A brief world news roundup for 22 June 2009.

United States & the Americas

• The Nation – Chief of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Leon E Panetta will visit Pakistan in the next few days with plans seeking an important role for India in the US counter-terrorism efforts for the region. Though there has been no word from the US Embassy, credible diplomatic sources told TheNation on Sunday that Panetta in line with US AfPak policy for Afghanistan and Pakistan would discuss these proposals with Pakistani authorities during his upcoming visit
• FBI – On Thursday, June 18, 2009, in U.S. District Court in Knoxville,Tenn., U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan, Jr., sentenced Roy Lynn Oakley, 67, of Harriman, Tenn., to six years in prison for trying to sell parts of uranium enrichment equipment that he had stolen from a U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) facility in Oak Ridge.
• Columbia Reports – Colombia’s Defense Minister and Armed Forces Commander Freddy Paddilla Saturday said the country’s largest rebel group FARC is on the verge of being defeated.
• AP – Much attention is given Mexican drug cartels warring over lucrative transport routes to the U.S. But more and more, they’re battling for an exploding number of Mexican consumers, a market that barely existed a decade ago
• Miami Herald – Mexico has deployed 1,500 more troops to the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, where homicides related to the drug trade have surged in recent weeks.
• SOUTHCOM – The first events for Fuerzas Comando 2009, the U.S. Southern Command’s sixth annual Special Forces competition and hosted this year by Brazil, began Thursday

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• Civil Georgia – Gela Bezhuashvili, the head of Georgian intelligence service, said Russia had intensified efforts aimed at “destabilizing” Georgia and “overthrowing” the Georgian government, including through “supporting the idea of early elections.”
• Chan Akya – The inaugural summit of the BRIC group of countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – took place in Yekaterinburg in Russia, the site being of more historic importance than the outcome of the actual summit suggested.
• Kavkaz Center – The fate of a Chechen leader’s son, who was deported by Egypt on Friday, is unknown, his family and rights group Memorial said. Maskhud Abdullayev, the son of Supyan Abdullayev, a Chechen commander fighting Russian rule in Chechnya, and his companion Akhmed Azimov “were taken to Moscow on an airplane Friday, but the welcoming party did not see them among the passengers,” Memorial said in a statement on Saturday
• Russia Today – The driver of a medical support vehicle accompanying EU monitors has been killed in an explosion in the west of Georgia
• RIA Novosti – Two militants were killed in a shootout with police in Russia’s North Caucasus Republic of Daghestan, a spokesman for the republican Interior Ministry said on Sunday.
• APA – All details of an armed incident occurred on Azerbaijan-Iran borders were identified. The armed incident occurred in Asadli Village of Azerbaijan’s Jalilabad Region bordering on Islamic Republic of Iran, APA correspondent reports from the site. Border guards identified two men attempting to pass the Azerbaijan-Iran borders illegally
• EurasiaNet – When Nursultan Nazarbayev took charge of Soviet Kazakhstan 20 years ago, he could scarcely have imagined that two years later he would be running his own country, and less that two decades later he would still be at the helm of an energy-rich state.

Middle East

• Al Sumaria – In Mosul, gunmen attacked the house of Iraqi National Karate team’s coach Izzat Abdullah and killed him in Al Zohour District.
• AP – Police have blamed al-Qaeda in Iraq for a truck bomb that killed more than 70 people and say the attack bears all the hallmarks of the terrorist group.
• Xinhua – Insurgents shot dead six Iraqi policemen in separate attacks in a western Baghdad neighborhood, a well-informed police source said on Sunday.
• Newsweek – Kurdistan’s oil ambitions over fears that independent energy revenue could help bolster the region’s bid for political autonomy. Earlier this month the Iraqi government vetoed the Kurds’ Nabucco arrangement, saying that the Kurdish regional government could not strike its own energy deals without violating Iraq’s Constitution. Baghdad offered to supply Europe from another field instead—one not under Kurdish control—but it couldn’t promise gas until 2014 at the earliest.
• Haaretz – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday extended the tenure of Mossad chief Meir Dagan for an eighth year, a testament to the spymaster’s perceived success in waging shadow wars against Iran and its allies.
• SANA – The Israeli warplanes on Saturday renewed their violation of the Lebanese airspace and carried out provocative flying over all the Lebanese areas, Lebanese Army Command said in a statement. The statement added that four Israeli warplanes flew over al-Naqoura village, circling over al-Arz, Shekka, Hermel and Bent Jbail, southern Lebanon and left towards the occupied Palestinian territories.
• Saban Kardas – Erdogan Avoids Confrontation with the Military over Alleged Plot

Iran

• Payvand – Mousavi’s statement number 5 to Iranian people
• Times of India – The daughter of Iran’s former president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani and four relatives were arrested over their involvement in protests against alleged election fraud in Iran, the Fars news agency reported on Sunday
• IRIB – Agents of the terrorist group Monafeqin grouplet (Mujahedin Khalq Organization) have been found and arrested among the agitators of Tehran streets in the past few days, according to Intelligence Ministry. Arrested people have confessed that after being trained in Iraq, they have infiltrated into Iran and that they were guided and supported by MKO operation room in Britain.
• Rooz – While newspapers and the state-run television of the Islamic Republic of Iran try to attribute the recent violence to reformist presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s supporters, the conclusions of an investigative Majlis committee stress the direct interference of counter-insurgency and plainclothesmen in the destruction and destabilizing the public domain of the country.
• Chatham House – A survey of Iran’s election results, published today by Chatham House and the University of St Andrews, raises serious questions about the plausibility of the claimed victory and demonstrates irregularities in the official results.
• Al Arabiya – The Dubai-based television channel Al Arabiya said on Sunday that its Tehran bureau has been ordered to remain closed indefinitely for “unfair reporting” of last week’s disputed presidential election.
• MEMRI – Britain has frozen $1.6 Billion in Iranian assets as part of the U.E. and Security Council sanctions on this country.
• WSJ – The Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies, one of the world’s most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale.
• Al Manar – The Iranian air force will begin an extensive exercise Monday in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman in order to raise “its operational and support capability,” the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported on Sunday.
• UPI – Iran’s defense ministry claims that it has reverse-engineered the MIM-23B Hawk surface-to-air missile manufactured by the Raytheon Corp. and is producing the system to bolster sits defenses against possible US or Israeli air strikes (h/t DPN)

An Afghan national security force member spots enemy fighters as a U.S. Special Operations Forces joint terminal attack controller radios coordinates of an insurgent lookout point atop a mountain to F-18 Hornet fighter jet pilots flying overhead in Chenartu village located in Shawali Kot District, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, June 17. Recent clearing operations conducted by U.S. SOF and ANSF have proven to disrupt improvised explosive device manufacturing and distribution in the region. (photo by Cpl. Sean Harp)

South Asia

• Dvids – Two military service members were killed, while at least six other personnel were wounded in an early morning indirect fire attack on Bagram Air Field, June 21
• Bakhtar – Sixteen Taliban fighters have been killed as a result of mopping up operation of the Security police in Orouzgan province. The press office of the Ministry of Interior Affairs reported to BNA
• Xinhua – Eight Afghan civilians were killed and over a dozen others got wounded as a bus ran over a roadside bomb in Afghanistan’s southern Zabul province, police said Sunday. “The incident occurred Saturday afternoon in Arghandab district when the victims were coming from a memorial ceremony of a Taliban commander Mullah Hekmatullah who was killed days ago by security forces,” deputy to provincial police chief Ghulam Jilani Khan told Xinhua. He also added that the father and mother of Hekmatullah were also among those killed in the roadside blast.
• Daily Times – Security forces backed by jet fighters and artillery have killed at least 32 Taliban in South Waziristan while an officer and five jawans lost their lives in preparation for the launch of Operation Rah-e-Nijat against Baitullah Mehsud, the military said on Saturday
• Chitral News – Eleven Taliban combatants were killed in Doog Darra area of Dir Upper by armed villagers and artillery shelling by security forces as the militants started fleeing the area after giving up resistance. Also, the Chitral police arrested 10 fleeing militants, including an Afghan national, who was in an injured condition, when they sneaked into the district to escape the villagers onslaught.
• Geo – The security forces Sunday continued operation against the terrorists in Bajaur Agency, where casualties are feared. According to sources, the security forces overnight bombarded on the hideouts of extremists in Chamrming area of Tehsil Naogai, destroying several of their hideouts
• The News – Security forces on Friday killed 15 more militants and injured seven others in a shootout in the Charmang area of Bajaur Agency, while 47 wanted persons surrendered to the authorities in neighbouring Mohmand Agency.
• The Nation – Baitullah Mehsud, chief of Taliban militants, has turned a deaf ear to the request of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Muhammad Omar Akhund of halting terrorist acts in Pakistan and focusing all of his activities against the United States-led allies inside Afghanistan. “Mullah Omar is our Ameer but like Afghanistan, they are determined to continue resistance in Pakistan,” Baitullah Mehsud told the high-ranking delegation of Taliban who met him recently in Waziristan region.
• The National – Among the many Islamist political movements in Pakistan, only one has unequivocally and consistently demonstrated against military operations aimed at crushing the Taliban: Hizb-ut-Tahrir.
• Calcutta Telegraph – Twelve CRPF jawans were killed in Chhattisgarh when Maoists blew up their truck using a landmine and sprayed bullets aiming at the vehicle. Initially, the toll was given as five but police later updated it to 12. Seven Maoists were also killed in the gun battle

Far East & Pacific

• Yonhap – South Korea said Monday it has completed the development of a guided missile that is first launched into the air before submerging underwater to release a torpedo.
• Khaleej Times – A North Korean ship that the United States is shadowing is likely headed for Myanmar, South Korean television reported on Sunday. YTN channel quoted a South Korean intelligence source as saying the final destination of the Kang Nam looks to be Myanmar after leaving a North Korean port on Wednesday.
• Chosun Ilbo – The health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is rapidly deteriorating, prompting the hasty decision to name his third son Jong-un as heir apparent, sources told the Chinese press.
• Japan Times – Japan has avoided extending its territorial waters to cover five key straits to avoid political disputes arising from the passage of U.S. warships carrying nuclear weapons, according to accounts of former top Japanese officials.
• NY Times – Insurgents in southern Thailand are using a network of Islamic schools to recruit fighters, but their movement does not appear to be linked to Al Qaeda or other foreign Islamist groups, according to a study due to be released Monday.
• Bangkok Post – Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has refused to back down after reopening a debate over an ancient temple on the disputed border with Cambodia which has provoked bloody clashes. Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has refused to back down after reopening a debate over the ancient temple which has provoked bloody clashes. Bangkok this week asked world heritage body UNESCO to reconsider its decision to formally list the 11th century Preah Vihear temple in Cambodia, as ownership of land surrounding the ruins is still in dispute.
• Gulfnews – Marines pursuing the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu will not allow the militants breathing space as part of a new tactic that focuses on eroding the latter’s fighting capability through attrition.
• Irrawaddy – A joint force of troops from the Burmese army and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), a ceasefire militia group, has focused its offensive on the headquarters of Brigade 7 of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), according to Karen sources. In response, KNLA Brigade 7 has increased its mortar shelling of the joint force, said the sources.

Europe

• AP – Portugal will take in two or three Guantanamo detainees once they are released by the U.S. detention center, the foreign minister said.
• BBC – An Italian Mafia fugitive, listed as one of the country’s 30 most dangerous men, has been arrested in Venezuela, Italian police say.
• Guardian – Silvio Berlusconi today promised he would “hang tough” in the face of a growing scandal over the alleged procurement of women for his social events, as a third woman stepped forward to confirm details of the night last November on which he allegedly had sex with a paid escort.
• Reuters – Russian spies are targeting the German energy sector to help Russian firms gain commercial advantages, the head of Germany’s domestic counter-espionage unit said Sunday.
• The Local – Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday called for a full re-count of votes cast in Iran’s disputed presidential election and for authorities to renounce violence against demonstrators.

Africa

• Shabelle – Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, the leader of the Islamist organization of Hisbul Islam has said on Sunday that they will fight with any foreign troops that the TFG demanded on Saturday.
• Mareeg – Al Shabaab administrators in the port town of Kismayu have threatened on Sunday that they would attack the tall buildings in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya
• Mareeg – More Ethiopian troops have reached in Balanbal, a Somali border town in Galgadud region in central Somalia, witnesses said on Sunday.
• IOL – Nigerian militant group MEND said it had attacked two oil pipelines belonging to Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell in the southern Rivers state on Sunday.
• This Day – The Nigerian Army yesterday said it had begun  direct disarmament talks with militant groups in the Niger Delta, in what is seen as the first public acknowledgement of military-militants talks since President Umar Musa Yar’Adua made an amnesty offer to the militants on April 2
• Magharebia – In an internet statement, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for last week’s terrorist ambush near Bordj Bou Arreridj that claimed the lives of 24 Algerian gendarmes
• New Vision – The?UPDF has killed 80 warriors and recovered 622 guns with 4,295 bullets in the last six months in Karamoja.

Surface units from Denmark, Sweden, Germany, England and the U.S. take station behind the amphibious command ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20) during exercise Baltic Operations 2009. This is the 37th iteration of BALTOPS and is intended to improve interoperability with partner nations by conducting realistic training at sea with the 12 participating nations. (photo by Ensign Tomas G. Caveror)

The Global War

• US Navy – Exercise Northern Edge 2009 officially kicked off at Elmendorf Air Force Base and numerous locations across the massive training grounds of Alaska June 15. Participants from all branches of the military are training together in order to hone their tactics, techniques and procedures associated with defensive counter-air, close-air support, air interdiction of marine targets and personnel recovery missions.
• Press TV – A top al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan says his men ‘will’ use Pakistan’s nuclear weapons against the US, should they be able to get their hands on any.
• Daily Times – For the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, money is coming mostly from extortion, crime and drugs, an AP investigation claims. Funding for the Al Qaeda is more diverse and included money from new recruits, donations from sympathisers, and a cut of profits from honey dealers in Yemen and Pakistan.

Sights & Sounds

Gary Sick and Afshin Molavi: Worldwise: Witnessing History in Iran – Deep divisions within the Iranian regime… Moussavi, the “accidental leader” of the opposition… Eroding legitimacy and expanding repression… Obama’s huge challenge… Afshin: What Bloggingheads viewers can do… Political Islam: It’s not easy being green

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DW – Authorities in Somalia have declared a state of emergency and appealed for urgent military help from neighboring countries. Senior officials admit that Al-Shabab insurgents could topple the government.

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BBC – John Sweeney flies into the Swat Valley where the Pakistani military’s been fighting Taleban militants; John Simpson’s among the protestors on the streets of Tehran; Jamie Coomarasamy is in the Texas community where the grieving never seems to stop; Frank Partridge is in Athens where the call for the return of the Elgin Marbles is louder than ever and Kevin Connolly investigates the prickly cyber world of the internet hotel reviewer.

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