Syria's civil war has continued to spread eastward across the country, with rebels taking two major towns over the last month. Below is the updated conflict map, plus a summary of recent territorial changes. (To see other maps in this series, view all Syria updates.)

Activity and cities held by rebels and other groups in Syria, updated for March 2013. Map by Evan Centanni, starting from this blank map by German Wikipedia user NordNordWest. License: CC BY-SA

World Trade Organization members in green. New members Laos and Tajikistan highlighted (click to enlarge). Map by Evan Centanni, modified from this Wikimedia map by Muso (license: CC BY-SA).

Map of the last stage of Libya's 2011 civil war (click to see full map and original article). Map by Evan Centanni, based on public domain map from Wikipedia (source).

State of Libya
Last month, the North African country of Libya changed its official long-form name to "State of Libya" (Arabic: Dawlat Libya). This comes as part of Libya's governmental transition following its 2011 civil war, in which a rebel coalition defeated the regime of dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Over the last year, the country's formal name had not been clearly defined, with the country referred to in most documents simply as "Libya". The rebel National Transitional Council had only made a point of ceasing to use the Gaddafi-era name.

During the last decades of Gaddafi's reign, the country was known in long form as the "Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya". The word "jamahiriya" was coined by Gaddafi by combining the Arabic words for "republic" (jumhuriya) and "the masses" (jamahir).

The new name, "State of Libya", voted in by the country's General National Congress on January 8th, is intended to be temporary pending the approval of a new national constitution. However, it is entirely possible that the constitution, once drafted, could also choose to use the same name.

This marks the third year in a row that a country has changed its official name during the year's first two months: last January, the Republic of Hungary changed its name to just "Hungary", and in February 2011, the Republic of the Fiji Islands shortened its name to "Republic of Fiji".

Even relatively stable Europe hosts its share of geopolitical tensions: Catalonia, a major region of Spain which has long claimed a unique national identity, may now be on the path towards independence. Read on for a profile of what could become one of the world's newest countries.

Map by Evan Centanni, based on this map by Mutxamel. License: CC BY-SA

By Omar Alkhalili

What is Catalonia?

Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain. It holds the official status of a nationality within the Spanish parliamentary monarchy. Regions of Spain with this status are considered to be something similar to countries within the larger Spanish nation, allowing for their own separateness from Spanish mainstream culture without actually being considered independent.

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and if you thought you were getting a break from geography for sweets and smooching, think again! Political Geography Now presents an introduction to chocolate-based global intergovernmental organizations....

Map by Evan Centanni, starting from public domain blank world map (source).

International Chocolate Organizations
You've heard of the U.N., the E.U., and the WTO - but those are only some of the most well-known (i.e. boring!) global intergovernmental organizations. This Valentine's Day, you can take a few minutes to learn about the political geography of chocolate - we'll look at two organizations built around the global trade in cocoa beans, the raw ingredient used in making our favorite sweets.