A brief world news roundup for 26 March 2008.

United States & the Americas

• Khaleej Times – A Chinese-born US engineer convicted of conspiring to smuggle sensitive technology about US Navy submarines to China was on Monday jailed for 24 years, justice officials said.
• Shot in the Dark – A blogger criticizes McCain’s teeth, apparently unaware “Senator McCain had a bunch of his teeth broken off at the gumline while he was being held as a POW.”
• Hot Air – Vets for Freedom: Report from the Minnesota front. (See also True North.)
• Carnegie Endowment – Trade Secrets: The Real Problem with NAFTA.
• Global Voices – Ecuador: The Aftermath of the Border Crisis.
• CNN – Police say at least nine people have been killed and seven wounded in a shootout in eastern Guatemala that is likely tied to drug traffickers. Interior Ministry spokesman Ricardo Gatica Trejo says the nine people killed were apparently ambushed Tuesday in the town of Teculutan.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• BBC – Opposition supporters in Georgia are blockading the main street of the capital, Tbilisi, outside parliament. Around 50 protesters and MPs have been on hunger strike in a tent camp outside parliament for more than two weeks.
• Financial Times – Medvedev: “But I would like to point out separately that we are not happy about the [NATO] situation around Georgia and Ukraine. We consider that it is extremely troublesome for the existing structure of European security. I would like to say that no state can be pleased about having representatives of a military bloc to which it does not belong coming close to its borders.”
• Russia Today – Russia-UK relations have been dented by a number of disagreements in the last few years. British Financial Times became the first foreign newspaper to interview Dmitry Medvedev. Many see it as a good sign, saying Russia’s newly elected president wants to show that he is ready to communicate with the UK.
• IPS – A renewed Russian-Ukrainian gas conflict has been provisionally averted, but as Ukrainian politicians struggle for control of the gas sector, the next months are likely to bring more price wars.
• Tiraspol Times – With the latest statement passed by Russia’s Duma, Transnistria (Pridnestrovie) and two other unrecognized countries are now one step closer to international recognition. Russia already recognized the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria.
• Kavkaz Center – Near Kurchaloi village in the same district of Wilayah Nokhchicho, 16 Rabi‘al-Awwal 1429 (24.03.2008) in the afternoon, Mujahideen detonated an explosive device on a group of armed apostates, then attacked them with assault rifles and machine guns, killing at least three murtadin and wounding an unknown number of others.
• EurasiaNet – Turkmen leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, during a two-day visit to Turkey, didn’t give the West what it wanted, namely a firm commitment to participate in the planned trans-Caspian pipeline.
• ICG Report – Azerbaijan: Independent Islam and the State. The Azerbaijani government’s policy of controlling all religious life and harsh treatment of some independent Islamic communities risks radicalising peaceful groups.

Middle East

• AFP – Moqtada al-Sadr’s militiamen battled troops in four Iraqi cities on Tuesday, including the capital, as the hardline Shiite cleric threatened a countrywide campaign of civil revolt.
• BBC – Heavy fighting has been raging in Basra as thousands of Iraqi troops battle Shia militias in the southern city. At least 30 people have died in the operation, which is being overseen in Basra by Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki, a day after he vowed to “re-impose law”.
• MNF Iraq – Coalition forces detained 28 suspected terrorists during several operations Monday and Tuesday in critical al-Qaeda in Iraq regions.
• Hindustan Times – Russia and Egypt on Tuesday signed an agreement to cooperate in the peaceful use of nuclear energy which would enable Moscow to bid for construction of the Middle-East country’s first atomic power station.
• NY Sun – Syria’s Kurdish population may be facing a new crackdown, with news of the latest killing of Kurds in the northeastern border town of Qamishli. On March 20, three Kurds celebrating the new year holiday of Nowruz were killed by the Syrian intelligence service. Three men were killed in Qamishli.
• Daily Star – A specialist Israeli soldier has been arrested on suspicion of spying for Lebanon’s Hizbullah, a military source said on Monday. The man, whose identity was not revealed, is suspected of passing details of Israeli military bases to Hizbullah in exchange for drugs.
• Jerusalem Post – Syria’s reticence in blaming Israel for killing arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, despite Hizbullah’s claims of having “100 percent proof” that Israel was involved, indicates that the issue is causing some friction between Syria and the Lebanese guerrilla group, according to assessments in Jerusalem.
• From Beirut to the Beltway – The Saudis weren’t kidding. As soon as Berri postponed the session to elect a president, and after the failure of the Egyptian efforts, Saudi Arabia announced that its representation at the Damascus summit will consist of its ambassador to the Arab League.

Iran

• Spiegel – The new Iranian parliament is again dominated by loyalists to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He stands a good chance of being reelected next year — despite the fact that his constituents suffer the brunt of his mismanagement and corruption.
• Iran Focus – Iran’s ultra-secretive Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) has once again found itself under the limelight after it was accused of involvement in the murder of an Iranian intellectual in Spain.
• US Senate – Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, praised the U.S. Commerce Department’s decision to suspend export privileges to a British-based company that had knowingly diverted U.S. aircraft components to Iran.

Southeast Asia

• Reuters – Sri Lanka’s navy battled a Tamil Tiger insurgent fleet early on Tuesday as troops killed 13 separatist fighters and air force planes bombed a rebel supply dump, the military said. Just days after the Tigers sank a navy patrol boat with 10 crew still missing and feared dead, the navy said fast attack ships fought a fierce battle with a small fleet of rebel boats trying to slip past off the northeast coast.
• WN – Nearly half the $15 billion in foreign aid given by Britain, the U.S. and other countries to rebuild Afghanistan since 2001 has been spent on consultants and contractors, according to a report by aid agencies released yesterday. The report by the Agency Co-ordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR), which represents 94 aid agencies, reveals staggering levels of inefficiency and waste within both the international aid effort and the Afghan government.
• Canadian Press – The French defence minister said Tuesday military might alone is not enough to bring stability to Afghanistan even as France was considering how to boost its forces there in response to demands from NATO allies. Morin said France has not decided how it will boost its contribution to the Afghan mission beyond the 1,500 troops it has there already.
• Dawn – Taliban insurgents ambushed a police patrol in western Afghanistan’s Heart province late Monday, killing four policemen and two men working on a farm nearby, the police commander for western Afghanistan.
• Daily Times – Unidentified gunmen killed three people including a woman in Matta tehsil in Swat district on Tuesday, officials said. They also said security forces arrested four suspected militants including a militant commander closely linked to rebel cleric Fazlullah.
• Times of India – US automaker Ford has agreed to sell its luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover to India’s Tata Motors for more than $2 billion, according to a source familiar with the matter.
• Times of India – A Delhi Police head constable died due to a self-inflicted bullet wound outside the US Embassy in Chanakyapuri on Wednesday morning.
• People’s Daily – Pakistan said on Tuesday that the South Asian regional meeting on counter-terrorism has been rescheduled due to hectic phase of government formation. The regional meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries on counter-terrorism cooperation will be held from April 15 to 17 in Islamabad, said Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema.

Far East & Pacific

• Financial Times – The US mistakenly sent nuclear missile components to Taiwan in 2006, the Pentagon revealed on Tuesday, marking the second big failure of nuclear safeguards in recent years. The Pentagon accidentally shipped four fuses for the Minuteman missile instead of helicopter batteries that Taiwan had ordered. Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, has ordered an investigation even though no fissile material was sent to Taiwan.
• Radio Australia – Talks are under way in New Zealand between foreign ministers from across the Pacific. The meeting in Auckland is expected to focus on what progress Fiji has made towards holding elections next year.
• CSIS – Critical Questions: Q1: Taiwan held a presidential election on March 22. What are U.S. interests in that election?

Europe

• AFP – French President Nicolas Sarkozy left open Tuesday the possibility of boycotting the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony over China’s crackdown in Tibet, though other major world leaders vowed to attend.
• BalkanInsight – The Bulgarian and United States’ armies are to hold a joint military exercise between April, 6-9 Sofia’s Defence Ministry announced Tuesday. According to the Ministry, the exercises will be called Thracian Spring 2008, with the purpose of increasing the operative compatibility between Bulgaria’s ground and air forces on the one hand, and the US Air Force on the other.
• BBC – A Muslim scholar involved in high-level dialogue with the Vatican has denounced the Pope’s baptism on Saturday of a prominent Italian Muslim convert.
• NY Times – Samples of buffalo mozzarella tainted with elevated levels of dioxin may force officials to address the large-scale illegal trash-dumping in Naples.
• contentions – The energy deal that Swiss energy utility company EGL signed with Iran last week has triggered criticism both inside and outside the Alpine nation.
• Heritage Foundation – The Bucharest NATO Summit: Washington and London Must Not Give in to French Demands

Africa

• The Nation – Somalia has finally created a force to provide security at its famous Bakara market in the capital Mogadishu. Although there has been no official word from either the government or the business community, the men in green trousers and yellow shirts were spotted patrolling the roads criss-crossing the country’s largest shopping centre a the weekend.
• CNN – Nearly 40 relief agencies serving Somalia said Tuesday they can’t help millions of Somalis, blaming the existence of too many checkpoints, danger that aid workers face and “a lack of respect for international humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict.”
• IRIN – Comoros took control of its rebel island of Anjouan on Tuesday in a military operation aimed at toppling renegade leader, Mohamed Bacar, a government official said. “The operation started in the early morning hours and it is going smoothly and according to plan,” Abdourahim Said Bakar, a spokesman for the Union government said.
• IRIN – Two towns in western Cote d’Ivoire have been shut off by two days of riots by disgruntled Ivorian soldiers. Troops started rampaging through the town of Duékoué, 400 km north west of the commercial capital Abidjan, on the morning of 24 March, protesting the murder of a low-ranking soldier by robbers the night before.
• United Nations – The World Food Programme (WFP) has voiced its shock and sadness at learning of the murder of three drivers of trucks contracted by the United Nations agency in Sudan in two separate incidents over the past three days.
• VOA – United Nations relief officials say nearly a million people across Southern Africa have suffered damaging effects from recent floods, cyclones and heavy rains. The officials say severe weather that began last October has disrupted the lives of about 987,000 people.

The Global War

• Independent – An Iraqi engineer who provided the information that became one of the key planks in the Bush administration’s case justifying the invasion of Iraq has been tracked down by undercover reporters to a drab residential block in southern Germany. Rafid Ahmed Alwan, code-named Curveball (a baseball term for deception), has been in hiding since the invasion five years ago, and lives under an assumed name.
• Spiegel – SPIEGEL talks to Ernst Uhrlau, the president of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the BND, about the risk of attack by Islamist terrorists in Germany, how German Muslims are training in camps in Afghanistan and the risk from al-Qaida in North Africa.
• UPI – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday the growing risk faced by U.N. personnel from terrorism is threatening missions around the world. Ban, speaking at the 23rd International Day of Solidarity with Detained and Missing Staff Members, said U.N. staff face violence, hostility and crime and now have to contend with the heightened risks posed by global terrorism. Current U.N. figures say that 40 staff members are under arrest have been detained or are missing.
• Bloomberg – The U.S. sought to further isolate Iran in the Persian Gulf region over its nuclear weapons program by signing an agreement pledging civilian atomic energy cooperation with Bahrain.
• Thomas Joscelyn – John Hinderaker at Power Line writes, “…our principal news media outlets have fabricated an alternative reality around the Iraq war by simply misreporting the facts.” You would never know from Isikoff’s piece that the report contains documents linking Saddam’s regime to six terrorist groups that are all part of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist empire, including two groups that form the core of al Qaeda. Nor, would you know that Saddam’s regime cooperated with these groups at various times. Instead, all you’ll find is spin.

Sights & Sounds

About the fighting in Basra…

On Monday, the AEI held an event entitled Iraq: The Way Ahead, at which The Iraq Planning Group released its Phase IV report. AEI’s Frederick W. Kagan and the Brookings Institution’s Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack discuss several questions and the future of U.S. policy toward Iraq. Here is audio of the discussion.

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