Business Watch
A prison staffer in the Cambodian coastal province of Preah Sihanouk will receive administrative punishment for selling a video of jailed Russian investor Sergei Polonsky to Russian media, a prison official said Monday.
The U.S.'s top diplomat dealing with Central Asia, Robert Blake, visited Kyrgyzstan last week and if we are to believe Press.kg, all over Bishkek, "even in schools and kindergartens, for three days they are saying 'Blake is coming! Blake is coming!'" Journalistic hyperbole aside, this was a highly anticipated visit, as it seems that negotiations over the U.S.'s Manas air base are starting in earnest. Before Blake left, he told Voice of America's Russian service that he would be discussing extending the lease for the base, which is now scheduled to expire in 2014. "Manas has a huge significance for the U.S. from the point of view of logistics," he said.
The international involvement in Mali is expanding. France has deployed 2,000 ground troops and is looking to bring in 500 more. The United States is already providing surveillance and intelligence data, and is considering sending refueling tankers for French warplanes. Canada has dispatched a heavy-lift military transport, Italy is ready to offer logistical support for air operations and the UK will be providing logistical air assistance.
Gulftainer Co, the United Arab Emirates' second-largest port operator, is close to acquiring a 25 percent stake in Russia's Baltic port of Ust-Luga, the Kommersant business daily reported on Tuesday, citing a port source.
Russia is sending two airplanes to evacuate scores of its citizens from longtime ally Syria, Moscow said Monday, in the latest signal that the Kremlin may be preparing for the collapse of President Bashar Assad's government.
MOSCOW, January 20 (RIA Novosti) – French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Moscow has offered its help to Paris in transporting French troops and supplies to crisis-hit Mali.