A brief world news roundup for 1 April 2008.

United States & the Americas

• Military.com – Republican Sen. John McCain is opening a new chapter in his presidential campaign, casting himself as an “imperfect servant of my country” who was born into a family of American warriors devoted to honor, courage and duty.
• BBC – A US defence department analyst has admitted giving classified information about military communication systems to a businessman working for China.
• CSM – In Yuma, Ariz., border patrol agents tout the success of a hightriple-and double-layered wall. But such a fence is unlikely to stretch the entire border.
• Reuters – Ecuador said on Monday it had sued Colombia in international court over drug crop fumigation along its border in a move that could stoke tensions as the neighbors spar over a Colombian raid into Ecuador’s territory.
• CNN – Argentine farmers seething at export taxes on their crops resumed blockades of rural highways Monday after talks failed to end a 19-day-old strike that has halted grain exports and emptied supermarket shelves of meat.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• Civil Georgia – Georgia plans to send at least 350 servicemen to contribute NATO-led forces in Afghanistan in late August or early September, Davit Bakradze, the Georgian foreign minister, told Reuters on March 31.
• IPS – The Fergana Valley in the heart of Central Asia has a reputation for instability, violent conflict, and Islamic fundamentalism. The three countries whose borders intersect in this densely populated mountainous region — Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan — have struggled to build modern states in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. This process has indeed been tumultuous.
• Russia Today – The cost of the Nord Stream gas pipeline has risen to $US11.7 BLN, according to Gazprom, which has a controlling stake in the project. The original cost was $US6.3 BLN.
• Moscow Times – The government is considering an ambitious plan to dig an enormous tunnel linking Dmitry Medvedev’s Kremlin and Vladimir Putin’s White House, speeding up the impending cross-town trip for ministers and high-ranking officials, two officials said Monday.
• State Dept - The United States and the South Ossetian Conflict.

Middle East

• Arab News – Iraq’s fortified Green Zone came under renewed attack yesterday, less than 24 hours after anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr called for his fighters to stand down following a week of clashes with government security forces.
• SWJ Blog – Malcolm Nance, The Basrah Gambit – Defining Moment for Iraq or the Jaysh al-Mahdi?
• AFPS – U.S. and Iraqi security forces killed 48 insurgents and captured 11 others during a series of operations conducted across Baghdad yesterday, military officials reported.
• Dawn – At least 461 people were killed in week-long clashes between Shiite militants and security forces in Iraq, according to an AFP tally based on reports by security officials. More than 1,100 people were wounded in Basra and Baghdad. Clashes were also reported in Karbala and in Nasiriyah with local medics reporting at least 36 killed. Police in the central city of Kut said around 50 people had been killed there since Tuesday. Eight people were also killed in Babel province south of the capital, Iraqi and US officials said.
• Jules Crittenden – Medal of Honor announced for Petty Officer 2nd Class Mike Mansoor, who threw himself on a grenade in Ramadi two years ago to save his SEAL team members.
• Soldier’s Dad – In Iraq, Explosives related deaths increased slightly from February to March, Gun related death excluding the sub category “clashes” dropped from 9.65/day in February to 8.1/day in March.
• Stars and Stripes – Pvt. Byron Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich., and Spc. Alex Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass., have been missing since a May 12 ambush in which another soldier also was taken captive. The third U.S. soldier listed as missing in Iraq is Spc. Ahmed K. Altaie. Navy pilot Scott Speicher — for whom a large U.S. base in Iraq is named — was shot down in 1991 and has been listed as missing since.
• INN – Hamas TV in Gaza recently broadcast a puppet show in which millions of Muslim children take control of the United States and turn the White House into a mosque.  The clip, which was translated by MEMRI, ends with one of the children killing US President George Bush.
• Asharq Alawsat – The exiled leader of Hamas accused Israel of exaggerating the Palestinian militant group’s military strength and of trying to start a war against Hamas and the Lebanese.
• ynet – Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has admitted that an Israeli strike in Syria last September targeted a nuclear facility built with North Korea’s help, Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported Monday on its website.
• Haaretz – Israeli medics said Monday afternoon that a Palestinian attacker has been shot dead after trying to stab a group of Israelis near the West Bank settlement of Shiloh.
• INN – Senior Lebanese politician Walid Jumblatt called Monday to topple the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.  Jumblatt, who is one of Lebanon’s most prominent Druze leaders, called Assad’s Syria “the primary focal point of terrorism” in an interview with his party’s paper.
• The Economist – Inflation is widely considered to be the most serious problem facing the Gulf today, yet the region also faces a concern of similar magnitude: a shortage of labour and skills. The two problems are not unrelated.

Iran

• Brookings Institution – Suzanne Maloney: How the Iraq War Has Empowered Iran.
• Hudson Institute – Advice from Ahmadinejad: The Iranian Outlook and Lessons for Us.
• CNN – Iran was integral in persuading Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to halt attacks by his militia on Iraqi security forces, an Iraqi lawmaker said Monday. Iran’s exact involvement in the negotiations is unclear, but two sources concur that the Islamic republic played a key role. While al-Abadi said Iranian officials participated in the discussions, another source close to the talks said the Iranians pressured al-Sadr to craft an agreement.
• McClatchy – The Iranian general who helped broker an end to nearly a week of fighting between Iraqi government forces and Shiite Muslim militiamen in southern Iraq is an unlikely peacemaker. Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani commands the elite Quds ( Jerusalem ) force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
• AP – The U.S. has demanded to see a Swiss contract for natural gas supplies from Iran to see whether it violates an American sanctions law against Tehran, the U.S. Embassy in Switzerland said Sunday.
• NCRI – The suppressive forces attacked residents of Jozjan in Fars Province, southern Iran, protesting against water shortage on Sunday, March 30. The State Security Forces (SSF) opened fire on protestors exceeding 1,000.
• MEMRI – The Iranian website Tabnak has criticized Muqtada Al-Sadr’s “impudent interview” with Al-Jazeera TV on March 29 in which Al-Sadr stated that at a meeting with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei last year, he asked Khamenei to “end Iran’s political and military activity in Iraq.”
• Gateway Pundit – Iran attacked the Arab League and UAE on Sunday over the issue of three Persian Gulf islands of the Greater and the Lesser Tunbs and Abu Musa. The Iranian regime warned the Arab League to “try not to change history” by siding with the UAE over the disputed islands.

Southeast Asia

• CJTF82 – Task Force Gladius transferred authority of full-spectrum combat operations in Parwan and Kapisa Provinces, the mentoring of provincial and district government officials, and the overall security of BAF, to Task Force Gladiator at a ceremony March 29.
• ACM – Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, The report offers a stocktaking of Afghanistan’s regional challenges. It finds that domestic instability in Pakistan, strains in Pakistan–Afghanistan relations and insecurities associated with the US–Iran stand-off on Iran’s nuclear programme continue to pose the most significant regional risks to the stability of Afghanistan.
• Washington Post – Afghan, British and U.S. officials have launched a new security initiative to empower tribes and other residents – including former Taliban – to guard their communities in southern Afghanistan against insurgents and criminals.
• CTB – Few in NATO, including U.S. leaders, appear willing to face the fact that the war in Afghanistan is growing to be one of the longest in our history and could be one of the costliest. Not just in economic terms, but because no one has been willing to commit the resources to win the war, despite the fact it was nearly won four years ago. The cost of not finishing the job is staggering.
• UK MoD – It is with much sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that two Royal Marines serving with 40 Commando have been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan yesterday, Sunday 30 March 2008.
• Daily Times – President Pervez Musharraf swore in 24 federal ministers in a sombre ceremony at the President’s House on Monday. Ministers from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) wore black armbands in protest against President Musharraf, who they believe is holding his office illegally.
• ISN – Finally giving in to democracy, the US is forced to look beyond Musharraf and into a bleak new reality that may not be as ‘war-on-terror’ friendly, Harsh V Pant writes for ISN Security Watch.
• UPI – Police in India’s insurgency-hit state of Meghalaya launched operations to flush out separatist rebels from the state. Police said they launched an offensive against armed rebels of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-IM and the Liberation Achik (tribal) Elite Force from the coal belt of West Khasi Hills district.
• Asia Times – Big cat experts believe the tiger, India’s national beast, could be extinct in as little as two years. Despite hundreds of millions of preservation dollars and decades of involvement, efforts to save the tiger have tanked.
• Times of India – Price rise might give another blow to the Indo-US nuke deal as rising inflation, with its adverse political fallout, could sap the UPA government’s will to push the deal.
• Colombo Page – Sri Lanka’s separatist Tamil Tiger rebels launched a heavy artillery attack on Murunkan government hospital in the embattled Mannar district this morning, the military said.

Far East & Pacific

• TIME – The New York Philharmonic has gone home and Pyongyang is talking tough again. Its goal, show the new South Korean government who’s boss.
• Radio Australia – An Australian government report says the economic performance of several Pacific countries is improving but greater reforms are needed to reach their full potential.
• stuff.co.nz – People travelling to the Pacific Islands have been warned to guard against dengue fever. Outbreaks of the disease in Tonga and New Caledonia have prompted the warning from the Auckland Regional Public Health Service.
• The News – Military-backed investigators said Monday they would ask prosecutors to file new corruption charges against ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, stemming from a loan deal with Myanmar.
• Irrawaddy – Burma’s draft constitution surfaced last week and, as expected, doesn’t honor basic democratic principles, excluding pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and others in exile from seeking elected office.
• Japan Times – A bilateral agreement obliging Japan to pay part of the costs of hosting U.S. military bases expired at midnight Monday due to a lack of approval by the Diet of a government plan to extend it for the next fiscal year.

Europe

• philly.com – Boubakeur el Hakim traded his Paris neighborhood of boulangeries and halal butcher shops for the insurgent camps of Iraq. When he came home, he told his war stories to other young men on the forgotten edges of French society, allegedly persuading some to follow in his footsteps. His younger brother did, and died fighting U.S. forces.
• US Navy – In support of a cooperative strategy to strengthen ties with Croatia, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-U.S. 6th Fleet recently completed a major engagement with this Adriatic Sea coastal country.
• Tiraspol Times – Following the arrests of three of his highest ranking police officers, Moldova’s Minister of Interior Gheorghe Papuc is suspected of leading one of Europe’s largest drug smuggling operations.
• TIME – Spend Easter Sunday in Belfast and you have to wonder what happened to the IRA.
• Spiegel – Turkey’s highest court will consider a ban on the nation’s ruling political party, the AKP. The decision marks an escalation in the feud between Turkey’s secular elite and the Islamic-oriented ruling party and could drag the nation into political stagnation.
• IPS – Slovakia’s left-wing government continues to survive media and opposition attacks over a series of corruption scandals. The scandals have not, however, diminished the government’s popularity.
• France24 – US President George W. Bush arrived in Ukraine on Monday at the start of a European tour during which he is expected to push NATO allies for greater support in Afghanistan.
• BBC – Three men go on trial in Norway for allegedly targeting a synagogue and the US and Israeli embassies in Oslo.
• IHT – Danish prosecutors filed terror charges Tuesday against two alleged Islamic militants accused of preparing explosives for a terrorist attack in Denmark or abroad.
• BalkanInsight – Bulgaria shrugs off claims Serbia could retaliate when Sofia starts issuing visas for Kosovars by the end of April.

Africa

• UPI – Top officials from the U.S. African Command are attempting to assuage concerns that the United States is planning to militarize its foreign policy in Africa. Gen. Ward also said AFRICOM will maintain a light footprint in Africa, attempting to address concerns from critics who have said the United States is planning on establishing bases on the continent.
• NY Times – Islamist insurgents overpowered Somali government troops on Monday, seizing Bulo Burti, a strategic town north of the capital and continuing their march across the country.
• United Nations – As many as 15,000 Somalis have sought asylum since the start of this year in neighbouring countries such as Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Sudan to escape the violence engulfing many parts of their homeland.
• Independent – Six French aid workers imprisoned for abducting African children were released yesterday after they were pardoned by Chad’s President Idriss Deby, justice officials said.
• LA Times – Signs continued to point Monday to either a runoff or outright defeat for longtime ruler Robert Mugabe in the weekend presidential election, but no final overall count was released for a second straight day.
• Michael Ledeen – Among the many miseries of life, few match the horror of Zimbabwe. Ruled by a crackpot kleptocrat who covers his oppression with anti-colonial and often racist rhetoric, this once wonderful country is up to its nostrils in the muck of doom. Once upon a time I spent more than a week there, with tobacco farmers who were being driven off their land so that friends and relatives of the tyrant could move in.
• Daily Nation - An estimated 13 million sheep and goats in Rift Valley Province are at risk following an outbreak of a viral disease which has killed hundreds of animals.
• Magharebia – Algerian joint security forces foiled an attempted suicide attack in Oran on Saturday (March 29th), local press reported. Mohamed Mahdjoubi, 24, was shot dead out as he reportedly tried to blow himself up outside the offices of a state-owned company. Security forces discovered eight kilograms of TNT on the terrorist.
• BBC – A French military plane has flown Comoran rebel leader Colonel Mohammed Bacar to the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean.
• AllAfrica – More than 150 people have been abducted in the Central African Republic (CAR), in raids that officials have blamed on the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels.
• IRIN – A crackdown by police against Senegalese citizens who gathered in the capital Dakar on 30 March to protest the high cost of living was brutal, say human rights groups.
• IRIN – COTE D’IVOIRE: At least a dozen protestors were wounded during several hours of clashes with police on 31 March as they demanded government action to curb food prices.

The Global War

• DID – The V-22 program has been beset by controversy throughout its 20-year development period, from crashes that have killed more than 20 Marines, to engine stalls, to issues with their AE1107C Liberty engines in Iraq that may lead to the end of Power By the Hour maintenance arrangements, or even replacement of the Liberty engines altogether. Despite these issues, the program continues to move forward.
• Belfer Center – India-Iranian Relations: Key Security Implications.
• DoD – The Defense Department announced today that charges have been sworn against Guantanamo Bay detainee Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani of Zanzibar, Tanzania. He is the fifteenth detainee against whom charges have been sworn under the Military Commissions Act. The charges allege that he participated in the planning and preparation of the attack on the U. S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Aug. 7, 1998. (Also, see transcript of briefing with Brig. Gen. Hartmann.)
• Reuters – Anger over high food and fuel costs has spawned a rash of violent unrest across the globe in the past six months. From the deserts of Mauritania to steamy Mozambique on Africa’s Indian Ocean coast, people have taken to the streets. There have been “tortilla riots” in Mexico, villagers have clashed with police in eastern India and hundreds of Muslims have marched for lower food prices in Indonesia.
• NY Sun – There are troubling signs that two ongoing U.N. investigations may be less thorough and independent than advertised. One was a vicious terrorist bombing in Algiers that targeted the United Nations as a symbol hated by jihadists and resulted in allegations of U.N. and Algerian security lapses. The other surrounds reports that the main development arm of the united nations violated its own rules by cozying up to the north Korean regime and its leader, Kim Jong-il.
• Xinhua – The United States said Monday that it is nearing a deal with the Czech Republic to install a radar base in the country as part of the missile shield in the East Europe. Negotiations with the Czech Republic over the missile shield could be wrapped up within days.
• RIA Novosti – Poland’s foreign minister denied on Monday rumors that Warsaw had decided to allow the placement of a U.S. missile interceptor base on its territory.
• Heritage Foundation – The Bucharest Summit: Time to Revitalize the NATO Alliance.
• Information Dissemination – Observing The Omission of Seabasing In the Navy’s Maritime Strategy.
• Kings of War – Airminded · State of the military historioblogosphere, March 2008.

Sights & Sounds

From the Frontline series, from dvidshub

Here is a BBC From Our Own Correspondent podcast. In this one, James Miles of The Economist describes what it was like in Lhasa, Tibet, when the rioting broke out. In Afghanistan, Frank Gardner meets the Arab troops using their Islamic credentials to win the trust of the Afghan population. Mike Sergeant reports from Lebanon on the political deadlock gripping the country. In South Africa, Martin Plaut finds that recent euphoria about the nation’s future has evaporated. And Nick Haslam goes to a wedding in Taiwan that is not quite what it seems.

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