The Guardian published an article containing an overview of ex-Soviet countries’ achievements over the past 20 years. Twenty years on from the Soviet coup that ultimately ended Mikhail Gorbachev's political career and gave birth to 15 new states, The Guardian was keen to explore just how well those 15 former Soviet republics had performed as independent countries. Our data team mined statistics from sources ranging from the World Bank, the UNHCR, the UN Crime Trends Survey and the Happy Planet Index to compare the performance of the countries. And we combed through the OSCE's reports on every election in each country since 1991 to see where democracy was taking hold - and where it was not wanted.
The same paper also addressed the problem of US hikers jailed in Iran. The lawyer for two Americans convicted of spying in Iran has said he will appeal against their eight-year sentences. The verdict shocked their families, who hoped to see them freed after more than two years already spent in Evin, Tehran's most notorious prison.
Shane Bauer, 28, and Josh Fattal, 29, were arrested in 2009 on the border with Iraq, where they said they were hiking. They were found guilty of illegal entry and espionage at their closed trial, which ended on 31 July. The verdict is likely to further strain Iran's already poor relations with Washington.
In the meantime, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad warned against outside interference in Syria and shrugged off international criticism in a live interview with state television on Sunday night. His fourth address during a growing revolt against his rule was aimed as much at the international community who have sided decisively with protesters as it was at the nation. In a comment that appeared designed to include Turkey, he warned "countries close and far away" against intervening.
The Washington Post published an article headlined ‘Gaddafi’s rule crumbling as rebels enter heart of Tripoli’. With rebel leaders saying late Sunday that Gad¬dafi’s compound was surrounded, that his son Saif al-Islam had been captured and that his presidential guard had surrendered, thesix-month-old battle for control of Libya appeared to be hurtling toward a dramatic finale. In a written statement, President Obama said: “Tonight, the momentum against the Qadhafi regime has reached a tipping point. Tripoli is slipping from the grasp of a tyrant.”
The New York Times report that in Tripoli’s central Green Square, the site of many manufactured rallies in support of Colonel Qaddafi, jubilant Libyans tore down posters of him and stomped on them. The rebel leadership announced that the elite presidential guard protecting the Libyan leader had surrendered and that their forces controlled many parts of the city, but not Colonel Qaddafi’s leadership compound.
Hurriyet Daily News informs its readers that Libyan opposition members took down the official Libyan state flag at the Libyan embassy in Ankara on Monday and raised the National Transitional Council, or NTC, flag in its place.
According to the same media-agency Turkey’s operation in northern Iraq is still continuing but the Kurdish Regional Administration says the issue can only be solved through dialogue as it condemns the military attacks. ‘It is no longer the time for violence or war. It is the time for peace and dialogue,’ the administration says in expressing its discomfort. Tensions over the Turkish military’s cross-border raids against militant targets in northern Iraq erupted in clashes Sunday in central Istanbul’s Taksim Square when police intervened in a group that wanted to protest the army’s actions. The protest group, including pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, deputies Gültan Kışanak, Sebahat Tuncel and Levent Tüzel, began to conduct a sit-down protest amid police attempts to disperse them.
