A brief world news roundup for 24 March 2008.

United States & the Americas

• Baltimore Sun – Sometimes, the pursuit of political partisanship carries a sheer entertainment value. Such is the case with this political committee that is none too happy about Sen. John McCain supporting a military contract that takes a lucrative flying fuel-tanker contract away from Boeing and hands it to a French consortium that includes the Airbus aircraft.
• The Strategist – Senator Hillary Clinton has come under fire for telling porkies about her foreign policy experience. According to the Washington Post, Clinton has exaggerated the extent and significance of her role in Ulster and the Balkans.
• Michelle Malkin – Catherine Moy and Melanie Morgan continue to keep vigil at the Berkeley Marine recruitment center. They sent me these pictures taken earlier today of the pro-troops counterprotesters…
• contentions – The premise of this New York Times article is that there is a contradiction at the heart of John McCain’s trip to the Middle East and Europe. There is a major problem with the argument, however.
• Washington Post – President Rafael Correa on Saturday threatened to seek international condemnation against Colombia if DNA tests confirm that Colombia’s military killed an Ecuadorean citizen during its raid on a rebel camp in Ecuador’s jungle.
• France24 – Colombia’s March 1 attack on a rebel camp inside Ecuador was supported by US intelligence but did not use US bombs, a top Colombian official told AFP on Sunday, confirming widespread speculation.
• Outside the Beltway – Coca’s Continual Comeback: This Time, Peru; The new twist (although not as new as the story makes it out to be) is that instead of large drug organization like the Medellin or Cali cartels being the main managerial components of the trade, there are now a large number of small, basically independent operators who much be combated.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• Reuters – A state of emergency introduced in Armenia following post-election clashes that left eight people dead was lifted on Friday. Troops left the streets of the capital Yerevan that they had occupied since the March 1 clampdown, but they were replaced by a heavy police presence that blocked around 1,500 protesters assembling in the city centre.
• Caucasian Knot – An hour before his own murder, Chairman of the State Television and Radio Company (STRC) “Dagestan” Gaji Abashilov spoke about the journalist of Channel One Ilyas Shurpaev who was killed in Moscow. The investigatory bodies believe that Abashilov’s murder can be related to his professional work.
• Moscow Times – The head of Dagestani state television and a Dagestan-born reporter for Channel One television died in brutal killings Friday that seemed to raise more questions about law and order than free speech.

Middle East

• Haaretz – Israel has lifted its opposition to a deal with Hezbollah involving the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for signs of life from captured soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, a source in the defense establishment said.
• Haaretz – President Shimon Peres on Sunday dismissed recent Syrian calls for peace talks, telling U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney that Israel would not consider ceding the Golan Heights to Syria only to have Damascus and Tehran increase their dominance in Lebanon.
• Haaretz – Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general Naim Qassem has again accused Israel of responsibility for the assassination of the organization’s senior military figure Imad Mughniyah.
• VOA – At peace talks in Yemen, the two warring Palestinian factions have agreed to hold direct talks for the first time since the collapse of their unity government in June following the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip. Officials in Yemen had hoped to broker a truce between Fatah and Hamas, but settled for a joint declaration signed in Yemen’s capital city, Sanaa.
• ynet – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will launch a formal visit to Moscow on Monday, during the course of which he will sign a cooperation agreement regarding the development of nuclear power for civilian needs. Nuclear reactor to be constructed by Russia scheduled to be operational by 2017.
• AFP – A wave of attacks across Iraq on Sunday killed 54 people, while insurgents bombarded Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone with mortar fire, sending US embassy staff scurrying into bunkers.
• AFPS – Coalition forces in Iraq killed 12 terrorists during an operation east of Baqouba targeting members of a suicide bombing network, military officials said.
• CSM – A barrage of rockets hit the Green Zone – landing near the US Embassy – in Baghdad on Sunday morning. The rockets appear to have been fired from the Shiite militia stronghold neighborhood of Sadr City in what observers see as further evidence that a cease-fire by the group loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr may be unraveling. Near miss of US Embassy Sunday fits pattern of conflict with Shiite militias.
• CTB – As the war in Iraq continues, more Iraqi women will be ready to make the ultimate sacrifice: to use their bodies as human shields. The U.S. Government and other experts are asking: Why now? Why has there been a spike in attacks in Iraq committed by women? More importantly, how will the new role of women as suicide bombers change the nature of this conflict?
• Instapundit – RECRUITING PROBLEMS: For Al Qaeda: “The sharp drop in suicide bombings in Iraq is partly due to the decline in foreign al Qaeda volunteers coming into Iraq.”
• Khaleej Times – US military spokesman Rear Admiral Greg Smith said that in the past year, 39 Al Qaeda members in Iraq responsible for producing and disseminating videos and other material to thousands of Internet Web sites had been captured or killed.
• Al Jazeera – Hundreds of Kurdish protesters have thrown stones at police and soldiers in southeastern Turkey, in the fourth day of clashes that have killed at least two people and injured dozens of others.
• TIME – One of the armor-piercing roadside bombs in Iraq has a nickname among the militants who place the device. They call it the Najadia, a short variation on the long name of Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “My group and I believe honestly in fighting the Americans — and getting financial benefit out of it,” says Hussein Ali, an Iraqi Shi’ite guerrilla who recounted a journey to Iran for training in explosives in an interview with TIME.

Iran

• Daily Star – In a recently published report, entitled “Iranian Influence in the Levant, Iraq, and Afghanistan,” the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a pro-Israeli think tank, seeks to link the growing strategic importance of Iran in the region with the concurrent rise in prominence of groups such as Hamas and Hizbullah. Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, an expert on Hizbullah, has argued that the party seeks to balance increasingly contradictory identities.
• VOA – Iraqi officials say the Iranian military has fired artillery at several villages in northern Iraq where Iran believes Kurdish rebels are based.
• Press TV – US Vice President Dick Cheney has promised that the White House would do its utmost to counter Iran’s ‘nuclear threat against Israel’. “Iran’s only intentions of developing ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads are to destroy Israel and threaten the entire world,” claimed Israeli president Shimon Peres in a meeting with Cheney on Sunday.
• Sunday Times – A senior officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has emerged as the father of a nuclear programme that western intelligence services believe is aimed at producing a warhead capable of devastating any city in the Middle East. Ostensibly a lecturer in physics at Tehran’s Imam Hussein University, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi is seen as the Iranian equivalent of A Q Khan, the scientist who led Pakistan’s nuclear weapons race with India. (In this Threats Watch analysis, Steve Schippert said of Imam Hussein University, “To simply call the IRGC’s West Point a “technical university” is not simply an oversight, it is misleading and misrepresents of the significance of the IRGC’s military authority and control over the Iranian nuclear program, once under the AOEI, Iran’s civilian nuclear agency.”)
• Reuters – Since Ahmadinejad swept to power in 2005 promising to spread Iran’s oil wealth to the people, soaring world oil prices have swelled national revenues, but economists say colossal subsidies and presidential handouts have predictably fuelled inflation. Ahmadinejad is basking in support from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for his tough nuclear stance, but his economic record may dent his chances of re-election next year.

Southeast Asia

• AFP – At least 80 Tamil rebels and five government soldiers were killed in fresh fighting as Sri Lankan security forces tried to break into rebel-held territory, the defence ministry said Sunday.
• NY Times – Sri Lankan Air Force jets bombed Tamil Tiger strongholds on Saturday after a navy patrol boat was sunk by a mine rebels were suspected of planting off the northeast coast, with 10 of the 16 crew members missing and feared dead.
• Asharq Alawsat – Afghan and NATO forces killed more than 40 insurgents in a joint air and ground battle in southern Afghanistan, a security official said Sunday. Separately, two soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition died after hitting a roadside bomb.
• People’s Daily – French President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to inform British Prime Minister Gordon Brown next week of France’s plan to send some 1,000 more troops to Afghanistan, reported the Times on Saturday.
• AP – Twenty-five trucks carrying fuel to U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan have been destroyed in a possible bomb attack on the Pakistani border.
• State Failure – The Weekly Great Game #2 (March 17-23).
• CBC – Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear series.
• Khaleej Times – Eighteen civilians and a policeman were killed in anti-Chinese rioting that rocked the Tibetan capital of Lhasa last week, the regional government said.
• CSM – Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) loyalist Yousuf Raza Gillani, jailed for several years during Mr. Musharraf’s rule, is expected to easily win the approval of parliament in a vote Monday. With the public still firmly against Musharraf and his allies now out of power, each success of the new government leaves him more isolated.
• BBC – Four soldiers have been killed in a gun battle with rebels in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, police say.
• BBC – Bhutan is going to the polls for its first parliamentary elections, ending over a century of royal rule.
• United Nations – Nepal’s political parties should stop intimidating voters during the campaign for next month’s elections for a Constituent Assembly, the United Nations said in a new report which warns that an upsurge of killings and acts of violence in the Terai region and daily clashes between party supporters are threatening to undermine the historic polls.

Far East & Pacific

• AFP – An alleged militant from Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) who was being groomed to be a future leader of the terror group has been detained, officials said Sunday. Rijal Yadri bin Jumari, 27, was arrested in February and detained in March.
• news.com.au – Taiwan’s opposition candidate Ma Ying-jeou has surged to victory over his ruling party rival in a presidential vote dominated by concern over the economy and hopes for better relations with China.
• Taipei Times – Analysis, With the dollar plunging and the US Federal Reserve slashing interest rates, markets are on alert for any signs that foreign investors, particularly in Asia, are buying fewer US assets. But while some private investors may be heading for the exit, analysts say the authorities in Japan and China look set to hold their nerve as the value of their vast dollar reserves declines.
• Jakarta Post – Japan-Indonesia relations: A 50 years journey.
• IPS – Islamic Teachers Blamed For Violent Separatism; As Thailand’s new government searches for fresh options to quell an escalating insurgency in the country’s south, its stance towards the region’s pondoks (Islamic schools), will be keenly watched.

Europe

• BBC – A website that a Dutch right-wing politician was planning to use to release a film expected to be fiercely critical of Islam has been suspended. The US hosting service, Network Solutions, said it was investigating complaints that it may have breached guidelines on hate language. Gates of Vienna says “Here’s a report from our expatriate Dutch correspondent, H. Numan, on the current controversy in the Netherlands over Geert Wilders’ movie.”
• AP – Pope Benedict XVI rejoiced over conversions to Christianity in an Easter Sunday Mass on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica a day after he baptized a prominent Muslim newspaper editor. Magdi Allam says he is now in great danger.
• NPR – Friday marked the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday accord, when Republican and Unionist leaders in Northern Ireland agreed to share power. Brendan McAllister, director of Mediation Northern Ireland, talks with Andrea Seabrook about the peace agreement and the changes in Belfast since the ceasefire began.
• No Burqa - Austrian officials are making “unrelenting efforts” to win the release of two Austrian tourists kidnapped in Tunisia and being held hostage in Mali before tonight’s midnight deadline expires.

Africa

• LA Times – Ethiopia war gets little attention, hundreds have died as ethnic Somali rebels fight for autonomy for the Ogaden region. Government troops are accused of indiscriminate killings.
• BBC – Tuareg rebels in Mali have reportedly staged one of the biggest attacks against government forces since they resumed their insurgency last August. The rebels ambushed a military convoy, capturing at least 20 soldiers and seizing as many as eight vehicles, reports from Mali say.
• Vanguard – Seven days of testimonies at the public hearing of the House of Representatives Committee on Power and Steel organized to unearth the mystery behind the huge expenditure of $16billion on the sector with no commensurate results has confounded Nigerians with the amount of colossal waste the power sector turned out to be in the eight years of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
• CNN – The discovery of millions of extra ballots proves that President Robert Mugabe intends to rig next week’s elections in his favor, Zimbabwe’s main opposition party said Sunday.
• United Nations – The United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) has signed a status of mission agreement with Chadian authorities that will establish the legal principles under which the operation will run in the strife-torn African country.

The Global War

• AFP – The United States is bracing for tough competition from Russia and China as cash-flush Asian economies look up to the trio for a new breed of fighter jets to beef up their air forces, experts say.
• Strata-Sphere – As US Deaths In Iraq Approach 4,000 Over 5 Years, Some Perspective.
• SWJ Blog – I think the SWJ community will benefit from the attached essay by Dr. David Ucko, who recently completed his doctoral work at King’s College London. This well-crafted essay has just been published by Orbis, the policy journal of the Foreign Policy Research Institute. It’s an objective assessment of where the United States stands in our adaptation to counterinsurgency and irregular warfare, from an outsider’s perspective.
• Tigerhawk – In an essay with plenty of Bush-bashing, Paul Berman is at least direct on the unwillingness of Western liberals to stand up in support of Muslim reformers.
• Worldpress – India successfully tested a short-range version of its most powerful nuclear-capable missile Sunday, the defense ministry said.
• CNN – A new statement attributed to al Qaeda’s No. 2 figure, Ayman al-Zawahiri, calls on Muslims to attack Western interests in defense of the Palestinians in Gaza.
• Spiegel – Interview with Iraq WMD Sleuth David Kay; German Intelligence Was ‘Dishonest, Unprofessional and Irresponsible’.
• Gateway Pundit – The terror baton is passed… Don’t expect this to make many headlines. Pakistan now tops Iraq and Afghanistan in suicide bombings.
• Information Dissemination – The Navy is leveraging an opportunity during the African Partnership Initiative deployment to establish its first Sea Base off Liberia.

Sights & Sounds

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy hosted an event entitled The Hamas Dilemma: A Debate on Alternate Strategies, to discuss differing views on engagement. Here is audio of the event.

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