E-diplomacy: Foreign policy in 140 characters

By Nick Bryant

The diplomatic world is considered to be one of protocol and discretion, yet an increasing number of foreign policy officials and diplomats are conducting their business in the most public way possible, on Twitter.

On the morning that Ratko Mladic appeared before the UN war crimes tribunal, the British Foreign Secretary William Hague took to Twitter to issue the kind of diplomatic broadside of which his predecessor, Viscount Palmerston, would have been proud.

North Korea has a new name for North Koreans: ‘space conquerors’

North Korean state media present an easy target, but the latest from the official newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, is a doozy even by the DPRK’s already-monumental standards of lunacy. A recent editorial in the paper repeats the usual exhortation to each and every North Korean to “devote oneself to building an economic giant with burning patriotic enthusiasm to fully demonstrate Korea of the sun.”

This 1999 North Korean stamp is a small but telling indication of the regime’s obsession with achieving a successful launch into Earth orbit, which it finally got in December. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Images)

What’s interesting is that the state-run Rodong Sinmun seems to employ a new, unofficial name for the North Korean people: “space conquerors.” In only 365 short words, it refers to North Koreans five different times as “space conquerors,” according to the official English translation. To give you a sense of how firmly the paper is hammering this home, here are two successive paragraphs (my emphasis added):

AP Analysis: Israeli opposition paints Netanyahu as inadvertently destroying the Jewish state

An apocalyptic tone has crept into Israel’s hitherto muted election season, with opposition leaders and others sounding increasingly desperate warnings that a few more years of rule by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s heavily favored right wing might well destroy the Jewish state.

The idea is that by holding onto the lands Palestinians want for their state — and continuing to settle them with Jews — the Israeli right is marching blindly toward a future in which Arabs could outnumber Jews in the country and ultimately take over.

Perhaps the most strident proponent of this message is former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who four years ago led peace talks with the Palestinians and recently founded a new party whose primary message is that the Zionist project is in danger. “Netanyahu is leading us toward the end of the Jewish state,” she said in a statement Friday. “Israelis must choose between extremism and Zionism. Israel is in great danger and everyone must wake up now.”

WSJ: Scandal Deepens Over Greece's 'Lagarde List'

A corruption scandal involving a list of thousands of Greeks with Swiss bank accounts took a new turn Friday, focusing on the former finance minister who received the list on Greece's behalf.

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Associated Press

Ex-Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou was expelled from party.

Cousins of then-finance minister George Papaconstantinou were among the names of Greeks associated with 2,062 offshore banking accounts on a list that France handed over to Mr. Papaconstantinou in 2010, a Greek court official and a senior government adviser said Friday. A version of the list that was later handed to prosecutors didn't include three accounts associated with the relatives, the officials said.

Syrian army weakening as rebels make gains

After nearly two years of fighting, Syria’s vaunted war machine is showing serious cracks as emboldened rebels snap up more bases and airfields and force army units to retrench behind defensive lines in major cities, Western officials and military analysts say.

View Photo Gallery — War in Syria: As battles between the government and the opposition rage on, fears of a regional war grow.

Bolstered by a steady flow of arms from foreign backers, opposition forces have scored a s eries of tactical victories in the Damascus suburbs in recent days and are advancing steadily toward the city’s airport, adding to what some analysts view as a sense of momentum that has been building since late summer.

Emissions, climate aid in focus as new round of UN climate talks opens in Qatar

U.N. talks on a new climate pact resumed Monday in oil and gas-rich Qatar, where negotiators from nearly 200 countries will discuss fighting global warming and helping poor nations adapt to it.

Osama Faisal, File/Associated Press - FILE - In this Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2012 file photo, conference flags are displayed ahead of the Doha Climate Change Conference, in Doha, Qatar. As nearly 200 countries meet in oil-and-gas rich Qatar for annual talks on curbing climate change, one of the main challenges will be raising hundreds of billions of dollars to help poor nations adapt to a warming world that may damage their health, 

The two-decade-old talks have not fulfilled their main purpose: reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are warming the planet.

Fighting in Gaza leaves U.S. in difficult position with Turkey, Egypt

The Israeli-Hamas conflict is putting the Obama administration at odds with two of its most important partners in the Middle East, threatening to undermine other U.S. objectives in the region at a time of political upheaval.

On Monday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, which has frequently served as a moderate voice in the region, described Israel as a “terrorist state” and condemned the airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, which is run by the Islamist group Hamas. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has warned Israel against a ground invasion and thrown his support behind Hamas’s leadership, sending his prime minister to Gaza.

NYTimes: Privatizing Greece, Slowly but Not Surely

Eirini Vourloumis for The International Herald Tribune

Potential privatization hit a wall at Katakolo, a seaside town where Christos Konstantopoulos paused near abandoned beachfront homes

THE government inspectors set out from Athens for what they thought was a pristine patch of coastline on the Ionian Sea. Their mission was to determine how much money that sun-kissed shore, owned by the Greek government, might sell for under a sweeping privatization program demanded by the nation’s restive creditors.

What the inspectors found was 7,000 homes — none of which were supposed to be there. They had been thrown up without ever having been recorded in a land registry.

Assad: Erdogan thinks he's Caliph, new sultan of the Ottoman (EXCLUSIVE)

Assad: Not a civil war, terrorism my enemy, no regrets for now (EXCLUSIVE)

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In an exclusive interview with RT, President Bashar Assad said that the conflict in Syria is not a civil war, but proxy terrorism by Syrians and foreign fighters. He also accused the Turkish PM of eyeing Syria with imperial ambitions.

Assad told RT that the West creates scapegoats as enemies – from communism, to Islam, to Saddam Hussein. He accused Western countries of aiming to turn him into their next enemy.

The guardian:Greek journalists warn over press freedom

Tension rises between Greek government and media after TV presenters are suspended over criticism of public order minister

Greek journalists have warned that press freedom was under unprecedented attack, with critics being suspended or put on trial by a precarious coalition government struggling to push through an economic austerity programme as a way of attracting foreign funds.

Today's front pages

UNITED KINGDOM

Ambush over Europe

British PM David Cameron will come under attack from all sides over Europe today as Labour and a senior figure in his own Conservative party urge him to push for a cut to the European Union’s budget. The European Commission proposes raising it by 5 per cent to €146 billion annually over the next seven-year period (2014-2020), or €1.025 trillion in total. The Prime Minister is opposed to such an increase but has indicated that he will agree to an increase in line with inflation, at 2%.