Sovereignty

Alexander Gulanerian heard the mob pounding down the hall seconds before his door was broken down and they stormed in, brandishing knives, broken bottles and lengths of pipe. Gulanerian, an Armenian living in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, said the intruders, without uttering a word, began beating him. They slashed his neck and his feet and threw him out of a second-story window.

The massive new bailout approved for Greece early Tuesday should rescue it from immediate bankruptcy. But can the country survive being saved? No matter how you cut it — and plenty is being cut — Greece is still only at the beginning of a long-term retrenchment and reform program that will inflict yet more pain on its people, who have already seen their living standards plummet. The question, analysts say, is whether the country can come out the other side of the process with its democracy, economy and society all intact.

Questions of national sovereignty--and how much to yield--will loom large when finance ministers of the European Community nations meet today to try to shape a treaty binding the 12 EC members into ever-tighter economic union. The ministers are expected to focus on whether and how fast to replace the British pound, the German mark and the other EC currencies with a single European Currency Unit (to be called an ecu).

The wartime alliance between Afghanistan and the United States in the last decade has been fraught with suspicions over sharply differing goals and tactics. It is becoming clear that any postwar partnership to prevent a Taliban comeback is likely to be just as problematic. Despite compelling common interests, stark differences already have emerged between Washington and the Afghan government about the military landscape after 2014, when most U.S. combat troops are gone and Afghan security forces are in charge of keeping the country safe.

The Parliament of the Soviet Baltic republic of Estonia voted Wednesday to proclaim Estonian "sovereignty" within the Soviet Union and to give itself the right to veto national legislation before it goes into effect in the republic.

Nearly 400 years ago, British colonists came ashore near this verdant watershed of Chesapeake Bay, surviving the first brutal winter only with the help of the Native Americans who had lived on the land for centuries. But as the Commonwealth of Virginia prepares for the commemoration of that 1607 arrival in Jamestown, the descendants of those Indians are embroiled in a fight over a different legacy of that year: acknowledgment of their sovereignty.

Re "State Sues Tribe Over Reporting of Gifts," Sept. 27: I have been an ardent champion of tribal autonomy in the U.S. But I find certain inconsistencies when tribes try to overreach in justifying their "sovereignty." In the case of not acknowledging their obligation to report election contributions to the Fair Political Practices Commission, I contend that they are indeed asserting sovereignty and therefore should be denied the option to contribute, since they are tantamount to a foreign country.

Taiwan's leader warned that he might use a new referendum law to call a vote on Taiwan's sovereignty, a move that could test China's threats of force to prevent the island from declaring independence. President Chen Shui-bian's threat caught many in Taiwan by surprise. In the four years since he was elected, Chen had said he would push for formal independence only if China tried to use its massive military to force the island to unify with the mainland.

Chanting "For shame, for shame," thousands of Lithuanians on Monday jammed the center of Vilnius, the capital of the Soviet Baltic republic of Lithuania, to protest the refusal of their Parliament to proclaim Lithuanian "sovereignty" last week.

The Parliament of the Soviet Baltic republic of Lithuania backed away from a direct confrontation with the Kremlin on Friday and postponed a vote on constitutional amendments that would have declared its "sovereignty" and claimed the right to veto national laws there.

In front of the horse-meat butcher shop she runs with her husband on Rue de la Roquette, Marie-Francoise Peltier reminisced about how things used to be in this enclave of Paris' 11th arrondissement , back when the street was lined with neighborhood boulangeries, cafes and boutiques. "It was like a little village here," she said. In the late 1980s, several struggling textile shops around long, narrow Rue Popincourt were acquired by Chinese importers. They prospered, attracting others who bought out more of the surrounding small businesses that were unable to make ends meet.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki announced Saturday that Iraq plans to buy 36 U.S. fighter jets, signaling his intent to seek a long-term American military training presence in the country. But in an indication of the risks for the American military here, a U.S. watchdog group said that Iraq had become more hazardous. "Iraq remains an extraordinarily dangerous place to work," Stuart Bowen, chief of the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, said in a report. "It is less safe, in my judgment, than 12 months ago. " The report notes that 44 Iraqi government and security officials have been assassinated since April.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday denounced a large-scale drug raid in which U.S. forces and Russian drug agents took part, calling it a violation of Afghan sovereignty. The outburst marked the latest in a series of tense confrontations between the Afghan leader and his Western backers. It also signaled a degree of disarray within the Karzai administration, because Afghan counter-narcotics police took part in the operation, playing what U.S. officials described as the lead role.

After pressing the case for Tibetan autonomy with President Obama in Washington, the Dalai Lama said Saturday that he is encouraged by what he sees as rising support for the Tibetan cause among Chinese intellectuals, although he said the Chinese government remains "hardened" against him. The spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism arrived in Los Angeles on Friday and planned to spend the weekend here in support of Whole Child International, a...

Both rising stars and faces from the past borrowed from the movement of the moment Friday at an annual meeting of conservatives, where the language and energy of the "tea party" movement took center stage. "Patriots in this room and patriots across this country are rising up. And we have a message for liberals: We're planting the flag on common ground, and if you try to take our freedoms, we will fight back!" Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty told the activists gathered for the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Only 16 months after shooting it down the first time, voters in Ireland have decisively approved a wide-ranging treaty to overhaul how the European Union is run and to give the 27-nation body a more forceful presence on the world stage, early returns showed today. And the biggest winner may turn out to be someone who couldn't even cast a ballot: former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is the hot favorite to become the EU's first president under the new system, which would vault him firmly back into the international limelight that he basks in. Returns in Ireland today, the day after voters went to the polls, showed the so-called Lisbon Treaty passing by a wide margin.

Gibraltarians overwhelmingly rejected a British-Spanish plan to share sovereignty of the colony, dealing a setback to London and Madrid's attempts to heal a centuries-old dispute. Nearly 99% of those who voted opposed the idea of Britain giving Spain a share of sovereignty over its colony attached to Spain's southern coast. Gibraltar's chief minister, Peter Caruana, called the referendum after Britain indicated it was in favor of sharing sovereignty.

The Parliament of Soviet Moldavia on Saturday approved a declaration of sovereignty, following the Baltic republics and Russia with the contention that its laws supersede those of the Soviet Union, the official news agency Tass reported. In the Ukraine, the republic's Communist Party congress voted Saturday to support calls for a sovereignty resolution, Tass said. The Ukraine is the second-largest of the Soviet Union's 15 republics and its agricultural and industrial heartland.

A jury has acquitted two men accused of assaulting an employee during a brief takeover of Honolulu's historic Iolani Palace. Donald Alfred Love-Boltz of Iowa and Robert Roggasch of Maui were involved in the seizure last August by a Native Hawaiian sovereignty group, which claims the authority to govern the islands. The jury issued its verdict Friday in less than two hours after a trial with conflicting testimony about the roles the pair played during an altercation between the protesters and the employee.

An old man blared on a trumpet, policemen danced in the back of their pickup trucks and a singer from the days of Saddam Hussein trilled in a city park, all to celebrate the new era. Monday night was a time for Iraqis to bask in their sovereignty as they counted down to today, the formal departure date of U.S. forces from their cities. In the days ahead, Iraqis may still worry about the possibility of increased sectarian violence, the lackluster economy and a dearth of basic services.