Britain oversaw foreign relations and defense for the rul ing Kuwai ti AL-SABAH dynasty from1899 unti l independence in 1961. Kuwai t was attacked and overrun by Iraq on 2 August 1990.

In 1783, the Sunni Al-Khalifa family captured Bahrain from the Persians. In order to secure these holdings, it entered into a series of treaties with the UK dur ing the 19th century that made Bahrain a British protectorate. The archipelago attained its independence in 1971. Facing declining oil reserves, Bahrain has turned to petroleum processing and refining and has transformed itself into an international banking center. Bahrain's small size and central location among Persian Gulf countr ies require it to play a delicate balancing act in foreign affairs among its larger neighbors. In addition, the Sunni- led government has struggled to manage relations with its approximately 70% Shia-majority population. Dur ing the mid- to-late 1990s, Shia activists mounted a low-intensity uprising to demand that the Sunni- led government stop systemic economic, social, and polit ical discrimination against Shia Bahrainis. King HAMAD bin Isa Al- Khalifa, after succeeding his late father in 1999, pushed economic and political reforms in par t to improve relations with the Shia community. After boycotting the country's first round of democratic elections under the newly-promulgated constitution in 2002, Shia polit ical societies par ticipated in 2006 and 2010 in legislative and municipal elections and Wifaq, the largest Shia political society, won the largest bloc of seats in the elected lower-house of the legislature both times. Nevertheless, Shia discontent persisted, often manifesting itself in st reet demonstrations and occasional low-level violence.

La Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie de Sfax organise en collaboration avec la Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie de Burkina Faso (CID) une mission d’affaires et la participation Tunisienne au 2ème Forum ouest-africain de développement des entreprises, AFRICALLIA 2012 qui se déroulera du 23 au 24 février 2012, au centre international de conférences Ouaga2000 à Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Founded in the 12th century, the Principal ity of Muscovy, was able to emerge f rom over 200 years of Mongol domination (13th-15th centuries) and to gradual ly conquer and absorb surrounding principal it ies. In the early 17th century, a new Romanov Dynasty cont inued this policy of expansion across Siberia to the Paci fic. Under PETER I (ruled 1682-1725), hegemony was extended to the Bal tic Sea and the country was renamed the Russian Empire. During the 19th century, more terri torial acquisitions were made in Europe and Asia. Defeat in the Russo- Japanese War of 1904-05 contributed to the Revolut ion of 1905, which resulted in the format ion of a parliament and other reforms. Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army in World War I led to widespread rioting in the major ci ties of the Russian Empire and to the overthrow in 1917 of the imperial household. The Communists under Vladimi r LENIN seized power soon after and formed the USSR. The brutal rule of Iosif STALIN (1928-53) strengthened Communist rule and Russian dominance of the Soviet Union at a cost of tens of mil lions of lives. The Soviet economy and society stagnated in the fol lowing decades unti l General Secretary Mikhai l GORBACHEV (1985-91) introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an at tempt to modernize Communism, but his ini tiatives inadvertently released forces that by December 1991 spl intered the USSR into Russia and 14 other independent republics. Since then, Russia has shif ted i ts post -Soviet democrat ic ambitions in favor of a centralized semiauthori tar ian state whose legi timacy is but tressed, in part, by careful ly managed national elections, former President PUTIN's genuine populari ty, and the prudent management of Russia's windfal l energy weal th. Russia has severely disabled a Chechen rebel movement , although violence sti ll occurs throughout the North Caucasus.

Ukraine was the center of the fi rst eastern Slavic state, Kyivan Rus, which during the 10th and 11th centuries was the largest and most powerful state in Europe. Weakened by internecine quarrels and Mongol invasions, Kyivan Rus was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Li thuania and eventually into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The cul tural and rel igious legacy of Kyivan Rus laid the foundation for Ukrainian nat ionalism through subsequent centur ies. A new Ukrainian state, the Cossack Hetmanate, was establ ished during the mid-17th century after an uprising against the Poles. Despi te continuous Muscovite pressure, the Hetmanate managed to remain autonomous for wel l over 100 years. During the latter part of the 18th century, most Ukrainian ethnographic terri tory was absorbed by the Russian Empire. Fol lowing the collapse of czarist Russia in 1917, Ukraine was able to achieve a shor t-l ived period of independence (1917- 20), but was reconquered and forced to endure a brutal Soviet rule that engineered two forced famines (1921-22 and 1932-33) in which over 8 mil lion died. In World War I I, German and Soviet armies were responsible for some 7 to 8 mi ll ion more deaths. Although final independence for Ukraine was achieved in 1991 with the dissolut ion of the USSR, democracy and prosperi ty remained elusive as the legacy of state control and endemic corrupt ion stalled ef for ts at economic reform, privatization, and civil liberties. A peaceful mass protest "Orange Revolut ion" in the closing months of 2004 forced the authori ties to overturn a rigged presidential election and to allow a new internationally moni tored vote that swept into power a reformist slate under Viktor YUSHCHENKO. Subsequent internal squabbles in the YUSHCHENKO camp al lowed his rival Viktor YANUKOVYCH to stage a comeback in parl iamentary elections and become prime minister in August of 2006. An early legislative elect ion, brought on by a pol itical crisis in the spring of 2007, saw Yul iya TYMOSHENKO, as head of an "Orange" coali tion, installed as a new pr ime minister in December 2007. Viktor YANUKOVUYCH was elected president in a February 2010 run-off election that observers assessed as meeting most international standards. The following month, the Rada approved a vote of no-confidence prompting Yul iya TYMOSHENKO to resign from her post as prime minister.