A brief world news roundup for 15 October 2009.

United States & the Americas

• US Senate – Confronting Al-Qaeda: Understanding the Threat in Afghanistan and Beyond; Hearing before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
• Treasury Dept – The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today targeted the senior leadership of the Kongra-Gel, designating as significant foreign narcotics traffickers, Murat KARAYILAN, the head of the Kongra-Gel, and high-ranking members Ali Riza ALTUN and Zubayir AYDAR.  Formally known as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Kongra-Gel was named by the President as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act) on May 30, 2008
• AP – The airport shuttle driver accused of plotting a bombing in New York had contacts with al-Qaida that went nearly all the way to the top, to an Osama bin Laden confidant believed to be the terrorist group’s leader in Afghanistan, U.S. intelligence officials told The Associated Press
• Toronto Star – A Canadian diplomat warned the federal government in writing early in 2006 that Afghan prisoners faced the possibility of torture – reports that have been smothered under a blanket of national security. The politically explosive revelation was made in an affidavit filed by Richard Colvin – now an intelligence officer with the Foreign Affairs Department – to the Military Police Complaints Commission, which once again adjourned public hearings Wednesday
• Miami Herald – Honduras’ opposing factions agreed on nearly every point of a pact to end the political crisis except the central issue: ousted President Manuel Zelaya’s return to the presidency. Negotiators said Zelaya’s camp has promised that if he returns to power, he will drop his efforts to change the Honduran constitution, an initiative that led to his June 28 ouster.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• Russia Today – Prime Minister Vladimir Putin talked to the Chinese media about a number of issues ranging from international politics to bilateral trade, to his personal feelings about chairing Russia’s government
• Press TV – China and Russia have signed numerous deals valued at $3.5 billion during a visit to Beijing by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Russia agreed to supply energy-hungry China with gas via two Gazprom pipelines from western Siberia and the offshore Sakhalin fields.
• RIA Novosti – Russia’s new military doctrine does not rule out pre-emptive nuclear strikes against potential aggressors, the head of its Security Council said on Wednesday.
• RIA Novosti – Multistage naval exercises involving a mixed task force of Russia’s Pacific Fleet have ended in the Sea of Japan, the fleet said Thursday. The exercises that started October 6 included a three-day anti-submarine warfare drill, which involved eight warships, submarines and support vessels.
• ISN – In 2010-2011, Russia will not have enough conscripts to continue to man its army at current levels, and the strategic and resource-rich Siberian expanses are facing depopulation. How the Kremlin manages this coming crunch will determine whether or not Russia has the human capacities to remain a great power
• Kavkaz Center – Georgian secret services are assisting Al Qaeda emissaries in arranging sending of militants and arms in Chechnya and Dagestan”, said Tuesday speaking at a meeting of gang of NAC (so-called “National Anti-Terrorist Committee”), its leader, Alexander Bortnikov. “Audio evidence seized from militants shows that, together with emissaries of Al-Qaeda, they had contacts with representatives of the Georgian secret services. Through these links, Georgia participated in the training and transfer of terrorists to the territory of Chechnya”, Bortnikov said
• Georgian Times – Georgian Foreign Ministry said on October 13 that Russia’s “utterly false” allegations about Tbilisi aiding Al Qaeda was a cause of “a serious concern”.
• EurasiaNet – What’s more valuable in Central Asia, natural gas or water? Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan may soon find out. A recent Uzbek move to cut gas supplies has many Kyrgyz worrying about how to stay warm this winter. But experts say the gas cut-off may end up being counterproductive for Tashkent because it will encourage Kyrgyzstan to develop its hydro-power generating capacity. That would be a development which potentially causes a significant reduction in the volume of water flowing into Uzbekistan.
• Roger McDermott – On October 6 the French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Astana on a state visit and met his counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev. During his one day visit he also held talks with Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev and the Minister of Economics and Budget Planning Bakhyt Sultanov. A Kazakh-French business forum coincided with his trip, which was designed to deepen bilateral relations
• Benjamin A.T. Graham – Nagorno-Karabakh is an almost forgotten land in the South Caucasus. Little known outside its region, it languishes as an unrecognized state. For fifteen years it has hovered on the margins of the state system fulfilling the empirical criteria of statehood but bearing high costs for its failure to gain international recognition by other states. The key players in achieving full recognition for Karabakh are Azerbaijan and Armenia, and negotiations between the two have continued since the inception of the Prague process in 2004.
• Azer News – Turkey and Armenia`s signing of a historic agreement to establish diplomatic relations and reopen their borders on Saturday, in a bid to end decades of hostility, has angered Azerbaijan.
• Trend – On Oct. 14, in Baku, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and Russia’s Gazprom signed a medium-term contract to supply the Azerbaijani gas to Russia.

Middle East

• Al Jazeera – At least eight people have been killed in three near simultaneous blasts in the Iraqi city of Karbala, police and medical officials have said. The first blast struck around the time of evening prayers on Wednesday, close to one of the Shia holy city’s two major shrines, a police official said.
• Al Sumaria – A suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt blew himself up inside a coffee house in Bahraz District, southern Baaquba, on Tuesday night, targeting the region’s Sahwa leader Layth Mashaan, killing him and nine others
• Voices of Iraq – Iraqi security forces arrested al-Qaeda leader on Tuesday, in eastern Diala , according to a security source. Police forces waged a security operation in al-Mansouriya district, where they arrested al-Qaeda emir of the region, Mohammad Hashem Shahin,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
• Press TV – Iran’s Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar says that Iran and Iraq will share intelligence to fight organized crime.
• AP – The Israeli military says its aircraft struck two smuggling tunnels along the Gaza Strip border after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants hit southern Israel.
• ynet – Representatives of Fatah in Ramallah have signed a preliminary truce deal with Hamas, Palestinian sources said Wednesday, despite recent tension over Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ conduct following the Goldstone report.
• Jerusalem Post – Thousands of weapons caches have been placed in homes scattered in 160 villages in southern Lebanon, senior defense officials said on Tuesday, a day after one such stockpile exploded in the home of a Hizbullah operative in Tayr Filsay, near Tyre.
• Press TV – Saudi security forces have reportedly shot dead two suspected al-Qaeda militants carrying explosive vests near the country’s southern border with Yemen.
• Daily Star – Turkey boosted its ties with Syria on Tuesday at the first meeting of a newly formed cooperation council, only days after Ankara’s relations with Damascus foe Israel took a downturn. The foreign, defense, interior, economy, oil, electricity, agriculture and health ministers of the two countries attended the strategic talks in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.
• MEMRI – Online Jihadists Celebrate Turkey-Syria Accord Canceling Visa Requirement, See Opportunities for Jihad in Iraq and Chechnya
• NOW Lebanon – Al-Arabiya television reported online that mystery remains over the 18.5 billion dollar fortune sent by truck from Iran to Lebanon, which was confiscated by Turkish customs, who then deposited the foreign currency and gold at the Turkish Central Bank. A source close to Iran was quoted by Al-Arabiya as saying that the fortune belongs to an Iranian merchant who wanted to invest it in Turkey, while an Iranian opposition source said the fortune was on its way to Hezbollah
• Al Arabiya – Turkish fans loudly booed Armenia’s national anthem at the start of a World Cup qualifier here Wednesday attended by Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian.

Iran

• Payvand – Student protests at Tehran Open University were confronted with violence on Tuesday. Amir Kabir Newsletter reported 2000 people participated in today’s protests. Reportedly, Basij forces attacked the students with pepper spray, tear gas and truncheons.
• Fars – Iran’s state shipping company dismissed as ‘sheer lies’ Britain’s accusations that the company’s vessels have transported goods related to Iran’s nuclear program. Britain on Monday said it had ordered financial companies to stop all business with Iran’s Bank Mellat and the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL).
• MEMRI – Narges Kalhor, the daughter of Mehdi Kalhour, who is media advisor to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has requested political asylum in Germany, where she arrived to screen her film at a film festival. Also, Iranian TV sports correspondent Mahdi Rostampour requested political asylum in Europe after he left Iran for Europe with Iran’s national wrestling team.
• Rooz – While several official news agencies announced two weeks ago that the Basij force will be merged into the ground force of the Islamic Passdaran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Armed Forces Joint Chief of Staff confirmed the plan and announced the creation of the “IRGC Ground Resistance” force.
• NCRI – The stepped up fighting in Yemen is part of a dexterous plan, prepared by the Iranian regime’s Qods Force unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), within the “Yaman khosh hal” (happy Yemen in Persian) scheme to establish an Islamic emirate, the London based Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Wednesday
• ISNA – Iran and South Korea’s GS Company signed a 1240-million euro agreement to sweeten the gas extracted from phases 6, 7 and 8 of South Pars gas field.
• Mehr – Ammar Hakim, leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, met with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday, October 13, in Tehran. During the meeting Ahmadinejad said enemies are not happy with a peaceful and developed Iraq.

South Asia

• Asia Times – Al-Qaeda’s guerrilla chief lays out strategy; A high-level meeting on October 9 at the presidential palace between Pakistan’s civil and military leaders endorsed a military operation against the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda in the South Waziristan tribal area – termed by analysts as the mother of all regional conflicts.
• Dawn – Tens of thousands of civilians have fled Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal region fearing an imminent army offensive against Taliban militants, officials said Wednesday.
• Daily Times – Security forces evicted Taliban from one of their strongholds in Bajaur Agency on Wednesday, said officials. A tribal lashkar also joined troops to flush out Taliban from Mulla Sayed areas in Salarzai tehsil, according to military officials. According to witness accounts, at least 30 Taliban have been killed in the agency over the last three days
• Geo – US Consul General Stephen G. Fakan again claimed that the Taliban militants have their presence in Quetta, urging the government to take necessary action against them. Addressing the newsmen during a press conference here, he said, “They have their existence in Quetta and the Government of Pakistan should root them out from here.” He warned of occurrence of Waziristan-like situation in the province if according to him the ‘necessary action’ was not taken against Taliban in Quetta, a private TV channel reports.
• Geo – At least four persons were killed and seven others sustained injuries in suspected US drone strike in Miranshah area located in Pakistan’s North Waziristan Agency (NWA) late on Wednesday night, Geo news reported
• AFPS – A security force killed more than a dozen insurgents and detained a suspect after searching a mountainside compound in Kunar province known to be used by an al-Qaida commander and his element believed to be responsible for trafficking foreign fighters and conducting numerous attacks in Pech Valley
• AFP – Nearly 50 Taliban insurgents have been killed and about two dozen wounded in separate incidents across Afghanistan, while two Afghan soldiers have also been killed, officials said Wednesday. In a joint operation on Tuesday, Afghan forces together with US-led troops killed 30 militants and wounded another 20 in Chora district, in the southern province of Uruzgan, the interior ministry said.
• Xinhua – Over 68 Taliban insurgents laid down their arms and surrendered to the government in western Herat province of Afghanistan on Wednesday, head of Strengthening Peace Committee Hazrat Sharif Mujadadi said. Their surrender took place in the wake of the killing of Taliban key commander Ghulam Yahya Akbari days ago.
• MEMRI – Top Afghan Official: New Types Of Iranian Mines Are Being Brought Into Afghanistan
• ISW – ISW has released a new set of maps from our latest report on Helmand Province, Afghanistan
• Xinhua – Visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani praised the important role play by Chinese enterprises in Pakistani economic development when addressing Pakistan-China Trade and Investment Forum in Beijing Wednesday. There are about 120 Chinese companies investing in Pakistan, which employ 10,000 Chinese workers.
• Times of India – A day after sparring with China over Arunachal, India objected to Chinese engagement in projects in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and asked it to cease such activities taking “long-term view” of India-China relations.
• SAAG – As the time approaches for the proposed visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh next month to declare open a hospital built with contributions from the Tibetan exile community, China has stepped up its rhetoric against India

Far East & Pacific

• Chosun Ilbo – A South Korean official says North Korea test-fired five short-range missiles Monday off the east coast of the communist state. The official says North Korea warned vessels to avoid its east coast from Oct. 10 to 20, an indication that it was planning missile launches. No other details of the missile test were available
• Japan Times – Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa reaffirmed Tuesday that the Japanese refueling mission in the Indian Ocean will be terminated in January when the law authorizing it expires.
• Manila Times – Security forces arrested an Abu Sayyaf militant suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of dozens of teachers and students in nearby Basilan island in 2000, officials said Tuesday. The suspect, Alih Mandangan, was apprehended by government soldiers Monday night in the village of Rio Hondo
• Narinjara – Bangladesh Army Chief Lt Gen Abdul Mubin inspected the tension-ridden Alikadam area, close to the Burma border, to review the latest border situation. This is the first time a Bangladesh Army chief has visited the border area after tension escalated with Burma.

Moonlight illuminates the forecastle aboard the guided missile destroyer USS Cole as Sailors prepare for an early morning replenishment-at-sea. Cole is participating in Exercise Joint Warrior 09-2, a United Kingdom-led, multinational and multiwarfare exercise designed to improve interoperability between allied navies as well as to prepare for a role in combined operations during upcoming deployments. (photo by Seaman Matthew Bookwalter)

Europe

• UK MoD – The number of British troops deployed to Afghanistan will now stand at 9,000, increasing to 9,500 only subject to certain conditions, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced today, Wednesday 14 October 2009.
• US Army – More than 100 servicemembers assigned to the U.S. Special Operations Command Europe took part in Jackal Stone ’09, a multinational special operations exercise held Sept. 10 – 27 throughout various locations in Croatia.
• Joshua Kucera – Some estimates, including those of the U.S. Geological Survey, suggest Greenland’s coastal waters could hold anywhere from 16 billion to 47 billion barrels of oil, or 800,000 barrels for every man, woman, and child. That would mean a staggering leap in income for Greenlanders, who until two generations ago were mostly subsistence hunters and fishermen. With such massive potential oil reserves, Greenland is poised to achieve a geopolitical importance it hasn’t had since the invention of Risk.
• NY Times – With an ambitious new pipeline planned to run along the bed of the Baltic Sea, the Russian natural gas giant Gazprom is driving a political wedge between Eastern and Western Europe. While the Russian-German pipeline offers clear energy benefits to Western Europe, Central and Eastern European leaders fear it could lead to a new era of gas-leveraged Russian domination of the former Soviet bloc.
• Prague Monitor – Israel is offering pilotless reconnaissance planes and anti-terrorism computer technologies to the Czech military, Defence Minister Martin Bartak told CTK after Tuesday’s talks with his Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak.
• AKI – Extremist websites have lauded Libyan immigrant Mohammed Game’ s botched bombing of a military barracks in northern Italy – the country’s first attempted suicide attack. Police have arrested two people suspected of helping Game in Monday’s attack, in which he lost a hand, his eyesight and suffered injuries to his face

Africa

• Garowe – Somali insurgent faction Hizbul Islam has vacated posts in the capital Mogadishu that it has controlled in the war against the UN-recognized Somali interim government, Radio Garowe reports.
• Mareeg – Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam rebels fought for the first time between them in Yaqshid district in Mogadishu overnight, witnesses say
• Press TV – A senior Hizbul Islam commander, Shuke Abdirahman Odawa, has joined the Somali government after relinquishing his armed opposition. In a Tuesday meeting with top Somali officials, including National Security Minister Abdullahi Mohammed Ali, at the meeting in the Somali Presidential Palace, Odawa and his armed men denounced the insurgency, pledging support for the government, a Press TV correspondent reported.
• Sudan Tribune – Nigeria is mulling pulling its troops deployed in Sudan’s Western region of Darfur according to one of its officials. Wole Oke, the Nigerian chairman for the House of Representatives Committee on Defence said that his country feels “unappreciated” despite its contributions worldwide, ‘Thisday’ website quoted him.
• Magharebia – Tlemcen security services charged 3 al-Qaeda terror suspects with trafficking explosives into Algeria from Morocco, Tout sur l’Algerie reported on Monday (October 12th). Large quantities of TNT and other bomb-making materials were recovered during the week-end security operation, initiated based on information provided by another armed fighter
• FT – Kenya’s government is in talks with Beijing over development of a multi-billion dollar port and transport corridor that could provide a new export route for Chinese oil in southern Sudan.
• BBC – The situation in northern Democratic Republic of Congo where Lord’s Resistance Army rebels operate is getting worse, a medical charity says. Medecins Sans Frontieres told the BBC hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing renewed rebel attacks.
• Times of Zambia – Police have arrested seven people including two Chinese nationals in connection with the theft of 43.5 tonnes of copper concentrate worth K280 million. The police also arrested another Chinese national for allegedly offering a K3 million bribe to a police officer to secure the freedom of apprehended colleagues in Ndola
• AFRICOM – Vice Admiral Robert T. Moeller, U.S. Africa Command’s deputy to the commander for military operations, spoke at the inaugural conference on Maritime Security at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa, October 13, 2009. Maritime Security Africa 2009 examined maritime surveillance, safety, and security issues from a pan-African perspective.

Marines from the 22d Marine Expeditionary Unit tactically position themselves during an amphibious beach assault demonstration in support of Exercise Bright Star 2009, Oct. 12. The multinational exercise is designed to improve readiness, interoperability and strengthen military-to-military relationships and improve readiness and interoperability between U.S., Egyptian and coalition forces. Bright Star is conducted by U.S. Central Command and is held every two years (photo from 22nd MEU)

The Global War

• Robert Kaplan, The Atlantic – It’s perfectly legitimate for Obama to review Afghanistan strategy and troop numbers. But by calling into question the very strategy that he put into place earlier in the year, when he called Afghanistan the “necessary war,” and promised to properly resource it, Obama is courting charges from the right that he is another ineffectual Jimmy Carter—that other Nobel Peace Prize winner.
• The News – The Taliban are in much stronger financial shape than al-Qaeda and rely on a wide range of criminal activities to pay for attacks on US and coalition forces in Afghanistan, a senior Treasury Department official said on Monday. David Cohen, the department’s assistant secretary for terrorist financing, said the extremist group extorts money from poppy farmers and heroin traffickers involved in Afghanistan’s booming drug trade (see remarks here)

Sights & Sounds

Heather Hurlburt and Eli Lake – Eli: Fighting terrorism in Afghanistan requires counterinsurgency… Heather: “All or nothing” is a false choice for Obama… The tension between politics and security… Has the left tried to rewrite history on the Iraq surge?… Ideological crosscutting and North Korean work songs… On Iran, Eli calls for more duplicitous diplomacy

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DW – Turkey is refusing to open its ports and airports to Cyprus, damaging its chances of entering the EU, but insists it will work to get a more positive report next year

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Lowy Institute – The war in Afghanistan and instability in Pakistan have become the defining foreign policy challenges for the Obama Administration. At this week’s Wednesday Lowy Lunch Club, Professor Anthony Cordesman considered these challenges in a discussion of US policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan

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NPR – As the Obama administration considers its options in Afghanistan — especially whether to send more troops — a more fundamental question continues to be raised about the conflict there: Is the United States doomed to fail? A panel of experts takes on the topic in the latest Intelligence Squared U.S. debate.

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