A brief world news roundup for 1 July 2009.

United States & the Americas

• Jurist – A federal judge on Monday dismissed a habeas corpus challenge brought by Afghan national Haji Wazir detained at Bagram Air Base without charges since 2002
• Treasury Dept – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today targeted North Korea’s missile proliferation network by designating Hong Kong Electronics under Executive Order 13382.
• BBC – The US has imposed sanctions on an Iranian firm accused of helping North Korea with its nuclear programme. The US Treasury says Hong Kong Electronics moved millions of dollars to two North Korean companies linked to Pyongyang’s nuclear programme
• Xinhua – Honduras’ post-coup government, led by Roberto Micheletti, on Tuesday extended the curfew for 72 hours on Tuesday, Micheletti’s spokesman told reporters.
• VOA – Thousands of Hondurans have marched in support of the new government that replaced ousted leader Manuel Zelaya earlier this week. Officials have vowed to arrest Mr. Zelaya if he returns to the country.
• LAHT – The member-states of the Venezuelan-led ALBA bloc – Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Venezuela – on Monday ordered their ambassadors to leave Honduras until President Mel Zelaya, who was forced out by the military over the weekend, is reinstated.
• NY Times – Néstor Kirchner, the former president of Argentina, resigned his post as leader of the Peronist Party on Monday, a day after he and his supporters suffered a crushing defeat in national congressional elections.
• Itar-Tass – Russian citizens will be able to go to Argentina without visas soon after the relevant intergovernmental agreement enters into force on June 29, an official at the Russian consular office in Buenos Aires told Itar-Tass.
• MercoPress – The Brazilian Central Bank announced it had reached an initial understanding with China for the gradual elimination of the US dollar in bilateral trade operations which in 2009 are estimated to reach 40 billion US dollars.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• Kremlin – Over the past few days I was able to travel across Africa from north to south. My visit to the African continent began in Egypt, where we discussed a variety of issues, starting of course with economic cooperation and ending with the Middle East settlement, the Arab-Israeli conflict. All this is very important, very complicated. And most importantly there are some things that just cannot be understood without immersing oneself in the actual atmosphere of a place. I also had the opportunity to speak to the League of Arab States, which was the first time ever and an unprecedented opportunity for the government of the Russian Federation to interact with Arab countries with whom we enjoy very friendly relations. Arab countries are an important part of the African continent.
• Russia Today – Russia’s army needs to fill its biggest draft quota in years, but there may be not enough men to call up. Army chiefs have vowed to meet the targets, but human rights groups are ringing the alarm after cases of illegal recruitment.
• Oil and the Glory – A narrative familiar to all oilmen with long exposure to Russia is under way: With cash reserves running down and insufficient economic relief in sight, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, his growl turned into a purr, is welcoming back Western oil companies to work Russia’s natural gas fields. So how should Shell and Total — both of them the recipients of Putin’s renewed niceness — respond? Are Putin’s past revocations of deals, expulsions from fields at knock-down rates, and ho-hum attitude toward shakedowns reason not to do business with him now that Russia is trouble?
• Russia MFA – Question: Today, the RNC resumed work, suspended because of the war in Georgia. When does Russia intend to resume relations with Georgia? Foreign Minister Lavrov: The answer is very simple. Russia did not sever relations with Georgia. It was Georgia that severed relations with Russia. So this question is not to me.
• RIA Novosti – A senior militant was killed during a special operation in Russia’s North Caucasus Republic of Chechnya, the republic’s interior minister said on Tuesday. The operation was conducted in the central Chechen town of Shali late on Monday.
• EurasiaNet – Russian President Dmitri Medvedev only visited Baku for a day, but walked away with a gas deal likely to bring Moscow benefits for years to come.
• UPI – Kazakhstan sees a rival to the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline from Russia to Azerbaijan as a more economically attractive transit option for its gas, officials say. Kazakhstan current transports its natural gas through connections to the 830-mile Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline.
• Xinhua – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said on Tuesday that Kazakhstan will never supply nuclear materials that could be used to make weapons of mass destruction to other countries.
• Vladimir Socor – Chinese demand is voracious for Turkmen gas. Russia’s import stoppage can only strengthen Turkmenistan’s motivation to start exports to China on schedule in early 2010. With Russia demonstrating its unreliability as a gas importer (let alone supplier to others), Beijing is using this opportunity to increase the volume of its future imports of Turkmen gas beyond the volumes already agreed
• Intellibriefs – The status quo in Nagorno-Karabakh lingers, despite international involvement, and the self-declared republic’s foreign minister talks to ISN’s Karl Rahder about the situation on the ground.

Capt. Steven Kendall, company commander, Company B, 4th Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, presents a partnership certificate to Lt. Col. Hillal, battalion commander, 3rd Battalion, 41st Iraqi Army Brigade, at a ceremony marking Iraq national sovereignty day, June 30. Following the ceremony, Kendall's unit vacated their combat outpost at a defunct sugar factory while soldiers from the Iraqi army moved in (photo by Maj. Myles Caggins)

Middle East

• MNF Iraq – Today is an important day for the people of Iraq. In accordance with Article Five of the Security Agreement between the United States and the Government of Iraq signed in Baghdad in November of last year, Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) are now responsible for securing their cities.
• Al Arabiya – Twenty-six people people were killed and 56 wounded in a car bomb attack on a market area in Kirkuk on Tuesday as Iraqi forces prepared to take control of towns and cities nationwide as American troops withdrew six years after the U.S.-led invasion
• Haaretz – The head of the Fatah parliamentary faction, Azzam al-Ahmed, reported progress Tuesday in his party’s reconciliation talks with rival group Hamas in Cairo, and said the two sides were set to announce the establishment of a joint security body for the Gaza Strip
• NOW Lebanon – PM-designate Saad Hariri met with each of the parliamentary blocs on Monday to discuss the possible formation of the next government, saying that the meetings were good and showed the openness of all parties. However, opposition blocs are adamant about retaining the obstructing-third vote in the new cabinet.
• Ya Libnan – Gen. David Petraeus, Commander of US Central Command, arrived in Beirut on a military aircraft Tuesday and went directly to Baabda Republican palace for talks with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman. The meeting was attended by U.S. Ambassador Michele Sison and focused on reinforcing the defensive capabilities of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), its training and logistical needs.
• SANA – The Turkish Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday that it began talks with the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA) for dismantling landmines in the border areas with Syria
• Washington Times – Qatar-Egypt relations tense; Tiny GCC nation expands into Egypt’s traditional sphere of influence

Iran

• MEMRI – A source in the Iraqi border police said that Iranian military forces, using medium and heavy weapons, have occupied an oil field about 400 kilometers (222 miles) south of the city of Basra. The border police, accompanied by a unit responsible for protecting Iraqi oil installations, engaged the Iranian invading force and forced it to retreat.
• Telegraph – Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the leading challenger to Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has issued a fresh call to his supporters to maintain peaceful protests after the government confirmed the result of the disputed election.
• Press TV – The Iranian parliament (Majlis) has passed a new bill to cut military service in the country by 2 to 10 months for conscripts with university degrees. “The military service has been cut by 2 months to 10 months for educated conscripts,” where the term was 18 months, Brigadier General Moussa Kamali said.
• Xinhua – Iran and Russia on Tuesday discussed new ways for the “expansion of peaceful nuclear cooperation”, the official IRNA news agency reported. Deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Mohammad Saeedi held talks in Moscow with Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia’s Rosatom State Atomic Corporation, IRNA said.
• Iran MFA – Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said here on Monday that Iran and Bulgaria should use their common stances on the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation to expand bilateral and regional cooperation. “Bulgaria is a member of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) and Tehran wants to have a observer status in the organization.”

South Asia

• AFPS – Coalition forces launched precision air strikes overnight against senior Haqqani commanders and command posts in the remote mountains of western Khost province. The militants are believed to have aided in the movement of foreign fighters through the Khost-Gardez Pass and throughout Afghanistan. Elsewhere, Afghan forces, assisted by coalition forces, conducted multiple operations in Khost, Ghazni and Kandahar provinces June 28
• Daily Times – Taliban slaughtered 18 of their injured men ahead of an operation in Biha valley on Tuesday, apparently because they could not take the wounded along as they retreated. The ISPR said in a daily update that troops killed another 18 Taliban and arrested 23 from Swat and Dir
• Dawn – Jetfighters continued to run bombing missions over parts of North Waziristan tribal region, killing seven people on Tuesday, sources and residents said. However, it could not be known whether the dead were militants or non-combatants. In a related development, the militants who pulled out from a peace deal with the government on Monday have slapped a ban on the assembly of five or more persons, formation of peace committees, and have told tribesmen to refrain from going to the political administration offices or seeking employment in government departments or the Khasadar force.
• IslamOnline – Fighting a hard-to-win battle against the well-armed, well-trained militants of Pakistan Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in troubled Waziristan, the government has lost yet another powerful ally and arch rival of Mehsud who had earlier announced support to the military operation. “The peace deal with the government is no more intact after perpetual US drone attacks and security forces’ violations of the agreement,” Ahmedullah Ahmedi, a spokesman for Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a powerful commander in North Waziristan.
• Geo – Eight militants were killed and seven injured by national lashkar in Upper Dir as operation ‘Rah-e-Rast’ is underway in Malakand Division. The national lashkar also regained control of Shotkas. Curfew has been relaxed in different parts of Dir and Swat.
• Daily Times – In the first-ever suicide attack in a Baloch-populated area of Balochistan, at least four people were killed and 11 seriously injured when a bomber ripped through a hotel in Kalat on Tuesday, as another suicide attack on the Torkham border killed at least seven people and injured 12.
• Times of India – Terrorist groups banned by Pakistan, including the Lashker-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, are expanding operations and recruitment in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, according to a secret government report. The detailed report, submitted by regional police to the PoK cabinet on March 25, states that three banned groups – Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashker-e-Taiba – are active in PoK capital Muzaffarabad
• Xinhua – India Tuesday named its Ambassador to China Nirupama Rao as the country’s next Foreign Secretary, said Ministry of External Affairs sources.

Far East & Pacific

• Reuters – North Korea appears to be enriching uranium, potentially giving the state that has twice tested a plutonium-based nuclear device another path to making atomic weapons, South Korea’s defense minister said on Tuesday.
• Newsday – A U.S. official says a North Korean ship has turned around and is headed back the way it came, after being tracked for days by American vessels on suspicion it was carrying illicit weapons.
• Irrawaddy – Japanese police arrested three top businessmen on Monday on suspicion of attempting to export to Burma a measuring instrument that could be used to develop long-range ballistic missile systems, Japanese newspapers reported.
• Japan Times – The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate climbed to 5.2 percent in May, nearing a six-year high as job availability dropped to its lowest level on record, the government said Tuesday
• RSIS – Singapore’s recent acquisition of submarines with air-independent propulsion (AIP) is being matched by similar purchases by other regional navies. While AIP-equipped submarines do not necessary upset regional military balances, they are part of a larger trend in regional naval expansion which could have far-reaching repercussions
• Bangkok Post – The army plans to reduce troop numbers around the disputed Preah Vihear temple in a bid to ease border tensions with Cambodia. Army chief Anupong Paojinda yesterday said there would be a reduction soon in the number of soldiers deployed around the mountain, where the ruins of the ancient Hindu temple sit, to comply with a recent agreement reached with Cambodia.
• Gulfnews – Three bombs were found in suburban Quezon City over the last three days, raising fears of destabilisation a year before the elections, local papers said.
• Australia DoD – These are very early days for me as Minister for Defence. But since taking on this portfolio I’ve set myself the challenge of working through the myriad of complex issues facing defence as methodically as I can. I want to satisfy myself that in tackling these issues we are all – Ministers, the Department, and the ADF – doing the best we possibly can. The timing of this conference has led me initially to focus on the issues of defence planning and capabilities.

Europe

• RIA Novosti – At present, Poland consumes 13.7 billion cubic meters of gas annually, out of which 7 bcm is supplied by Gazprom, according to the International Energy Agency. Therefore, the deal with Qatar, which may reduce Russian gas supplies by 20%, is Poland’s first step toward lowering its dependence on Russian gas. However, Gazprom is itself to blame for the appearance of a rival company, Qatargas, in Europe. It was because of its efforts to maintain its monopoly position in the European market and to purchase all gas produced in the CIS that Europeans started searching for ways to diversify gas routes.
• Javno – A former U.S. spy at the centre of a kidnapping trial in Italy appeared to acknowledge a role in the abduction of a Muslim cleric but said he was only following orders, according to a rare interview published on Tuesday.
• AKI – Minority Muslims living in Serbia’s southern Sandzak region have demanded more rights and a reorganisation of the region in the future decentralisation of power in the country. The Bosniac National Council which represents Sandzak Muslims, adopted a declaration made public on Tuesday, protesting plans to split Sandzak into two administrative units.
• Sweden MFA – On 1 July, the Swedish Embassy for Iraq will return to Baghdad, having previously operated from Amman. On the same day, the Embassy will take over the local Presidency of the European Union in Iraq
• euobserver – The Czech Republic in the past six months helped to end a severe EU gas crisis and to ease Ireland’s Lisbon Treaty problem. But its cack-handed diplomacy and internal battles risk it going down as “the worst EU presidency in history.”
• EUCOM – Adm. James G. Stavridis became the 14th U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) commander during a change of command ceremony at Patch Barracks here June 30.

Africa

• Shabelle – The Islamic administration in the port town of Kismayu 500 kilometers south of the Somali capital Mogadishu has said that they will attack Ethiopia and Kenya, official said on Tuesday. Abdikani Mohamed Yusuf, a deputy chairman of the Islamic administration in Kismayu town said that they will assault the neighboring countries as Ethiopia and Kenya adding that they will target mainly Ethiopia asserting that they had defeated the enemy urging all the Islamist fighters to be ready to attack them.
• Mareeg – Somalia’s deputy prime minister and finance minister Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden said Tuesday that two thousand foreign fighters were fighting against his fragile government in Somalia
• Sudan Tribune – Sudan has described statements by Chadian foreign minister about the absence of Darfur rebel in Chad as false and belied by the facts. The Chadian foreign minister Moussa Faki Mohamed had stated that Justice and Equality Movement rebels do not have any presence in Chad, adding they only come to the capital to meet international officials who request to allow their presence there.
• Daily Star – African leaders open a summit Wednesday with a slate of conflicts demanding their attention, but were distracted by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s drive to create an “African government.” Gadhafi was elected president of the African Union in February, and the self-styled “king of kings” is using his term to press his scheme for African unity.
• Magharebia – Two bombs exploded on Monday (June 29th) in Khenchela province, killing one soldier and injuring four security officers, El Watan reported. The incident happened during a major search operation for the terrorists who killed five Algerian municipal guards and kidnapped two others on June 22nd in Chechar.
• New Times – After killing several DRC soldiers including a Major and a Captain, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) have been blamed for killing two more Congolese soldiers. FDLR is said to have struck again over the weekend in Kiseguru village of Rutshuru territory, about 90 kilometers north east of DRC’s eastern provincial capital Goma.

The amphibious dock landing ship USS Tortuga is pier side at Trinity Wharf. Tortuga is part of the Essex Amphibious Ready group, underway for summer deployment and scheduled to participate in military exercise Talisman Saber 2009 with the Australian Defense Force. (photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Nardelito Gervacio)

The Global War

• SAAG – ISLAMISM –  A historical background: The Saudi Angle
• NY Times – Viktor Bout, a Russian businessman suspected of arms trafficking who faces possible extradition to the United States, is pursuing what his lawyer calls a rare legal procedure that accuses American officials of overstepping their jurisdiction in a sting operation here last year.
• ynet – Al-Qaeda’s North Africa wing threatened on Tuesday to take revenge on France for its opposition to the burqa, calling on Muslims to retaliate against the country, the US monitoring service SITE Intelligence reported.
• UK MoD – By leading specific training courses British soldiers have been at the forefront of international efforts to develop the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Armed Forces to ensure peace in the region. In the last couple of months various training courses have been run by British soldiers for the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) in their new, UK-funded £500,000 training facility in the country’s capital city, Kinshasa

Sights & Sounds

Read more of Cables, dispatches and memoranda »

A brief world news roundup for 30 June 2009.

United States & the Americas

• AFRICOM – The following statement issued by the U.S. Department of State on June 26, 2009 is provided to further public understanding of U.S. foreign policy toward African security. U.S. Africa Command plays a subordinate role to the State Department in supporting U.S. diplomacy.
• Miami Herald – Argentina’s president expressed defiance Monday after voters took away the ruling party’s edge in Congress.
• LA Times – Honduran security forces Monday fired tear gas at angry protesters demanding the return of deposed President Manuel Zelaya, as leaders of the Western Hemisphere pressed for an end to Central America’s first military coup in 16 years

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• Russia Today – President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Baku on Monday, has seen Gazprom strike a deal to buy Azeri natural gas, and further cement energy ties between the resource-rich Caspian Region states
• RIA Novosti – Russia’s Air Force has resumed Su-24 Fencer attack aircraft flights after a 10-day suspension following two crashes in mid-June, a Defense Ministry official said on Monday. The Su-24 is a two-seat, twin-engine fighter-bomber similar to NATO’s Tornado and Mirage 2000 planes.
• Kavkaz Center – Kavkaz Center’s source inside the Command of Shali Sector of Eastern Front of Armed Forces of the Caucasus Emirate (Commander Emir Hussain) reported that on Monday near the ring road not far from Mesker-Yurt village, a sabotage squad of Mujahideen blew up a Russian infidel
• Jamestown – According to Kavkazsky Uzel, the number of terrorist acts, murders of law enforcement personnel and kidnappings has grown significantly in Chechnya since April 16, the day the federal authorities formally announced an end to the decade-long counter-terrorist operation in the republic
• The Nation -  The leader of a group of militants killed last week by Kyrgyz security forces was trained in Pakistan, officials said on Monday. The ex-Soviet Central Asian state, home to a US military air base, reported two gunfights between security forces and Islamist militants last week, the first clashes with Islamists in Kyrgyzstan for three years.
• Itar-Tass – The operational-strategic exercise “Kavkaz-2009” has begun in Russia’s south on Monday. “Large units and military units of the NCMD, as well as interacting and dependent agencies – - the armies of the Air Force and Air Defense, the Caspian small fleet, the Novorossiisk naval base, the regional command of Interior Troops of the Russian Interior Ministry and the Airborne Troops are being involved in the exercise,” Bobrun specified. “The exercise will be held in the Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, the Astrakhan, Volgograd and Rostov Regions, the Republics of North Ossetia – Olania, Ingushetia and Dagestan, as well as the Karachayevo-Cherkess and Chechen Republics.
• BBC – Russian forces have begun their biggest military exercise in the Caucasus since the war with Georgia last year. More than 8,000 troops are taking part in the manoeuvres near the Georgian border, which Georgia has called “a pure provocation from Russia”.
• Press TV – As Israeli President Shimon Peres wrapped up his visit to Azerbaijan, Iran recalls its ambassador from Baku for “consultations”. Iran’s newly appointed Ambassador to Baku, Mohammad-Baqer Bahrami, has been recalled to Tehran after Peres voiced “threats” against the Islamic Republic during his trip to the ex-Soviet republic, Fars news agency reported Monday.

U.S. paratroopers position themselves to provide fire support for their fellow paratroopers and Iraqi national police officers as they prepare to clear a nearby village during Operation Winged Lion II, an Iraqi-led air assault mission in the Ma’dain region outside eastern Baghdad, Iraq, June 26, 2009. The paratroopers are assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division’s Troop K, 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry. (photo by Sgt. 1st Class Alex Licea)

Middle East

• Reuters – A car bomb killed ten Iraqis including six policemen near the volatile northern city of Mosul Monday, police sources said, a day before U.S. combat troops withdraw from urban centers.
• Al Sumaria – Turkey increased the volume of water flow in Euphrates River by 50% to reach 570 cubic meters per second, a percentage claimed by Iraq to plant rice in half of its land in the middle and the south of the country, Ministry of Water Resources declared on Sunday
• Al Arabiya – Lebanon’s military prosecutor on Monday charged three suspects allegedly linked to al-Qaeda with planning terrorist attacks in Lebanon and Syria, a judicial source said.
• CSM – A Monitor reporter sits down with Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri in his mansion as he discusses the legacy of his father and a fresh push for reconciliation.
• SANA – An Israeli warplane renewed violation of the Lebanese airspace in the South. In a statement, the Lebanese army command said that an Israeli reconnaissance plane yesterday morning violated the Lebanese airspace over Al Ashab village and circled over the southern regions
• MEMRI -  A new video produced by Al-Malahim, the media company of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), features the last statements of two shahids who carried out suicide bombings in Yemen against South Korean nationals

Iran

• Press TV – Iran’s Guardian Council has shed light on some of the complaints filed by defeated candidates, explaining why they were ruled out.
• VOA – Iranian officials have again declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner of the nation’s disputed presidential election. The powerful group that supervises Iran’s elections, the Guardian Council, conducted a partial recount Monday of 10 percent of random ballot boxes nationwide.
• ISNA – Iran is staging a military drill in south and southeastern provinces of Khozestan, Ilam and Lorestan. Iranian army land forces were deployed across the provinces for the three-day maneuver started on Monday.
• Payvand – Photos: Kalat-Darreh Village in Yasuj, Iran

South Asia

• Khaleej Times – Four international soldiers were killed Monday in a roadside bombing outside Kabul, said a spokesman for the government of Maidan Wardak province. Shahidullah Shahid said the troops died when their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in the Jalrez district, about 40 kilometres west of Kabul.
• Al Jazeera – A provincial police chief is among 10 people reportedly killed in a gun fight with US-trained Afghan troops inside a Kandahar police headquarters. The head of the criminal department and eight other officers were also  killed,  according to Ahmad Wali Karzai, the head of the area’s provincial council.
• Macleans – The Canadian military said international forces were not involved in a shootout that killed an Afghan police chief in Kandahar but did play a role in containing the incident.
• Air Force – In Afghanistan, a B-1B Lancer used guided bomb unit-38s to target multiple buildings in a strike against an insurgent staging facility. The aircrew coordinated with friendly ground forces to positively identify the target and ensure it was clear of civilians prior to releasing weapons. An Air Force MQ-1B Predator employed a Hellfire missile to strike an enemy firing position behind a roadside wall. The aircraft engaged after friendly forces were attacked by an improvised explosive device along the road and began taking fire from the position. The missile ended the enemy attack.
• Dawn – Clashes between security forces and militants intensified in North Waziristan on Monday and the Taliban scrapped a peace deal they had signed with the government 16 months ago. Security officials said that 27 soldiers had lost their lives on Sunday in an attack on a military convoy in Wacha Bibi near Datakhel, about 35 kilometres west of Miramshah.
• Daily Times – At least 45 Taliban were killed as jet aircraft bombed suspected Taliban hideouts in Waziristan and in clashes with the security forces and pro-government tribal militias in Swat and Kurram on Monday.
• Geo – Two militants were killed and several arrested in a clash between security forces and militants during search operation in different areas of Tank. According to sources, forces raided mohalla Khadarianwala and Shaikhainwala on a tip-off in which two militants were killed. Nine militants also arrested during the search operation and shifted to undisclosed location
• Dawn – At least 33 people were killed and 65 others injured in sectarian clashes between warring groups in various parts of the Kurram agency on Friday night and Saturday. According to sources, fierce clashes shook parts of Lower Kurram and the two groups were consolidating their positions. The local populace is bitter over the attitude of the administration, accusing it of giving a free hand to troublemakers.
• IslamOnline – Pakistan’s six Islamic banks are going to set up an Islamic inter-bank price market in order to stop relying on interest-based conventional banks in meeting their short-term funds requirements.
• Colombo Page -  Sri Lanka government is expediting the construction of the Colombo-Jaffna rail track from Vavuniya to Kankasanthurai under the “Uthuru Mithuru” project. The Northern rail track was severely damaged by the LTTE as they have used the parts of it to build bunkers in the rebel controlled territory. As a result of this destruction the train services on Northern track were limited to Vavuniya only for the last 20 years.
• TamilNet – Eighteen Muslim armed groups are functioning in Kaaththankudi alone in Batticaloa district and the total number of persons in these groups is said to be about two hundred, according to a report compiled by a special police team handed over to the defense authorities.
• Times of India – Further consolidating their position in the Maoist-infested areas of West Midnapore district, central forces on Monday Jawans move towards Katapahari from Ramgarh during their operation against Maoists in West Midnapore district. Completing one third of the operations, 1,600 personnel from the BSF, CRPF and special anti-naxal force CoBRA converged on the hamlet from Lalgarh and Ramgarh which were captured by paramilitary forces after remaining under control of the Maoists for eight months.

Far East & Pacific

• FT – The son and heir apparent to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il joined a delegation of senior military officials for a top-secret, week-long visit to China in mid-June in spite of Beijing’s claims that no such trip occurred. The visit was intended to shore up support for the inexperienced Kim Jong-woon, Mr Kim’s 26-year old son, and reassure North Korea’s closest ally that a smooth leadership transition was already under way, military, intelligence and diplomatic sources have told the Financial Times
• Jakarta Post – The House of Representatives’ Commission I, which oversees defense, says it will not approve the government’s plan to purchase Israeli-made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), better known as drones. “The Defense Ministry wants to purchase three drones at a total cost of US$16 million,” commission member Djoko Susilo, from the National Mandate Party (PAN), told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
• Japan Times – Vice foreign ministers had a “secret duty” to inform their foreign ministers of the clandestine Tokyo-Washington accord that has covered the handling of nuclear arms in Japan since 1960, a former vice foreign minister said Monday. Ryohei Murata unveiled the details about the secret pact during a telephone interview in which he agreed to give up his anonymity in speaking about the accord
• Gulfnews – Three people were killed and 15 others were wounded in a bomb explosion near a coffee shop in the southern Philippines on Monday, a regional paper and radio reports said.

Europe

• Xinhua – Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on Monday that Poland waits patiently for the confirmation of the U.S. decision on the anti-missile shield to be stationed in the country. The minister stressed that the agreement on the anti-missile shield signed by Poland and the United States last August was accompanied by a declaration providing for the deployment in Poland of a Patriot missile battery.
• SRI – Former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has been hired as a lobbyist for the Nabucco pipeline, the German Manager Magazine reported.
• Spiegel – German soldiers in Afghanistan are seeing more action than ever, resulting in more deaths and injuries. The growing body count has sparked debate over soldiers’ equipment and doubts as to whether the current limits on engagement are appropriate
• Balkan Insight – Several of the largest Russian casino owners plan to relocate to the Balkans after a Russian ban on gambling on the territory of the Russian Federation takes hold on July 1, the Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti said Monday.
• Javno – Former head of the Slovene Parliament France Bucar said that if Slovenia  buckles in the Croatian-Slovene border dispute, it will “squander its statehood” and become a “banana country”, Slovene media report Monday.

Africa

• Garowe – A radical Islamic group in Somalia has threatened to seize weapons and ammunition the U.S. has supplied to the nation’s embattled government. But Uganda, a key U.S. ally in the region, praised the arms shipment.
• Shabelle – Forces loyal to Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen have conducted operations in Bakara market, the biggest market in the Somalia capital Mogadishu and discovered an expired food in the market, official told Shabelle radio on Monday. Sheik Ali Mohamed Hussein, the chairman of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen for Banadir region has said that their forces performed operations in Bakara market and displayed a perished food to the journalists saying that they had already surveyed at least 5 stores of expired rations, medicines and other things
• Daily Star – Darfur rebels on Sunday accused Sudan government forces of a bombing raid on their territory which killed at least eight civilians, as mediators step up pressure for a settlement in the violent western region. Fighters from the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) said military planes bombed land they controlled near the settlement of Hashaba
• Magharebia – Moroccan authorities arrested five suspected members of a Salafia Jihadia cell last week in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, local and international press reported on Friday (June 26th). The suspects are charged with trafficking drugs between Spain and Morocco
• BBC – The main militant group in Nigeria’s Niger Delta says it has attacked an oil facility, the second attack since a government amnesty offer last Thursday. The army has denied militant claims that a gunboat with soldiers on board was sunk during the raid
• Vanguard – An agreement to build a gas pipeline from Nigeria across the Sahara Desert to Algeria will be signed next week in Abuja, Algerian Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil said on Monday.
• Afrol – More than 10, 000 Nigerian girls held captive as sex slaves in Morocco and Libya are to be repatriated, the House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora has revealed in a statement.
• New Vision – The Tanzania Ports Authority has announced the opening of an alternative route to the sea through Dar es Salaam for goods from and to Uganda and the rest of the region. The new route, called the central corridor, consists of a rail, lake and road network.

U.S. Marines and Malaysian soldiers arrive at the amphibious dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry after participating in jungle survival training in the South China Sea, June 26, 2009. The training was part of Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training Malaysia, an annual series of bilateral exercises in Southeast Asia to strengthen relationships and enhance operational readiness. (photo by Lance Cpl. Brandon Rodriguez)

The Global War

• NATO – Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2) took over on 29 June responsibility from Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1) for conducting counter piracy operations off Somalia as part of the ongoing Operation ALLIED PROTECTOR.
• Philadelphia Inquirer – A Defense Department intelligence document on weapons trafficking in Somalia suggests a prominent Saudi government charity supplied arms and other aid to a Mogadishu warlord whose forces killed 18 U.S. soldiers in the notorious Black Hawk Down battle in 1993. The heavily redacted memo said that the Saudi High Commission, a Saudi government agency, had been a conduit for arms shipments to forces allied with Mohamed Farah Hassan Aideed, and that the arms had come from both Iraq and Sudan.
• Alyssa Lappen – When a pro-terrorist organization announces its intention to launch a financial jihad against the West, it is well worth learning their methods. More significant than the promotion of a religious pseudo-financial scheme is the possibility their largely unregulated practices could release a new wave of toxic assets into the wider economy and trigger a series of small-scale Enrons.

Sights & Sounds

Read more of Cables, dispatches and memoranda »

A brief world news roundup for 29 June 2009.

United States & the Americas

• CSM – The United States is changing course on anti-drug efforts in Afghanistan, a senior official said Saturday, shifting its focus from the destruction of opium poppies to fighting drug traffickers and promoting non-narcotic crops among Afghan farmers who depend on the poppy harvest for survival.
• Montreal Gazette – An exhausted but joyful Abousfian Abdelrazik had just a few words for a noisy, happy welcome-home crowd in his home city just before one a.m. Sunday. His return followed six years in exile, alleged torture at the hands of Sudanese authorities, several thwarted attempts to return earlier and almost exactly 14 months stranded in exile at the Canadian embassy in Khartoum.
• Press TV – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says his government is strengthening its military because the United States is a threat to Caracas. Chavez’s remark was a response to US General Douglas Fraser, commander of US military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, who criticized Venezuela for purchasing weapons from Russia
• Miami Herald – Early vote counting put Argentina’s first couple in a tough fight for their political survival in elections that threatened to erode President Cristina Fernandez’s congressional majorities and seal the fate of one of the country’s biggest political dynasties.
• Columbia Reports – Rebels of Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC attacked a convoy of local officials just outside the capital of Guaviare, the army said Sunday. One official was injured, another went missing.
• LAHT – Honduran President Mel Zelaya, who was arrested by soldiers on Sunday morning and flown to Costa Rica, said he was still the head of state of Honduras despite being forced by “an ambitious group” of military officers to leave his country and vowed to return home.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• NY Times – One of the largest mass layoffs in recent Russian history is to occur on Wednesday, and the Kremlin itself is decreeing it, economic crisis or not. The government is shutting down every last legal casino and slot-machine parlor across the land, under an antivice plan promoted by Vladimir V. Putin
• RIA Novosti – Russia will continue for the near future to sell oil and gas to Belarus at subsidized rates to support the country’s economy, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Sunday.
• The Namibian – GAZPROM, the Russian heavyweight in gas and oil exploration, plans to scrutinise all available hydrocarbon data on Namibia to decide where they are going to kick off their search for black gold here.
• Georgian Times – The commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy, Vladimir Visotsky has confirmed that Russia has already begun construction of the marine military base in Ochamchire district of Georgia`s breakaway Abkhazia. Visotsky says the construction will last three years.
• Kavkaz Center – The ringleader of Kadyrov’s “Sever (North)” gang Hussein Arsanov has seriously wounded in the area of village of Dattyh, Ingushetia Province, during combat with the mobile squad of Mujahideen. According to sources, the combat took place overnight.
• Russia Today – Four militants have been killed by police in a special ambush operation in Russia’s southern republic of Dagestan.
• China Post – Special forces in Kyrgyzstan killed three suspected Islamist extremists in a region that has been troubled by violence in recent weeks, police in the Central Asian country said Sunday.
• Trend – Subdivisions of Armenia’s military forces fired Azerbaijani military forces from nameless highlands and positions near Kuropatkino village of Khojavend region on June 26

Middle East

• MNF Iraq – A ceremony to celebrate the transition of security in the cities from Coalition forces to Iraqi Security Forces was held in Baqubah, June 25. The ceremony, which included a dinner for the guests, was one of two being held in Diyala in the days leading up to the June 30 deadline for U.S. combat forces pull out of Iraqi cities, villages, and communities.
• Voices of Iraq – Six members of al-Qaeda-in-Iraq (AQI) on Sunday were captured in Diala province, according to a local police chief.
• TIME – Iraq is about to award several big petroleum contracts. The winning bidders should learn a lesson from the first company ever to win a post-Saddam contract
• Al Jazeera – The Lebanese army has warned that any armed person on the streets will be fired on, after at least one person was killed in clashes between supporters of two political rivals. The shots were fired after followers of the Future bloc of Saad al-Hariri, the prime minister-designate, clashed with supporters of Amal, which is led by Nabih Berri, the parliamentary speaker.
• Asharq Al Awsat – Egyptian police detained three leading members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday, including a member of the group’s executive Guidance Council, the Brotherhood said.
• Haaretz – Another one bites the dust – that is all that can be said about Sunday’s announcement on Channel 2 that yet another Mossad deputy chief has resigned. During the unprecedented eight years of Meir Dagan at the helm of Mossad, this is the fourth time that his deputy is deposed or resigns
• ynet – An Israeli delegation is embarking Sunday on a historic visit to Muslim countries Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. President Shimon Peres will head the delegation to the two Muslim countries, which will include Industry, Trade, and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau, Science Minister Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz and Defense Ministry Director-General Pinhas Buchris
• Daily Star – The Saudi job market does not need more graduates in Islamic studies, the head of one of Saudi Arabia’s newest universities said in remarks published Sunday. The comments by Mohammad Ali al-Hazaa, who directs Jazan University in the south, could irritate many in the influential religious establishment which has held back reforms aimed at creating a modern state and fighting Islamic militancy.
• SANA – Prime Minister of Yemen Ali Muhammed Mujawar started on Saturday a three-day official visit to Syria during which he will head the Yemeni side at the meetings of the  Syrian-Yemeni Joint Higher Committee.
• Saba – Speaker of the Parliament Yahya al-Rae’i received here on Sunday a letter from the Speaker of the Iranian Islamic Shura Council Ali Larijani. The letter handed over by the Iranian ambassador to Yemen Mahmoud Hassan Ali Zada includes an invitation from Larijani to al-Rae’i to visit Iran. Larijani praised in his letter the fruitful results of his visit to Yemen that will serve the relations of the two countries.

Iran

• Jerusalem Post – As the former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani added his voice Sunday to demands for a probe of the contested June 12 presidential elections, riot police clashed with up to 3,000 protesters in north Teheran on Sunday, using tear gas and truncheons to break up Iran’s first major post-election demonstration in five days
• NCRI – Iranian regime’s State Security Forces are suppressing Tehran residents in Park Laleh (central Tehran). A number of people have been wounded in sever crackdown by regime’s SSF, according to eyewitnesses. “They are beating up people everywhere, drivers are blowing horns of their vehicle to protest the brutal repression” one eyewitness said.
• NOW Lebanon – The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) reported on Sunday that more than 2,000 people are detained and hundreds more are missing in Iran since a government crackdown on protests over the disputed presidential election
• IRIB – India Oil and Natural Gas Company “ONGC Videsh” and its partners including India Oil Corp. and Oil India Ltd. have proposed a five-billion-dollar investment for producing gas from a huge gas field in Iran in the three or four coming years.
• Mehr – Early production of Yadavaran oilfield in Khuzestan Province started with a daily capacity of 20,000 barrels. Mohammadreza Naderi added the field’s output is projected to hit 85,000 barrels per day in the first phase and to reach the ceiling of 180,000 bpd finally. China’s biggest refiner, Sinopec, and Iran signed a $2 billion agreement on developing the Yadavaran oil field in 2007.
• ISNA – Chinese and Malaysian companies are probable to get involved in Iran’s Resalat oilfield project. The plan to increase Resalat oilfield output by 35000 barrels per day will be implemented by cooperation of Chinese and Malaysian companies, said Managing Director of Iran’s Offshore Oil Company (IOOC) Mahmoud Zirakchian Zadeh.

An F/A-18F Super Hornet from the "Jolly Rogers" of Strike Fighter Squadron 103 currently deployed with the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, flies alongside a U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer after a close air support mission supporting coalition forces in Afghanistan. (photo by Marques Jackson)

South Asia

• IRIN – Civilian deaths resulting from armed hostilities between insurgents, the US military, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan and government forces have increased by 24 percent so far this year compared to the same period in 2008, according to a report by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
• VOA – Afghan officials said Sunday Taliban insurgents killed at least seven police officers in separate attacks in western Afghanistan on Saturday. Authorities say militants attacked a police post in Farah province Posht-e-Rud, and five officers and at least seven Taliban fighters were killed in the ensuing clash.
• Stuff.co.nz – A New Zealand military patrol in Afghanistan has escaped a bomb attack, suffering no casualties, the Defence Force says. Last week the New Zealanders were involved in a 15-minute gun battle.
• Scotsman – Scots troops in Afghanistan last night re-lived the operation to drive the Taleban out of an area linked to the opium trade. Troops from the Black Watch, the 3rd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland, launched an assault on Babaji in Helmand Province eight days ago.
• McClatchy – In August 2007, the presidents of Afghanistan and Tajikistan walked side by side with the U.S. commerce secretary across a new $37 million concrete bridge that the Army Corps of Engineers designed to link two of Central Asia’s poorest countries. Today, the bridge across the muddy waters of the Panj River is carrying much more than vegetables and timber: It’s paved the way for drug traffickers to transport larger loads of Afghan heroin and opium to Central Asia and beyond to Russia and Western Europe
• Times Online – The road home for Sultan Mahmood was hardly a welcoming sight. The route through the mountains was scattered with burnt-out cars and lorries and lined with the wreckage of buildings destroyed as the army mounted its assault on the Taleban in and around the northwestern region of Swat. At makeshift checkpoints along the way, troops peered from sandbagged machinegun posts as cars and vans snaked back into Buner, the district neighbouring Swat, that has now been declared free of the militants.
• Daily Times – At least three people were injured in two blasts in Gwadar city late on Sunday, said officials. The first blast took place near the office of the Gwadar Development Authority. In a separate incident, two motorcyclists lobbed a hand grenade into a tailor’s shop
• Dawn – Twelve soldiers were killed after militants reportedly aligned with the Baitullah Mehsud group ambushed a military convoy in North Waziristan on Sunday. Ten militants were killed in the ensuing gunbattle.
• The Nation – The federal government Sunday announced Rs50 million as head money on Baitullah Mehsud holed up in the tribal belt. Besides, cash rewards for any information leading to arrest of 10 other militant commanders have also been made public.
• Khaleej Times – Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the military operation in the Swat Valley is nearing end as the top rung militants there have been killed and the government would now focus on the development of the region, the Online News Agency said Saturday.
• Geo – Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said no compromise will be made on the sovereignty of Pakistan, Geo News reported Sunday. Talking to media after offering condolences to the Jama?at Islami leaders at Mansoorah on the sad demise of former JI Amir Mian Tufail, he said the services rendered by Mian Tufail are invaluable. He said those who disrupt the peace of Pakistan include Chechen and Uzbek militants.
• The News – Two soldiers were killed and three others injured in the first-ever suicide attack on security forces in Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Friday.
• The Hindu – Two Karbi Longri National Liberation Front (KLNLF) militants were killed in an encounter on Sunday with security forces in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district.
• Times of India – After army chief Gen Rookmangud Katawal opposed the en masse entry of PLA fighters in his troops and set in motion a bitter battle with the Prachanda government that finally led to its fall last month, now the new dispute has the former guerrillas training their sights on Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.
• Daily Star – Bangladesh and UK yesterday launched a joint working group (JWG) to enhance counter terrorism cooperation between the two countries for building capacity of combating terrorism. At the first meeting of JWG, high officials of the two countries primarily identified the areas of cooperation, including sharing intelligence and training of law-enforcers.

Far East & Pacific

• Irrawaddy – The second was the leaking of documents and video footage showing caves and tunnels being constructed in Burma with the help of North Korean engineers—possibly as part of a controversial nuclear program by the Burma junta.
• Chosun Ilbo – South Korean intelligence authorities believe that a photo of purportedly showing North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on an inspection of the command of the 7th Infantry Division on June 14 was really taken during a visit to the 851st Unit on April 25. Intelligence forces are on alert in case that means that Kim’s health has deteriorated again.
• Japan Times – North Korea threatened Saturday to shoot down any Japanese planes that intrude into its airspace, accusing Tokyo of spying near one of its missile sites
• Jakarta Post – Suspected al-Qaida-linked militants killed seven policemen in an ambush Sunday after their comrades shot to death two government soldiers in a separate attack in the southern Philippines, security officials said.
• Manila Times – Around 10,000 strong Army personnel in three Mindanao provinces have been placed on heightened alert following a series of bomb explosions set off by rogue rebels, the Philippine News Agency reported. Three powerful roadside bombs prematurely went off one after another Saturday and Sunday along a national highway
• Xinhua – Chinese and Mongolian armed forces kicked off a joint peacekeeping exercise here on Sunday, sources with China’s Defense Ministry said. Coded “Peacekeeping Mission-2009″, the exercise is the first joint peacekeeping exercise that China has held with another country. It also marks the first joint military training between China and Mongolia.
• Macleans – Suspected insurgents gunned down a village chief in Thailand’s restive south on Sunday, police said. Police Sgt. Sarawut Suwanmanee said Mayuso A-dae, the chief of a village in Yala province, was shot dead by suspected insurgents as he rode his motorcycle home from a tea house
• The National – Australia is planning to double the number of military personnel stationed at its permanent base in the UAE. Some 500 Australian Defence Force (ADF) staff could be stationed at Al Minhad Airbase in Dubai – where the ADF’s regional military headquarters is based – by the beginning of next year, according to Jeremy Bruer, the Australian ambassador to the UAE.

Europe

• UK FCO – EU Foreign Ministers have condemned the continued arrest and detention of peaceful demonstrators in Iran, and have called for the immediate release of Iranian staff working at the British Embassy in Tehran. EU Foreign Ministers condemn the unjustified expulsion of two UK Diplomats and the detention of several Iranian staff working at the British Embassy in Tehran.
• swissinfo – Libya has withdrawn most of its assets from Swiss bank accounts in a continuing diplomatic crisis between the two countries. The north African country last year pulled out SFr5.6 billion ($5.2 billion) of its SFr5.75 billion deposited in Swiss banks, according to statistics by the Swiss National Bank.
• Javno – The Croatian Embassy in Ljubljana has received a protest note from the Slovenian Foreign Ministry over a violation of Slovenia’s airspace. The Croatian Embassy will prepare a response to the note, the Croatian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday. According to sources close to the Croatian Defence Ministry, at least three to four violations of Croatia’s airspace by small sports aircraft from Slovenia are recorded on a monthly basis.
• Balkan Insight – Prime Minister Sali Berisha, of Albania’s Democratic Party, has a comfortable lead on his Socialist rival Edi Rama, according to three exit polls published after Sunday’s parliamentary elections.
• RTE News – The leadership of the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Red Hand Commando have confirmed they have completed the process of putting all their weaponry irreversibly beyond use.
• Vladimir Socor – Russia’s Lukoil has broken into Western Europe’s most lucrative oil refining and retail market by taking over Dow Chemicals’ 45 percent stake in Total Raffinaderij Nederland (TRN), a choice morsel

Africa 

• Garowe – At least five people were killed and 14 others wounded Sunday in the Somali capital Mogadishu after suspected insurgents targeted the presidential compound with mortars and government forces responded with artillery fire, Radio Garowe reports.
• Shabelle – The TFG president Sharif Sheik Ahmed has held a press conference in the Somalia capital Mogadishu on Sunday and said that the clashes against his government are led by Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys and planned by Eritrean officials in Somalia.
• Sudan Tribune – Eritrea during the weekend criticized the decision of the US Administration provide weapons to Somalia’s beleaguered government in a first visible support to Mogadishu from Washington.
• Mareeg – Somalia’s Federal Government of Somalia (TFG) and Ethiopia are discussing plans to redeploy Ethiopian troops back in the country in order to provide protection to the TFG against Islamist groups who are trying to oust it, sources privy with the two parties told Mareeg online on Sunday.
• The Citizen – At least ten people have been reported dead in ethnic clashes that occurred on Thursday morning at four villages in Rorya and Tarime districts, Mara region. Reports said that the clashes were a result of cattle rustling that took place on June 24 at Mang’ore village in Rorya District. He said on the same day more than 70 houses and properties whose value was not identified were destroyed.
• France24 – Months after soldiers killed former President Joao Bernardo Vieira, Guinea-Bissau goes to the polls Sunday to elect a replacement amid widespread hopes for stability in the poor, coup-wracked African nation.
• This Day – The threat by militants to cripple Nigeria’s oil export is gradually being actualised as Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) has suspended its entire operations in the Western Niger Delta, covering Delta State and parts of Bayelsa State, THISDAY has learnt.
• Vanguard – Ijaw militants in the creeks weekend hijacked a speedboat conveying about twenty Itsekiri passengers from Escravos to Warri. The incident which took place around the Burutu river is said to be causing ripples between both ethnic groups that have been enjoying cordial relationship since the end of the seven years Warri crisis which pitched the Ijaw, Urhobo and Itsekiri in a bloody war.

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tours the Russian Military Academy of the General Staff, in Moscow, June 27, 2009. On the second day of his visit to Russia, Mullen also visited the Russian Army 27th Separate Motorized Rifle Infantry Brigade and the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War. (photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Chad McNeeley)

The Global War

• NATO – Twenty-nine Foreign Ministers of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC), joint by the Prime Minister of Greece, Mr. Konstantínos Karamanlís and by the Prime Minister of Italy, Mr. Silvio Berlusconi, gathered on the Greek island of Corfu on 27th July 2009. This was the first NRC meeting at ministerial level for over a year. The meeting was chaired by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. The Ministers also agreed to open the door for renewing military cooperation in the framework of the NRC.
• Ahmed Quraishi – The stench of a multimillion dollar scam can be smelled in the Pakistani capital. This time it has to do with the estimated $1.5 to 2 billion deal that the Pakistan Navy has almost finalized with Germany. But it seems there are strong lobbies in Islamabad that want to oblige France and buy French vessels because Paris is willing to pay heavy bribes. To ensure the deal is sealed with France instead of Germany, a junior bureaucrat has been appointed as Pakistan’s ambassador in Paris bypassing the Pakistani foreign office. Reports accuse President Asif Ali Zardari of orchestrating this appointment
• Australia DoD – Lending a helping hand to Australia’s neighbours is all part of the job for Australian Defence Force engineers and medical personnel joining the multinational PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP 2009 team in the South West Pacific from 30 June to 18 September 2009. PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP is an annual U.S sponsored Humanitarian Civic Assistance mission aimed at strengthening international relationships and interoperability for disaster relief throughout Oceania and Southeast Asia.

Sights & Sounds

Read more of Cables, dispatches and memoranda »

A brief world news roundup for 26 June 2009.

United States & the Americas

• Washington Post – The United States has sent a shipment of weapons and ammunition to the government of Somalia, according to a U.S. official who said the move signals the Obama administration’s desire to thwart a takeover of the Horn of Africa nation by Islamist rebels with alleged ties to al-Qaeda.
• VOA – The top U.S. military officer is in Moscow for talks on missile defense, arms control and other issues in advance of U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to the Russian capital in 10 days. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said the U.S. desire to put a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, which Russia strongly opposes, will be a key topic of his talks in Moscow.
• Chris Zambelis – Mystery continues to surround Hezbollah’s alleged links to the seventeen suspects arrested on drug trafficking charges on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao on April 28…  In a significant twist, Curacaon authorities announced that the suspects had ties to international organized crime networks linked to Hezbollah in Lebanon; the suspects are accused of, among other things, having funneled part of their proceeds to Hezbollah through informal banking mechanisms
• LAHT – Honduran President Mel Zelaya led a caravan of his supporters to air force headquarters on Thursday to collect the ballots for a non-binding referendum on his proposal for a national assembly to overhaul the country’s constitution. Zelaya barged into the building to take possession of the materials needed for Sunday’s scheduled plebiscite.
• SOUTHCOM – Air Force Gen. Douglas M. Fraser became the first-ever Air Force officer to lead U.S. Southern Command as he relieved Navy Adm. James Stavridis during a change of command ceremony at the command’s headquarters.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• Kremlin – First of all, I would like to thank the President of Nigeria, Mr Yar’Adua, for his hospitality and warm welcome. It is our great pleasure to have this opportunity to meet with our Nigerian friends and discuss our prospects for cooperation. This is the first visit by the President of Russia to Nigeria, and I hope that as a result of today’s joint work and the signing of a package of documents, the relations between our countries will reach a new level, signifying greater cooperation and a true partnership in the economic and humanitarian spheres. We consider Nigeria to be a key partner, and we would like to develop our business contacts.
• SAAG – Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani visited Russia from June 21-23, 2009.  The ostensible reasons advanced for the visit of Pak Army Chief was to seek Russian weapons to fight the Taliban… By itself a visit by the Pakistani Army Chief to any country would not draw much attention.  But the visit of Pakistani Army Chief to Russia becomes strategically significant when it is borne in mind that Pakistan Army has no major Russian weapon systems and equipment on its military inventories
• Russia Today – Russia’s Supreme Court has overturned the not guilty verdict in the Anna Politkovskaya murder case on Thursday and has ordered a retrial. In February, four suspects in the case were unanimously acquitted by the jury.
• Jamestown – Fresh on the heels of his claim that President Dmitry Medvedev had ordered him to fight rebels in Ingushetia following the attempt on the life of Ingushetia’s president, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov made a surprise visit to Ingushetia on June 24.
• Kavkaz Center – The struggle for power among the puppet shows that they do not believe in Yevkurov’s return. While the ringleader of Ingush apostates Yevkurov, connected to an artificial respiration, awaiting his fate from the Lord of Worlds, a fierce scramble for empty chair of the main marionette of the Kremlin intensifies in Ingushetia. Former anti-Zyazikov’s opposition in Ingushetia intends to appeal to Moscow with request to appoint Ruslan Aushev the acting puppet “president”.
• Itar-Tass – Kyrgyzstan’s parliament on Thursday voted for a bill on hosting US center for transit shipments at the capital’ s Manas airport that would be delivering cargoes for the international anti-terrorist coalition in Afghanistan. The government of Kyrgyzstan and the United States signed the agreement on June 22. Under the arrangement the United States will be paying Kyrgyzstan an annual 60 million dollars in rent for the land and infrastructures. In contrast to this, for using the US air base at Manas that is being closed down Washington paid a mere 17.5 million dollars a year. Besides, under the same agreement the Pentagon is to build a terminal for its planes at the airport of Bishkek and sites for storing cargoes.
• APA – Azerbaijani Armed Forces mark its 91 years on Friday. First military unit – the special corpse was established by the decision of the government of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic on June 26, 1918. Then army call up decree was signed. The Ministry of Defense was established on August 1, 1918 and first de facto Minister of Defense of ADR was Khosrov bey Sultanov.

Middle East

• Voices of Iraq – A police commander on Thursday was killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Anbar province, according to a local police source. “The device targeted the vehicle of Captain Aaref al-Jinabi in al-Fuhaylat village, southern Falluja, killing him on the spot,” Maj. Yasseen Ismail told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
• Al Manar – Hezbollah vehemently condemned on Thursday the terrorist attack that targeted the Iraqi Sadr city, warning against “being dragged into a plot to sow disunity.”
• Naharnet – Hizbullah’s second in command Sheikh Naim Qassem said Thursday the nomination of the new prime minister must be “an inseparable part” of an agreement on a new government and added it remained unclear who the next premier will be.  In an interview with AFP, Qassem said: “So far, the identity of the premier-designate is unclear in anticipation of the outcome of (parliamentary) deliberations.” Speaking about his party’s relations with foreign countries, he said Hizbullah was open to talks with representatives of all Western governments except the United States.
• Xinhua – The Israeli army has set new military buildup along its border with Lebanon Thursday, amid intensified air force flights over Lebanese territories, the official national News agency (NNA) reported. Merkava tanks and armored vehicles were deployed along the wired fence separating occupied Shebaa Farms from Lebanese territories, the report said.

Iran

• EurasiaNet – It appears that a third force, centering on Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and his influential relatives, is taking shape in Iran. This new political force — whose leaders have strong ties to Iran’s religious establishment, and who possess strong revolutionary credentials — is working hard to establish a public profile apart from hardliners led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and from progressives led by aggrieved presidential challenger Mir Hussein Mousavi.
• Payvand – Authorities in Iran have banned four members of the country’s national football (soccer) team for wearing green wristbands in a show of solidarity with anti-government demonstrators.
• Press TV – The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps commander, General Ali Fazli, has denied reports that he had been dismissed in the wake of Iran’s post-election events. The IRGC commander said on Wednesday that the reports were all rumors adding that he is always ready to follow orders issued by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei.

South Asia

• AFPS – The force raided a compound in Helmand province believed to be the hideout of a Taliban commander with ties to Taliban operations within the province. Elsewhere, Afghan and coalition forces raided a compound in Wardak province suspected of being the safe house of a Taliban commander. In the Gelan district of Ghazni province, Afghan and coalition forces raided a compound believed to be the safe house of a key Taliban operator involved with the movement and support of foreign fighters into the region.
• Maj. Gen. De Kruif – I would also like to say that in RC — great.  I would also like to say that within RC South the spike in incidents is concentrated in central Helmand and in Kandahar.  But what we see currently is a decrease in incidents in the provinces of Oruzgan and Zabul; which actually means — that our assessment that the insurgency is more or less forced to concentrate its efforts in Helmand and in Kandahar. That having said, I think, Daphne, you’re absolutely right, there will be an increase in incidents in the next couple of months, based on the fact that we are going to deploy these forces and secure areas where we’ve never been before until now.
• Daily Times – At least eight Taliban were killed and three of their hideouts destroyed when helicopter gunships pounded parts of Orakzai Agency on Thursday. Sources told Daily Times that the gunships targeted Taliban hideouts in Atmankhel and Ferozkhel areas of Lower Orakzai Agency, killing eight Taliban. Local administration sources confirmed the reports. Also, Fighter jets targeted TTP chief Baitullah Mehsood’s strongholds in Zadranga, Shagha area of South Waziristan Agency’s Ladda tehsil, killing six Taliban, a private TV channel reported.
• Dawn – More cracks have emerged within the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan leadership, as another militant commander has spoken out against the leadership of Baitullah Mehsud. Turkistan Bhittani, a dissident militant commander, has said that his militia is determined to uproot terrorism from Waziristan.
• Geo – The death toll of tribal clashes continued in Kurram Agency since ten days has been reached to 52 after killing of four more persons. The clashes were erupted between different tribes after militants attack on Balish Khel check post

Far East & Pacific

• Chosun Ilbo – China will not impose sanctions on North Korea independently of a UN resolution. The North depends on China for most of its energy and food. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang on Thursday said, “Measures related to North Korea should affect neither North Korean people’s livelihood nor their normal economic and trading activities.” He was answering views that the North would return to nuclear disarmament talks only if China suspends aid to the Stalinist country.
• Bangkok Post – The Thai-Cambodia border remains calm despite troop reinforcements by both sides near Preah Vihear temple and the disputed area, army chief Anupong Paojinda said on Friday morning. He confirmed Thai troops have been reinforced following reports that extra Cambodian troops and artillery had been deployed to the area.
• Irrawaddy – The Myanmar International Terminals Thilawa (MITT), believed to be the destination of the Kang Nam 1, a North Korean cargo ship being tracked by the US Navy, has often been used for deliveries of weapons, according to sources at the facility.
• Times of India – More than half of India’s exports to China are iron ore. Beijing is also heavily dependent on supplies from Australia, Japan and South Korea to feed its high speed industrial growth. But the situation may change dramatically in future with Chinese geologists discovering Asia’s largest iron ore deposit in northwest China.
• Manila Times – A senior Health official was gunned down and his daughter injured in an attack in Davao City in the southern Philippines, police said on Thursday. Police said Dr. Rogelio Penera and his 15-year-old daughter were on their way home from work when two motorcycle gunmen chased their car and shot the victims near their house

Europe

• Expatica – The Spanish parliament on Thursday called on Iranian authorities to release opposition activists and “end the repression against the civilian population.”
• Copenhagen Post – After almost three months of negotiations a historic political majority was reached last night to secure extra funds for the defence budget. For the first time ever, the Socialist People’s Party joined with other opposition parties and the government in agreeing a defence budget that will see an extra 3.5 billion kroner provided to the armed forces between 2010 and 2014. Only the Red Green Alliance opposed the defence plan.
• euobserver – In a new setback to Croatia’s EU bid, the Czech EU presidency on Wednesday (24 June) cancelled an EU-Croatia intergovernmental conference planned for 26 June due to a lack of progress in Croatia and Slovenia’s border dispute which has been blocking Zagreb’s EU accession talks for six months.
• SE Times – UN-appointed mediator Matthew Nimetz will visit Skopje and Athens from July 6th to 9th in search of a solution to the long-running name dispute between Greece and its northern neighbour, the Republic of Macedonia. The two sides resumed talks this week in Geneva after a four-month hiatus.

Africa

• Shabelle – Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen court has Thursday carried out double amputations on four men for stealing phones and guns in the Somali capital Mogadishu.
• Mareeg – Ethiopia has no plan to deploy its troops in neighboring Somalia despite escalating insecurity in that country, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Wednesday.
• Sudan Tribune – Darfur former rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) of Minni Minnawi refused any move to increase the number of the three Darfur states saying such move breaches the signed peace agreement. Sudanese Presidency announced that Omer Al-Bashir would receive on Wednesday a report on the increasing of the number of Darfur states by a committee he had formed last January.
• Vanguard – President Umaru Yar’Adua, yesterday, proclaimed an unconditional amnesty to all Niger Delta militants in the creeks as well as those facing prosecution in the law courts, including Henry Okah, standing a secret trial on a 62-count charge of treason, terrorism, illegal possession of firearms and arms trafficking and Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) and other militant leaders declared wanted by the Niger Delta security unit, Joint Task Force (JTF).
• This Day – Oil prices rose towards $70 a barrel yesterday following an attack on Shell’s Billie-Krakama pipeline in Rivers State by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta

The Global War

• NATO – The situation in Afghanistan and the role of its neighbours, energy security and common security issues in Central Asia are high on the agenda of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council Security Forum taking place in Astana, Kazakhstan from 24 to 25 June 2009.
• Bloomberg – Cameco Corp. the world’s largest uranium producer, sees prices “fluctuating” after stockpiling by utilities and “events in Kazakhstan” pushed the radioactive metal to a seventh-month high of $55 a pound yesterday. Utilities started buying uranium for their reserves when the price fell to $40 a pound and now they have enough supply to last three years, Cameco Chief Executive Officer Jerry Grandey said at a conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan today.

A brief world news roundup for 25 June 2009.

United States & the Americas

• Pentagon – DoD News Briefing with Geoff Morrell from the Pentagon Briefing Room
• VOA – The Obama administration said Wednesday it has rescinded invitations to Iranian diplomats to attend July 4 U.S. Independence Day celebrations at American diplomatic missions around the world. The State Department said an Iranian presence at such events would be incongruous with a celebration of American values.
• Xinhua -  The governments of Venezuela and the United States agreed on Wednesday to restore their diplomatic ties, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said.
• BNA – A decision by the Bolivian government to nationalize railways would affect regional integration projects financially supported by Chile, according to a Chilean foreign relations ministry official. Nationalizing railways would violate a verbal agreement between Bolivian President Evo Morales and his Chilean counterpart Michelle Bachelet, the official told BNamericas.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• Vladimir Socor – The Russian government is now openly backing Surgut Neftegaz’s surreptitious acquisition of a large stake in the Hungarian MOL oil and gas company. The acquisition is legally contested in Hungary. The Russian government’s political intrusion nullifies Surgut’s thesis that the acquisition was a regular, free-market transaction and friendly move, ostensibly untainted by Russian state involvement.
• Moscow Times – French energy major Total and Novatek, Russia’s largest independent gas producer, ended a two-year quest to join forces Wednesday, sealing a $900 million project to develop a Siberian gas field, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said after meeting the companies’ chiefs.
• RIA Novosti – Two militants were killed by Russian security forces on Wednesday in the Ingush village of Ekazhevo, where a third has taken cover in a house, a spokesman for the republic’s Interior Ministry said.
• Xinhua – Two people were killed and six others injured in two separate blasts in the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday.
• APA – Azerbaijani gas is prerequisite to whether we are talking about Nabucco or Italy-Turkey-Greece interconnector… Our feeling is that once that is established in and Nabucco is sanctioned that is going to make more likely western gas coming from Turkmenistan and ultimately open up northern Iraq. There is a lot of potential in Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani government thinks that Sahdeniz and other sides maybe have more gas. Initial gas will come from Azerbaijan. Probably it will take longer to get some other gas.

Middle East

• Khaleej Times – A bomb killed 61 people on Wednesday at a market in eastern Baghdad’s volatile Sadr City slum, police said, six days before U.S. combat troops are due to withdraw from Iraqi towns and cities.
• LA Times – The number of al-Qaida extremists in Iraq has plummeted and their ability to maintain a high-level of attacks has been eroded, U.S. intelligence suggests.
• MNF Iraq – An element of the Iraqi Special Operations Forces, along with Coalition forces advisors, arrested an alleged insurgent in Mahmudiyah, Iraq, a rural town about 50 miles south of Baghdad during an intelligence-driven mission June 20. According to military reports, the apprehended individual is said to be responsible for supervising insurgent operations in the Baghdad area.
• Voices of Iraq – A Sahwa leader on Wednesday morning survived an attempt on his life by bomb blast in eastern Falluja, according to a security source.
• NOW Lebanon – Lebanon charged five people on Wednesday on charges of planning to murder Libya’s prime minister, to avenge the 1978 disappearance of a Shia spiritual leader, a judicial official said.
• Al Manar – Israeli Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan said the Jewish State was keeping a close watch on Syria and Hezbollah following reports about the Lebanese party’s continued rearmament. “We are always watching over (Hezbollah) armaments in the north. We study the consequences and how we will need to deal with them,” Israeli media quoted Nehushtan as saying.

Iran

• EurasiaNet – Iran’s ethnic Azeri community numbers roughly 15-20 million, or almost a quarter of the country’s overall population. Most Azeris harbor deep feelings of resentment toward Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration in Tehran, and they are believed to have voted strongly for the aggrieved presidential challenger, Mir Hussein Mousavi, who is himself an Azeri from Tabriz. Even so, most Azeris remain unwilling to take an active part in the continuing battle for control of Iran’s social and economic agenda.
• Iran Focus – Thousands of Iranians rallied on Wednesday late afternoon outside the Majlis, or Parliament, in the capital Tehran against the country’s theocratic rulers. State security forces attacked the demonstrators and ordered people to leave the protest in Baharestan Square in central Tehran. They also fired tear gas to force the protestors to disperse.
• Rooz – Security forces, however, broke the silence with shooting. The people responded, “death to dictator!” Meanwhile, the Passdaran Revolutionary Guards’ tenth brigade entered Tehran yesterday and essentially took over the capital
• Mehr – Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei on Wednesday elaborated on the post-election unrest and incidents in various parts of Iran. In the run up to June 12 presidential election, certain groups, “mostly affiliated to Israel”, sought to carry out bombings in various parts of Iran but the terror agents were arrested by the country’s security forces, he added.
• MEMRI – Iranian sources are claiming that following pressure from the senior ayatollahs in Qom, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei yesterday ordered the Guardian Council to extend, by five days, its examination of complaints about election fraud.
• Press TV – Twenty people including, eight Basij members, have been killed during the post-election unrest in Tehran, Iranian officials say. All the Basij members were killed by gunfire, indicating that there were gunmen fomenting unrest among protesters, the officials said.
• Mehr – The Air Force has tested the domestically-made bombs named Qased (messenger) which pursue the targets in the air without being controlled by the pilot, the Air Force Commander, Hassan Shah-Saffi, told reporters. Shah-Saffi said that Iran has also tested its stealth aircraft somewhere in Tehran.
• IRIB – IRI Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Belarusian Parliament Speaker Boris Batora on Wednesday conferred about methods of consolidation of relations between the two countries. Boris Batora said the close and all-out ties between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Belarus follow a positive trend and will continue in the future.

South Asia

• The National – Afghan soldiers have killed 48 militants in two operations in southern Afghanistan aimed at clearing Taliban strongholds ahead of presidential elections in August, officials and the army said today. Local troops backed by the Nato-led international forces stormed a militant stronghold in the southern province of Uruzgan on Tuesday, killing 23 insurgents, the Afghan army Gen Sher Mohammad Zazai said. “We had an operation in Chinarto area last night during which we located a Taliban hideout. We killed 23 enemy fighters,” Gen Zazai said.
• Dawn -  One member each from the Baitullah and Abdullah Mehsud groups — rival Taliban factions — were killed in a clash in Tank bazaar on Wednesday. Baitullah Mehsud’s deputy and spokesman Wali Rehman said his network had killed Qari Zainuddin. He called newsmen and said that the TTP chief had ordered the killing of the defecting commander.
• Daily Times – Unidentified gunmen on Wednesday killed the general secretary of the Minhajul Quran Foundation in Dera Ismail Khan. According to the details, the gunmen stormed into the house of Muhammad Farooq and shot him dead.
• The News – Security forces on Wednesday claimed to have killed seven more terrorists while six soldiers, including two officers, embraced martyrdom during ongoing operation against the militants in Malakand Division.
• Geo – Over 50 Pakistan Air Force (PAF) officials have been court marshaled following arrest on charges of having links with terrorists while an important PAF official who is also wanted is at large. According to information gathered from Geo News source, action against some of the PAF officials over links with terrorists began in former president Pervez Musharraf?s regime
• Times of India – In a joint operation, the Jammu and Kashmir police, CRPF and the army on Wednesday arrested a top Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist from Sopore distrcit in North Kashmir. The security personnel, on a tip-off, arrested Abid alias Assadullah, who has been active in this region for the last two years and is involved in various attacks on security forces
• The Economist – Bangladesh’s ruling coalition, led by the Awami League (AL), faces significant challenges on several fronts. In addition to dealing with problems posed by the downturn in the global economy and regular domestic power shortages, the government has been preoccupied with the consequences of a bloody mutiny staged by members of a paramilitary group.

Far East & Pacific

• Bangkok Post – Burma’s state media said Wednesday it was expecting the arrival of a rice-bearing North Korean ship but had no news about a vessel being tracked by a US Navy destroyer under new UN sanctions.
• Reuters – Philippine soldiers have arrested a Muslim guerrilla who helped transfer funds from the regional militant network Jemaah Islamiah (JI) to local separatist rebels, an army spokesman said on Wednesday.
• Inquirer – Gunmen described by authorities as rogue Moro rebels attacked a construction site in a Maguindanao town on Monday, killing a worker and wounding four other persons, including an 11-year-old girl. Ponce, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said at least 20 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front fired assault rifles at the camp site of the RDI construction firm in the village of Labungan shortly before midnight Monday, killing worker Marlon Olis.
• Gulfnews – One of China’s best known dissidents, Liu Xiaobo, has been formally arrested on suspicion of inciting subversion, following his detention late last year for promoting a petition calling for an end to one-party rule.

Europe

• Press TV – Romania says it has summoned the Iranian ambassador to express serious concerns about the latest post-election unrest in the country. Meanwhile, Hungary also summoned Iran’s ambassador on Wednesday to express concern over Tehran’s restrictions on foreign media
• IslamOnline – Making history as Europe’s first ever hijab-clad lawmaker, Belgian MP Mahinur Ozdemir hopes to shatter some of the misperceptions about the Muslim head cover
• Javno – Bosnian Muslim wartime commander Naser Oric was jailed for two years on Wednesday for the illegal possession of weapons and explosive devices but the Sarajevo court acquitted him of extortion charges. Oric was arrested in October, three months after the U.N. war crimes tribunal overturned his conviction for failing to stop the murder of Bosnian Serbs more than a decade ago.
• AKI – Anti-mafia police on Wednesday arrested 29 people suspected of association with Naples’ mafia or Camorra and other crimes in the southern city of Torre Annunziata outside Naples. Police began acting on arrest warrants issued by anti-mafia magistrates for 80 people allegedly linked to the Camorra’s Gionta crime family which operates in Torre Annunziata.

Africa

• Mareeg – Somali government officials in Dolow town in Gedo region near the border between Ethiopia and Somalia said Wednesday they were planning to launch heavy attack on the rebels’ held south western regions of Bay, Bakol, and Gedo regions.
• Sudan Tribune – After staying to nearly two decades in power, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is preparing to step down.
• Echorouk – Armed forces killed 11 terrorists, including those who carried out the terrorist attack of last Wednesday in Bordj Bouariridj, east of Algiers, informed sources say.
• Magharebia – Terrorists killed five Algerian municipal guards and kidnapped two others Monday (June 22nd) near Chachar, Khenchela province, L’Expression reported. This is the third terrorist attack against security forces in the eastern region of the country in recent weeks
• The Namibian – An agreement between giant financier Gazprombank and the national petroleum corporation Namcor is one of the deals expected to be signed between Namibia and Russia when Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and his high-level delegation of about 300 arrive in the country tomorrow morning as part of the leader’s whirlwind tour of Africa, widely seen as a concerted effort to cement energy and nuclear ties between his country and the continent. Namibia’s uranium riches are likely to be intensely discussed though.
• The Citizen – Tanzania and Kenya have agreed to narrow the gap between their boundaries in the Indian Ocean to curb criminal activities taking place in the area. This comes only days after it was proposed that the two countries mount joint naval operations to deter Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean.
• The New Times – Alliance des Patriotes pour un Congo Libre et Souverain (APCLS), a militia faction formerly aligned to the Mai-Mai fighters of the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is said to joined forces with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) also known as ex-FAR / Interahamwe. Most Mai-Mai fighters were earlier integrated into the Congolese National Army (FARDC) but this faction recently pulled out of the alliance and is stirring more trouble in DRC’s unstable east.

The Global War

• US Navy – Two ships and more than 5,000 Sailors from the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group (CSG) arrived in Singapore June 24. The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), the strike group’s flagship, and guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG 62), moored pierside at Changi Naval Base for their first port visit in their 2009 Western Pacific deployment.
• Al Arabiya – A Belgian appeals court decided Tuesday to hand over a Tunisian- Belgian former footballer to U.S. authorities to stand trial for his alleged ties to the al-Qaeda terror organization.
• BBC – The lawlessness of Somalia has spread fear and panic to one of the world’s smallest and most isolated nations, tiny Tuvalu, that sits in the South Pacific Ocean near the International Date Line.