Peace Like A River » Cables, dispatches and memoranda

Cables, dispatches and memoranda

March 30, 2009 (12:45 am) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba

Cables, Dispatches and Memoranda A brief world news roundup for 30 March 2009.

United States & the Americas

AFPS – President Barack Obama said today his new strategy for what he calls “America’s War” is intended to zero in on the heart of the matter at hand in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “The focus over the last seven years, I think, has been lost,” the president told Bob Schieffer on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “What we want to do is refocus attention on al-Qaida.”
White House – What’s New in the Strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan
US House Armed Service Cmte – Skelton Statement on President’s Strategy For Afghanistan and Pakistan
Kashmir Times – President Barack Obama’s much respected National Security Adviser, Retd James L Jones made clear that while the President’s new comprehensive strategy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan includes encouraging a rapprochement between India and Pakistan, it will absolutely not include any efforts to bring about a resolution of the Kashmir imbroglio.
Jurist – A judge in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Friday ordered the Central Intelligence Agency to release reports on the destruction of 92 videotapes of high value terrorism suspect interrogations within the next 30 days or alternatively, explain why it should not do so.
AKI – Iran’s foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki arrived in the Venezuelan capital Caracas on Friday for bilateral talks. The Iranian delegation was received by Venezuelan industry minister Rodolfo Sanz and Iranian ambassador to Venezuela Abdollah Zifan.
AP – The Associated Press spent five days on the front line of Mexico’s drug war, embedded with the army’s 8th Division in Tamaulipas state, one of many organized-crime hotspots now policed by 45,000 troops nationwide.
Miami Herald – A violence-plagued Mexican border state swore in a new top security official on Saturday after his predecessor resigned amid an investigation into the escape of an accused drug trafficker wanted in the United States.
NY Times – The presence of the informers, some of them former soldiers, highlights a central paradox in Mexico’s ambitious and bloody assault on the drug cartels that have ravaged the country. The nation has begun a war, but it cannot fully rely on the very institutions — the police, customs, the courts, the prisons, even the relatively clean army — most needed to carry it out.
Zenpundit – This line that Mexico is fundamentally sound, while helpful to President Calderon’s political standing when expressed in public, is analytically speaking, sheer nonsense, and if enforced in private, counterproductive to having sober USG interagency planning sessions to make certain that worst case scenarios, like the one imagined above, never come close to materializing. Such politicized groupthink also interferes with effective cooperation with Mexico to address a 4GW type problem that has already mestastasized to a dangerous degree into American territory.
Telegraph – Colombia’s security forces have foiled a plot by Marxists rebels to assassinate the defence minister although its chances of success were probably small as the guerrillas had misspelled “policia” on their repainted police motorbikes.
IPS – In the shadows of a critical Arab summit in Doha this week, a parallel Arab- South American heads of state meeting is expected to seal key political and economic cooperation agreements between the two regions.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

Itar-Tass – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stated that it is inadmissible to “trade off” with the United States a solution to the problem of deploying some components of the U.S. anti-ballistic missile defense system in Europe with the Iranian nuclear program.
Reuters – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Saturday made a 30-minute flight on Sukhoi-34 fighter-bomber, following an example set by his powerful predecessor Vladimir Putin. Medvedev was shown by Russian television dressed in pilot’s flying suit and helmet climbing into the blue jet at Kubinka air base near Moscow.
BBC – Judging by his earlier appearances on camera, Mr Medvedev has clearly undergone some pretty intensive media training, and was on a charm offensive. On the substantial issues, he agreed that the Russian economy had been far too dependent on getting oil and gas out of the ground – and needed to diversify, with more small businesses.
Dmitry Medvedev – Beginning of Meeting with Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu
Russia Today – Another group of Russian Navy ships are heading to the seas off East Africa to counter the growing threat of piracy. It’s the second fleet Russia has dispatched to take part in international military operations against Somali gunmen.
AP – Russia plans to create a new military force to protect its interests in the disputed Arctic region, a Kremlin strategy paper says. The document outlines Russia’s policy for the Arctic, which is believed to contain as much as 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas. The paper was signed by President Dmitry Medvedev in September and released by presidential Security Council, but only reported by Russian media on Friday.
Moscow Times – An official with the Defense Ministry’s intelligence branch has been charged with leading an international crime ring trafficking women as sex slaves, a senior investigator said Friday. The official, a colonel in the ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, led a crime syndicate that trafficked more than 130 women from Russia and former Soviet republics to work as prostitutes from 1999 to 2007, said Alexander Sorochkin, head of the Investigative Committee’s military investigations directorate.
Kyiv Post – The Ukrainian government hopes that Japan will be among the countries, which will help Ukraine cover its national budget’s deficit, Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko has said. “Ukraine will be holding bilateral talks with other countries [about raising a loan for covering the country's planned budget deficit]. You know that we have filed a similar application to Japan, as well, and I believe that this application will be considered by the country soon,” the premier said at a Saturday briefing on the results of her visit to Japan.
EurasiaNet – Just about four years after the Central Asian state’s Tulip Revolution, Kyrgyzstan finds itself having returned to “Go.” Kyrgyz opposition parties opened the presidential election season with a peaceful protest rally in central Bishkek March 27. Leaders of the United People’s Movement warned of creeping authoritarianism in the country, and issued demands for electoral reform and the resignation of the incumbent president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
RIA Novosti – Two militants were killed in a special operation in the Republic of Chechnya in Russia’s troubled North Caucasus region, with no casualties reported among federal troops, a local police source said on Sunday.
Khaleej Times – A Chechen was shot dead on Saturday and Dubai Police say it may have been an assassination. “It looks like an assassination,” said Dubai Police Chief Lieutenant-General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, who rushed to the scene. “The victim was identified as Sulaiman Madov, a Chechen born in 1973 and, was assassinated at the parking lot of the building where he lives,” he said.
euobserver – EU diplomats and envoys are trying to appease mounting tensions in Tbilisi ahead of opposition protests scheduled for 9 April with the political aim of forcing president Mikhail Saakashvili to step down.
APA – According to APA, sources in Brussels said that Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan would visit Armenia in April and most probably Turkey would open the borders with Armenia before April 24. The sources also emphasized that this step would have positive effect on Turkish-EU relations and would be welcomed in the Europe.

Middle East

Military.com – U.S. and Iraqi troops exchanged gunfire Sunday with Sunni militants in central Baghdad in a second day of clashes following the arrest of a local leader of Sunni security volunteers who had broken with al-Qaida.
Voices of Iraq – A “Special Groups” leader on Saturday was arrested during a raid in northern Wassit province, according to a local commander. “The leader, who is believed to have been involved in armed operations against civilians and Iraqi security forces, was captured during a raid on a house in al-Aziziya district (90 km north of Kut),” the commander of the Quick Response Department (QRD) in Wassit, Maj. Aziz Lateef, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
MNF Iraq – Samarra Special Weapons and Tactics with Coalition forces conducted a raid March 24 in Salah Ad Din Province to capture a suspected terrorist cell leader responsible for criminal and terrorist actions. In response to a recent attack against CF, Samarra SWAT and CF advisors arrested the suspect pursuant to a local judicial-issued warrant. The detained individual is also allegedly responsible for the facilitation of weapons sales, illegal arms movements and coordinating attacks in and around Samarra.
Times Online – Striking up Glorious Victory, a Royal Marines band marched into the grounds of an Iraqi base in Basra yesterday to open a farewell feast that marks the beginning of the end of Britain’s military mission in Iraq
Times Online – Israel used unmanned drones to attack secret Iranian convoys in Sudan that were trying to smuggle rockets into Gaza. The missiles have the range to strike Tel Aviv and Israel’s nuclear reactor at Dimona, defence sources said.
ynet – Operation Cast Lead and Israel’s various prevention methods, seem to have left no impression on Hamas, that continues to smuggle dozens of tons of explosives and antitank and antiaircraft missiles into the Gaza Strip, Shin Bet Director Yuval Diskin told cabinet ministers on Sunday. According to Diskin, since the end of the military operation in early 2009, 22 tons of explosives, 45 tons of raw materials for the production of weapons, dozens of rockets, hundreds of mortar shells and dozens of antitank and antiaircraft missiles were smuggled into the Strip.
Jerusalem Post – A senior Hamas official revealed over the weekend that he hid in the home of a Fatah activist in the Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead. Fawzi Barhoum, a prominent Hamas spokesman and a member of the movement’s delegation to the reconciliation talks with Fatah, did not reveal the identity of the Fatah activist.
Naharnet – According to the daily An-Nahar on Sunday, Russian President Dimitri Medvedev is considering delivering two MIG 29 fighter jets out of the ten ordered for Lebanon on independence day (November 22nd).
IslamOnline – The leader of Egypt’s most powerful opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, is planning to step down next year. “I do not intend to run again for the post of Muslim Brotherhood guide-general after the end of my term in January,” Mohamed Mahdi Akef told IslamOnline.net on Saturday, March 28.
Asharq Al Awsat – Egypt’s president will not be attending a key Arab League summit, sending a minor Cabinet official instead. Arab foreign ministers in the Qatar capital of Doha have prepared for the summit by calling for unity among members of the 22-nation organization to confront Palestinian discord and international pressure on Sudan. Qatar and Egypt have recently been at odds.
Telegraph – Saudi Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, the interior minister and a half-brother of King Abdullah, has assumed second place in the line of succession. His appointment as second deputy prime minister places him next in line after Crown Prince Sultan. Because King Abdullah is about 84 and the Crown Prince is of the same vintage and in poor health, this makes Prince Nayef highly likely to succeed to the throne. Prince Nayef, who at 75 is a relatively youthful member of the royal family’s senior circle, is a deeply controversial figure.
Spiegel – In a SPIEGEL interview, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, discusses the global financial crisis as an opportunity for strategic investments, how it is changing the balance of economic powers and his country’s role in fostering peace in the tinderbox Middle East and Gulf region.
Press TV – In an early March meeting in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, Saudi King Abdullah and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak joined forces to drive a wedge between Syria and Iran, taking matters in their own hands. During the summit, Abdullah attempted to cajole Syrian President Bashar Assad into breaking ties with Tehran by promising financial and political support, said a Saudi royal adviser.
AFP – A senior Egyptian official held talks in Damascus on Sunday with leaders of Syrian-backed Palestinian factions ahead of renewed unity talks next week in Cairo, Palestinian officials said. Kinawi, who is deputy to Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and flew in to Damascus late on Friday, has also met the exiled leaders of the Islamist group Hamas which rules Gaza and of the smaller Islamic Jihad. The talks have focused on the political programme of a future unity government, merging the security services, and on the planned elections in Gaza and the West Bank, a Palestinian official said, asking not to be named.
Saba – Yemen Deputy Interior Minister Saleh al-Zawa’ari held talks here on Sunday with Ethiopian ambassador to Sana’a Tawfik Abdullahi on enhancing the security cooperation between the two countries.The talks focused on the issue of the displaced people, who are sneaking to Yemen from African horn.
Al Bawaba – Yemen has handed over to Saudi Arabia five men whose names appeared on a list of 85 suspects wanted by the kingdom for involvement in attacks, a security official said on Sunday. The suspects, all Saudi nationals, were extradited on Saturday and are wanted by Riyadh in connection with “terrorist and sabotage” acts, the official told AFP. They include Ali Abdullah al-Harbi, whose arrest the Yemen interior ministry announced in mid-March as part of a search operation for 116 suspects wanted in Yemen for security reasons, the official added.
Al Manar – Four Yemeni policemen were killed in clashes with fighters during an operation against wanted militants in the south of the country on Saturday, witnesses said. The deadly shootout erupted in Jaar, northeast of the port city of Aden, where police had been hunting for wanted members of jihadist groups.
Hurriyet – In Turkey, six people were killed and 93 others were injured Sunday in election-related violence when opponent candidates and their supporters clashed in seven separate provinces.

Iran

Times Online – Iranian and American officials have held their first talks about ending the war in Afghanistan amid signs that President Barack Obama’s efforts to thaw relations with Tehran are paying off. While television cameras focused on Obama in Washington during the unveiling of his strategy for Afghanistan last Friday, US and Iranian diplomats were holding a remarkable meeting in Moscow.
Press TV – Iran has rejected a report alleging that Iranian missile experts are assisting the North Koreans in launching their long-range rocket.
MEMRI – In a telephone conversation, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad that the enemies were getting weaker by the day, and that the strong Iranian-Syrian camp would win. Assad stated that Iran and Syria were holding one bastion and that the conditions in the region were favorable to the Muslim countries and militated against the Zionist regime.
IRNA – Iran’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Mohammad Hosseini on Saturday night met with Chairman of the Saudi Majlis Al-Shura Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Ibrahim al-Asheikh. Presenting the greetings of Iran’s Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani to his Saudi counterpart, Hosseini called for further bilateral cooperation in all-out fields between the two countries.
Mehr – Regional problems cannot be resolved without a help from Iran and India, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a meeting with Iran’s national security chief Saeed Jalili in New Delhi on Saturday. Singh also cited energy cooperation as among the most important areas for expanding economic ties between Iran and India.
Fars – Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki here on Saturday evening voiced Iran’s readiness to share experience with Gambia. In a meeting with Gambian Vice-President Isatou Njie-Saidy, he called for further expansion of bilateral cooperation in the areas of energy, health and agriculture.
MEMRI – The Popular Democratic Front of Ahwazi Arabs in Iran claimed that the Iranian regime had been recruiting Arab students in Ahwaz (in western Iran) for the Iranian Intelligence, to carry out espionage and terrorist activities in Arab countries.
Rooz – At least twelve women’s rights activists were arrested by security officers in Tehran this week. Among the arrested are ten members of the One Million Signatures Campaign for women’s equality, and two members of the “Mothers for Peace” group.
Payvand – Photos: Handicraft Exhibition in Shiraz, Iran

survey for a location for the soon-to-be-founded Forward Operating Base Mescall, Afghanistan

U.S. Soldiers from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, and members of Romania's 21st Mountain Division assess an area of land for the site survey for a location for the soon-to-be-founded Forward Operating Base Mescall, Afghanistan, March 25, 2009, near FOB Lagman, Afghanistan. (photo by Christopher S. Barnhart)

South Asia

Asharq Al Awsat – Insurgent attacks and a roadside bomb killed 10 Afghan security force members in at least four incidents across Afghanistan, officials said Sunday.
Press TV – Suspected militants have attacked a police convoy in Herat Province, killing four police officers, says the Afghan Interior Ministry.
RFERL – Security officials in Afghanistan’s Khost Province have impounded a truck loaded with more than three tons of explosives, RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan (RFA) reports. The chief of the Khost City Security Department, Abdulqayum Baqizoy, told RFA that the truck crossed the Afghan-Pakistani border during the night of March 26. He said terrorists planned to use the truck for an attack against a local government building on March 27.
Bakhtar – Two containers providing food and logistic support for international soldiers based in Paktia province were set ablaze by Taliban insurgents.
Pentagon – Lt. Florence B. Choe, 35, of El Cajon, Calif., and Lt. j.g. Francis L. Toner IV, 26, of Narragansett, R.I., died March 27 when an Afghan National Army soldier opened fire on personnel assigned to Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan at Camp Shaheen, Mazar-E-Sharif, Afghanistan.
Dawn – US Defense Secretary Robert Gates urged Pakistan’s powerful intelligence service to cut contacts with extremists in Afghanistan, which he called an ‘existential threat’ to Pakistan itself, AFP reports. Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence has had links with extremists ‘for a long time, as a hedge against what might happen in Afghanistan if we were to walk away or whatever,’ he said on ‘Fox News Sunday.’
Daily Times – President Asif Ali Zardari recommended to the prime minister to lift governor’s rule in Punjab in his address to a joint sitting of the parliament on Saturday, and offered his party’s support to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate for chief minister.
AFP – Taliban militants abducted 12 police officers in a pre-dawn attack Sunday in a tribal region where a suicide attack on a mosque this week killed around 50 worshippers, officials said. The insurgents surrounded a tribal police check post 35 kilometres southeast of Peshawar city in the lawless Khyber region before driving the captured officers away, local government official Rahat Gul said.
RTTNews – Saturday, militants attacked a NATO terminal in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan damaging at least 12 shipping containers of supplies to NATO soldiers in Afghanistan. The attack took place in the early hours of the day at the Farhad terminal with the fighters fleeing upon police firing. The militants are reported to have fired four rockets on the terminal after which a fire broke out destroying several trucks parked in the vicinity.
Animesh Roul – Nearly 75 people killed including security force personnel and over 150 others injured in a deadly suicide blast triggered inside a mosque during Friday prayers near Baghiari check post area in Jamrud (Khyber Agency) on March 27. The Mosque was located on the busy Peshawar-Torkham Highway, which is one of the important NATO supply routes. Undoubtedly, the blast was targeted at the worshippers (mostly people from nearby villages), and security forces stationed inside and near the Mosque premise. Even though no organization has taken responsibility for the mosque attack, the finger of suspicion pointed towards the Taliban elements who warned to attack security posts on the supply route for NATO and US troops in Afghanistan.
The News – Security forces on Saturday claimed to have killed 26 militants and destroyed several hideouts of terrorists in the Yakaghund Tehsil of the restive Mohmand Agency.
Khabrien – Pakistan’s Jamaat-e-Islami party has said that US President Obama has declared open war against Pakistan by accusing the country of being a stronghold of al-Qaeda and Taliban. Jamaat chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad and its new chief-elect Syed Munawar Hasan demanded of the government to evolve a collective national policy on the matter by taking all political parties into confidence and holding a debate in the parliament.
Pak Tribune – President Asif Ali Zardari urged Parliament to find out concrete and durable solution of Balochistan issue while amendment can also be made in the constitution in this respect. Balochistan was integral and important part of Pakistan and government would mobilize all resources for the prosperity and development of the province, he said. All the injustices done to Balochistan in the past would be compensated, he assured.
The National – The last time Akhtar Mengal tried to protest against the military clampdown on Baluchistan, he was arrested on dubious terrorism charges, held in solitary confinement and stood trial while locked in an iron cage. Almost a year after Pakistan’s civilian leadership secured his release from prison, the leader of the Baluchistan National Party is again trying to put on mass rallies in his native province.
India Defence – Supersonic BrahMos cruise missile Block II was tested today with a striking range of 290 km, successfully hit its target during a test at the Pokhran firing range today, DRDO officials said. “The missile was successfully launched at 1115 hours in the morning and in the next two-and-a-half minutes, it hit the bull’s eye in the Pokhran firing range in Rajasthan,” an official told reporters. This was the third test-firing of the latest Block II version of the missile.
Guardian – In Dantewada, in the heart of the world’s biggest democracy, civil war is flaring, claiming nearly 1,000 lives in the past two years. Gethin Chamberlain reports from the jungle hideouts of the Naxal rebels who are ordering villagers to boycott the election – and whose increasing strength is straining the Indian security services to breaking point. In the heart of the Indian jungle, someone has built a war memorial, a stepped cement pyramid rising out of the red dirt. The names of three residents of the village of Pedda Korma are etched into it. They are not soldiers or police, but martyrs of the Maoist Naxal insurgency.
Hindu – At least four persons were killed and 13 others injured, six of them critically, early on Sunday in a powerful explosion at a house in Purushottampur, 50 km from here, where allegedly crude bombs were being made, police said.
Sri Lanka MoD – Troops of 58 div engaged in fierce battle with LTTE terrorist right throughout the day March(28). As troops are advancing to breach the LTTE built earth bunt, the last barrier built by the terrorist to resist the advancing troops in North of Iranapalai. According to the military reports received from the battle front LTTE terrorist suffered considerable damages intercepting LTTE communication channel Electronic warfare (EW) source confirm that many number of terrorist were killed while more other received injuries during the confrontation.
Daily Star – After some initial headway in the probe into the Pilkhana carnage, investigators are also training their focus on successive events at different BDR battalions across the country which could have led to a ‘civil war’. The investigators say they have so far identified 37 spots where a group of jawans either mutinied or attempted to do so.

Far East & Pacific

Chosun Ilbo – South Korea, Japan and the United States dispatched five Aegis class vessels, including the South’s King Sejong the Great destroyer, to track down a rocket North Korea is poised to launch. The missile has apparently been set up at a launch pad in Musudan-ri, North Hamgyong Province. A South Korean military source on Thursday said Seoul decided to immediately deploy the King Sejong the Great in the East Sea when it became clear the North had set up the rocket.
Yonhap – North Korea’s rocket launch is likely to take place between April 6-8, government officials in Seoul forecast on Sunday, citing a long-term weather forecast for the sky over the North’s rocket launch site on its east coast.
Japan Times – Patriot missile launchers have been deployed to several spots in Tokyo and northeast Japan in preparation for the launch of a North Korean rocket that Japan fears might fail and damage its territory. It is the first time Japan has attempted to fully mobilize the missile shield system since it began building it in conjunction with the United States in 2003.
VOA – Military officials say 20 Muslim rebels and seven soldiers have been killed in clashes in the southern Philippines. Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Ponce said Saturday that soldiers clashed with about 80 Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas Friday near the town of Mamasapano on the island of Mindanao.
Jakarta Post – Al-Qaida-linked militants who have threatened to behead three Red Cross hostages, rejected a limited pullout of government forces in exchange for the release of one of the captives, an official said Sunday. Sulu provincial governor Abdusakur Tan said Abu Sayyaf commander Albader Parad told him by phone on Sunday that a limited withdrawal of more than 1,000 marines, police and armed village guards on southern Jolo island was unacceptable, adding that the militants would not release any hostages.
The Australian – The future of Defence Department secretary Nick Warner hangs in the balance amid mounting concern he is the wrong person to implement the Government’s ambitious reforms of one of its biggest, costliest and most unwieldy departments. The Australian understands that, despite public comments to the contrary by Mr Warner, festering tensions between him and Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon’s office have reached a turning point.
Canberra Times – The Australian Federal Police have not been asked to help investigate claims that elements within the Defence Department have been engaged in an unauthorised investigation of their own minister.
Irrawaddy – The 64th anniversary of Armed Forces Day was observed on Friday in Naypyidaw with the troops on parade before high-ranking members of the junta. The 400,000-man army, navy and air force, called the tatmadaw, is one of the most battle-tested forces in Southeast Asia, having engaged ongoing armed Communist insurgents and armed ethnic separatist armies for more than six decades.
news.com.au – Thousands of government and opposition supporters have converged on a sleepy district in Malaysia’s north, for an electoral clash that will test the new leadership of Najib Razak. The semi-rural electorate of Bukit Gantang in Perak state is the headline contest in a series of three by-elections to be held on April 7, just days after Najib is likely to be sworn in as prime minister.
Straits Times – The candidate for Japan’s opposition party on Sunday appeared headed for defeat in a key local poll, dealing a fresh blow to the party’s scandal-hit leader ahead of general elections, local media said.
New Zealand Herald – The Navy and Air Force have teamed up for a night launch of a live missile at a sea-based target. These pictures, taken through night vision goggles, show a naval Seasprite helicopter launching an air-to-surface AGM65 Maverick missile.
PACAF Pixels – Tech. Sgt. Cohen Young from the Defense Media Activity – Hawaii narrates a photo slide show about the recent participation of an Air Force C-17 in Auckland, New Zealand. This was the first time in nearly 30 years the Air Force participated in this particular event.

Europe

NY Times – Leaders of the two biggest political parties agreed that the Czech Republic should hold an early election, a first step to overcoming a political crisis brought on by a no-confidence vote in the government, it was reported Saturday.
Reuters – Hungary’s Socialists and liberal Free Democrats failed once again to agree on a new prime minister on Sunday but promised to continue negotiations on Monday, Free Democrat Chairman Gabor Fodor said.
Today’s Zaman – Spanish police detained a PKK terrorist, Eyyüp Doru, in Madrid capital of Spain. Spanish police continued operations after detaining Remzi Kartal, a former lawmaker from the disbanded Democracy Party (DEP) and a terror suspect who was sought for his alleged crimes in Turkey, on March 24 in Madrid.
CNN – A senior Spanish judge has ordered prosecutors to investigate whether key Bush aides should be charged with crimes over the Guantanamo Bay detention center, a lawyer said Sunday. Investigating magistrate Baltasar Garzon has passed a 98-page complaint to prosecutors that accuses former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and five others of being the legal architects of system that allowed torture in violation of international law.
HCSS – On the 26th of March HCSS and the Security & Defence Agenda will be presenting the findings of the New Horizons report during an evening debate in Brussels. Afterwards, a distinguished panel of ambassadors, EU and NATO officials will discuss whether and how the alliance’s crisis in solidarity may be overcome. (read report here, 13M PDF)
Washington Post – This country may be politically neutral, but the Swiss are girding for battle to protect one of their most cherished values: banking secrecy.
BBC – Exit polls from a referendum on the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte indicate its people have voted in favour of it becoming an integral part of France. The referendum has caused controversy in the region, because the Comoros have always laid claim to the island. The AU considers Mayotte to be part of the Comoros and therefore part of Africa. It is a predominantly Muslim country, where polygamy is practiced and girls can marry at the age of 15.

Africa

Shabelle – Sheik Muse Agaweyne, a chairman of Hirab traditional elders has said on Sunday that they had talked to the warring sides who fought recently in Yaqshid district in the Somali capital Mogadishu and agreed on a ceasefire agreement between them. Sheik Agaweyne told Shabelle radio that they had sent committees to end the disagreement between the two rival sides who were fighting in Yaqshid district in Mogadishu over the past three days killing 10, injuring more than 30 in the fighting and he urged the committees to work the peace.
Garowe – The president of Somalia’s Government of National Unity has angrily criticized Al Qaeda terror group’s leader Osama Bin Laden for urging Islamist rebels to overthrow the Somali government, Radio Garowe reports.
Al Jazeera – Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, has arrived in Qatar on the eve of an Arab League summit, defying an arrest warrant issued against him for alleged war crimes in Darfur. Al-Bashir was greeted on a red carpet at the international airport in Doha, the Qatari capital, by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, on Sunday before the pair had coffee with Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League.
Javno – Al Qaeda’s North African arm has demanded 20 of its members be released from detention in Mali and other countries as a condition for releasing six Western hostages, an Algerian newspaper reported on Saturday. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has said it is holding two Canadian diplomats seized in Niger in December, including the U.N. special representative to the West African country, and four European tourists kidnapped nearby in Mali in January.
Telegraph – Traditional Islamic leaders from across West Africa are meeting to try and form a common front against al-Qaeda’s growing influence in the region. Amid the hectic bustle of people and vehicles on the streets of Mali’s capital city, Bamako, there are signs of the growing influence of austere Islamic practice that is causing social rifts across Africa.
The Standard – Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has ordered police to arrest people spearheading the new wave of farm invasions saying land grabbing was retrogressive to national development.
AFP – Police on Saturday fired warning shots and teargas at supporters of Madagascar’s ousted president Marc Ravalomanana as they rallied for a sixth consecutive day of protest, leaving 31 people injured. Officers took action to prevent around 20,000 protestors who had gathered at gardens in the capital Antananarivo to march to another city square.
AP – A stampede at a World Cup qualifying soccer match in the Ivory Coast killed at least 22 people and wounded 132 Sunday, the Minister of the Interior announced on state TV. Desire Tagro said fans pushed against each other, setting off a panic that led to the stampede at the game between the Ivory Coast and Malawi.

near Observation Post Bari Alai near the town of Nishagam in Konar province

An Afghan national army soldier marches with Latvian army Maj. Juris Abolins, leading Latvian officer in the Observer, Mentor, Liaison Team, and members of the U.S. Army and Afghan national police, after returning from Observation Post Bari Alai near the town of Nishagam in Konar province, Afghanistan, March 18, 2009. (photo by Sgt. Matthew Moeller)

The Global War

WSJ – Security researchers said they have discovered software capable of stealing information installed on computers in 103 countries, an apparently coordinated cyber-attack that targeted the office of the Dalai Lama and government agencies around the world. The software infected more than 1,200 computers in all, almost 30% of which are considered high-value targets, according to a report published Sunday by Information Warfare Monitor, a Toronto-based organization. They traced the attacks to computers located in China, but stop short of blaming the Chinese government (Read the report.)
CSIS – Anthony H. Cordesman, CSIS Burke Chair in strategy, has written a new report that provides important insights into the trends of the war in Afghanistan, and shows the situation at the point when President Obama announces his new strategy.
Xinhua – The Moscow conference on Afghanistan was held Friday under the auspices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional security organization comprising Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The meeting, primarily aimed at finding a new way out for war-ravaged Afghanistan, was also attended by representatives of Group of Eight members, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Iran, the United Nations, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Sights & Sounds

ABC (AU) – Military analyst Anthony Cordesman from the Center for Strategic and International Studies says there are serious risks in the new Afghanistan strategy but he says it’s the best strategy available and could be successful.