From Fars:

Iran’s Road and Transportation Minister Hamid Behbahani announced that experts are working on a plan to link Iran’s national railway to Lebanon through Iraq and Syria. The plan will help the Mediterranean Sea’s railways connect China through Iran, Behbahani said.

Aside from the interesting question of “Hmm, just what might Iran want to move by rail to Lebanon?”, Iran has been working to build up its rail network to neighboring countries to boost trade.

For instance, in April of last year, Iran and Armenia agreed to begin work on a project linking the two countries by rail. (They share a short land border between Turkey and Azerbaijan.) Funding is still an issue. In June, RFERL said loans might be sought from China to help finance the work.

In 2008, talk began to surface that Russia may assist in the building of this link to Armenia. This was of interest to me because starting in June 2008, through a 30 year concession, Russia took over the management of Armenia’s rail system through South Caucasus Railways, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Russian Railways. SCR has a link to Georgia, and with Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008, I’ve wondered if someone had a long-term eye on a possible rail link from Russia to Iran, via which, say, arms could be moved.

Read more of At least Iran makes the trains run on time »

From RIA Novosti:

The Belarusian government denied on Wednesday rumors that Minsk had allegedly sold S-300 air defense systems to Iran.

The Associated Press earlier cited the Iranian semi-official news agency Fars as saying that Iran had acquired two S-300PT (SA-10 Grumble) systems from Belarus and two more systems from an unidentified supplier. Iranian officials have not confirmed the fact so far.

“The State Military-Industrial Committee can officially state that Belarus has never held talks with Iran on the deliveries of the S-300 air defense systems,” committee’s spokesman Vladimir Lavrenyuk told RIA Novosti.

“Belarus has never supplied S-300 systems or their components to Iran,” he said, adding that Minsk strictly complied with international arms control regulations.

Jane’s Defense Systems News reported as far back as in January 2008 that Tehran was in the final stages of negotiations with Belarus for the acquisition of two surplus trailer-mounted towed S-300PT systems.

These outdated systems were deployed near Minsk and Belarus allegedly asked $140 mln for the two systems (including parts, maintenance and training).

The actual sale has never been confirmed. Belarus has no right to resell air defense systems supplied by the Soviet Union and later the Russian Federation.

Russia signed a contract on supplying Iran with at least five S-300 systems in December 2005, but the contract’s implementation has so far been delayed.

On June 9, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1929 imposing a fourth set of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, including tougher financial controls and an expanded arms embargo.

The reason Belarus caught my eye is that Iran has been making overtures to Belarus for some time. For instance,

Read more of Does Iran have S-300 missiles? »

Well, about time I get back here. Will resume whatever it is I do here in a few days, probably the beginning of next week.

I’m also contemplating trying a couple of different things. I’ve been sort of recharging my batteries these past few weeks. By the time the hours in the day are eaten by the day job, family, doing other things I enjoy, etc… there isn’t always a lot of time left in the day for the keyboard.

I like doing the roundups because it keeps me immersed in what’s going on, but, it takes at minimum two to two and a half hours to do one where I feel I got around to the major events of the day. Finding that much time every day on top of everything else can get to be a grind.

So, what I’m thinking is this. In order to minimize those times where this feels like a job for no pay, I’ll do the roundups as often as I can, and/or as comprehensive as I can. Otherwise, if circumstances are such that I just don’t have it in me that day, I’d like to get back to doing what I used to do more often, and that is posts on a single topic, where I might take a closer thing at something. Also, I’d like to throw in a few more posts throughout the day or whenever, where I might just make a quick comment or two on something. Deal?

It’s been a real busy week at work again… Might be after the Memorial Day weekend before I’m back again… enjoy the start of your summer…

A brief world news roundup for 19 May 2010.

United States & the Americas

• FBI – Following a five-week trial, a federal jury in Massachusetts found two Chinese nationals, one of whom resided in the United States, guilty of illegally conspiring to violate U.S. export laws and illegally exporting electronic equipment from the United States to China. Several Chinese military entities were among those receiving the exported equipment.
• State Dept – It is a pleasure to testify along with Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen, because we share a strong belief that the new START Treaty will make our country more secure. This treaty also reflects our growing cooperation with Russia on matters of mutual interest and it will aid us in advancing our broader nonproliferation agenda. To that end, we have been working closely with our P-5+1 partners for several weeks on the draft of a new sanctions resolution on Iran. And today, I am pleased to announce to this committee we have reached agreement on a strong draft with the cooperation of both Russia and China. We plan to circulate that draft resolution to the entire Security Council today.
• canada.com – Operations at the Canadian Forces Base in Goose Bay, N.L., will be limited this summer, as much of the base staff is in Afghanistan helping with the Canadian mission
• Miami Herald – The head of Nicaragua’s navy says Mexico’s La Familia cartel is moving heavily into Central America and dominates much of the drug trade through the region
• NPR – Arrest records and interviews with law enforcement and organized crime experts suggest that federal forces in Ciudad Juarez — ground zero of Mexico’s war against drug mafias — appear to be favoring the Sinaloa Cartel. The U.S. Justice Department says it’s one of the largest organized crime syndicates in the world.
• ISN – With the FARC weakened, Colombia’s next president will face a more factionalized internal insurgency, requiring a different strategic approach, Eliot Brockner comments for ISN Security Watch
• IBD – Acting like Robert Mugabe on cocaine, Venezuela’s dictator went on a shopping spree over the weekend, confiscating one farm and industry after another. First, a flour factory run by Mexican multinational Gruma was plundered, followed by the nationalization of a bauxite unit of U.S.-based NorPro. After that, a steel subsidiary of Luxembourg-based Tenaris called Matesi was taken, along with a group of transport companies. Unsated, Chavez then announced — via Twitter — the takeover of the private University of Santa Ines in Barinas state. And for good measure, he launched new exchange controls, another form of expropriation.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• RIA Novosti – Russia and Namibia plan to sign an agreement on cooperation in the development of uranium deposits in Namibia on May 20, Russian Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Yuri Trutnev said on Tuesday.
• Kremlin – Dmitry Medvedev signed the Executive Order Concerning the Federal Agency for Supplies of Arms, Military and Special Equipment and Material. The order establishes that the Federal Agency for Supplies of Arms, Military and Special Equipment and Material is subordinate to the Defence Ministry and also defines the agency’s personnel organisation
• NYT – In retrospect, the violence was an omen, beginning a wave of unsolved attacks and official harassment against journalists, human rights activists and opposition politicians around the region, which includes the Moscow suburbs, but not the city itself. Rarely, if ever, is anyone held responsible.
• Russia Today – Russia’s biggest bank, Sberbank, has removed limits for its subsidiaries financing projects in Ukraine. The bank is also planning some of its own investment into the country.
• UPI – Russia’s gas monopoly would fund upgrades to the Ukrainian natural gas transit network if a bilateral merger takes place, Gazprom officials said.
• RFERL – Russian officials say at least seven people have been killed in separate clashes between Russian-backed troops and militants across the North Caucasus
• Caucasian Knot – Vice-Premier Alexander Khloponin, Plenipotentiary of Russian President in the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), believes that Russia should form its attitude to the Caucasus as to country’s strategic region. According to his version, there are four reasons why Northern Caucasus should be regarded as a strategic region
• EurasiaNet – Some believers in Kyrgyzstan think the political upheaval that brought down Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s administration has created a new opportunity to mix faith and politics. There’s even talk these days that Kyrgyzstan could become the second Central Asian state, after Tajikistan, to feature a legally operating Islamist political party.
• SRI – Kazakh mining group Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) plans to sell a $3-billion Eurobond, according to a statement published on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) website.
• RFERL – A former commander of the Nagorno-Karabakh armed forces, Samvel Babayan, has confirmed that he recently visited Iran but rejected reports that he was tampering with Armenian politics
• Organization of the Islamic Conference – The Dushanbe meeting (of OIC foreign ministers in Dushanbe) is all the more important as it is the first CFM held in one of OIC Member States from Central Asia, which joined our ranks after achieving their independence. We warmly welcome them, and pin the hope that the five Muslim sister countries, given their glorious past in enriching Islamic civilization, will become a driving force to strengthen our organization and consolidate Islamic solidarity

Col. Mark R. Stammer, commander of 1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division (Advise and Assist Brigade), watches a dust storm blow toward the Euphrates River and his UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter May 10 (photo by Sgt. Mike MacLeod)

Middle East

• Al Sumaria – Baghdad Operations Command spokesman Brigadier Qassem Ata announced the arrest of two of the most dangerous Al Qaeda leaders responsible for the gory bombings that hit the capital of Baghdad last year and plotting to attack religious shrines in Karbala and Najaf
• AKI – Iraqi security forces are concerned that many of the prisoners released by US troops are becoming leaders in the Al-Qaeda terror network on their release. According to local news site, Al-Sumaria News, Baghdad security forces spokesman Major General Qassim Atta revealed the level of concern to reporters on a visit to Abu Ghraib prison
• Voices of Iraq – The house of a high-ranking Sahwa fighter south of Tikrit city was detonated on Tuesday. “The fighter was not at his house (70 km south of Tikrit) when the blast occurred,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He noted that the fighter’s two daughters were killed in the blast.
• Haaretz – Israel offered to engage in direct peace talks with Syria, provided Damascus cut ties with Iran and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Syrian President Bashar Assad said Tuesday. President Shimon Peres had conveyed the proposal via his Russian counterpart Dimitry Medvedev, Assad told the Lebanese Daily Al-Safir
• Al Arabiya – Ten years after Israel pulled out, south Lebanon is solidly controlled by Hezbollah which is even organizing “jihadist tours” along one of the most tense borders in the Middle East.
• NOW Lebanon – In an interview with LBCI television on Tuesday, Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Hassan Fadlallah said that Hezbollah has no reservations about Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s upcoming visit to the US. Fadlallah’s remarks come days after some pro-Syrian Lebanese politicians cast doubts about Hariri’s US trip
• Asharq Al-Awsat – In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat on the sidelines of the Arab-Chinese forum in Beijing, Libyan Foreign Minister Musa Kusa said the Arabs told the Chinese that they cannot talk about buying and selling without defending the Palestinian issue.
• Hurriyet – Lt. Gen. Yurdaer Olcan was arrested within the scope of the “Balyoz” (Sledgehammer) investigation Monday, becoming the first active military officer of his rank to be arrested as part of the recent coup allegations.
• Al Jazeera – Saudi Arabia’s intelligence forces, co-ordinating with neighbouring Yemen, have freed two German girls kidnapped nearly a year ago with their family in Yemen.
• Daily Star – Yemeni security forces have launched an operation to free two Chinese oil workers a day after they were kidnapped by tribesmen in an eastern province, the Shabwa governor said on Monday
• Armies of Liberation – South Arabian News service and many individuals are reporting the state is shelling the Alhabylyn area from the Alanad military base.

Iran

• Fars – The Iranian Army announced on Tuesday that it plans to unveil an upgraded version of its main battle tank, Zolfaqar, next month.
• IRIB – Islamic Republic of Iran and Brazil on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the field of oil and gas, Deputy Oil Minister for International Affairs Hossein Noghrehkar Shirazi told IRIB on Tuesday
• IRNA – Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Tuesday that Iran and Tajikistan have agreed to boost trade and remove the impediments on the way of Iranian enterprises’ activities in the Central Asian republic
• Zamaneh – Ahmad Yazdanfar, MirHosein Mousavi’s bodyguard was arrested Monday night by Iranian security forces. Kaleme website, news outlet for the Iranian opposition leader, announced the news, but the reason for the arrest remains unannounced
• Press TV – Two members of the terrorist Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) organization have been killed in clashes with security forces near Iran’s western borders.

South Asia

• NATO – Six international servicemembers were killed and several wounded when a suicide vehicle-born improvised explosive device exploded near an ISAF convoy and civilian vehicles travelling on Darulaman Road in Kabul this morning.  Numerous Afghan civilians were also killed and injured in the indiscriminate attack
• UK MoD – RAF firefighters helped their American colleagues this weekend in tackling a massive blaze which broke out at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand province.
• Ward Carroll – A Tough Road Ahead for Afghan Governance
• McClatchy – Afghan military investigators have accused Ahmed Wali Karzai, U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai’s controversial half-brother, of intervening to protect powerful allies who are squatting illegally on government property in southern Afghanistan
• Geo – At least 12 people including the area DSP and his gunmen were killed and various others injured in a blast here in Kalachi area of DI Khan, Geo News reported Tuesday
• MEMRI – A number of schools, including at least two girls’ schools, have closed in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, after threatening letters were received by the schools’ administrations, according to a Pakistani daily
• Times Online – India faces a dilemma as it considers whether to deploy the air force against homegrown Maoist rebels after their latest bloody attack yesterday, this time on civilians as well as security forces.
• Times of India – Railways cancelled some trains in Bihar and Orissa and normal life was disrupted in some parts as a two-day bandh called by the Maoists to protest security operations against them began on Tuesday in five states. The bandh has been called in Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal.
• Times of India – Two army jawans were killed and 3 injured when unidentified militants, who sneaked into Indian territory, attacked an Army patrol party’s vehicle along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir
• Channel 4 – Exclusive: a senior Sri Lankan army commander and frontline soldier tell Channel 4 News that point-blank executions of Tamils at the end of the Sri Lankan civil war were carried out under orders.

Far East & Pacific

• Chosun Ilbo – Investigators have apparently discovered pieces of a propeller from a torpedo, which could provide valuable clues to exactly what caused the Navy corvette Cheonan to sink on March 26
• Yonhap – South Korea issued a safety warning for its citizens staying in North Korea while preparing to launch a diplomacy campaign to make its case in the March sinking of a naval ship, officials said Tuesday, apparently indicating that its probe has found Pyongyang responsible for the disaster
• Stars and Stripes – The U.S. military canceled this week’s dress rehearsal for the evacuation of American civilians from South Korea amid growing tensions on the peninsula. U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement Tuesday that the Courageous Channel exercise — which was to run Thursday through Monday — was canceled to avoid the appearance that it was scheduled in response to the March sinking of a South Korean warship or the subsequent investigation.
• Bangkok Post – Pichet Sukjindathong, the right-hand man of the late Maj-Gen Khattiya Sawasdipol, or Seh Daeng, has been arrested, the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES) announced on Tuesday. The CRES believes Mr Pichet is one of the people behind the many clashes between red-shirt guards and government forces
• news.com.au – A screaming toddler stands on a barricade of tyres, his upper body visible to the Thai soldiers looking through their gunsights as a protester reaches out to steady him
• China Daily – A delegation of the Chinese Ministry of Railways inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Tuesday, with the aim of pushing forward cooperation in railway construction between the two countries.
• Washington Times – Terrorists plotting to assassinate Indonesia’s president and other top officials during independence celebrations in August were considering carrying out their strike in June to coincide with President Obama’s visit, intelligence officials say. What’s more, the disruption of the plot on Friday has shone a spotlight on the influence of al Qaeda in the South Asian nation, which is home to the world’s largest Muslim population, just weeks before Mr. Obama’s visit
• Irrawaddy – Around 1,000 members of several small militia groups will become border guard forces under Burmese military command after militia leaders reached an agreement with Lt-Gen Ye Myint, the Burmese junta chief of Military Affairs Security, at a meeting on Tuesday morning, according to border sources

Europe

• Khaleej Times – A French court on Tuesday released Iranian agent Ali Vakili Rad on parole, his lawyer said, just days after a young French academic accused of spying in Tehran was allowed to return home.
• AP – Sweden’s security service on Tuesday arrested a man suspected of plotting a terrorist attack in Somalia, the latest in a string of Somali-linked terror cases in Scandinavia
• euronews – The first of the EU’s rescue money has arrived in Greece, a 14.5 billion euro slice of a loan worth 110 billion over the next three years. It will pay Greece’s immediate debt, and added to 5.5 billion from the IMF Greece can now pay off a 10 year bond which matures on Wednesday.
• David Marsh – The dream of monetary union across Europe has turned into a nightmare. Led by France and Germany, European countries have decided to spend colossal sums of taxpayers’ money they cannot afford to heal mounting internal disparities they cannot conceal to shore up an edifice many believe cannot stand. On Monday, that skepticism briefly pulled the value of the euro down to a four-year low against the dollar.
• EUCOM – The Marines and sailors of Black Sea Rotational Force 2010 officially kicked off their three-month engagement in the Black Sea region in a ceremony at Romania’s Mihail Kogalniceanu Airfield, May 17. The ceremony featured platoons of Marines and Romanian forces, and was attended by local politicians, U.S. and Romanian military representatives from across the services. Additionally, about 20 representatives from the Romanian press were on hand to witness U.S. Marines and Romanian troops officially begin the deployment, the first of its kind for United States Marines to the Black Sea region.

Africa

• Spiegel – Somalia, which has been without a functioning government for almost two decades, serves as a warning for what could happen to other failed states. Rival Islamic militias battle for control of the capital, where the president, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, is in constant danger of his life. A visit to the worst place on the planet
• Shabelle – Sheik Ali Mohamud Raghe, the spokesman of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen has told reporters that the money printed by the transitional government recently will not be used in the areas under their control.
• BBC – Three aid workers, including a US woman and two Sudanese nationals, have been kidnapped in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region, officials say
• Sudan Tribune – Sudanese nationals were killed when their car was bushed by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in southern Sudan state of Western Equatoria,
• ISN – This month’s proposed change in the UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad’s peacekeeping mandate will have significant ramifications for the security situation in eastern Chad, Anna Dunin writes for ISN Security Watch
• The Citizen – Tanzania rejected insistence by Egypt and Sudan that the new agreement on the Nile River Basin Co-operative Framework should recognise the two countries’ current Nile water uses and rights. With the Nile’s total flow of 84 cubic metres, Egypt gets 55.5 billion cubic metres of the water annually and Sudan gets 18.5 billion cubic metres under uses and rights based on old colonial agreements which have long been rejected by seven Nile Basin member states as invalid.
• The National – The north and west African states of Nigeria, Angola, Algeria and Libya have long enjoyed the benefits of being the continent’s biggest oil producers. But in recent years, oil companies have turned their attention on east Africa, scouring the previously untapped region for more of the precious resource. Oil finds in Sudan and Uganda as well as natural gas deposits in Tanzania and Mozambique have oil companies excited about east Africa for the first time. As firms from around the world, including the Middle East and China, rush to prospect for oil in the region, experts have urged governments to astutely manage their newfound resources
• SW Radio Africa – Villagers in Makoni South constituency in Manicaland province are living in fear, after soldiers in uniform roamed the area ordering everyone to attend a ZANU PF meeting at Rukweza business centre on 6th June. ‘Their message has been clear, that if you don’t attend you will be in trouble. I haven’t seen the soldiers personally but villagers in the constituency have confirmed that they’re being instructed to attend the meeting without failure,’ MDC-T MP for the area Pishai Muchauraya said.

A military working dog wears Doggles to protect his eyes as a Chinook helicopter takes off, kicking up dust and debris, during an air assault operation by U.S. soldiers assigned to Alpha Troop, 1st Squadron, 172nd Cavalry Regiment, 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Parwan province, Afghanistan, May 11, 2010. (photo by Sgt. Jason Brace)

The Global War

• PBS Frontline – FRONTLINE tells the dark tale of the men of 3rd Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion of the 506th Infantry, and how the war followed them home. It is a story of heroism, grief, vicious combat, depression, drugs, alcohol and brutal murder; an investigation into the Army’s mental health services; and a powerful portrait of what multiple tours and post-traumatic stress are doing to a generation of young American soldiers.
• IPS – The Western world is unloading some of its most sophisticated weapons – including state-of-the-art fighter planes and anti-missile defence systems – in the Gulf region, clinching multi-billion-dollar arms deals. According to an analysis by Forecast International Inc. (FI), a leading U.S. defence market research firm, the GCC countries will account for about 60 percent of all defence spending in the region in 2010
• Military.com – The Army is recalling 44,000 Advanced Composite Helmets after recent tests revealed that they fail to provide the required level of ballistics protection

Sights & Sounds

Read more of Cables, dispatches and memoranda »

A brief world news roundup for 18 May 2010.

United States & the Americas

• LA Times – Many Homeland Security initiatives are called flops; Some high-tech systems, including the Real ID Act and a “virtual fence” on the border, were rushed into use without being tested or proven, experts say.
• White House – We acknowledge the efforts that have been made by Turkey and Brazil.  The proposal announced in Tehran must now be conveyed clearly and authoritatively to the IAEA before it can be considered by the international community. Given Iran’s repeated failure to live up to its own commitments, and the need to address fundamental issues related to Iran’s nuclear program, the United States and international community continue to have serious concerns
• MSNBC – An Iranian arms dealer held in a U.S. prison in northern Minnesota is said by U.S. officials to be “the prize” that officials in Tehran hope to obtain in exchange for freeing three jailed American hikers.
• Daily Mail – Plans to build a giant mosque close to Ground Zero have caused a storm of protest from families who lost loved ones in the September 11 attacks. Angry relatives claim the move is an ‘insult’ to the victims of the World Trade Centre atrocity. The mosque is part of a proposed 13-storey Muslim community centre, which will include a swimming pool, gym, theatre and sports facilities.
• McClatchy – The first full military commission hearings here since Barack Obama became president and pledged to deliver transparency were no more open than the court process had been under President George W. Bush, critics say. The hearings on Canadian Omar Khadr’s claim of abuse opened with a new rule book and closed with the Pentagon banishing four veteran reporters
• Trinidad Express – An organisation known as The Islamic Front (Waajihatul Islaamiyyah) has warned Muslims to stay away from the polls on May 24. But local Muslim groups have dismissed the warning, noting that the country was not a Muslim state and every citizen has a civic duty to cast a vote. The Islamic Front’s statement, signed by Umar Abdullah, stated, ’This is a call for all Muslims eligible to vote out of the 148,000 Muslim population of this twin-island state of Trinidad and Tobago to stay away from the polls come May 24, and for those Muslims not eligible to vote to encourage those eligible to stay away.’
• MercoPress – Brazilian business groups are strongly lobbying members of Congress against a review of a recent agreement reached by President Lula da Silva to treble the money paid to Paraguay for power from the world’s largest operating hydroelectric complex Itaipú, shared by both countries
• Miami Herald – The mysterious disappearance of a former presidential candidate is stoking fear in Mexico that nobody may be safe from relentless kidnapping and rampant drug violence
• Columbia Reports – Colombian armed forces on Monday claimed to have killed nine guerrillas in the north eastern department of Arauca. One suspected guerrilla was arrested.
• El Universal – Álvaro Uribe, the President of Colombia, said on Monday that “there have always been many pieces of evidence” of a possible cooperation between the Basque terrorist organization ETA and the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
• OGJ – Predictably enough, tensions between Argentina and the UK again are on the rise after Rockhopper Exploration PLC last week said further tests indicate the oil it discovered near the Falkland Islands can be commercially exploited
• Mineweb – Nearly two weeks after seizing a Pepsi-Cola Venezuela warehouse, President Hugo Chavez, presumably the new soft drink king of  Venezuela, has now reverted to his standby of expropriating metals and mining companies. Chavez announced plans to seize aluminum, iron and other metals firms in the Guayana region, already renowned for its gold mining projects

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• Russia Today – Moscow’s proposal to unite some of the assets of Russia’s Gazprom with Ukraine’s Naftogaz has triggered a wave of reaction from both sides
• RIA Novosti – Russia has agreed to help Ukraine finish construction on a missile cruiser, which has been stalled for almost 15 years, the Ukrainian president said on Monday.
• EurasiaNet – A pending customs union involving Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan could open a way for Georgian food products to get around a Moscow-imposed trade embargo.
• Reuters – Uzbekistan powered through the global economic crisis, kept inflation in check and is enticing foreign companies with a $50 billion investment bonanza. The economy of Central Asia’s most populous nation is wilting behind the facade. Banks are often empty when pensioners try to withdraw cash. Factories have closed and doctors at one Tashkent hospital say they haven’t been paid for five months.
• EurasiaNet – Drug lords likely played a role in stirring up the recent political violence in southern Kyrgyzstan, regional experts say, adding that organized criminal gangs are intent on fomenting instability in order to protect their trafficking networks.
• Babylon and Beyond – Landlocked and still recovering from the decades of Soviet rule and a war with Azerbaijan that quickly followed, Armenia may not be the world’s most attractive vacation destination. But for those living in the neighboring Islamic Republic, it’s a kind of earthly paradise.
• Guardian – Tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia are rising over the Karabakh backwater amid fears that a ‘great war’ may be close. Last week, 12 May, marked 16 years since Russia mediated a ceasefire agreement that ended the Armenian-Azerbaijani war over Nagorno-Karabakh and started a long period of “no war, no peace” stagnation. Presently, there is a sense that things might be changing.
• APA – Answering the question whether borders between the two countries will be opened or not if Armenia accepts updated Madrid proposals, President Aliyev said Azerbaijan had been searching peaceful way during 16 years of fruitless negotiations since ceasefire was reached in 1994. He said Azerbaijan accepted the updated Madrid proposals with little exclusions and was expecting Armenia to accept it. Despite 6 months have passed since the proposals was put forward, Armenia has not given positive response, said Azerbaijani President and added that Armenia intended to conduct endless negotiations in this manner

Middle East

• Press TV – Iraq’s oil minister says that his country has signed a deal with China’s CNOOC and Turkey’s TPAO firms to develop a major southern oilfield complex
• RTT – A Sunni Imam has been beheaded by suspected militants believed to have links with Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terror network near Baquba, about 50 kilometers northeast of the capital Baghdad. Militants broke into the home of Abduallah Jassem Shakour in Saadiya east of Baquba city at day-break on Monday attacking him with knives in front of terrified family members. Later they beheaded him and placed his head on an electric pole. Shakour, aged around 70, often called for national unity and forbade faithfuls from working for al-Qaeda in his sermons.
• Al Sumaria – Iraqi security forces arrested seven al Qaeda members in northern Waset, northern Babel and Al Oja region, security sources told Alsumaria. The detainees are involved in Al Suwayra and Hilla bombings, the sources added
• RFERL – A Sunni militant umbrella organization that includes Al-Qaeda in Iraq has announced that it has selected a new leader
• Max Boot – Iraq has improved immeasurably since the dark days of 2006 when hundreds were being killed every day by al Qaeda bombs and Sadrist death squads in Baghdad. But terrorist bombs continue to go off intermittently, and lingering instability and ineptitude still block economic development. Indeed, the political situation has recently taken a turn for the worse, with Iraq’s political parties at a stalemate in their quest to form a new government more than two months after parliamentary elections were held. A short trip north to the Kurdish region, where 4.5 million of Iraq’s 30 million people live, offers a different, more hopeful perspective
• MEMRI – Iranian artillery on Saturday shelled Kurdish villages on the slopes of Mount Qindil in the province of Suleimaniya, one of the three provinces of Kurdistan Regional Government
• NOW Lebanon – In an interview with Kuwaiti Al-Rai newspaper to be published Tuesday, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said that Lebanon is currently on the brink of a storm, possibly referring to a regional war
• Naharnet – Prime Minister Saad Hariri has kicked off a regional tour with a visit to Riyadh in an effort to garner support for his struggle to spare Lebanon ongoing Israeli threats.
• AFP – A top Al-Qaida chief has issued a statement in support of radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi, who is accused of ties to the network’s Yemen-based branch, an Internet monitoring group said Sunday. Nasir al-Wahayshi, the leader of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), vowed to protect Awlaqi in a 10-minute audio message posted on jihadist forums and carried by the U.S.-based monitoring group SITE.
• Saba – Yemen and China held talks on Monday over the developments of abducting two Chinese experts working in one of the oil companies working in Yemen.
• The National – The Yemeni government released 19 members of the separatist Southern Movement. Yaser al Yamani, the deputy governor of Lahj province, said the release came after the detainees made a petition in writing to Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president, that they would support the unity of the country.
• LA Times – The separatist movement complains of economic, political and cultural oppression by the north. Much of the south and east is beyond government control. There is war talk along the southern Yemen coast and the flag of rebellion is painted on the stocks of guns. The separatists call this land South Arabia, and villagers say it’s only a matter of time before insurgency erupts

Iran

• Hurriyet – Iran inked a nuclear-fuel swap deal Monday that commits it to ship 1,200 kilograms of low-enriched uranium to Turkey, potentially ending a standoff with world powers gearing up for new sanctions against the Islamic republic. The agreement, under which Iran will in return receive nuclear fuel for a Tehran reactor, was signed in the Iranian capital between the foreign ministers of Iran, Turkey and Brazil, an Agence France-Presse correspondent said.
• Bloomberg – The prospects of a nuclear-fuel swap with Iran are fading because the Iranian government refuses to heed calls to curb its uranium-enrichment program, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Yukiya Amano said.
• Payvand – As a first step Iran and Brazil agreed on Sunday to increase trade ties to 10 billion dollars in a year. The agreement was made in a high profile meeting between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Brazilian counterpart Luis Inacio Lula da Silva who arrived in Tehran on Saturday night at the head of a 300-strong economic and political delegation
• Press TV – Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has held separate meetings with two African heads of state, as the 14th summit of G15 closed in Tehran
• UPI – Emirati energy company Crescent Petroleum said it would hold talks with Iran in June to build a natural gas pipeline between the two countries.

A U.S. Army soldier from 3rd Platoon, Charlie Company, 1-503rd Infantry Battalion pulls security along side a river while two young curious Afghan boys watch the soldier, Jalrez District, Wardak province, Afghanistan, May 12. The soldier is here to provide security while a new Afghan national army checkpoint is being installed nearby (photo by Sgt. Russell Gilchrest)

South Asia

• AFPS – Afghan and international forces killed or captured numerous enemy fighters and seized illegal stockpiles of drugs and weapons in recent operations in Afghanistan
• The Australian – Australian special forces have begun ramping up their presence in Kandahar ahead of a major NATO-led offensive into the southern province
• Press TV – A popular Muslim religious leader who has been pushing for peace in eastern Afghanistan is assassinated along with two members of his family.
• Italy MoD – Herat: update on the military involved in the explosion of a bomb (two killed, two wounded) All the soldiers involved belong to the 32 Engineer Regiment of the brigade sappers Alpine Taurinense
• Washington Post – Combat Generation: Trying to work with an Afghan insurgent
• Times – The Blackhawk helicopter rose from the river bed, whipping up a hurricane of swirling dust. American medics crouched against the wind, turning their faces as the casualty evacuation team flew away. Two Afghan soldiers remained standing, faces to the gale, weeping inconsolably for a dying friend
• Intellibriefs – Why the Gorkhas could solve the Afghan imbroglio
• Spiegel – Last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai traveled to Washington to seek support from Barack Obama for his plan to reconcile with the Taliban and forge a path to peace in the war-torn country. SPIEGEL has obtained a copy of his secret peace plan, which foresees reintegrating Taliban fighters
• Asia Times – The insurgency in Afghanistan has in recent months spread to eastern and northern provinces, driven in part by groups independent of but symbolically loyal to Taliban leader Mullah Omar. It is these groups Western leaders believe could be nurtured into an amenable third force. Across the border in North Waziristan in Pakistan, a vital staging ground for the Afghan theater, cracks are emerging between militant factions.
• Dawn – Military planes and helicopter gunships bombed suspected Taliban positions in different areas of Orakzai on Sunday, killing 32 militants and injuring 18 others. Sources said that the targets were bombed in Wali Qamer, Gujar Kali, Hassan Zai and Teramgi areas.
• Geo – A security man was martyred and seven others injured during skirmishes between security forces and militants in lower Orakzai whereas eight militants were killed in a retaliatory action. Sources said militants stormed a check post in Khawastori area in lower Orakzai. Eight militants were killed and several others injured during retaliatory action
• Daily Times – Senior Punjab government officials have received death threats from terrorists, as target killings, kidnappings and extortion are being termed the “new ways” that terrorists have adopted to cater for their funds. SSP Special Investigative Unit (SIU) Karachi Raja Umar Khitab disclosed that terrorist groups, before focusing on Punjab, had “rattled” Karachi with their activities, as the provincial metropolis acted as a gateway for them, especially for foreign and local militants. He said that over a period of two decades, a large number of Mehsud tribes, with their bases in the tribal areas, had settled in Karachi
• The News – Though the provincial government is in a state of denial, the Punjab Police have officially admitted for the first time the movement of the Taliban, their network in district Jhang and southern Punjab and their fund-raising and recruitment drive in the province. The Jhang city police have filed an FIR, the first-ever in the Punjab, which is a severe indictment of the provincial government. The FIR No 320, registered under 11 F/7 Anti-Terrorist Act by the police itself on the basis of their human intelligence, depicts the grim realities of Talibanisation in the Punjab
• NPR – India and Pakistan have fought a few “hot” wars over the past 60 years, and there’s always an underlying tension in the relationship. The Wagah border crossing along the Grand Trunk Road is the only place where the Indian and Pakistani militaries meet face to face — every day. This is the place where those tensions are ritualized, and as the daughter of parents who lived through the traumatic creation of India and Pakistan, I needed to see it for myself.
• Hindustan Times – Nuclear-capable Agni-II missile, with a range of 2000 kms, was on Monday successfully test-fired by the Army as part of user trial from the Wheelers Island off Orissa coast. The trial was conducted from a rail mobile system in Launch Complex-4 of Integrated Test Range (ITR) at around 9.15 am, defence sources said
• Times of India – Maoists on Monday triggered a blast using an IED in Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh killing 20 special police officers and 20 civilians who were in a bus
• Times of India – A local Congress leader was shot dead by the CPI(Maoists) in Lumbatoli village while an ex-Congress MLA was threatened in Simdega district
• Jeremy Kahn, The Atlantic – The members of OFF look like the sort of Asian cool kids you might find jamming in a garage in Palo Alto or Seoul—but those places are worlds away. I am backstage at the Hornbill National Rock Contest, a battle of the bands held each December in Kohima, the capital of Nagaland, a forgotten corner of northeast India near the border with Burma. The contest seeks to crown India’s best unsigned rock act. For OFF and the other bands, winning means $10,000 and a chance at national recognition—perhaps even a record deal. But the stakes are higher for the state government, which set up the competition. It is betting that rock and roll might help end one of the longest-running insurgencies in Asia.
• Daily Star – A section of senior BNP leaders has urged their Chairperson Khaleda Zia to replicate Thailand’s “red-shirts” movement in Bangladesh to oust the Awami League-led government.
• Colombo Page – Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa this evening met with the Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei and President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. President Rajapaksa held bilateral talks with the two leaders prior to the Group of 15 summit which is to commence in Teheran
• ICG – The Sri Lankan security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) repeatedly violated international humanitarian law during the last five months of their 30-year civil war. Although both sides committed atrocities throughout the many years of conflict, the scale and nature of violations particularly worsened from January 2009 to the government’s declaration of victory in May. Evidence gathered by the International Crisis Group suggests that these months saw tens of thousands of Tamil civilian men, women, children and the elderly killed, countless more wounded, and hundreds of thousands deprived of adequate food and medical care, resulting in more deaths

Far East & Pacific

• BBC – Anti-government protesters in Bangkok have defied orders to leave their fortified camp in the Thai capital. The protesters – many of them women – continued to clap and cheer speakers on stage in the centre of their vast camp as a deadline passed. Soldiers have been shooting live rounds to keep protesters at a distance as one government minister said the operation to “seal the area” would continue. Violence since Thursday has left 36 dead, and some 250 injured.
• VOA – South Korea is freezing government spending related to exchanges with North Korea. The move comes just days before the results of a multinational investigation into the sinking of a South Korean warship are made public. Many people expect South Korea to accuse North Korea of the sinking and Seoul is believed to be preparing an international response
• AP – Two North Korean naval boats briefly crossed the tense western sea border with South Korea in the first such violation since a South Korean warship sank in the area after a mysterious explosion in March, the South’s military said
• Japan Times – Established in 1985, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) had its 16th summit meeting in Thimpu, Bhutan, late last month. Apart from the fact that Bhutan hosted its first SAARC summit, there was hardly anything that inspired confidence in this largely moribund organization that is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its founding this year. Covering at least 1.5 billion people across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan, SAARC is one of the largest regional organizations in the world. But its achievements so far have been so minimal that even its constituents have become lackadaisical in their attitudes toward it. The state of regional cooperation in South Asia can be gleaned from the fact that Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani went to Bhutan via Nepal, using Chinese territory in Tibet rather than the straightforward route through India
• Khaleej Times – The reign of a feared Muslim clan in the Philippines has come to an end six months after it allegedly massacred 57 people, but security concerns still hang over the province it once ruled
• Xinhua – Visiting General Guo Boxiong, vice-chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, met Monday here with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, and both sides pledged further efforts to promote military cooperation.

Europe

• UPI – The German government has launched a conference to better integrate the country’s 4 million Muslims. The start of the so-called Islam Conference at the German Historical Museum in Berlin Monday was overshadowed by the fact that two of the country’s most important Muslim groups — the Central Council of Muslims, or ZDM, and the Islamic Council — were absent from the round table.
• Javno – Police arrested two suspects after an attempted fire-bomb attack on the home of a Swedish cartoonist, controversial for drawing the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog, they said Sunday
• France24 – The euro tumbled to its lowest level since April 2006 on the Tokyo market Monday, as a trillion dollar EU-IMF rescue package failed to allay continued concerns over eurozone debt
• eubusiness – Euro area finance ministers battled Monday to defend the euro with no obvious agreement on how fast and hard to slash spending and the German chancellor taking flak for downplaying rescue efforts so far.
• Copenhagen Post – Real battle scenes between Danish soldiers and the Taleban have raised ethical questions on the actions of at least one unit. A documentary that shows Danish soldiers possibly participating in systematic executions of their Taleban enemies in Afghanistan will now be looked into by military investigators, reports public broadcaster
• Balkan Insight – Thousands of people are expected to protest in Bucharest on Wednesday against the austerity measures announced by the Romanian government.

Africa

• Press TV – Militants have raided Somalia’s parliament building in Mogadishu where MPs voted to oust the speaker, prompting clashes that led to the killing of at least 11 civilians.
• Garowe – Somalia’s former State Minister for Defense, Sheikh Yusuf Mohamed Siad aka Indha Adde has lambasted his own government for having hidden affairs with insurgent groups like Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam, Radio Garowe reports. Indha Adde, a former warlord, told reporters in Mogadishu that several Somali government forces with their weapons including some 4,000 machine guns US donated, defected to the insurgent after government failed to pay their salaries.
• AKI – Militants from Al-Qaeda linked Somali insurgent group Al-Shabab on Monday executed a man in Somalia after he was condemned to death by a Sharia court in Mogadishu. The victim, Mohammed Hashi Siad, 34, was caught in the past few days by Islamist militants in the district of Abdel Aziz, on the north side of the Somali capital. He was immediately sent before Sheikh Omar, head of the Al-Shabab’s Islamic court, and found guilty of espionage. He reportedly confessed to spying for the transitional government and being sent to the rebel held territory where he was discovered.
• Al Jazeera – Sudanese authorities have arrested opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi at his home, according to his secretary. Al-Turabi has denounced last month’s elections as fraudulent and said his Popular Congress Party would not join a future government with the ruling National Congress Party
• IRIN – Southern Sudanese authorities have stepped up efforts to collect illegal weapons in Lakes State, but critics say the process is prone to abuse and has left some communities unprotected.
• UN – Chad has become the 100th nation to agree to give the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) more information about its nuclear activities, which the agency hailed as a milestone in efforts to bolster global nuclear verification efforts
• AP – Officials say the new managing director of Nigeria’s state oil company has been fired. Ladan’s firing comes only a month after he took over at the state oil company. He replaced former director Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo, who the president also fired without giving a reason.
• Monitor – The military turned civilian president of the Central African Republic Francois Bozize heads for life presidency. Following a controversial constitutional amendment, the lawmakers of the embattled country have declared the leader aspire to an “indefinite” mandate.
• AFRICOM – Malian and Senegalese soldiers worked with their counterparts from the Special Operations Task Force (SOF) – 103, taking part in classes on small unit tactics, movements, and convoy vehicle recover drills, May 11, 2010 in Bamako. The classes were part of Flintlock 10, an exercise focused on military interoperability and capacity-building, which is part of a U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM)-sponsored annual exercise program with partner nations in northern and western Africa

As a U.S. Soldier with the Tennessee Army National Guard's 1175th Transportation Company looks on, a Soldier from the Royal Moroccan Army translates course material about the Heavy Equipment Transport System here, May 6, for Moroccan motor transportation drivers during AFRICAN LION '10. AFRICAN LION '10 is an annually scheduled, joint, combined U.S.-Moroccan exercise. It brings together nearly 1,000 U.S. service members from 16 locations throughout Europe and North America with more than 1,000 members of the Moroccan military

The Global War

• Pentagon – All four active services met or exceeded their accession goals for April 2010. Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force retention are above the fiscal-year-to-date goals for the first seven months of the year. The reserve components who reported data exceeded their accession goals for April 2010. (Navy data are unavailable due to flooding at its personnel command.)
• Macleans – NATO must win the war in Afghanistan, expand ties with Russia and even China, counter the threat posed by Iran’s missiles, and assure the security of its 28 members, according to the alliance’s proposed mission statement for the next decade. The draft document, released Monday, seeks to bridge a growing rift between the U.S., which favours a greater international role for NATO, and European nations that want it to retain its traditional defensive focus. (you can find the draft document here, PDF)
• BBC – The Maldives has offered to take two detainees from the US facility in Guantanamo Bay, the Indian Ocean state’s president has said. But the move is being resisted by an opposition party, which is reported to be taking legal action against the government over its plans
• US Navy – USS Olympia (SSN 717), USS Greeneville (SSN 772), USS Pasadena (SSN 752), and USS La Jolla (SSN 701), attached to Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet (COMSUBPAC) Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam are getting a head start on the upcoming smoking ban below decks on submarines scheduled to become effective no later than Dec. 31, 2010

Sights & Sounds

Read more of Cables, dispatches and memoranda »

A brief world news roundup for 14 May 2010.

United States & the Americas

• NY Post – Three people were arrested today after an army of FBI agents executed search warrants at several locations across the Northeast in connection with the failed Times Square car bombing, authorities said. The feds raised homes on Long Island, New Jersey, Maine and in the Boston suburbs this morning. The three men, all from Pakistan, were being held on immigration-related charges.
• AFPS – Lauding successes within North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command aimed at protecting the homeland, the outgoing commander emphasized today that the threats confronting the United States – both natural and manmade – will continue.
• VIC News – Considering it uses technology developed when the 386 computer processor was in vogue, HMCS Calgary gets along quite fine. Crew members watching and listening for potential threats, communicating information to senior officers and aiming and firing the ship’s weaponry help the 1990s frigate continue to play an effective role in a world where terrorism and shore-based threats are more common than Cold War-style confrontations
• BBC – A gas platform has sunk in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela, but the energy minister says it poses no risk to the environment. The Aban Pearl platform was drilling in the Mariscal Sucre offshore natural gas project, off the coast of Venezuela’s Sucre state. It belongs to an Indian company, Aban Offshore Ltd, but was being operated by Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA, which is developing the field.
• Miami Herald – When Venezuela’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Diego Arria, learned that President Hugo Chávez had expropriated his ranch, his first reaction was to announce that he would submit a complaint to the Cuban Embassy. That’s where the real power in Venezuela lies, he said.
• COHA – Adversaries, yes. Enemies, no (at least not yet). However, they are enemies of global capitalism which, in the eyes of some Americans, makes Chávez and Morales enemies of the American people. But this is one of many misleading impressions which inadequate Latin America coverage by U.S. media helps to perpetuate.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• RIA Novosti – Russia and Turkey could increase bilateral trade to $100 billion over the next five years, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday
• Kremlin – President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will make an official visit to Russia on May 13-14
• Russia Today – “We have identified all members of the group behind the blasts in the Moscow Metro, both the organizers and the bombers themselves. When we tried to detain three members of the group – one of them being the person who escorted the suicide bombers from Dagestan to Moscow, and then guided them to the Metro – we could not take them alive as they fought back, so we had to take them out,” FSB director Aleksandr Bortnikov said.
• RFERL – A Moscow court has jailed a Russian citizen for four years for passing secrets to the United States. The Moscow city court convicted Gennady Sipachev of spying for the United States by handing over top secret Russian military maps for the Pentagon to assist the targeting of U.S. missile systems
• Russia MoD – Victory Day parade, Red Square, Moscow (photo-essay)
• UPI – The pro-Russian government of Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych won’t give up control of the energy industry to Kremlin patrons, officials said.
• Gazprom – Kazan hosted another round of commercial negotiations between Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). The parties continued coordinating commercial parameters of the future Russian natural gas supplies to the market of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) provided for in the June 2009 Russian-Chinese Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in the natural gas sector
• Caucasian Knot – The European human rights court (EHRC) in Strasbourg has fined Russia to the sum of 225 000 euro for disappearance and death of habitants of Chechnya, the released court communique informs today. Relatives of the disappeared people repeatedly applied to the Russian judicial bodies but were not satisfied with their decisions. In the claimants’ opinion, the local courts failed to investigate properly the circumstances of their relatives’ disappearance
• Kavkaz Center – A mobile-phone tower and TV repeater came under fire last night near the village of Vanashimakhi, Segolinsky District of Dagestan, occupation sources report. In the morning the members of puppet gang of “Segolinsky police department” and “special task police unit” gang went there and were ambushed by the Mujahideen near the village of Ayazi. A fierce fight took place. Later occupation sources reported that the Mujahideen attacked convoy of special police unit with grenade launchers and automatic rifles and blow up several roadside bombs. About 40 policemen were in the convoy. According to preliminary data, reported by the invaders, 8 police officers from “Segolinsky police department” gang have been eliminated and 4 others, including the police chief a certain Maka Kurbanov, wounded
• BBC – Supporters of Kyrgyzstan’s ousted president have stormed regional government buildings in the south of the ex-Soviet republic. Hundreds of Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s supporters took over buildings in Osh and Jalalabad, but the new government said it had regained control in Batken.
• BNE – Kazakhstan is planning to export up to 3m tonnes of grain to East and Southeast Asia this year after China lifted a ban on such exports through its territory. Overall, Kazakhstan is willing to export 3m tonnes of grain via China this year as both Japan, the world’s largest importer of grain, and South Korea look to the Black Sea grain belt as a new source of imports. Kazakhstan will export a total of 2m tonnes of grain to South Korea in 2010
• Asia Times – Azerbaijan has again raised the amount of gas it is willing to provide to Nabucco, to the extent that the country could supply half the projected capacity of the operatically named pipeline planned to carry fuel to Europe. As the project picks up pace, other interested parties are setting up shop in Baku, the Azerbaijan capital

Middle East

• Khaleej Times – A bomb in a parked car ripped through a Sadr City neighborhood Wednesday evening, killing seven young people who had gathered at a nearby cafe to drink tea and play dominoes, Iraqi officials said.
• Aswat al-Iraq – Security forces in Diala arrested an Iranian national in an eastern Iraq area while taking photographs of places near security checkpoints, a local security official said on Thursday.
• Khaleej Times – Gaza’s Hamas rulers, whose relations with Cairo are growing increasingly tense, accused Egypt of torturing Palestinian prisoners
• Haaretz – Hamas captors holding Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in Gaza move him from hideout to hideout twice a week, officials close to militant group’s armed wing said Thursday. Sources close to Hamas’ Qassam Brigades said in statements published on local Gaza news sites that Hamas changes the hideouts for fear that Israel was planning a “selective military operation to free Shalit”.
• Daily Star – A Lebanese military court handed 31 alleged members of the Al-Qaeda-inspired militant group Fatah al-Islam prison terms of up to 15 years for terrorism, a judicial source said on Wednesday
• Naharnet – An Arab diplomat has been discovered to be a key member of a drug smuggling ring that the ISF’s Drug Combating Bureau had uncovered, reported the daily Al Akhbar Thursday. It added that the diplomat used his car to transport the drugs across the border
• Asharq Al Awsat – The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdulaziz Bin Abdullah al-Sheikh told Asharq Al-Awsat yesterday that terrorism in Saudi Arabia is a foreign phenomenon that this is no longer present in the Kingdom after the security authorities completely eliminated this
• Javno – Yemen’s Zaidi rebels have denied abducting four soldiers as claimed by the government blaming the authorities for kidnappings and unrest in the country, in a statement on their website
• Gulf News – Gunmen are seizing schools in north Yemen despite a ceasefire to end a war between the Sana’a government and Shi’ite rebels, in a sign the three-month-old truce may be under pressure, a UNICEF official said. Both the rebels and pro-government fighters have occupied schools by force, scaring off teachers and students in a region where school attendance is already abysmally low

Iran

• Fars – Iranian foreign ministry blasted the recent claims raised by the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Al-Attiyah on Iran’s three Persian Gulf Islands, describing the trio as an indispensible part of the country.
• RFERL – Iranian militiamen have raided a Sufi house of worship in the northern city of Karaj, a Sufi community leader told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda. Mostafa Azmayesh is a representative of the Sufi Nematollahi Gonabadi order, which suffered the attack. Azmayesh told Radio Farda on May 12 that roughly 100 members of the Basij security force accompanied by plainclothes agents on motorcycles attacked the house of worship on May 10 in this city west of Tehran.
• IRNA – Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said here on Thursday that defense agreements with Tajikstan will further consolidate bilateral defense cooperation.IRNA – Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said here on Thursday that defense agreements with Tajikstan will further consolidate bilateral defense cooperation.
• MEMRI – Residents of the big cities in Iranian Kurdistan, in northwestern Iran, launched a general strike to protest against the May 9 execution of five Kurdish separatists, including one woman, by the regime.
• Press TV – Iran and the Democratic Republic of Congo will expand relations in line with the Islamic Republic’s new priority of developing better ties in Africa
• Press TV – An Iranian company is to invest $300 million in a joint venture with a Kenyan firm to turn Iran’s southern port of Bandar Imam into a regional hub for the import and export of grains
• Payvand – Photos: Nomadic life in western Lorestan province

South Asia

• NATO – An Afghan-international security force killed several insurgents and detained almost a dozen others as the patrol searched for a Pakistani-based Taliban commander in Helmand Province last night
• NOW Lebanon – Up to 40 Taliban-linked militants have been killed in separate raids by Afghan and NATO troops in northern and central Afghanistan, military officials told AFP.
• Pentagon – The Department of Defense announced today the death of two Marines who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. The following Marines died May 11 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan
• UK MoD – As Operation MOSHTARAK enters its fourth month, NATO Commander Major General Nick Carter briefed the media today on the progress made within Nad ‘Ali and the progress that remains to be made in the area of Marjah
• BBC – Thousands of Afghans have protested in the eastern city of Jalalabad against the alleged executions of a number of Afghan refugees in Iran. Demonstrators rallied in front of the Iranian consulate, shouting slogans and throwing eggs. This is the fifth and largest anti-Iran protest in Afghanistan in a fortnight.
• AP – Afghanistan’s opium yield is likely to drop as much as 30 percent this year because blight is destroying fields full of poppies in the south – driving up prices amid a countrywide push to grow legal crops, a U.N. official said Thursday
• Times of India – Indian high commission staffer Madhuri Gupta may have spied for Pakistan but she turned down a marriage proposal from Pakistani intelligence operative Jamshed she was liaising with.

An SH-60 Sea Hawk helicopter from the Chargers of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 14, embarked aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, flies near the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter destroyer JS Hyuga. George Washington is underway conducting sea trials in the western Pacific Ocean after completing a selective restricted availability. (photo by Seaman Danielle A. Brandt)

Far East & Pacific

• Yonhap – Investigators are testing metal pieces collected from the site where a South Korean naval ship sank and comparing them with a North Korean torpedo to see if they are made of the same material, an official said Thursday
• The Australian – A key figure in Thailand’s anti-government protests was shot and seriously wounded last night as gunfire and an explosion rang out at a vast Red Shirts camp after the army threatened to seal the site in Bangkok. Renegade Major General Khattiya Sawasdipol, who is regarded as a military strategist for the protesters, was in a “very serious condition”, said a nurse at Hua Chiew Hospital last night
• CSM – An agreement between the red shirts and Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has broken down, with protesters vowing to continue their Bangkok sit-in and the government ordering armored vehicles and snipers to surround and seal off the protest site
• AP – Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has vowed to settle the Okinawa base issue by the end of this month. Polls suggest he will be under heavy pressure to resign, after barely nine months in office, if he fails to do so
• Japan Times – For much of the Cold War, China’s navy was little more than an elaborate coast guard. It was barely a blip on the maritime horizons of Japan and Southeast Asia. Today the Chinese armed forces are in the midst of an intense and sustained modernization program, and the navy has emerged as a key service for protecting and advancing national interests. It gets more than one-third of the declared military budget
• Xinhua – The old Silk Road with a history of some 2,000 years has long linked China to the Arab world. A new Silk Road featuring close trade and economic cooperation is now being built by the two sides through their joint efforts. The fourth Ministerial Conference of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum, which starts in China’s northern port city of Tianjin on Thursday, is expected to inject new vigor into bilateral trade and economic cooperation.
• The Interpreter – When Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev sought greater Indian involvement in his country during a meeting with PM Manmohan Singh in Washington on 12 April, it was not without reason. China proposes to extend its new high-speed rail network, connecting 17 countries and comprising three major routes linking Kunming in China with Singapore via South Asia, Urumqi and Germany through Central Asia, and Heilongjiang with Southeastern Europe via Russia.
• Jakarta Post – The police’s counterterrorism squad  has captured two  other terrorist suspects alive in Solo, Central Java
• Times – It’s been a bad week for Kevin Rudd, Australia’s Prime Minister. He began it by facing opinion polls that showed his popularity had plummeted that if an election was held now, he would lose

Europe

• NPR – Spaniards face the prospect that their country is slipping into a second European tier, scorned by its neighbors and by the bond markets, which aren’t convinced the country will demonstrate budget discipline
• Spiegel – In a dramatic appeal for Europeans to come together to address the common currency crisis, Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Thursday that if the euro collapses, so will the idea of European unity. She also described the current euro crisis as Europe’s greatest test since the collapse of communism
• euronews – Portugal has become he latest EU country to announce addition austerity measures in an attempt to avoid a Greek-style debt crisis. Prime Minister Jose Socrates and opposition leader Pedro Passos Coelho agreed to reduce this year’s budget deficit by around two billion euros
• Jerusalem Post – Protests outside Iranian embassies in Sweden and Denmark turned violent Thursday as rock-throwing demonstrators tried to force their way into the compounds. In Stockholm, one demonstrator received minor arm injuries and several people were arrested as protesters threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at the embassy building. Police said the crowd of around 250 people demonstrating against capital punishment in Iran also burned flags.
• AKI – Two Moroccan terrorist suspects deported from Italy last month were allegedly plotting to kill Pope Benedict XVI, Italian weekly Panorama claims in its latest issue to be released on Friday. Mohammed Hlal and Errahmouni Ahmed were students at the University of Perugia until their repatriation to Morocco on 29 April

Africa

• VOA – The most powerful faction of Somalia’s Hizbul Islam insurgents has officially cut ties with the group. The split occurred following allegations the Ras Kamboni faction recently signed a secret deal with the Somali government and neighboring Kenya
• LA Times – As Somali troops prepare to dislodge Islamic militants from Mogadishu, some soldiers have deserted. The task ahead will be difficult and will endanger a vulnerable population. On streets and alleys whittled by gunfire, Col. Abdi Bashir Dhagol is arming for a new battle amid the fleeing families, bloodied markets and boy soldiers of Mogadishu
• AKI – Militants from Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab group on Thursday claimed responsibility for an assassination attempt against the former governor of Mogadishu, Mohamed Omar Habeb. One person was killed and Habeb and four others with him were injured when a roadside bomb exploded as his car drove by in Mogadishu’s Shangay district.
• Sudan Tribune – The leader of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) has criticized the Qatari role in the peace process saying Doha is favouring the Sudanese government side in the talks.
• Al Jazeera – Police in Dubai have arrested James Ibori, a former governor of the oil-rich Niger Delta, on corruption charges, the head of Nigeria’s anti-fraud agency has said.
• Bloomberg – Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan nominated Namadi Sambo, the governor of the northern Kaduna State, as his deputy, a presidential aide said. Analysts were watching the decision for signs that Jonathan plans to stand for the presidency of Africa’s most populous nation in next year’s elections. Such a decision would run against the ruling party’s policy of rotating candidates between the mainly Muslim north and Christian south for two four-year terms. Jonathan, a southerner who took power in February after the northern incumbent, Umaru Yar’Adua, fell ill, hasn’t ruled himself out of the race.
• This Day – Oil giant ExxonMobil Corporation yesterday confirmed that its Nigerian subsidiary Mobil Producing Nigeria has declared force majeure on its Qua Iboe crude oil export due to damage to a key pipeline. However, company sources hinted that about 150,000 barrels per day may have been affected at the Qua Iboe export terminal which has a capacity to export 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day
• Daily Trust – A business delegation from India has indicated interest to assist in developing Nigeria’s cotton and textile industry as well as explore other business opportunities in the country. the visit is part of the Indian team’s business tour to selected Africans countries that include Burkina Faso, Benin Republic, Chad, Mali and Nigeria to strengthen its business partnership.
• New Times – Trade between China and Africa continued to register positive growth estimated at $91 billion last year, despite the negative effect of the global recession a top Chinese official has said. While the figure is slightly lower than $106.8billion registered in 2008, China says it is optimistic that trade will continue to grow with increasing economic cooperation between the two trade partners.
• Times of Zambia – China Development Bank has staked US$5 billion for the Zambian mining sector. The bank yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development where three other MoUs in the fields of agriculture and infrastructure development were also signed.

Afghanistan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, far left, John Metzler, superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, center left, and Aghanistan President Hamid Karzai, center right, listen to U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, center, at a grave site while touring Section 60 in Arlington National Cemetery, Va., May 13, 2010. (photo by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison)

The Global War

• Australia DoD – Six hundred Australian Defence Force personnel have participated in Exercise Bersama Shield 2010 (BS10), a multi-lateral exercise between Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The exercise continued to build on the close working relationship that has been developed between the five nations through the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) over almost forty years.
• McClatchy – Nearly a decade after the United States began to focus its military training and equipment purchases almost exclusively on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. military strategists are quietly shifting gears, saying that large-scale counterinsurgency efforts cost too much and last too long.
• Stars and Stripes – Al-Qaida operatives who have been detained for years in Iran have been making their way quietly in and out of the country, raising the prospect that Iran is loosening its grip on the terror group so it can replenish its ranks, former and current U.S. intelligence officials say

Sights & Sounds

Read more of Cables, dispatches and memoranda »

A brief world news roundup for 13 May 2010.

United States & the Americas

• State Dept – The Secretary of State has designated al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leaders Qasim al-Rimi and Nayif al-Qahtani under E.O. 13224, which targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism. Today, al-Rimi and al-Qahtani were also added to the United Nations (UN) 1267 Sanctions Committee’s Consolidated List of individuals associated with al Qa’ida and the Taliban. These actions will help stem the flow of finances to al-Rimi and al-Qahtani.
• House Armed Services Cmte – The Strategic Forces Subcommittee meets today in open session to markup H.R. 5136, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011
• Senate Armed Services Cmte - To receive testimony on Reserve component programs in review of the Defense Authorization
  Request for Fiscal Year 2011 and the Future Years Defense Program
• WSJ – Russia and the U.S. have reached a new bilateral accord on adoptions and expect to sign it within two months, a senior Russian official said Wednesday.
• Globe and Mail – The federal prosecutor has recommended two years in prison for a man who pleaded guilty Tuesday to collecting money for the Tamil Tigers – Canada’s first court case involving fundraising for a banned terrorist group.
• LAHT – One gunman was killed Tuesday when 60 Mexican military personnel swooped down on a camp belonging to Los Zetas, a band of special forces deserters turned outlaws, the general who coordinated the raid told Efe
• MercoPress – Colombian Oil Company Ecopetrol said this week it broke an 11-year-old export record in April, selling 403,510 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and refined products to foreign clients.
• El Universal – US oil company Chevron ships between 50 and 200 million cubic feet of Colombian gas to Venezuela, as the 6 billion cubic feet of gas per day produced by Venezuela fail to meet domestic demand
• Columbia Reports – Colombian President Alvaro Uribe expressed hope that his nation’s relations with Ecuador will improve, after receiving a phone call from Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa
• ISN – The border towns of Ponta Pora in Brazil and Pedro Juan Caballero in Paraguay seem an unlikely place for a major meeting on combating organized crime. The towns and vast expanse around them form part of a handful of border locations that are under an increasing multinational threat from the Paraguayan People’s Army (EPP). The EPP has been linked to foreign criminal gangs and terrorist organizations such as Brazil’s First Capital Command (PCC)and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• RIA Novosti – Russia intends to propose merging the Kremlin-backed Burgas-Alexandroupolis and the Turkish Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipelines after Bulgaria clarifies its stance on the first project, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said on Wednesday
• Russia Today – Moscow and Ankara have signed an agreement to cancel the visa regime between the two countries as President Dmitry Medvedev is on an official visit to Turkey to sign strategic deals
• Al Jazeera – Russia and Turkey have signed a $20bn project for Moscow to build and own a controlling stake in Ankara’s first nuclear power plant, as the two Cold War-era rivals try to cement a strategic partnership.
• ynet – Russia may help build a nuclear power plant in Syria, Russia’s energy minister said on Tuesday, a step that could upset the West due to unresolved allegations Damascus tried to construct a potential nuclear weapons facility in secret.
• RIA Novosti – Russian and Ukrainian special services plan to sign a deal next week to return Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) personnel to Ukraine’s Crimea, FSB chief said on Wednesday
• Press TV – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has snubbed a US warning over the delivery of the sophisticated S-300 anti-aircraft system to Iran
• Caucasian Knot – the head of the FSB (Federal Security Bureau) of Dagestan has announced that Teimur Gulmetov and Sadula Chiruglanov, who were killed on May 9 during a special operation in Derbent, were organizers of the terror act on May 7 at the Derbent railway station; while the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Dagestan reported detention of five militants’ helpers.
• Kavkaz Center – In an effort to strengthen information war against the Muslims of the Caucasus Emirate Russian invaders are creating new structures of the occupation agitprop. Internet projects are being started, different surrogate socio-political structures being created, information-political special measures being conducted, etc., i the framework of the “new information strategy” in the Caucasus, announced by Moscow through its representative Khloponin. Moscow does not conceal its extreme concern only the military achievements of the Mujahideen of the Caucasus Emirate, but also the informational and ideological progress.
• APA – Two agreements signed between Azerbaijan and Turkey on joint production of munitions
• SRI – Russian oil and gas companies have begun to expand into Kazakhstan in late 1990s, as they started to implement strategic plans to grow production capacity beyond Russia’s borders. Russian companies, most prominently LUKOil, Rosneft, and Gazprom, are participating or planning to take part in at least eighteen major oil and has projects. They include participation in two of Kazakhstan’s largest projects, Tengizchevroil and Karachaganak, in both of which Lukoil is a shareholder.
• India MEA – I am very happy to be here in the elegant capital city of Astana. This is my first visit to Kazakhstan. We are struck by the rapid development and progress that Kazakhstan has achieved since its independence. India and Kazakhstan enjoy warm and friendly ties going back several millennia.We are part of the same neighbourhood. Both India and Kazakhstan are multi-ethnic, multi-religious and secular societies. We have also forged a strategic partnership to give a qualitative boost to our ties.

Middle East

• Khaleej Times – Two bombs near a church in Baghdad killed five policemen and wounded 14 others late on Tuesday, an interior ministry official said.
• Al Sumaria – Recent bombings in Iraq bear Al Qaeda prints and are due to the latest strikes against the network and the arrest of its leaders, Brigadier Mohammed Al Askari said. These attacks aim to thwart the security crackdown against terrorism and pressure security forces, Al Askari noted
• Aswat al-Iraq – Al-Mosuliya satellite channel’s employee was killed on Wednesday by gunmen in eastern Mosul, according to a security source. “Unknown gunmen killed on Wednesday evening (May 12) Maher Mohammad Saeed, al-Mosuliya channel’s employee, near his house in al-Zahraa neighborhood in eastern Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “They killed him while leaving the mosque,” he noted.
• MSNBC – North Korean weapons seized in Thailand last year were headed for Islamist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, the Israeli foreign minister said on Wednesday. More than 35 tons of arms including rockets and rocket-propelled grenades were seized from a cargo plane after it made an emergency landing at a Bangkok airport in December. Thai authorities said the plane came from North Korea.
• Haaretz – The Shin Bet security service is trying to recruit Palestinian medical students as a condition for granting them entry permits to Jerusalem, according to two medical students at Al-Quds University pursuing internships in Palestinian university hospitals in the city.
• Daily Star – The office of Prime Minister Saad Hariri moved on Tuesday to deny remarks attributed to the premier which appeared to condone Hizbullah’s proliferating arsenal.
• NOW Lebanon – The National News Agency (NNA) reported on Wednesday that the Internal Security Forces (ISF) arrested a man referred to as the largest drug dealer in Lebanon, Hassan Sadek Wehbe. According to reports, Wehbe was arrested in the Bekaa town of Britel
• The National – Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) shareholders have approved a Dh3.75 billion (US$1.02bn) capital injection from the Ministry of Finance arranged last year as part of the Government’s efforts to shore up the banking system. The funds, structured as a Sharia-compliant wakala agreement, follows a Dh70bn Ministry of Finance stability programme put in place in October 2008 to help restart lending at banks
• Saba – The security authorities in the western province of Taiz have captured about 560 Ethiopian citizens who illegally entered Yemen in the last two months

Iran

• Fars – The Iranian Army on Wednesday ended 8 days of massive military wargames in the country’s southern waters in the Persian Gulf and northern Indian Ocean (photos)
• Payvand – Rasul Abbasi, the director-general for transportation and traffic coordination of Iran’s municipalities, has told the Borna news agency that taxi drivers are not allowed to play banned music in their taxis.
• Iran MFA – The new Serbian Ambassador to Tehran Alexander Tacik submitted a copy of his credentials to Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Wednesday. Mottaki hailed maintenance of peace and tranquility in the Balkans, and said that the Islamic Republic of Iran supports expansion of cooperation and convergence among the nations in the Balkans. Iranian foreign minister described foreign meddling as the main reason behind the problems of the Balkans
• MEMRI – Senior Iranian ayatollah Makarem Shirazi has warned Azerbaijan authorities that if they do not stop destroying Shi’ite mosques in the country, he would issue a fatwa calling to fight the phenomenon and defining anyone falling in the struggle as a martyr

South Asia

• IRIN – In a statement in English, Pashto and Arabic on 8 May the insurgents vowed they would step up targeted killings of almost everyone working with or for the Afghan government and its foreign supporters. The statement also said the insurgents would use more improvised explosive devices, suicide attacks and other hit-and-run tactics in urban areas. Such tactics led to the deaths of over 1,600 non-combatants in 2009, according to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
• Press TV – The chief of the central prison in the Afghan city of Kandahar has been killed in an attack amid deteriorating security situation in the country
• AFPS – Afghan and international forces killed a leading Taliban commander in Afghanistan’s Helmand province yesterday, military officials reported. Officials said the combined operation resulted in the death of a leading Taliban commander known as Amid. The insurgent commander’s demise is expected to disrupt the training facilitation of an active Taliban network in Helmand’s Malmand district.
• US Army – Army logisticians are facing a time crunch to get equipment into Afghanistan before Soldiers arrive, due to only two major roads leading into the country from the nearest seaport in Karachi, Pakistan
• MEMRI – Local residents in the southwestern Nimruz province of Afghanistan have said that Iran is trying to destabilize their province, according to a Pashtu-language Afghan daily. Sayar Ahmad, an elder of the Baloch tribe, said that Iran has a direct hand in the growing insecurity in the province, according to a report in the Pashtu-language newspaper Wrazpanra Sarnavesht.
• Dawn – Residents and officials say the Pakistani Taliban shot and killed two men they accused of spying for the United States. The bodies were dumped Wednesday in Miramshah, the main town in Pakistan’s troubled North Waziristan tribal region.
• CNN – Below is a portion of the taped conversation India police say is between a handler in Pakistan and one of the gunmen inside the five-star Taj Mahal Hotel — the last active crime scene. The attack there, which included fire, grenade blasts and bullets flying, lasted some 60 hours.
• Times of India – Maoists opened fire early Wednesday at a police outpost at Chintalnar in Dantewada district where the guerrillas had slaughtered 76 security personnel last month, police said
• Colombo Page – The Attorney General informed the Colombo Magistrate Court today that Sri Lanka’s ex-Army Commander and parliamentarian Sarath Fonseka would be indicted under Emergency Regulations in High Court. The state counsel pointed out that Fonseka violated Emergency Regulations through his statement in which he said that he came to know that the Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had ordered Major General Shavendra Silva to kill the terrorist leaders surrendered with white flags in their hands.

Far East & Pacific

• CSM – Turning nuclear fusion into a viable energy source has long eluded the world, but North Korea on Wednesday claimed success. Analysts are dubious and say the claim likely meant for leverage in six-party talks
• Khaleej Times – Thailand’s army warned it may use force to disperse thousands of anti-government protesters camped out in central Bangkok as the authorities prepared to cut their supplies and the prime minister said they must quit on Wednesday
• Irrawaddy – Military ties between Burma and North Korea, and the related issue of Burma’s suspected nuclear development program, have come front and center once again as a regional topic of debate following the visit to Burma by United States’ Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell on Monday
• Xinhua -  A 48-year-old man killed seven children and two women with a kitchen cleaver at a kindergarten in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province Wednesday, and then committed suicide, say local authorities. Wednesday’s tragedy was the fifth such attack on children in less than two months in China
• Japan Times – The Chinese marine survey ship that confronted a Japan Coast Guard vessel last week in what Japan says was its side of the border was not acting illegally, Cheng Yonghua, Beijing’s new ambassador to Tokyo, reiterated Tuesday, urging both nations to resolve the dispute over the East China Sea demarcation
• Jakarta Post – The police’s counterterrorism squad has captured 17 terrorist suspects alive and shot dead five others in a series of raids conducted since Thursday last week
• New Zealand Herald – New Zealand’s spy agencies are to come under greater government oversight, but information about their operations and co-operation with foreign agencies will remain closely guarded secrets

Europe

• euronews – Differences over the UK’s role in relation to Europe made it awkward for Britain’s new political heads to pull together a political compromise.
• euobserver – Estonia is set to become the 17th country to join the euro area, after the European Commission on Wednesday said its economy has met all the accession criteria.
• RFERL – The energy ministers of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Romania signed a protocol in Tbilisi today on forming a joint venture to export liquified natural gas (LNG) to Europe.
• Canadian Press – Mouldovan authorities claimed Wednesday that a journalist arrested in a separatist province on spying charges had been forced into making a confession in a case that has prompted expressions of concern from the U.S. Ernest Vardanean was arrested in the Russian-speaking region of Trans-Dniester in eastern Moldova in April on suspicion of “spying and high treason.” He used to work for the Russian news agency Novyi Region, which is known for being critical about the separatist authorities
• Balkan Insight – The Macedonian police has confirmed that its officers killed four gunmen and seized a considerable quantity of weapons last night near the village of Radusha on the border with Kosovo. The shootout occurred Tuesday night when a special unit of the police stopped a van after being tipped off that it was transporting illegal weapons, police spokesman Ivo Kotevski told Balkan Insight

The visit, board, search and seizure team assigned to the amphibious dock landing ship USS Ashland board and inspect two fishing skiffs for suspected pirate activity. Both skiffs were found to have fisherman and were released. Ashland is part of the Nassau Amphibious Ready Group supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation operations in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility (photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Jason Zalasky)

Africa

• Press TV – At least nine people have been killed and several others wounded in a fierce exchange of fire between government forces and local fighters in the Somali capital
• Garowe – Ethiopian troops have reportedly killed a senior Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebel leader and some of his fighters last week in the east of the country, Radio Garowe reports.
• McClatchy – Egypt’s parliament Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to extend the country’s emergency laws by two years as opposition lawmakers shouted in protest that the real aim was to stifle dissent, not combat terrorism
• AP – A U.S. Special Forces instructor leans toward a steering wheel, showing some 50 Malian soldiers gathered around an army pickup how a passenger should take control of a car if the driver is killed in an ambush. The elite Malian troops look on, perplexed. “But what can we do if we don’t know how to drive?” asks Sgt. Amadou, echoing many of his colleagues’ concern.
• BBC – There has been fresh fighting in south Sudan between the Southern army and forces loyal to the former general George Athor. The army has denied claims by Mr Athor that dozens of its soldiers were killed in the clashes in Jonglei state
• Reuters – Hundreds of refugees have fled after reports of a build-up of Sudanese army and rebel fighters near a strategic town in Darfur, peacekeepers said on Wednesday.
• Senate Cmte on Foreign Relations – SUDAN: A CRITICAL MOMENT FOR THE CPA, DARFUR AND THE REGION; Testimony of Jonathan S. Gration, Maj Gen, USAF (Ret) U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan
• UPI – Construction of a 2,565-mile natural gas pipeline from Nigeria to Algeria to supply Europe, and help break Russia’s stranglehold as its prime source of gas, has been repeatedly delayed.
• Times of Zambia – The Chinese Development Bank (CDB) has pledged to provide US$1 billion towards the financing of the 600 megawatts Kafue Gorge Lower hydro-power station that the Zambian Government plans to develop. Provision of the funds was part of the estimated $1.5 billion needed by the Government to embark on the construction of the hydro power station through a private partnership next year and expect to complete it by the year 2017
• IRIN – “Vested interests” are hampering Liberia’s recovery from civil war by failing to address key recommendations of the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), according to a new report.
• UPI – Japan plans to establish a $40 million strategic naval base in the Horn of Africa state of Djibouti, where U.S. and French forces are deployed to combat al-Qaida jihadists. The facility, intended to boost the fight against Somali pirates preying on vital shipping lanes, will be Japan’s first foreign military base since World War II.

Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Matthew Benack sharpens his archery skills at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., May 11, 2010. Benack is competing as an archer with the Marine Corps wounded warrior team as part of the inaugural Warrior Games. (photo by Cpl. Scott Schmidt)

The Global War

• Asia Times – The next wave of United States spy satellites will likely include advanced technology to detect newer, quieter Chinese submarines that are difficult to track with sonar. By linking its powerful space-based sensors with those mounted on warships, submarines and underwater and airborne drones, the US could form a frighteningly clear picture of the traffic under the world’s oceans.
• IISS – The news from Tokyo on 10 April 2010 that the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force had monitored ten Chinese warships passing 140km south of Okinawa through the Miyako Strait marked a new stage in China’s naval development. The deployment was of unprecedented size and scope for the Chinese navy, and was the second such operation mounted by China in rapid succession: in March, a smaller flotilla had been deployed on exercises. The two sets of exercises, along with Chinese counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, demonstrate the flexibility of China’s naval forces and their greater prominence in Beijing’s strategic calculations.

Sights & Sounds

Read more of Cables, dispatches and memoranda »

A brief world news roundup for 12 May 2010. 

United States & the Americas

• White House – I am pleased to transmit to the Congress, pursuant to sections 123 b. and 123 d. of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2153(b), (d)) (the “Act”), the text of a proposed Agreement Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Russian Federation for Cooperation in the Field of Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy (the “Agreement”).
• Washington Times – The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan said Monday that Iran is continuing to back Taliban forces, but its supply of training and weapons is insignificant. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of U.S. and allied forces, said Iran’s “reach into Afghanistan, first, is fairly legitimate” and includes money and education support. “There is evidence, intelligence that indicates some malign activity as well: some training of insurgents, Taliban, and of shipments of some levels of arms,” the four-star general told reporters at the White House
• State Dept – Well, on behalf of President Obama, his Administration and the American people, I offer a very warm welcome to President Karzai and the members of the Afghan Government gathered here in the Benjamin Franklin Room of the State Department.
• FBI – The former ABN AMRO Bank N.V., now named the Royal Bank of Scotland N.V., has agreed to forfeit $500 million to the United States in connection with a conspiracy to defraud the United States, to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and to violate the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA), as well as a violation of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA),
• Reuters – Uranium One reported a first-quarter net loss on Monday, citing falling revenues and higher operating expenses. The Canadian company, whose main operations are in Kazakhstan, posted a loss of $21.5 million, or 4 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $61.1 million, or 13 cents a share.
• AFP – A Pakistani man will be charged with violating the law in Chile on Tuesday after traces of explosives were detected on his body and belongings during a visit to the US embassy, police said.
• COHA – While campaigning, then-Bishop Lugo characterized himself as the “bishop for the poor,” and was successful in giving hope to Paraguay’s indigenous and disadvantaged communities. However, after two years in office, comparatively little has been done to address the promised redistribution of land to landless farmers as well as the rising tensions between campesinos and large monocrop (primarily soy) producers.
• Miami Herald – The reported discovery in cartel hands of a sheaf of police documents containing agents’ names and contact numbers, along with apparent references to shared U.S. intelligence data, has renewed fears of high-level corruption in Mexico’s war on drugs.
• SouthCom – In the stifling heat of the Ecuadorian coast an army patrol of humvees and armored vehicles winds its way through a narrow jungle road. In an instant, the column erupts into a chaotic firefight with smoke and hand grenades exploding all around. As part of an exercise run by the U.S. Military Group Ecuador, the military force, under the command of Ecuadorian Army Captain Roberto Campoverde, the patrol maneuvers swiftly, flanking the ambushers and bringing the engagement to a successful conclusion

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• Russia Today – The presidents of Russia and Syria have agreed that the Middle East should be a nuclear-free region since any other scenario may lead to “a regional or probably even global catastrophe,” Dmitry Medvedev said.
• RIA Novosti – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, met on Tuesday with the Syria-based Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal, the Russian presidential spokesman said. Natalya Timakova said the president, who is currently paying a visit to Syria, stressed the importance of reconciling Hamas and Fatah, the two main Palestinian political organizations, to strengthen Palestinian national unity.
• UPI – A potential merger between Russian and Ukrainian energy companies has no bearing on the South Stream natural gas pipeline, Russian officials said in Syria.
• RIA Novosti – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is expected to sign strategic and long-term intergovernmental agreements during an official visit to Ankara, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister said on Tuesday.
• EurasiaNet – Soviet-Era Registration System Fosters Discontent in Kyrgyzstan
• Interfax – The railways Zhetygen–Korgas (southeastern Kazakhstan) and Ozen-to-Turkmen-border (western Kazakhstan), which are under construction at the moment, will be brought into operation in December 2011
• RFERL – Some Azerbaijani politicians have blamed Iran for manipulating reservoirs near their common border and contributing to the flooding of villages in southeastern Azerbaijan

Middle East

• Al Sumaria – The wave of deadly attacks on Monday killed more than 100 people and wounded 350 others half of them were victims of Al Nasij Industry bombing in Hilla
• UPI – Four people were wounded Tuesday when a bomb tore through the eastern Iraqi city of Fallujah following one of the deadliest days in years, officials said.
• Aswat al-Iraq – Arab sides are involved in yesterday’s blasts in Basra, the head of the province’s security committee said on Tuesday. “We have confirmed intelligence information that one Arab state supported and another planned the blasts,” Ali Ghanim told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
• MEMRI – Iraqi security forces announced the arrest yesterday of Hayder Fadhel Hussein Al-Zahiri in the province of Diyala, in Iraq. He is described as one of the leaders of Iraqi Hamas, involved in the blowing up of Shi’ite mosques in addition to carrying out acts of kidnapping and murder. At the same time, the U.S. Army announced the arrest of a leader of the Hizbullah Battalions (kata’ib Hizbullah) in Iraq, along with two of his assistants. He is accused of smuggling weapons into Iraq
• Jerusalem Post – Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has accused Iran of trying to “stir up” a war between Israel and Syria. Speaking during a tour of the IDF’s Northern Command on Tuesday afternoon, Netanyahu said Iran was “spreading lies in order to escalate tensions.”
• TIME – Whether these rugged hills will see yet another war depends less on the likely combatants than on the U.S. and Iran. Hizballah is viewed as one component of Iran’s deterrence against a possible attack on its nuclear sites, should diplomatic efforts fail to resolve the standoff with the West over its enrichment of uranium. And recent conversations with Hizballah fighters reveal an organization at the peak of its military powers, with an army of well-trained, disciplined and highly motivated combatants wielding advanced weaponry, cultivating new tactics and brimming with confidence.
• Press TV – Several Yemeni soldiers and Houthi fighters have been killed in fresh clashes between government forces and fighters in the country, a security official says
• NOW Lebanon – Bahraini authorities arrested one of its nationals suspected of having links with an alleged spy cell busted in Kuwait – and said to be working for Iran.
• Gulf News – A Bahraini sailor was injured when Qatari coastguards opened fire at Bahraini boats that had entered Qatari waters. Qatari coastguards said that they fired shots in the air to warn off seven Bahraini boats that had strayed into their waters.
• SANA – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened on Monday the extraordinary meeting of the Executive Committee of the Parliamentary Union of the Organization of Islamic Conference(OIC) member states in Istanbul with the participation of Speaker of the Syrian People’s Assembly Mahmoud al-Abrash and parliamentary delegations from 28 states. The meeting was held under the title “Warning to Israel.. New Settlements in Jerusalem will harm International Peace.”
• Hurriyet – After four decades of involvement in Turkish politics, Deniz Baykal’s career comes to an apparent end as he resigns amid an uproar of criticism for his alleged appearance with a female staffer on a clandestinely recorded video. The CHP leader says it’s a conspiracy and he is not done fighting the claims

Iran

• Fars – Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili and India’s Deputy National Security Adviser Alok Prasad on Tuesday discussed possible ways to bring a new era to the bilateral ties and cooperation between the two countries
• ISNA – Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said mothers of three American nationals arrested due to illegal entry to Iran can apply for visa to visit their children.
• Asharq Al Awsat – Iran’s armed forces chief said a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft had tried to approach Iranian naval maneuvers, but was warned by the Iranian military to leave, Fars News Agency reported
• Daily Star – Iran needs around $25 billion a year in oil and gas industry investment and could turn into an importer of oil because of the lack of such funds, the oil minister said in comments reported by a newspaper on Monday
• Press TV – The Pakistani envoy in Iran has been injured in an assassination attempt after his car was attacked in Tehran, says the Iranian Foreign Ministry
• Payvand – Photos: Rose Water Production in Kashan

Afghan national police and soldiers from the 293rd Military Police Company, 97th MP Bn., survey the Sur Ghar Mountains, May 7, looking for signs of Taliban presence after having been attacked, April 29, at the police sub-station below the mountains. The attack came from 300 yards up the mountain and on the other side of the ridge, toward which the patrol is walking. The attackers escaped (photo by Pfc. Casey Collier)

South Asia

• NATO – In Helmand Province last night, a joint force searched a compound west of Marjah, in the Nawa district, after intelligence information indicated insurgent activity. During the search the security force captured a Taliban IED expert and a few other militants. The Taliban explosives facilitator operates an IED and mine production facility, supplying insurgent networks with IEDs
• AKI – At least 30 schoolgirls were poisoned on Tuesday in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, the third such attack on a girls’ school in the city in less than a month, officials said. It is unclear who was behind the attacks
• Pentagon - Spc. Jeremy L. Brown, 20, of McMinnville, Tenn., died May 9 at Contingency Outpost Zerok, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire. Capt. Kyle A. Comfort, 27, of Jacksonville, Ala., died May 8 in Helmand province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device. Cpl. Kurt S. Shea, 21, of Frederick, Md., died May 10 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province. Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Davis, 19, of Perry, Iowa, died May 7 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province. Lance Cpl. Christopher Rangel, 22, of San Antonio, Texas, died May 6 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province.
• IRIN – The Afghan authorities have cancelled the operating licences of 152 national and 20 international NGOs, accusing them of not being accountable.
• Dawn – US drone aircraft killed at least 24 suspected militants in two attacks on Tuesday in Pakistan’s North Waziristan, Pakistani security officials said. It was the fourth drone missile strike on militants since a failed bid to set off a car bomb in New York’s Times Square on May 1.
• Geo – At least 10 militants were killed and five were wounded on Tuesday after security forces targeted their (militants) hideouts in Orakzai Agency. Security forces backed by helicopter gunships pounded suspected militant dens located in different parts of Upper and Lower Orakzai
• The News – A close aide to the Swat Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah was arrested by law-enforcement agencies and the security forces in a joint action on the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway on Monday, official sources said
• Times of India – Home minister P Chidambaram said Sri Lanka might have used the military to tackle the LTTE, but it can’t be tried in the anti-Maoist operation in India as a matter of ethical consideration.
• Times of India – The army on Tuesday said there was no intrusion by China along the border with India in Ladakh region, but admitted that there were incidents of “transgression”.
• China Daily – China will work with India to maintain peace and stability in their joint border areas until border disputes are finally settled, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu reaffirmed here Tuesday.
• IDSA – Manipur is back in the news once again, but for all the wrong reasons. Tension has flared up in the state since last week due to the impending visit of the General Secretary of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim—Isak-Muivah [NSCN (IM)], Thuingaleng Muivah, to his native village Somdal in Ukhrul district of Manipur. Ukhrul is inhabited by the Tangkhul Nagas, the tribe to which Muivah belongs. Denied entry to Manipur due to the strong negative reactions from the Meiteis and especially the Manipur state government, Muivah has been camping in Viswema village near the Nagaland-Manipur border since May 5
• IPS – For a country that has had quite a few run-ins with global giants in the diplomatic arena, the last fortnight has witnessed somewhat of a turnaround for Sri Lanka.

Far East & Pacific

• Chosun Ilbo – Jang Song-taek, the administration director of the North Korean Workers’ Party, seems firmly established as a powerful éminence grise in the North Korean regime, a status confirmed during Kim’s recent China trip. Jang, who is Kim’s brother in law, was seated closer to the leader than his nominal rank warrants during official events on the trip, including a welcoming banquet hosted by Chinese President Hu Jintao.
• Khaleej Times – Maoist-led guerrillas on Tuesday ambushed an army convoy escorting election officials in a remote town on the southern island in the Philippines, killing six people and wounding a dozen, an army spokesman said
• Manila Times – The wife and children of deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos are set to return to political power, with his widow’s big win Tuesday for a seat in Philippine Congress and eldest child Imee’s victory as provincial governor.
• Global Witness – Singapore’s rapid expansion is driving an ecologically and socially devastating sand-dredging industry in Cambodia, according to a new report released today by Global Witness. This booming trade is being monopolised by two prominent Cambodian Senators with close ties to Prime Minster Hun Sen – despite a supposed government ban on sand exports.
• Xinhua – China and Cambodia pledged to strengthen military ties when senior military officials from the two countries met here Tuesday. Cambodia is China’ s good neighbor, friend and partner, China’ s Defense Minister Liang Guanglie told Pol Saroeun, commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces
• Marginal Revolution – China alone loses between 100 million and 200 million tons of coal each year to mine fires, as much as 20 percent of their annual production, according to the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, based in Enschede, Netherlands. The Institute estimates that carbon dioxide emissions from these fires are as high as 1.1 billion metric tons, more than the total carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles in the United States
• The Australian – Australians will spend a record $25.7 billion on defence this year, including more than $1 billion for operations in Afghanistan. That will include $19.6 million to cover the cost of ADF personnel protecting the increasing number of Australian civilian aid officials and police being sent to improve governance in the stricken country.
• Channel News Asia – Singapore’s Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) said in a statement that the 4th ADMM also agreed on the ADMM+8 format. It welcomed eight countries – Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States of America – to join the inaugural ADMM-Plus meeting which will be held this October in Vietnam.
• VietNamNet – At the opening ceremony of the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting in Hanoi on May 11, Minister of Defence Phung Quang Thanh said that ASEAN countries will jointly patrol the sea and set up a boundry line among their naval forces.

Europe

• CBS – Conservative leader David Cameron moved to the brink of power Tuesday as tense negotiations between Britain’s three major political parties appeared to swing decisively in his favor
• Telegraph – David Cameron has become Prime Minister after agreeing a deal with the Liberal Democrats to lead Britain’s first coalition government since the Second World War.
• NYT – At a defining moment for the European Union, its largest country, Germany, appeared divided and its leader absent, raising significant concerns about what kind of leadership Chancellor Angela Merkel can offer as the region tries to stabilize financial markets and shore up its common currency.
• Guardian – Security service accused of involvement in abuse of Birmingham businessman Gulam Mustafa, who was arrested in Dhaka. The Security service is facing fresh accusations of involvement in the abuse of terrorism suspects after a British man was detained in Bangladesh and allegedly tortured while being questioned about his activities and associates in both countries
• Al Arabiya – France will move a step closer towards outlawing the full Islamic veil on Tuesday when parliament adopts a formal resolution condemning the burka as an affront to the nation’s values
• Prague Monitor – President Václav Klaus yesterday signed an amendment to the law on Czech military which forms the basis for the transformation and development of state’s professional army

Africa

• Garowe – The Islamist leader of Somalia’s Hizbul- Islam rebel group Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys dismissed the declarations of the country’s most respected Islamic scholars, who were in attendance at the recently concluded Garowe Islamic conference. That declared war in Somalia as un-islamic. Aweys defended the war his waging against the foreign troops and UN-backed government as “in accordance with Islamic law.’
• Al Jazeera – Sudan has renewed calls for the arrest of Khalil Ibrahim, the head of Darfur’s most powerful rebel group, in a move likely to dash hopes of progress in a faltering peace process
• BBC – One of the main rebel groups in Sudan’s Darfur region has threatened “all-out war” if its leader is arrested. Mr Khalil is currently thought to be in Egypt, which is an ally of Khartoum.
• Sudan Tribune – Sudan has announced today that it will not sign the framework agreement aimed at reallocating shares from the river Nile, a longstanding demand by several up-stream countries
• VOA – The chairman of Nigeria’s ruling party has been arraigned on charges that he tried to defraud the federal government of more than $1 million. The party is already divided by calls for electoral reform ahead of next year’s nationwide vote.
• Stars and Stripes – The exercises Monday in Kita, a shooting range in the savanna near Mali’s capital, Bamako, are but one leg of an ambitious program led by the Pentagon’s Africa Command, or AFRICOM, to provide top-tier training in six African countries during three weeks this month.

The Military Sealift Command fast combat support Ship USNS Supply is under way alongside the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the North Arabian Sea, May 6, 2010. The Eisenhower is deployed as part of the rotation of forward-deployed forces to support maritime security operations. (photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Chad R. Erdmann)

The Global War

• Asia Times – The Shivalik, India’s first indigenously designed and manufactured stealth frigate, was commissioned last month in Mumbai. With radar-absorbent paint, the ship is a combination of high-technology and low manufacturing costs that India hopes will draw customers to its warship-building industry
• Space Review – While China’s 2007 anti-satellite (ASAT) test and its missile defense intercept test earlier this year have attracted much attention and concern, another emerging space power has also been expressing its interest in developing those capabilities yet attracting very little notice: India
• SAAG – Afghanistan has long figured in China’s strategic calculus.   One of the concessions demanded and given by Russian President Gorbachev in his famous Vladivostok speech in 1989 was the Chinese insistence on Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. Afghanistan again today looms large in China’s strategic calculus because of the uncertainties generated by the current US Administration on America’s continued military commitment in Afghanistan
• US Navy – Eleven female midshipmen from the Naval Academy’s Class of 2010 have been selected for submarine service upon graduation, following the Department of the Navy’s announcement two weeks ago that female officers now have the option to serve on board subs

Sights & Sounds

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