A brief world news roundup for 3 April 2008.

United States & the Americas

• Toronto Star – Jury selection began today in the trial of eight British men accused of planning to bomb airliners bound for Canada and the United States. Prosecutors allege the group planned a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks, hoping to detonate improvised bombs aboard the planes in 2006 and kill hundreds of passengers.
• Instapundit – MORE ON THE AMAZON/PRINT-ON-DEMAND KERFUFFLE, from Sgt. Mom.
• Canada.com – Canada’s visible minority population has surpassed the five-million mark, according to the latest census report, more than doubling in 15 years. The visible minority population grew five times faster than the population as whole between 2001 and 2006. Visible minority groups accounted for 16 per cent of Canada’s population on the most recent census, according to Statistics Canada, up from 11 per cent a decade earlier. For the first time, South Asians have surpassed Chinese as the largest visible minority group in Canada.
• CSM – In Ciudad Juárez courts, the presumption is now innocence. It’s a radical change that could lead to an overhaul of Mexico’s criminal-justice system.
• CNN – Rebellious Argentine farmers said Wednesday they are suspending a 21-day strike over government tax hikes, hours after lifting many of the highway blockades that stripped store shelves of produce and meat.
• TIME – The new president of Argentina and her country’s farmers have been at war. Though a 30-day truce has temporarily ended the dispute, Argentina’s politics have become harshly confrontational. Cristina, as her followers like to call her, has just seen her honeymoon come to a dead halt; she is now presiding over a deeply divided country.
• France24 – A French aid mission to treat FARC hostage Ingrid Betancourt, reported to be gravely ill, has left for Colombia with a doctor aboard. Earlier, Bogota agreed to suspend military operations against her captors.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• Moscow Times – Hours before the official opening of the NATO summit in Bucharest on Wednesday, U.S. President George Bush set the stage for what could be another blast of harsh rhetorical attacks on the West when President Vladimir Putin arrives Friday.
• EurasiaNet – During the run-up to the NATO summit in Bucharest, expert attention has tended to focus on the differences between Russia and members of the Atlantic alliance, specifically on Kosovo’s independence, a Central European anti-missile shield and Georgia’s and Ukraine’s gravitation toward Brussels. But there is one important area where interests are converging — in Afghanistan.
• Russia Today – Independent television station, Imedi, is back on air in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, several months after being shut down. A trial broadcast is due to take place amid a feud over ownership of the company.
• CRN – On April 1, twenty detained activists of Armenian opposition declared that on April 2 they would start a hunger strike in protest against the charges presented to them. The oppositionists assert that their arrests were politically motivated and demand to stop the criminal cases initiated against them.
• Kavkaz Center – In Khasavyurt town in the same district of Wilayah Dagestan of CE, 26 Rabi’al-Awwal 1429 (01.04.2008) late in the evening, Mujahideen from the Northern Front (under command of amir Dawud) carried out a successful special operation against local kafir police.
• United Nations – About 1,000 Afghans who have been living in neighbouring Tajikistan for up to 20 years will be able to apply for permanent residency and citizenship under a cooperation agreement worked out by the United Nations refugee agency and the Tajik Government.

Middle East

• NY Times – Interviews suggest that Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki overestimated his military’s abilities and underestimated the scale of the resistance in Basra.
• RFERL – Iraq: In Al-Basrah Aftermath, Iran’s And Al-Sadr’s Gain Is Al-Maliki’s Loss.
• Austin Bay – In southern Iraq and east Baghdad, Sadr once again lost street face. Despite the predictable media umbrage, this translates into political deterioration. Think of the Iraqi anti-Sadr method as a form of suffocation, a political war waged with the blessing of Ayatollah Sistani that requires daily economic and political action, persistent police efforts and occasional military thrusts.
• Westhawk – Who won the battle for Basra, Prime Minister al Maliki or Moqtada al-Sadr? Or Iran? There are credible arguments for any of the above.
• Threats Watch – There appear to be two dominant – and polarized – views on the recent clash between the Maliki government in Iraq and Jaish al-Mahdi (JAM or the Mahdi Army). One train of thought has Muqtada al-Sadr (and/or Iran) emerging victorious, while the other has Sadr (and/or iran) taking a major hit in a strategic defeat.
• Washington Post – Attacks against U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces soared across Baghdad in the last week of March to the highest levels since the deployment of additional U.S. troops here reached full strength last June, according to U.S. military data and analysis.
• Al Jazeera – At least 16 people have been killed and dozens injured in bomb blasts and shootings across Iraq.
• MEMRI – An April 1, 2008 communiqué distributed by Al-Fajr, a media company associated with Al-Qaeda, denied the authenticity of an interview with the commander of Al-Qaeda in northern Iraq.
• Haaretz – Israel is concerned that recent actions by the Syrian armed forces are a possible preamble for a Hezbollah operation against the northern border and a broader conflagration.

Iran

• Haaretz – Iran has set up sophisticated listening stations in Syria in recent months to intercept Israeli military communications, Israeli security officials said Tuesday.
• Telegraph – China has betrayed one its closest allies by providing the United Nations with intelligence on Iran’s efforts to acquire nuclear technology, diplomats have revealed.
• Washington Times – With Iran at loggerheads with the United States and leading European powers over its suspected nuclear programs and its support for militant Islamic groups in the Middle East, SCO members had been seen as reluctant to provoke the West by taking up Tehran’s application. But that may be changing, according to Ariel Cohen, a security specialist at the Heritage Foundation.
• Press TV – An Iranian military commander says the country is seeking to develop and enhance its ballistic missile and air defense capabilities.

Southeast Asia

• Bloomberg - French President Nicolas Sarkozy offered a battalion of troops to fight the Taliban insurgency in eastern Afghanistan, a “substantial” increase of military power after NATO allies demanded more forces, the alliance said. The French contribution will allow the U.S. to divert combat troops to Afghanistan’s south.
• UK MoD – Three months after UK troops helped Afghan Security Forces to recapture Musa Qaleh the process of returning the town to a bustling centre of commerce is well underway.
• RAND – [The United States] has made some progress against the Taliban and other insurgent groups in eastern Afghanistan, and created a window of opportunity to spread this elsewhere, writes Seth G. Jones.
• Danger Room – Perhaps not surprisingly, U.S. Materiel Command is hunting around for new suppliers of ammunition for Afghanistan’s military.  Just as a reminder, the New York Times late last month revealed that the U.S. military had awarded a contract worth as much as $300 million to a company “led by a 22-year-old man whose vice president was a licensed masseur.”
• BBC – A couple accused of adultery are reported to have been stoned to death in northern Pakistan by the Taleban. The pair ran away together but after being hunted down they were brought before a Taleban court in the Mohmand tribal district.
• Dawn – Two people were killed in a bomb blast in district Jaffarabad of Balochistan on Wednesday.
• Asia Foundation – In Pakistan: The Other Fight; Against tuberculosis.
• MEMRI – A Sunni Muslim group in Pakistan has announced 10 million Pakistani rupees as a reward for anybody who could kill the Dutch politician Geert Wilders for making the ‘anti-Koran’ movie, Fitna.
• State Dept – Designation of HUJI-B (Bangladesh) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
• UPI – A top-level Indian commission has asked the government in Delhi to set up a new agency to combat extortion and economic offenses to help dry up the funding sources of armed Maoist guerrillas and other extremists.
• Times of India – For the first time, Indian and German warships will hold joint manoeuvres off Kochi in the Arabian Sea from April 5. Three German warships — F220 Hamburg and F211 Koln, both missile frigates and A1411 Berlin, a Naval support vessel — will cross swords with four Indian warships to carry out sea domination and anti-submarine warfare manoeuvres.
• The Economist – For a quarter of a century, Sri Lanka’s bloody ethnic conflict between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils has sputtered on, with periods of all-out war and low-intensity insurgency, ill-observed ceasefires and frequent terrorist atrocities. But in Colombo, the scent of victory is in the air. The outside world’s efforts to persuade the government to pursue a peaceful solution are floundering.
• Dawn – Sri Lanka military says 13 rebels, one soldier killed in northern fighting.

Far East & Pacific

• CNN – About 50 students broke into a Dutch consulate compound in Indonesia Wednesday to protest a film by a Dutch lawmaker that many Muslims consider anti-Islamic.
• IPS – Rising rice prices are threatening to derail aid programmes run by international agencies while several governments on the continent are taking steps to see that shortages of the staple do not translate into social unrest and food riots.
• Newsweek – Just two weeks after Tibetan monks first took to the streets in protest against Chinese rule, unrest broke out among Muslim Uighurs in China’s remote Xinjiang region. Details about the demonstrations remain murky, but Rebiya Kadeer, president of the World Uighur Congress, believes that at least 400 people are being held in detention.
• Japan Times – The U.N. has sounded out Japan about dispatching Self-Defense Forces personnel to take part in U.N. peacekeepers’ mine-removal efforts in southern Sudan, government sources said Wednesday.
• Pacific Magazine – Northern Marianas Gov. Benigno Fitial says release of a U.S. congressional report on the possible impact of federalizing immigration and labor in the commonwealth is being held up by congressional staffers, the Marianas Variety reports.
• ICG – Elections for Nepal’s Constituent Assembly on 10 April could be marred by political violence, but if all parties cooperate, it will open the next stage in the peace process. There are many encouraging indications for the elections, though violence has dogged the campaign.
• World Bank – Growth in developing East Asia will decline by around one to two percentage points to around 8.5% in 2008 as a result of the unfolding financial turmoil in the US and the resulting global slowdown, says the World Bank’s latest six-monthly review of the East Asia and Pacific region’s economies.
• The Interpreter – In his speech to the Brookings Institution on 31 March, Prime Minister Rudd suggested  China should be encouraged to work with other donors to develop appropriate OECD-consistent norms for development assistance delivery. He added that, as getting assistance to Pacific Island nations on a stable footing was crucial for Australia, he would be happy to partner with China in some pilot projects.

Europe

• SE Times – As the NATO summit opened in Bucharest on Wednesday (April 2nd), US President George W. Bush said the Alliance will make a historic decision regarding the admission of three Western Balkan countries — Albania, Croatia and Macedonia. Macedonia’s hopes may be dashed, however, unless it resolves its longstanding name dispute with Greece. Athens has said it will use its veto power to block its neighbour’s bid unless an agreement is reached.
• Reuters – NATO leaders will seek ways to console Ukraine and Georgia at a summit on Thursday after failing to agree to open the door of the Western military alliance to the former Soviet republics.
• Irish Independent – Ireland’s Prime Minister Bertie Ahern announced his decision to step down as leader of the country yesterday. He denied his announcement was linked to the deluge of damning revelations about his personal finances emerging from the Mahon Tribunal in recent weeks.
• BalkanInsight – Russian aid for Kosovo Serbs will not be allowed to enter Kosovo without supervision from Pristina, the Deputy Premier warns.
• RIA Novosti – Poland will not agree to the permanent presence of Russian military observers at a proposed U.S. missile base on its territory, the foreign minister said on Wednesday.
• CNN – Spanish police Tuesday arrested two Moroccan men suspected of having links to Islamic terrorism, Spain’s Ministry of Interior said, including one man wanted in connection with attacks in Casablanca in 2003.

Africa

• BBC – Robert Mugabe’s party has lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since independence in 1980. Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party took 97 of the 210 seats, while the opposition MDC won 99, final official results showed. Presidential election results have yet to be declared.
• LA Times – Mugabe faces the virtual certainty of a runoff in the presidential race that he has scant hope of winning. With fewer allies left and few prizes to offer in the economically ravaged county, Mugabe faces a final do-or-die struggle to hold on to power in a second round of voting that many people here fear could turn bloody.
• Radio Netherlands – The Dutch Parliament has approved the deployment of the Dutch naval frigate Evertsen to the waters off the coast of Somalia. The vessel, which will remain in the region for three months, will protect ships carrying United Nations food supplies.
• Daily Star – Chad’s main rebel group Wednesday urged former colonial ruler France to stop supporting President Idriss Deby and cease flying over rebel positions in the central African nation’s restive east.
• IRIN – The drowning of 30 people on 1 April when a boat capsized on Lake Bagwai, 50 km west of Kano city, was one of dozens of recent boat accidents in northern Nigeria’s Kano State which officials say have cost hundreds of lives.
• VOA – Second Indian all-female contingent in Liberia shows that women can become norm for peacekeeping operations.

The Global War

• AFP – Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri launched a blistering attack on the United Nations Wednesday calling it the enemy of Islam and Muslims in an online audiofile.
• ynet – Bin-Laden deputy answers questions submitted to internet forum, describes UN as ‘enemy to Muslims,’ says al-Qaeda does not kill innocents and pledges to ‘do our utmost to strike Jews in Israel and abroad’.
• CTB – NEFA Foundation: Complete Transcript of New Zawahiri Q&A Responses.
• LA Times – If Al Qaeda strikes the West in the coming months, it’s likely the mastermind will be a stocky Egyptian explosives expert with two missing fingers. His alias is Abu Ubaida al Masri. Hardly anyone has heard of him outside a select circle of anti-terrorism officials and Islamic militants. But as chief of external operations for Al Qaeda, investigators say, he has one of the most dangerous – and endangered – jobs in international terrorism.
• Jerusalem Post – Saudi Arabia most likely would develop nuclear weapons if Iran acquires them, according to a report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. High-level American diplomats in Riyadh with excellent access to Saudi decision-makers said an Iranian nuclear weapon frightens the Saudis “to their core” and would compel the Saudis to seek nuclear weapons, the report said. Turkey would also come under pressure to follow suit if Iraq builds nuclear weapons in the next decade, said the report.
• Spiegel – US author Steve Coll spent years looking into Osama bin Laden’s family. Now, his new book provides a unique insight into the clan. SPIEGEL spoke with him about where the terrorist might be hiding, how his father got his start, and the unique romantic liasons pursued by one of his brothers.
• Belfer Center – Dr. Matthew Bunn’s testimony to Committee On Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the United States Senate urges a global campaign to ensure that every nuclear weapon and every cache of potential nuclear bomb material worldwide is secured against the kinds of threats terrorists and criminals have demonstrated they can pose.
• CSM – As international food prices have shot skyward, impoverished nations in Africa have been particularly hard hit. If the situation continues to deteriorate amid political turmoil and sharp inflation, unrest could deepen. The World Food Program (WFP) says staple food prices have risen by as much as 40 percent in six months across parts of Africa.
• ISN – The US-Russia-Iran knot: The installation of United States military systems in Poland and the Czech Republic will provoke a dangerous new arms race, argue Tom Sauer & David Webb.
• Kings of War – There is something very wrong when Germany is deemed to be a greater military power than Britain. As Afghanistan shows, today’s Germany army may be handy but it ain’t hardy. And to suggest that Turkey and Brazil are militarily more powerful that Britain is just bizzare.

Sights & Sounds

Middle East Institute Podcast: Libya’s Relations with Africa & The West. With Ronald Bruce St. John, Ali Abdussalam Triki, Ibrahim Aboukhazam, and Moderator Charles O. Cecil.

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