, much as similar measures changed the nature of the counterinsurgency in Iraq. 

The OSCE's mission in Georgia, which opened in 1992, is coming to a close.  Veronika Oleksyn for AP:

OSCE chair Finland called a meeting Monday morning to seek a three-month extension to the mandate, which expires on Dec. 31, to allow time for more negotiations on the mission's future. It had been the topic of behind-the-scenes discussions for some time.  "Unfortunately, there was no consensus on this decision," said Antti Turunen, Finland's ambassador to the OSCE, after the closed-door gathering.

President Bush’s efforts in Africa have undeniably produced accomplishments that have affected millions throughout the continent and we should be optimistic for the future. But we've still got much work to do — and much to learn.

When members of a strained Alliance convene in Strasbourg, France and Kehl, Germany for the 60^th Anniversary of NATO it will have been a decade since they last agreed upon a strategic vision for the alliance. 

More than four months after the hot phase of Russia’s war on Georgia, Russia continues to violate the European Union-brokered ceasefire agreements of August 12 and September 8. Russia agreed to return to pre-August 7 lines and to withdraw its forces from areas of Georgia adjacent to the separatist territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It has done neither.

Just days ago, the BBC reported that the leaders of Yushchenko and Tymoshenko's respective parties had agreed to form a new governing coalition after the previous one collapsed in September.  But of course, doubts have already emerged about this arrangement.  Last Monday, Nikolas Gvosdev noted the fragile nature of the new "coalition."