A brief world news roundup for 28 March 2008.

United States & the Americas

• Gateway Pundit – In her latest attack on the United States, the military and President Bush, Madeleine Albright blamed the US for creating more terrorists and said that our soldiers were the problem in Iraq.
• contentions – “[C]ompeting Chamberlains and the hope of a Churchill.” That’s how Middle East expert Bernard Lewis described the choices on offer in America’s upcoming presidential elections. Not much need to spell out who’s who, is there?
• Hugh Hewitt – I met David Bellavia on the Midway two weeks ago. Now, because of the unexpected retirement of Congressman Tom Reynolds, Bellavia is almost certainly running for the House of Representatives.He was on the show tonight…
• IPS – A federal court has ruled that Mumia Abu Jamal, known the world over in the fight against the death penalty, be taken off death row for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia policeman Daniel Faulkner.
• Maclean’s – Former “Nightline” reporter Dave Marash has quit Al-Jazeera English, saying Thursday his exit was due in part to anti-American bias at a network that is little seen in the United States. Marash said he felt the attitude more from British administrators than Arabs at the Qatar-based network.
• Bloomberg – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called the U.S. his country’s oldest, closest and strongest strategic ally ahead of talks with President George W. Bush that will include two items of disagreement: Iraq and climate change. They will also discuss the slump in global credit markets and the economic slowdown.
• CSM – FARC acquired uranium, says Colombia. Sixty six pounds of uranium was for a ‘dirty bomb,’ Colombian officials say. Venezuela and Ecuador wonder: What else will seized rebel laptops reveal?
• Xinhua – Argentina’s oil production hit a six-year low in 2007, the country’s National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC) reported Thursday.
• Reuters – Argentine President Cristina Fernandez urged farmers on Thursday to call off a strike and start talks to end two weeks of protests that have paralyzed exports and left meat counters bare.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• RIA Novosti – Russia’s interior troops killed some 50 militants in the country’s troubled North Caucasus region last year, a Russian Interior Ministry general said on Thursday.
• RIA Novosti – A group of militants has been surrounded in an apartment block in a small town in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Daghestan, local police reported on Thursday.
• NY Times – A prominent artist who had run-ins with both church and state in her native Russia after taking part in a controversial exhibition has disappeared without a trace from her new home in Berlin.
• MSNBC – Russia’s defense minister on Wednesday laid out an ambitious plan for building new intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear submarines and possibly aircraft carriers, and set the goal of exceeding the Soviet army in combat readiness.
• ISCIP – Caucasus: Armenian and Georgian updates; Armenia-State of emergency lifted but tensions remain. Georgia-NATO aspirations and the Kosovo effect.
• Russia Today – One person has been killed and one injured in a car blast in the centre of South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali. It occurred around 9 PM local time. The car belonged to South Ossetia’s Prosecutor General’s office.
• Oxford Analytica – Gurbanguly Burdymukhammedov, a former dentist who became president of Turkmenistan in late-2006, may find himself popular at this week’s NATO summit. European and US officials may ask Burdymukhammedov to commit to a new pipeline route for gas. Moscow will be suspicious of the bonhomie –- the proposed route cuts Russia out of the equation.
• US State Dept – We condemn today’s crackdown on independent media in Belarus, during which some 30 independent journalists in 12 cities were detained without legitimate cause. This follows the violent breakup of peaceful demonstrations in Minsk on March 25, which was accompanied by scores of arrests. The regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka has again shown itself as a brutal, authoritarian dictatorship that blatantly ignores human rights and fundamental freedoms.
• Global Voices – Tajikistan: Politicized Navruz. Navruz is one of the main celebrations for Tajiks. This time — more than ever — it means end of one of the harshest winter in several decades. People could hardly wait for these warm days that have come with the beginning of spring. Navruz has been celebrated throughout the country during the last six days.

Middle East

• VOA – Shi’ite radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has called for a political solution to the crisis that has led to fierce fighting between his followers and Iraqi forces in Baghdad and southern Iraq.
• CSM – Residents and Mahdi Army militants alike appeared to be bracing for a coming battle, guarding against US and Iraqi forces advancing to stop the rockets allegedly fired from Sadr City that hit the Green Zone again Wednesday for the third day since Sunday. Although it’s in Basra, the oil-rich southern city, where the Mahdi Army and Iraqi forces were locked in a bitter fight for a second day, killing at least 55, many in Baghdad fear that clash will trigger a new battle in Mr. Sadr’s Baghdad stronghold.
• Reuters – Iraq’s U.S.-backed Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed on Thursday that security forces would battle Shi’ite militia in Basra “to the end”, despite huge demonstrations to demand his resignation.
• France24 – Iraqi authorities imposed a curfew on vehicles and people in Baghdad until Sunday morning.
• Dawn – The Iraqi government was holding talks with aides of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr Thursday to end the crisis in Basra where Iraqi troops are battling militiamen, a Sadr aide said.
• Dawn – At least 44 people were killed in clashes Thursday between Iraqi and US forces, and militiamen in the central Iraqi city of Kut, police chief Abdul Hanin al-Amara told AFP. “The security forces launched an operation at around midnight to take back areas under the control of gunmen,” Amara said. “At least 40 gunmen and four policemen were killed. Around 75 people were wounded.”
• AKI – A US air strike backing the offensive against the militias of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has killed more than 60 and injured many others in Hilla, south of Baghdad. An official told Voices of Iraq news agency that more than 60 gunmen were killed in the attack on Wednesday evening when US choppers fired rockets at buildings believed to be used by gunmen.
• CFR – Badr vs. Sadr in Iraq; The explosion of intra-sectarian violence (NYT) in Baghdad, Basra, and other Iraqi Shiite strongholds this week has ominous implications for the U.S. and Iraqi governments.
• Michael Ledeen – Khamenei is Shooting Craps: The Shi’ites are killing one another all over Iraq, most notably in Basra. Jules Crittendon, as always, has a fine roundup of the (mis)coverage from the MSM, delivers all the right insults (I particularly enjoyed watching the back of his hand slap the unctious Tony Cordesman) and asks all the right questions. What kicked this off? Who’s fighting whom? Who’s gonna win? Is it good for us or bad for us?
• CSIS – Critical Questions: The Latest Violence in Iraq (pdf) by Samuel Brannen
• Dipnote – On the Ground in Iraq: What Works.
• Globe and Mail – With Iranian backing, Hezbollah guerrillas have dramatically increased their rocket range and can now threaten most of Israel, senior Israeli defence officials say.
• Haaretz – Hamas militants who recently returned to the Gaza Strip after training in Iran have a detailed plan for upgrading the capabilities of the rockets being developed in the Strip, according to senior Palestinian Authority sources.
• Washington Post – A new round of talks between Egypt and the Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad ended on Thursday without agreement on striking a truce with Israel.

Iran

• IRNA – Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and its partner Hindujas Group may sign a multi-billion dollar deal next month for developing oil and gas fields in Iran. The ONGC-Hindujas combine would meet Iranian authorities around mid-April to finalize “participating agreement” for the development of Phase-12 of the giant South Pars gas field and South Azadegan oilfield.
• Press TV – Iran has strongly protested the recent arbitrary act of the US forces on fingerprinting Iranian pilgrims and imposing restrictions on them. The Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini on Thursday stressed that restrictions imposed on Iranian pilgrims at Iran’s border crossings with Iraq should stop immediately.
• NCRI – The Bush administration issued a fresh warning Thursday to U.S. banks that Iran is using “an array of deceptive practices” to hide its alleged involvement in nuclear proliferation and terrorist activities. The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network alleged that Iran is resorting to such alleged practices to evade detection and skirt financial sanctions.

Southeast Asia

• Daily Star – At least five people were killed Thursday when gunmen ambushed an ambulance in a northwestern Pakistani district hit by sectarian violence, security officials said. The ambulance was on its way to Peshawar from the town of Tall in Parachinar district when it came under fire.
• HSN – Some 40 people are reported to have been killed in sectarian violence in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) that began on Wednesday. The violence follows rising tensions between the Sunni Muslim Orakzai tribe and the minority Shia Katchai tribe. Heavy weapons were used in the clashes in the Lautang area of Kohat district, a local official told the BBC.
• World Bank – “Pakistan’s new government must take urgent action to prevent the country’s strong economic expansion from tipping into crisis, the World Bank warned on Thursday. Praful Patel, a Vice President at the Bank, said the South Asian country needed to make painful adjustments to higher global prices for oil, commodities and foodstuffs or risk a slowdown.
• AFP – A Danish soldier was killed and another wounded and three German troops were also hurt in attacks in Afghanistan blamed on insurgents linked to the Taliban movement, military officials said.
• HSN – China said Wednesday that 660 people implicated in Tibetan protests and riots in western China over the past two weeks had surrendered to the authorities. The announcement was part of the government’s effort to quell continuing unrest in the area, which includes Tibet and adjoining provinces with large Tibetan populations.
• ISN – India reveals plans for an ambitious anti-missile defense shield, sparking concerns of an arms race and speculation as to the country’s true capabilities.
• Reuters – Sri Lanka has launched a mystery poster campaign inviting would-be Tamil Tiger suicide bombers to phone a government helpline in exchange for 10 million rupees ($92,000) and a new life overseas.

Far East & Pacific

• Xinhua – A Japanese state run company and the Australian mining company Southern Gold will enter into a multimillion-dollar joint venture in Cambodia, the Mekong Times newspaper said Friday.
• BBC – A charitable foundation set up by Indonesia’s late ruler Suharto has been ordered to pay $110m (£55m) following a corruption investigation. Prosecutors said money was diverted to Suharto’s family from a scholarship fund for underprivileged children.
• NY Times – South Korea said Thursday that it was “deeply regrettable” that North Korea had ordered South Korean officials to leave its territory, but that the South was undaunted. The predawn expulsion on Thursday followed an announcement on Wednesday by the new South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, that his government would not expand economic cooperation with North Korea unless it cooperated in dismantling its nuclear weapons programs.
• The Strategist – The Interpreter explains in a short and sophisticated post why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is brutally suppressing dissent in Tibet, and thereby risking giving its opponents a PR victory before the Beijing Olympics. Part of the explanation may be that Kosovo is weighing heavily on the mind of President Hu Jintao.

Europe

• Intellibriefs – The next US president may be able to improve America’s tarnished image in Europe, but many allies have already headed for the hills and the task is indeed a formidable one, Peter Buxbaum writes for ISN Security Watch.
• BBC – Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders has posted a controversial film critical of Islam’s holy book, the Koran, on the internet. Gates of Vienna has a link to a video clip.
• Oxford Analytica – Macedonia’s hope for NATO admission could be dashed by Greece this week because of a dispute over Macedonia’s name, which it shares with a northern Greek province. The roots of the dispute with Athens lie in the breakup of Yugoslavia 17 years ago.
• BalkanInsight – Albanian leaders are accused of profiting from a murky arms deal with a company whose contract with the U.S. Army was suspended this week. The allegations implicate politicians as high as Prime Minister Sali Berisha and former Defence Minster Fatmir Mediu, with corruption. The allegations were the subject of a heated debate in Parliament on Thursday.
• IPS – Moldova and its separatist region Transdniester, engaged for 16 years in a conflict over the latter’s independence, each had reasons to believe the spring of 2008 would bring a settlement favourable to their side. But Moscow, crucial to any resolution, has already signalled it is not in a hurry to reach a resolution.

Africa

• Washington Post – Somalia’s national army, which began last year with about 20,000 troops, has dwindled to about 2,000, many of whom spend much of their time looting the homes and businesses of ordinary Somalis. (h/t: abu muqawama)
• Reuters – Somalia’s Islamist insurgents vowed on Thursday to launch more hit-and-run attacks against the government, saying their tactics were designed to reduce civilian casualties.
• IRIN – Relief agencies in Sudan have expressed concerns over an alarming increase in the number of attacks by bandits against people carrying out humanitarian work in the strife-torn region of Darfur, and warned that violence is threatening to disrupt aid delivery to thousands of needy people.
• Guardian – Zimbabwe’s opposition says it will bring the government to its knees with Kenya-style mass protests if President Robert Mugabe carries out extensive plans to rig tomorrow’s presidential and parliamentary elections. But Mugabe has vowed to use the army to crush any demonstrations and warned Zimbabweans not to waste their votes on opposition candidates who would never be allowed to take power.
• Al Jazeera – The Comoros government is calling on France to hand over a deposed rebel leader for trial, but the former colonial power says it is considering granting him asylum. A Comoros government spokesman said that Colonel Mohamed Bacar had fled by speedboat to nearby Mayotte island, which is under French rule.
• Magharebia – Mauritania is facing a financial crisis due to the significant drop in tourism and withdrawal of investors following several terrorist attacks, Mauritanian Tourism Minister Ba Madine said on Tuesday.
• Strategy Page – The Ugandan government reported that on February 12 security personnel arrested a Somali, Ali Abdi Hassan, suspected of belonging to Al Qaeda, at the capitals  Entebbe Airport.

The Global War

• Daily Star – By signing a deal this week with Russia, Egypt is pushing forward with its desire to stay at the head of a nuclear family Arab nations are creating to counterbalance Iran and Israel. A handshake between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday sealed the nuclear cooperation deal that looks set to cause some concern in the West.
• Press TV – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the onus is on Washington to abandon its missile shield initiative in Eastern Europe.
• Moscow Times – NATO forces sent jets to escort two Russian long-range Air Force bombers patrolling neutral skies near Alaska, news agencies quoted the Defense Ministry as saying.
• RIA Novosti – Paris is in shock: nuclear giants Atomenergoprom and Toshiba have decided to form an alliance in civilian nuclear power operations, including power plant construction and fuel production. The two companies signed a framework agreement last week, under which the Russian company will enrich uranium produced in Kazakhstan, while Toshiba will produce nuclear fuel and undertake the designing and engineering of nuclear power plants.
• MEMRI – Algeria and China signed two nuclear energy agreements, the first is on the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and the second details cooperation and partnership between Algeria’s Ministry of Energy and Mines and China’s Atomic Energy Agency.
• IRIN – The Ug99 strain of the killer wheat fungus (stem rust), which recently infected wheat farms in western Iran, is a serious threat to global food security, agricultural scientists have warned. They have said the fungus may affect additional wheat-producing countries.
• NY Sun – Osama bin Laden is a workaholic who will always be one step ahead of Western intelligence, his former bodyguard has told the Daily Telegraph.
• Spiegel – Cüneyt Ciftci, a young man from Bavaria, blew himself up outside a government building in Afghanistan, killing two US soldiers and two Afghanis. SPIEGEL ONLINE has obtained a video documenting the final minutes in the life of the first German-born suicide bomber.
• Tony Badran – Read the following excellent pieces by Michael Young on the issue of Islamists, including Hezbollah. The first, a post at Reason’s Hit & Run blog, trashes an idiotic piece by the Islamist-hugger Alastair Crooke. The second, Michael’s weekly Daily Star column, focuses a little more on Hezbollah, and is really well worth the read.

Sights & Sounds

BBC on the fighting in southern Iraq.

On Monday, the AEI hosted an event entitled Iraq: The Way Ahead: THE IRAQ PLANNING GROUP’S PHASE IV REPORT. AEI’s Frederick W. Kagan and the Brookings Institution’s Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack discussed some questions, and the future of U.S. policy toward Iraq. Here is audio of the event.

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