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After passing the Electoral Procedure Act, we are still far from knowing the final rules less than a year and a half ahead of the next parliamentary elections. However, the new electoral system turns out to be a measure of the governing party to increase its chances of winning the 2014 general election, while oppositional parties will be forced to organise their activist network and engage in a door-to-door campaign more effectively than before. 

Rumours spread after Minister of Defence Serdiukov's sudden fall from grace: Was not only the fight against corruption the reason? Should Putin be suffering from an illness that might explain why he started consolidating his power?

The debt and financial crisis in Europe has accentuated three major areas in need of reform: national debt, the stability of the financial system, and the unbalanced distribution of incomes and wealth. There are instruments of reform that could work effectively for all three areas.  

In 2002 a small group of NGOs launched “Publish What You Pay” in order to lend weight to their call for more transparency in the extractive industries. Today, the network is the largest global affiliation of NGOs campaigning in the resource sector. This September, the network marked its landmark tenth anniversary with a conference in Amsterdam.

To write a text about Lepa Mladjenovic in singular, be it in first or third person, is very difficult. Her description would best be assembled from a myriad of voices of the women whom she addressed, supported, encouraged, spurred to speak out, to return to themselves and their deepest emotions.

András Schiffer, re-elected parliamentary leader of the green party LMP, about the party’s electoral strategy for 2014 and its rejection to join the new political movement Together 2014 ("T14").

A week ago the Congress of the Hungarian green party LMP has adopted a series of resolutions on the party’s electoral strategy for 2014, but there is still disagreement within the party on what the resolution prescribes in practice. An interview with Benedek Jávor, who has recently resigned as a parliamentary leader of the LMP.

Qatar must be regarded as an established regional and international actor. It played a key role in supporting the Arab Spring movements and it is now hosting the UN climate summit COP18. Salman Shaikh gives an overview of Qatars ambitions and priorities.

Berlin-based Hungarian artist Artúr van Balen has travelled to Hungary to join the opposition protests in Budapest on the 23rd of October. With the help of around 15 artists and activists van Balen created the "Hungarian Orange", a 5 meter long, 3.5 meter high inflatable lemon, which they brought to the protests. But not everyone was amused by the playful object.

The Heinrich Böll Foundation will close its office in Ethopia. Under the current political and legal circumstances, the office cannot, in the foreseeable future, fulfil its mission of promoting democratisation, gender justice and sustainable development.