HOPE BREWING IN NIGERIAN PEACE TALKS

Al-Jazeera reported that the Nigerian government’s meetings with the militant group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) have proved “frank and fruitful,” said a spokesperson for the Nigerian president.

For years, the Niger Delta has been plagued by oil drilling and attacks from MEND, but these talks could pave the way for peace in the region. There’s been relative calm since June, when the government offered amnesty for any of MEND’s fighters who lay down their arms, and last month an indefinite cease-fire was agreed on.

The lull in violence has helped fuel the talks, but officials are afraid that militants who are unable to find other jobs will take back up their arms and begin fighting once more.

MEND’s goal has not been to stop oil drilling in the region, but for the local community to see more of the wealth pulled from the wells. Despite this, decreased oil production and revenue have in fact been the side effects. The rebels have cost Nigeria $1 billion a month for some time, and oil production has dropped by almost 1 million barrels a day — 2.6 billion to 1.7 billion.

PALESTINIANS PUSH UN FOR HELP WITH INDEPENDENCE WORRIES

Palestinians, upset with the continued building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza and disillusioned by the United States’ lack of pressure on Israel, have decided to bypass the process of negotiations and plead to the U.N. Security Council directly to recognize an independent state, according to BBC News.

Attempts in the past few years to restart negotiations between Israel and Palestine have met resistance on both sides, with Palestinian leaders requesting that Israel halt settlement construction before negotiating and Israel denying to do so.

“We have not been negotiating the two states for 18 days or 18 months,” said Saeb Erekat, Palestine’s chief negotiator. “For God’s sake, we have been doing it for 18 years. Now, it’s a defining moment.”

According to analysts from Al-Jazeera, how the Palestinians’ offer is received by the Security Council will be a sign of how Israel-U.S. relations are doing.

“The U.S. and Israel have avoided the Security Council for more than 16 years,” said Marwan Bishara, Al-Jazeera’s senior political analyst. “To go back to it today would be a major shift, a game changer in the diplomatic process.”

KOSOVO PRIME MINISTER WINS ELECTION

Hashim Thaci, prime minister of Kosovo, has claimed victory for him and his party in the first poll after the young nation declared independence from Serbia last year, according to BBC News.

Kosovo has worked hard to ensure legitimacy and transparency in this election to increase voter turnout among both Albanians and ethnic Serbs that remain in the breakaway nation. Some Serbs even called for a boycott on the vote and threatened other Serbs they saw voting.

“We believe it is the lesser of two evils to participate in the elections,” a Serbian politician running for a mayoral seat said to BBC News. “And it is possible this lesser evil can be turned into something good.” At the time of writing, official results had not come in.

Reach columnist Morgan Gard at news@dailyuw.com.