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Today in Rome started the FAO summit, the UN organization which has its international headquarters in Italy and that deals with food and agriculture in the world. Absent almost all the leaders of rich countries, the nations that should provide financial resources to FAO to combat world hunger. Absent from embarrassment, apart from our premier who must be present as the leader of the host country, and also because notoriously immune to shame.

It's hard to say if Obama's trip to China has achieved some results. The American president has reached a compromise with the Asian nation on climate change, but in practice that excludes binding decisions at the summit in Copenhagen in December. He demanded the release of Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma, but said almost nothing to the Chinese government about the many imprisoned dissidents and repression of the Uighur minority in Xinjiang.

In a world that is increasingly globalized, but not united and, indeed, it's building new barriers such as that between "Western" and "Islamic", today we celebrate the 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was a symbolic night, not only for the Germans. There are young people born in those days, in those months, who have never seen the maps with the two German states and, instead, have grew in a Europe without frontiers.

Only a year after the elections that marked the fate of Barack Obama and gave the opportunity of a change to the United States, the Democrats, today, cannot celebrate. In the 2009 Election Day, the first real test for the President, the Democrats lost Virginia and New Jersey. The Virginia case is not a real news, because it has always been a Republican state and only last year, for the first time in 40 years, it decided to choose a Democrat. But the defeat in New Jersey means something.

There are crimes that do not only break bones, but that break souls: these were the words, a few days ago, the president of the United States, Barack Obama, said while he was signing a law establishing as a federal crime any attack against a person only for his sexual orientation or sexual identity. The law treats in the same way the offense of racism and homophobia and it has been dedicated to one of the victims of homophobia.

“Non parteciperò al secondo turno”, ha detto Abdullah Abdullah ai suoi sostenitori, questa mattina, in una grande tenda a ovest di Kabul. Così si chiude ogni possibilità di avere delle elezioni lontanamente normali in Afghanistan. Il ballottaggio del 7 novembre prossimo è già vinto in partenza.

Doveva presentarsi in aula questa mattina, ma Radovan Karadzic aveva già avvisato che non ci sarebbe stato: aveva avuto troppo poco tempo per preparare la sua difesa. Così i giudici del Tribunale penale internazionale Onu per i crimini di guerra hanno aggiornato a domani la seduta del processo dando altre 24 ore all’imputato per decidere se presentarsi o continuare a disertare l’udienza.

Some people were already talking about it, but only today we had a confirmation: Biljana Plavsic will be release. The former Bosnian Serb president, held in Sweden for war crimes, has served two thirds of the 11 years of which she was convicted. Among the many crimes of which she was held responsible there was the creation of internment camps in Omarsha, Keraterm and Trnopolje.

Il risultato definitivo che Hamid Karzai sperava di ottenere subito, tarderà ancora ad arrivare. Il presidente uscente, infatti, non avrebbe ottenuto il 50% dei voti alle presidenziali del 20 agosto. E’ questa la conclusione a cui è giunta la Commissione dei Reclami Elettorali afghana che ha invalidato i risultati di decine di seggi.

The attack that hit the "Guardians of the Revolutions" in south eastern Iran, causing over 40 deaths bring back to the world's attention the many ethnic and religious minorities living in the country. Although Ahmadinejad's government blames the West for having financed and helped these rebel groups in reality the picture is much more complex than that. Iran is a nation with almost 75 million people, but ethnic Persians are little more than half.