Daily Update

Clinton meets with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov in Geneva for the first time since taking office - closer ties between U.S. and Russia are seen as a pragmatic move by U.S. administration

UN can't make up its mind about how to approach the Sudan crisis, but knows that further inaction will have "dire consequences"

Military coups rock Guinea-Bissau, threaten a return to "the bad old days" of African politics

"Illegal" Israeli actions in East Jerusalem: EU accuses Israel of "annexing East Jerusalem"

"Seoul, Canberra sign defense pact"

African Churches leading resistance against violence towards women in Africa

National Stats adviser: China has no need for second stimulus

Wife of Zimbabwe PM Tsvangirai dies in auto accident

Obama's gifts for British PM Gordon Brown: not up to snuff? Decide for yourself

Activist slimes UK Business Secretary with green custard - "The only thing green about Peter Mandelson is the slime coursing through his veins...that he is trying to make political capital out of climate change...is an insult to my generation"

Daily Update

Covert Syrian nuclear reactor prompts scrutiny by IAEA, European, and U.S. observers - reactor is capable of generating fissile material appropriate for a plutonium bomb 

Sudan leader rejects calls by International Criminal Court to arrest him on war crime charges 

Cologne Archives collapse, a portion of Germany's "most valuable documentary treasures," including original manuscripts by Marx, Hegel, and medieval records buried beneath the rubble 

Car bomb kills 14 in Iraq

Eastern European Central Banks defend their financial stability 

Afghan elections rescheduled due to security concerns 

Roman Catholic Church in South Korea begins training North Korean bishops again for the first time in 40 years 

Still no cease-fire in Gaza

Weekly Update - DC Events of Interest

@ Georgetown:

The Bilden Asian Security Speaker Series
presents

An American Strategy for Asia:
Prosperous, Peaceful, and Free
featuring
Daniel Blumenthal

Resident Fellow in Asian Studies
The American Enterprise Institute

Wednesday, March 4, 2009
4:00 pm - 5:15 pm
McGhee Library
301 Intercultural Center
Georgetown University
37th and O Streets, NW, Washington, DC

Please RSVP to http://www12.georgetown.edu/sfs/rsvp/cpass

@ The Center for Strategic and International Studies:

The Center for Strategic and International Studies
cordially invites you to attend

A conversation on U.S.-China relations
with
Dr. Wang Jisi
Dean of the School of International Studies, Peking University
and
Ambassador John D. Negroponte
Vice Chairman, McLarty Associates

Moderated by:
Bonnie Glaser
Senior Associate, CSIS Freeman Chair in China Studies

Friday March 6 ~ 3:00 to 4:30 p.m.
CSIS, B-1 Level

Please RSVP by emailing your name and affiliation to Savina Rupani at
srupani@csis.org or at (202) 457-8719.

More events at CSIS: http://www.csis.org/events/

Thailand: Defending Human Rights in Political Upheaval

Monday, March 2, 2009, 2-4 pm, B-1 Level Conference Center

Please register by providing your full contact information to Nick Malouta at nmalouta@csis.org.

The UK Global Health Strategy

Tuesday, March 3, 2009, 9:30 am - 11:00 am, B-1 Level Conference Center

Ghana’s Big Test: Oil's Challenge to Democratic Development

Thursday, March 5, 2009, 9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m., B-1 Level Conference Center

Please RSVP to the CSIS Africa Program at africa@csis.org to attend.

Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1800 K Street, NW, Washington DC, 20006

@ The Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars:

RSVP and More Information - http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.welcome

China’s Green Revolution: Prioritizing Technologies to Achieve Energy and Environmental Sustainability
Monday, March 02 2009, 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Jonathan Woetzel, McKinsey & Company’s Shanghai office; Martin Joerss, McKinsey & Company’s Beijing office; Rob Bradley, World Resources Institute

Winning the Peace in Burundi and DR Congo
Wednesday, March 04 2009, 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Alain Pekar Lempereur, Professor, ESSEC Business School, Paris; Elizabeth McClintock, Managing Partner, CMPartners; Steve McDonald, Consulting Program Director, Africa Program (moderator)

Transnational Integration Regimes as Development Programs
Wednesday, March 04 2009, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Gerald A. McDermott, Associate Professor, Sonoco International Business Department, Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina

Global Health Spending: Why Maternal Health Is Not a Political Priority
Wednesday, March 04 2009, 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Jeremy Shiffman, Associate Professor of Public Administration, The Campbell Public Affairs Institute Maxwell School, Syracuse University; Ann M. Starrs, President, Family Care International

Protection of the Mediterranean Ecosystem
Wednesday, March 04 2009, 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Spyridon Kouvelis, Member of Parliament, Greece, and in charge of the Environment Sector, Policy Coordination Body, PanHellenic Socialist Movement

China's Carbon Cost Abatement Curve: What it Means for U.S. Climate Policy
Wednesday, March 04 2009, 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
with Jonathan Woetzel, Director, McKinsey & Company Shanghai Office; and David Moulton, Director, Climate Policy and Conservation Funding, The Wilderness Society. Moderated by: Jennifer Turner, Director, China Environment Forum, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars