A brief world news roundup for 18 April 2008.

United States & the Americas

• Jerusalem Post – Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip is an “atrocity,” former US president Jimmy Carter said after meeting with Hamas officials in Cairo. Carter also said he had asked Hamas officials to stop rocket attacks into Israel and defended his controversial meetings with the Palestinian terrorist group, saying it was necessary to talk to all parties to achieve peace.
• INN – Former United States President Jimmy Carter met with senior Hamas terrorists in Cairo on Thursday.  Among the Hamas leaders present at the meeting were Mahmoud az-Zahar and Said Siyyam.  Carter plans to meet with Hamas head Khaled Mashaal in Damascus on Friday.
• Gateway Pundit – “Peace” Groups Plan on Throwing Pi$$bags at DNC Convention. For much more on anarchists and the GOP Convention, see Shot in the Dark.
• ABC News – Foods riots in Haiti and elsewhere are a wake-up call for the world to fight harder against poverty and reduce agricultural trade barriers, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday.
• IPS – The government and farmers in Argentina, caught up in a month-long confrontation over an export tax increase, clashed again Thursday because of the extensive burning of grasslands that has thrown a pall of smoke over the capital and has even reached parts of neighbouring Uruguay.
• Newsweek – Mexico’s problems with its state-run oil company show why supply is so tight.
•  AP – A Mexican federal official says the police chief of the border city of Reynosa has been arrested for allegedly protecting members of the Gulf drug cartel.
• AP – A former chief of Chile’s secret police force was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Thursday for the disappearance of a dissident during the dictatorship of the late Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• AFP – Russia used the visit of President Vladimir Putin to Tripoli on Thursday to announce the scrapping of billions of dollars in Libyan Soviet-era debt in exchange for business contracts.
• Press TV – NATO urges Russia to reverse its decision to establish legal links with the Georgian separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer expressed his deep concern and called on Russia to reverse these measures, and call on the Georgian authorities to continue to show restraint.
• Kommersant – The RF government has finally decided on division of oil and gas resources of the continental shelf. The shelf will be developed by the state-controlled Gazprom and Rosneft that will split the resources on profile basis with Gazprom getting the better part of the wealth.
• RIA Novosti – Gazprom announced it will close a deal to buy a controlling stake in Serbia’s oil company Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) after the May 10 parliamentary election in the Balkan state.
• Press TV – Six officers of a special purpose police unit have been injured in a rocket attack in Russia’s North Caucasus Republic of Ingushetia.
• Kavkaz Center – According to Kavkaz Center’s source inside the occupied by Russian invaders Wilayah Nokhchicho (Ichkeria) of the Caucasus Emirate, Yamadayev brothers evacuating their families and relatives from Chechnya to Moscow, saving them from massacre by Kadyrovans.
• Payvand – Officials in Kazakhstan have announced a four-month ban on wheat exports aimed at protecting consumers from the effects of global grain shortages.
• LA Times – In this half-abandoned place of rusting ports and skeleton homes, there is a land that is recognized by nobody. Fifteen years since its bloody war with Georgia, the breakaway republic of Abkhazia is a surreal spot where Soviet isolation lingers, the Cold War never ended and people cling to facades of statehood.
• Global Voices – Kazakhstani political field may only seem still and silent against the background of a one-party parliament and a long-ruling president. But in its depth it is very lively – passions and intrigues are brewing both within the state apparatus and in the opposition’s camp.

Middle East

• Asharq Alawsat – A suicide bomber struck a funeral in northern Iraq on Thursday, killing 49 mourners and wounding 55 Survivers said the funeral had been for two members of a U.S.-backed neighbourhood security unit who were killed on Wednesday.
• CSM – Iraq bombings target US-allied, anti-Al Qaeda groups; Bombings this week in Sunni areas of Iraqi have killed more than 100 people.
• AFP – Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri said that building Iraq as a “fortress of Islam” is the “most important duty” for Muslims, in an audio message released Thursday according to the SITE monitoring service.
• NY Times – The construction of a massive concrete wall is intended to turn the southern quarter of Sadr City near the Green Zone into a protected enclave.
• Washington Times – Iraq’s central government and the Kurdish region have reached a deal on an oil law, including a method for weighing the validity of the oil deals the Kurds have signed with foreign firms.
• Instapundit – Two wars in Iraq?
• Ya Libnan – Members of Hezbollah attacked and kidnapped a police officer in south Beirut on Thursday, marking the second attack on Lebanese police by Hezbollah in as many days, security sources reported. On Wednesday Hezbollah forcefully freed two suspicious detainees, by surrounding the police with a mob of 100 angry Hezbollah forces, threatening to attack the policemen unless the two bearded men were immediately released.
• TIME – More than three years after the assassination of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, charges and counter-charges over alleged Syrian responsibility continue to haunt the Middle East.
• ynet – Ten rockets were fired from Gaza at southern Israel since Wednesday night, landing in open fields in the western Negev.
• ynet – An IDF force operating in the town of Qabatiya near Jenin killed two al-Quds Brigades operatives Thursday morning, according to Palestinian sources. IDF force reportedly entered the town early Thursday and proceeded to circle the house in which the two gunmen – believed to be Islamic Jihad’s military wing operatives – were hiding.
• RIA Novosti – One Turkish soldier was killed and 13 wounded in a firefight with Kurdish insurgents in southeast Turkey, national media reported Thursday.

Iran

• AFP – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday proclaimed Iran the “most powerful nation” on earth as the country’s air force showed off its prowess at a time of mounting tension with the West.
• Press TV – Iran exhibits its 1800 km-range missile “QADR 1″ for first time during a military forces’ parade on the country’s National Army Day.
• Uskowi on Iran – Uskowi on Iran will carry a detailed review by Pyruz of Iran’s military development as observed in today’s parade in a few days. The links for YouTube video of today’s parade appear below.
• Israel Matzav – Video: Military parade for National Army Day in Tehran; Unfortunately, the commentary on this one is all in Persian, but the sheer quantity of weaponry shown is quite impressive.
• IHT – President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain expressed mounting impatience Thursday with Iran for proceeding with its nuclear enrichment work in defiance of the international community.
• Jerusalem Post – Iran has stepped up its efforts to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip by using floatable devices that it drops near the waters off the Gaza coast to be picked up by Palestinian fisherman, senior defense officials have told The Jerusalem Post. According to defense officials, Iran is now sending rockets and other advanced weaponry to Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip by sea as well as via tunnels.
• Payvand – Deputy Governor of the Iranian city of Pol-e-dokhtar, Jafar Tulabi, says a turmoil that had erupted all across the city is subsided down. The police, security forces and private organizations contributed to the restoration of peace and stability in the city, Tulabi said.
• NCRI – 800 workers at Farnakh textile factory in Qazvin, western Iran, walked out in protest against non-payment of their salaries in the past two months and the New Year bonus.
• Hugh Hewitt – Yesterday I interviewed AEI’s Michael Rubin on Iran’s “special groups” in Iraq as well as the fanatical regime’s resolute pursuit of nukes. The transcript is here.

Southeast Asia

• AFP – A suicide bomb exploded outside a mosque as worshippers were leaving after prayers in southwest Afghanistan on Thursday, killing 24 people, the provincial governor said. Two senior police officers were among the dead and 34 people were also wounded, some of them children, in the attack in Zaranj city.
• AFP – Afghan and international forces killed 10 militants during an operation in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, officials said, as a bomb wounded a NATO soldier in the same region. The Taliban-linked rebels were killed in the province of Ghazni along a key highway.
• CJTFA – Afghan National Army Recon Company, 203rd Thunder Corps, assisted by Coalition forces, captured a suspected Taliban leader in Khowst province, April 14. The individual is suspected of being a Taliban operative responsible for several attacks against Afghan National Security Forces.
• IHT – Two United States marines were killed and two wounded when an explosion hit their convoy in the southern province of Kandahar, the American military said Thursday.
• Maclean’s – Military officials say one Canadian soldier has been injured in a roadside bombing that struck a Canadian military vehicle in southern Afghanistan. The attack occurred near Spin Boldak, a town on the Pakistani border.
• Afgha.com – Taliban fighters hijacked two trucks carrying logistics for the US-led coalition troops in the southeastern Paktia province, an official said on Tuesday.
• CNN – Al Qaeda is still operating within Pakistan’s mountainous tribal region bordering Afghanistan, and the United States lacks a “comprehensive” plan for meeting its national security goals there, said a GAO study released Thursday.
• CBS News – A senior Taliban commander (Mullah Ismail) who became a hero to Islamic militants for his role in shooting down a U.S. helicopter in 2005, killing all 16 special forces troops aboard, has been killed by Pakistani security forces, officials and Taliban militants tell CBS News.
• MEMRI – Pakistani Taliban have successfully held a two-day jihad conference at the shrine of 20th-Century local Islamic preacher Haji Sahib Turangzai in Pakistan’s tribal district of Mohmand Agency.
• Press TV – Clashes between militants and tribesmen in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan has left at least 20 dead and dozens more injured. Heavy fighting broke out when militants attacked the tribesmen in Khyber Pass in North West Frontier Province, late on Wednesday.
• Khaleej Times – Provincial Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami and former senior minister Sirajul Haq yesterday demanded the implementation of Shariah in Federally Administered Tribal Areas after the abrogation of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR).
• Times of India – There was another shock in store for Kashmiri leaders, when Asif Zardari, leader of the major partner in the new coalition government in Pakistan, said that India and Pakistan could set aside the Kashmir issue to be resolved by a future generation and focus on trade and economic ties to improve bilateral relations.
• UPI – India says cannabis cultivation and trading is a major source of funds for Maoist rebels in some parts of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa states.
• Colombo Page – Sri Lanka Air Force fighter jets struck a key logistic complex and an engineering yard of LTTE in the general area of Visuamadu in Mullaithivu district early this morning, the Defense Ministry reported.
• Times of India – Maulvi Bazar district in Bangladesh has emerged as the biggest training hub for terrorists and northeast insurgents within India’s eastern neighbour.

Far East & Pacific

• Al Arabiya – Singapore authorities have charged a Christian couple with sedition after they distributed pamphlets that negatively portrayed Islam, court documents showed on Thursday.
• China Digital Times – Two articles look at the discontents of Uighurs living in China. One from Asia Times, while Time Magazine looks at recent unrest in Khotan, Xinjiang.
• Reuters – China has lodged a formal complaint against US television network CNN for what it called a “vicious attack” by one of its commentators who labelled the Chinese as “goons”.
• Pacific Magazine – A new Australian report says poor international laws are allowing an illegal timber trade worth more than $2 billion a year to flourish across the Asia-Pacific region.
• Jakarta Post – The followers were responding to a recommendation of the Coordinating Board for Monitoring Mystical Beliefs in Society (Bakor Pakem), who found the sect “deviant.” After a three-month examination, the joint board, representing all denominations in the country, recommended the government ban the “misleading” Islamic sect. The recommendation was based on the examination of the 12 points of Islamic teachings, including the acceptance of Qoran and Prophet Muhammad as last prophet.
• Japan Times – Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura agreed Thursday in Tokyo to do their utmost to make Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit a success as they officially announced his May 6-10 trip.
• AOL – Japan urged China to do more to resolve Tibetan unrest as the two Asian powers held talks to prepare for a visit by China’s president – the first such trip in a decade.
• BBC – The Thai Prime Minister, Samak Sundaravej, has said martial law will now be lifted from most of the country. Martial law was imposed by the military government which took power in a coup in 2006.
• Radio Australia – Papua New Guinea’s agriculture minister, John Hickey, has warned the country is facing a potential food security crisis.
• Turkish Daily News – Through paint, sculpture, charcoal or pencil, Cambodian artists have converged to create works inspired by the 1975-1979 rule of the Khmer Rouge, during which as many as two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed by the regime.
• Pajamas Media – China Unrest Makes Vietnam Nervous.
• Washington Realist – Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s comments in Beijing-delivered in Mandarin Chinese-seem more thoughtful about the West’s complicated relationship with China than what U.S. politicians are saying. Also, by neither accepting nor snubbing the PRC’s invitation to attend the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, Rudd preserves his own freedom of action.

Europe

• Reuters – Six British Muslim men were found guilty on Thursday of collecting money for the purposes of terrorism or inciting people to fight British and U.S. forces in Iraq.
• Gates of Vienna – Fjordman sent us a link to this article about Mullah Krekar, and included a thumbnail sketch of the Mad Mullah of Norway: “Krekar is an open supporter of Osama bin Laden, whom he has called the “jewel of Islam.” But according to the European Union, we cannot deport him. That would violate his human rights.”
• EurasiaNet – Turkey: Discovery of 12,000-year-old Temple Complex Could Alter Theory of Human Development.
• BBC – A bomb has exploded outside an office of the ruling Socialist party in Spain, lightly wounding seven police officers. The separatist group Eta has been blamed for the attack, which seriously damaged the building.
• NY Times – Iceland’s long economic boom has ended in a painful bust, with a collapsing currency, rising inflation, double-digit interest rates and predictions of its first recession since 1992.
• Spiegel – Germany’s top security and law officials have agreed to a plan to enact new computer surveillance regulations. But Muslim leaders fear imams could face more scrutiny than their Christian counterparts.
• Tiraspol Times – UN: Moldova is only European country facing severe food shortages.
• ISN – As hard-line secularists attempt to ban the governing AKP, accused of trying to create a religious state, the EU supports the ruling party in the name of democracy, Anes Alic writes for ISN Security Watch.

Africa

• Press TV – Somalia police in Mogadishu have raided and closed an independent radio station arresting five journalists, staff members say.
• Reuters – Six Somali men involved in capturing a French yacht and holding its 30 crew hostage have said they were part of a maritime militia group with a written code of conduct, a French judicial source said on Thursday.
• The Nation - “We were sitting and discussing football when four soldiers burst into Spaceman Bar in Glen Norah A. They ordered everyone to lie down on the floor after asking three elderly men to leave the nightclub, saying they wanted to deal with the “born frees” – a reference to those born after Independence in 1980 who are considered troublesome – who were causing problems by supporting the opposition.
• BBC – Thousands of South African trade unionists have taken to the streets to protest against rising food prices.
• IRIN – Djibouti is to implement emergency measures to ensure food security amid soaring prices and persistent drought that have particularly hurt the poor across the Horn of Africa country, the government said.
• AllAfrica – The Grand Coalition Cabinet is now complete, after Orange Democratic Party ministers and their assistants were sworn in at State House, Nairobi, in a historic ceremony Thursday.
• Enough Project – The Comprehensive Peace Agreement, or CPA, Sudan’s unique, ground-breaking political deal that formally ended 21 years of war between the Khartoum government and the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement, or SPLM, is lurching toward breakdown. The principal reason remains Khartoum’s failure to implement the CPA’s Abyei Protocol.

The Global War

• RAND – Nearly 20 percent of military service members who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan — 300,000 in all — report symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder or major depression, yet only slightly more than half have sought treatment, according to a new RAND Corporation study.
• AP – Al-Qaida’s No. 2 claims in a newly released audio tape that five years of U.S. occupation of Iraq has brought only “failure and defeat.”
• Matt Levitt, Washington Institute – Al-Qa’ida’s Finances: Evidence of Organizational Decline? “The means that al-Qa’ida and affiliated groups use to raise, move and store funds present an ever moving target, as the methods of financiers and cells evolve in response to counter-measures. There are, however, some discernable trends in al-Qa’ida financing…”
• Information Dissemination – As we continue to observe naval developments around Africa, we are very encouraged that regardless of how slow AFRICOM moves, the Navy has the right approach.
• BBC – Oil prices are hovering close to $115 a barrel, having crossed the record mark on Thursday after a US inventory report raised concerns about supplies.
• FT - Rice prices hit the $1,000-a-tonne level for the first time on Thursday as panicking importers scrambled to secure supplies, exacerbating the tightness already provoked by export restrictions in Vietnam, India, Egypt, China and Cambodia.
• Thunder Run – From the Front: 04/17/2008.
• Jules Crittenden – Army of dolts and criminals, or army of opportunity? Some media and DoD articles on the expanding wartime military. We’ll start with NPR’s report on waivers for substandard recruits…

Sights & Sounds

DW: The Olympic torch moves on to Thailand after a smooth run through India. Also, in Zimbabwe the presidential election stalemate is heating up with charges of alleged treason. And, German politicians debate banning a far-right nationalist party.

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NPR: Vietnam has become the world’s second-largest exporter of rice (after Thailand). But the effects of inflation have persuaded the Vietnamese government to cut back on rice exports.

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UVA: Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics moderated a lively discussion on the recent presidential primaries, the upcoming conventions and Election Day 2008 as they relate to the Constitution.

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