A brief world news roundup for 13 January 2009.

United States & the Americas

• State Dept – Today, January 12, 2009, the Department of State announced that sanctions will be imposed on 13 individuals and three private companies for their involvement in the A.Q. Khan nuclear proliferation network. This announcement comes after a multi-year U.S. government review of the available information pertaining to the activities of this network. We believe these sanctions will help prevent future proliferation-related activities by these private entities, provide a warning to other would-be proliferators, and demonstrate our ongoing commitment to using all available tools to address proliferation-related activities.
• White House – Press Conference by the President
• SouthCom – Four helicopters and 34 service members from Joint Task Force-Bravo, Honduras, are deployed here at the request of the Costa Rican government to provide life-saving support to victims of a recent 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck near San Jose.
• LAHT – Six men were arrested in northern Paraguay for their alleged links to a Dec. 31 attack on a remote military post, police announced Monday. The self-styled Paraguayan People’s Army, or EPP, was blamed for burning the post after overcoming the sentry on duty and stealing two machineguns and two ammunition cartridges.
• LAHT – More than 100,000 people have died by violent means in Metropolitan Caracas during the last decade – or, in other words, the years since President Hugo Chávez was first elected to power. The figures come from the daily newspaper Ultimas Noticias, which said that it had obtained them from sources at the scientific and investigative police.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• Reuters – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered the resumption of gas supplies via Ukraine to Europe on Tuesday, six days after a Russian- Ukrainian price row cut deliveries in freezing temperatures. Russia agreed to resume supplies after signing a deal with Kiev on monitoring gas flows.
• Pavel Baev – A War Like No Other: Putin Mishandles Another Gas Conflict
• Russia Today – For the first time, a part of Russia’s northern fleet is conducting training exercises with their Turkish colleagues in the Mediterranean Sea.
• EurasiaNet – Tajikistan’s foreign debt hit $1.3 billion, or 28.8 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, at the beginning of 2009, Tajik Finance Minister Safarali Najmiddinov has confirmed.
• SRI – KazTransOil, the national pipeline operator, transported 47.5 million tons of oil through its oil pipelines in 2008 vs. 45.7 million tons in 2007, a 3.9-percent increase, Interfax reported. Transportation via the Atyrau-Samara pipeline, which carries Kazakh crude to Russia and connects to Russian Transneft system, increased from 15.97 million tons in 2007 to 16.77 million tons last year.
• ISN – The political tensions of the Caucasus are reflected on the ground in a range of obstacles – from roadblocks and closed markets to polarized attitudes, Thomas de Waal writes for openDemocracy

Middle East

• Voices of Iraq – Iraqi army forces on Monday arrested a gunman suspected of being a senior Islamic state in Iraq leader in southeastern Mosul, an army source said.
• USASOC – Two kidnapping victims, an 11- and 23-year-old, were reunited with their families Jan. 7 in Baghdad after Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Forces rescued them, and arrested 12 suspected criminals involved in running a kidnapping ring.
• Al Arabiya – A series of bombings targeting Iraqi security forces ripped through busy areas in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Monday, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 30 others, according to police sources.
• UN Human Rights Council – The Human Rights Council concluded its ninth Special Session today by adopting a resolution on the grave violations of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory including the recent aggression of the occupied Gaza Strip in which it strongly condemned the ongoing Israeli military operation which had resulted in massive violations of human rights of the Palestinian people and systematic destruction of the Palestinian infrastructure.
• MEMRI – An Egyptian source said that Egypt’s intelligence chief Omar Suleiman has clarified to the Hamas government that the Egyptian initiative requires an immediate answer regarding the ceasefire, and that it includes issues to be discussed at a later stage. Bassiouni clarified that Egypt intended to uncover and destroy the arms-smuggling tunnels.
• Haaretz – Meanwhile Monday, a paratroopers unit uncovered a tunnel dug by Hamas militants in Gaza, apparently meant to transfer suicide bombers into Israel. Earlier Monday, the Israel Air Force bombed a mosque in southern Gaza City. Israeli ground forces who entered the premises following the attack found a mass stockpile of weapons, including Qassam and Katyusha rockets.

Iran

• Fars – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on the Muslim nations to unite in order to stop the massacre Israel is committing in the Gaza Strip.
• IRNA – In a move to support the traumatized people of Gaza and condemn the Zionist regime’s atrocities in Gaza Stripe, Gaza was declared Tabriz sister city on Sunday.
• MEMRI – Basij foreign affairs director Mahdi Sanaei-Rad has said that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, unlike Fatah, are inspired by Iran’s Islamic Revolution, and are following the path of revolution founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
• Ya Libnan – A demonstration by Ahwazi Arabs in solidarity with Gazan Arabs was violently put down by Iranian security forces on Thursday 8 January with the Ahwaz Human Rights Organization (AHRO) reporting that 37 Arab demonstrators were still being held today.
• Mianeh – The fiscal crisis is undoubtedly the most serious one that Iran has faced in recent years, but the annual budget has consistently been a controversial subject ever since President Ahmadinejad came to power, with questions asked about changes to the drafting process as well as about the wisdom of injecting large amounts of cash into the economy.
• Mehr – Proper implementation of the general policies of Iran’s Fifth Five-Year Development Plan (2010-2015) is the only way to run the country, Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said here on Monday.
• NCRI – The state-run daily, Etemad Meli, acknowledged on Sunday the stoning of three men in Iran during the second half of December 2008.

South Asia

• Daily Times – Pakistan on Monday welcomed the Japanese parliament’s decision to continue to refuel and supply coalition warships involved in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
• Pentagon – The Department of Defense announced today the death of three soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died Jan. 9 in the Zabul Province of Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle in Jaldak.
• UK MoD – It is with great sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that Marine Travis Mackin was killed in the Kajaki area of Afghanistan’s Helmand province on the morning of 11 January.
• Dawn – Tribesmen continued to block the southwestern supply route for NATO forces in Afghanistan at Chaman to protest the killing of one of their members in a raid by Pakistan’s anti-narcotics force. Trucks and other vehicles were blocking the main Quetta-Chaman highway, forcing about 100 trucks carrying NATO supplies to park.
• Geo – PAF jet fighters on Monday struck hard on the militant?s positions in restive Mohmand Agency to retaliate the Sunday incident wherein the miscreants ambushed security posts had left men in uniform dead and injured. On the other hand as the gunship helicopters went for heavy shelling, the Pak Army troops took control of the sectarian violence hit Hangu District following failure of the jirga and peace talks between the rival groups as the death of the bloody sectarian uprisings rose to 40 on Monday.
• Geo – Militants announced a weeklong ceasefire in Swat. Sources said militants have announced a ceasefire for one week in district Swat. The members of peace committee met with chief of Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Maulana Fazlullah at undisclosed location and discussed peace proposals with him. Later, militants had announced ceasefire on a condition that security forces would not take any action against them.
• The News – Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is yet to move to undo his predecessor’s illegal and controversial allotment of military land, meant for war veterans and families of martyred soldiers, to frontmen of the then opposition leader, non-entitled Army men and dozens of civilian officials.
• Times of India – M L Tahiliyani has been appointed as a Special Judge to conduct the trial in the November 26 terror attacks in the metropolis in which over 180 persons were killed. Tahiliyani, a former CBI court judge, is currently Registrar (Inspection) at the Bombay High Court. Ujjwal Nikam, who was the state counsel in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, has already been appointed Public Prosecutor in the case.
• Sri Lanka MoD - Here is the fourth and the largest airstrip ever captured by Sri Lanka Army. There is a great possibility that it may be the only one of that kind owned by any terrorist organization in the world. Troops of Army 59 Division lead by Brigadier Nandana Udawatte captured the airstrip on Saturday (Jan 10) after crushing stiff terrorist resistance. It is located in thick Mullaittivu jungle, about 5km west of Nanthikandal lagoon.

Far East & Pacific

• Jakarta Post – Indonesian Military (TNI) Chief Gen. Djoko Susanto met with Australian Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Allan Grant Houston on Monday in Jakarta to further discuss defense cooperation between the two countries. “Australia is willing to partner with Indonesia for the region’s security and peace,” Allan said in a press statement.
• Khaleej Times – Australia rejected Japanese requests on Thursday and said it would allow anti-whaling activists to re-supply at an Australian port before returning to harass whalers in the Southern Ocean.
• Kono Taro, FEER – Japan’s Mistake at the NSG
• Straits Times – South Korea will send a team of nuclear experts to North Korea this week to survey Pyongyang’s unused fuel rods, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
• Xinhua – A Chinese mainland navel fleet on Monday began to carry out an escort mission for four merchant ships including one from Taiwan in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia.
• Press TV – Over-prescription and the misuse of antibiotics claim 80,000 lives in China each year due to adverse reactions, state media reports say.
• Hoover Institution – The newest edition of China Leadership Monitor is available online

Europe

• Rachel Sharon-Krespin, MEQ – As Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalk?nma Partisi, AKP) begins its seventh year in leadership, Turkey is no longer the secular and democratic country that it was when the party took over. The AKP has conquered the bureaucracy and changed Turkey’s fundamental identity. Prior to the AKP’s rise, Ankara oriented itself toward the United States and Europe.
• RIA Novosti – The Georgian and Swiss foreign ministers exchanged on Monday documents to grant Switzerland the right to represent Georgia’s interests in Moscow.
• France24 – The two parties making up Germany’s grand coalition hammered out a new economic stimulus package, the first having been judged insufficient. The new package comes with a price tag of 50 billion euros over two years.
• Hurriyet – While Turkey’s problems with Greece and Greek Cyprus are on the European Union’s agenda, a decision by the Turkish Foreign Ministry has paved the way for Turkish diplomats to marry Greek nationals, daily Hürriyet reported yesterday.
• IMF – Hungary’s financial markets have stabilized since the IMF approved a $15.7 billion loan to back a program designed to ease financial market stress and support economic activity. But the road ahead is long, says James Morsink, the IMF’s mission chief for Hungary.

Africa

• Shabelle – Heavy fighting between Ethiopian soldiers accompanied by Somali government soldiers and Islamist insurgents has broken out in Bardhere town in Geda region, southern Somalia early on Monday morning, Shabelle’s correspondent reported.
• IslamOnline – Copycatting Iraq’s anti-Qaeda Sunni militias, the United States and staunch ally Ethiopia are arming Somali tribes and militias to fight Islamic fighters in the war-wracked country, Somali analysts agree. “The US and Ethiopia are behind founding and arming Sufi and tribal militias, in a repeat of the Iraqi scenario,” political analyst Mustafa Al-Sheikh told IslamOnline.net.
• IRIN – Four years after a peace agreement ended years of conflict between North and Southern Sudan, slow implementation of key provisions has raised fears that overall progress could stall.
• BBC – War crimes judges have begun hearing evidence against a militia commanded by former Democratic Republic of Congo Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba.
• International Criminal Court – The Chamber considers that there are reasonable grounds to believe that: in the context of the above-mentioned armed conflict, MLC forces led by Bemba, committed crimes against the civilian population: rape, torture, outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, murder and pillaging…

The Global War

• BBC – The former driver of Osama Bin Laden has been freed from jail in Yemen, two months after being sent there from the US-run Guantanamo Bay detention camp. He has been freed because he had already spent seven years in US custody after being detained in Afghanistan.

Sights & Sounds

Robert Farley and Eli Lake: Special Gaza Edition – How Israelis and Palestinians misread each other’s intentions… Eli’s out-of-the-box solutions for peace in the Middle East… Is an alternative to Hamas and Fatah possible?… Why Hezbollah hasn’t joined the fight… Want to reboot the CIA? Leon Panetta’s not your man… How Sanjay Gupta offends liberals

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DW – Russian gas is set to begin flowing to Europe again via Ukraine on Tuesday morning after a deal was signed in Brussels between Russia and Ukraine

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UChannel – Using Saudi Arabia as a case study, this talk explores human rights in the Middle East from the perspective of the Muslim world and Sharia law. Particular attention will be paid to capital punishment, sexism, homophobia, immigration, divorce and inheritance

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