While you were watching Egypt....

Eastern Approaches, a blog by a journalist from the Economist, has a round-up piece on recent developments in the Balkans.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2011/02/crises_balkans

more on Sudan

Following from an earlier post on Sudan, the BBC has an article on internal violence in the soon-to-be-independent Southern Sudan
Most interesting is the interactive map at the bottom of the page, showing the differences in development between North and South Sudan
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12430115

Small Arms, Big Problems | Foreign Affairs

Today I read this article from the current edition of Foreign Affairs. It uses the example of the war in Afghanistan to show some of the workings of the global arms trade. I was surprised to learn how old are the rifles used by the insurgents - many were built in the Soviet Union in the 1950s-1960s, with one exemplar dating from 1915! (a Lee Enfield used by the armies of the British Empire).

Small Arms, Big Problems | Foreign Affairs

The situation in South Sudan

An article from this week's Economist about South Sudan, which, after the recent referendum, is likely to declare independence shortly.
As a sign of hope and possible future development, it was interesting to read that Southern Sudan has lots of fertile land, mostly underdeveloped.
On a darker note, the article explains how the most worrying security problem at the moment seems to be not border issues between north and south, but internal conflicts among landlords in the south itself.

http://www.economist.com/node/18070450