A brief world news roundup for 26 October 2009.

United States & the Americas

• Pentagon – Press Conference with Secretary Gates During the NATO Defense Ministers Meeting
• Treasury Dept – The U.S. Department of the Treasury designated Amroggang Development Bank (Amroggang) as a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction under Executive Order (E.O.) 13382 for being owned or controlled by North Korea’s Tanchon Commercial Bank (Tanchon). Treasury also today designated Tanchon’s President, Kim Tong Myong.  Tanchon, which is sanctioned by the United States under E.O. 13382 and the UN Security Council under Resolution (UNSCR) 1718 for its involvement in North Korea’s proliferation activities, is a commercial bank based in Pyongyang, North Korea
• JoongAng – In a rare occasion that could help advance the Washington-Pyongyang bilateral talks on ending a nuclear standoff, senior North Korean and American nuclear officials held a face-to-face meeting in New York early Sunday, Korean time
• China Daily – The US military will give a tour of several sensitive military sites, including the strategic command headquarters in charge of nuclear weapons and cyber war, to a top Chinese military leader who will begin his visit there on Saturday, a senior Chinese military officer said.
• McClatchy – This month, the Defense Department awarded $51.9 million to McDonnell Douglas to more quickly adapt a 30,000-pound bunker buster to the B-2 stealth bomber.
• FBI – Former U.S. Army contracting official James Paul Clifton, of Newport News, Virginia, was sentenced to 40 months in prison for accepting more than $80,000 in bribes in exchange for corruptly providing contract work to two Afghan trucking companies
• Press TV – President Evo Morales has announced that Moscow plans to build a “maintenance center for Russian planes that fly in South America” in Bolivia.
• Javno – Uruguayans voted Sunday in a presidential election that could bring to power an ex-guerrilla leader who was shot nine times and twice escaped from jail during the military dictatorship.
• Macleans – Venezuela’s defence minister said Sunday that 10 killings near the border with Colombia may be the work of warring factions in that country’s internal conflict, and said Venezuelan troops are stepping up security.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• Times Online – The scene could have come straight out of The Godfather. More than 1,000 mourners, mainly burly men wearing black leather jackets and chunky gold chains, gathered to pay their last respects to Vyacheslav Ivankov, Russia’s most notorious crime boss
• RT – Russia’s high yield of grain crops this year are giving managers of storage facilities a headache. Low prices are keeping traders from selling grain, meaning there’s too much stock
• Civil Georgia – The U.S. and Georgia begin two-week bilateral military exercises – Immediate Response, on October 24, the U.S. embassy in Tbilisi said in a brief announcement on Friday.
• Georgian Times – Tskhinvali puppet mode demands from Georgian side to resume gas supply to Akhalgori region, otherwise they will block Akhalgori region and cut water to the Georgian villages, on the territory controlled by Georgian side. InterpressNews was informed about it by Akhalgori population
• Kavkaz Center – Despite the late autumn fall and large-scale attempts of infidels and apostates to turn the tide in their favor, the Mujahideen of the Caucasus Emirate continue to attack the invaders and puppet formations. Since the beginning of this week there has been a series of successful sabotage operations against Russian infidels and apostates, resulting in losses for both Russian aggressors and their local puppets. Most notable were the operations in the village of Yarysh-Mardi, Khattuni of Province Nokhchicho (AKA Chechnya) as well as in Yandare village of Province Ghalghaycho (AKA Ingushetia).
• RFERL – An opposition activist from Russia’s Ingushetia region has been shot dead in his car in the latest sign of rising violence in the North Caucasus
• RIA Novosti – Police have discovered a explosives in a shopping mall in the southern Russian city of Nazran, an Interior Ministry spokesman from the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia said on Saturday.
• Caucasian Knot – As reported by a source from the Investigatory Department for Ingushetia of the Russian ICPO (Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor’s Office), on October 22 in the village of Plievo unidentified persons shot dead a lady who owned a small shop, where alcohol was sold
• IWPR – Turkish and Azeri officials this week tried to calm anger sparked in both countries by Ankara’s decision to open diplomatic relations with Armenia. The signing of protocols between the two countries last week enraged many Azeris, who had relied on Turkey to force Armenia to give up its hold on Nagorny Karabakh, which is internationally considered part of Azerbaijan
• OGJ – Turkmenistan has completed construction on its 188-km section of a 7,000-km natural gas pipeline that extends from Turkmenistan to China, according to official media.

Marines with Truck Detachment, II Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group (Forward), stage their convoy at the Marine Corps Logistics Command (Fwd) lot aboard Camp Al Taqaddum, Iraq, Oct. 13 (photo by Cpl. Triah Pendracki)

Middle East

• NY Times – For the second time in two months, synchronized suicide car bombings struck at the heart of the Iraqi government, severely damaging the Justice Ministry and Provincial Council complexes in Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 132 people and raising fresh questions about the government’s ability to secure its most vital operations.
• MNF Iraq – Iraqi Police detained nine suspected al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) members in possession of bomb making materials. One of the nine is believed to be Abdallah Abd Qadir, who is known to have purchased thousands of pounds of ammonium nitrate in 2006. Qadir has ties to known AQI members associated with insurgent activity in Baghdad.
• Voices of Iraq – Two Katyusha rockets landed on a U.S. army base in western al-Kut city on Friday, a local police source said.
• Al Sumaria – Large units of Iraqi troops deployed on Friday along the borders with Syria supported by US helicopters in prevention of suicide bombers infiltration, said a source from Iraqi Borders Guards speaking on condition of anonymity
• Al Jazeera – Israeli police have raided al-Aqsa mosque’s compound, clashing with Muslim worshippers and arresting Palestinian protesters. Al Jazeera has learnt that the clashes erupted on Sunday after Israeli police tried to enter the compound in occupied Jerusalem’s Old City
• Haaretz – Palestinian militants have significantly improved the effectiveness of roadside bombs they deploy against Israel Defense Forces soldiers along the Gaza border, tests conducted by the IDF have found. The tests, which were carried out by the technology department of the IDF Ground Forces Command, revealed that the bombs were very similar to the improvised explosive devices used against U.S. and British forces by militants in Iraq and Afghanistan, such as the Taliban.
• Jerusalem Post – A Lebanese court convicted 11 men of having links to al-Qaida and carrying out terrorist acts, and sentenced them to life in prison, a court official said Saturday. The men – six Palestinians, three Lebanese and two Syrians – were tried in absentia since they are still on the run
• Naharnet – An Egyptian court postponed on Saturday the trial of 26 members of the so-called Hizbullah cell accused of plotting attacks in Egypt till next Wednesday. The court will then start the hearing of witnesses’ testimonies.
• Daily Star – A Saudi court on Saturday sentenced a female journalist to 60 lashes after she had been charged with involvement in a Lebanese TV show in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex.Rozanna al-Yami, 22, is believed to be the first Saudi female journalist to be given such a punishment, but there were conflicting accounts about how the court issued its verdict
• Nosint – Saudi Arabia has expressed interest in buying six P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft from Boeing worth a reported US$1.3 billion (Dh4.8bn), the US aerospace firm says.
• Press TV – Houthi fighters in Yemen say they have killed a top army commander in northern Sa’ada province, where the fighters inflicted heavy losses on government forces
• Saba – Five soldiers are killed and three hurt after saboteurs attack a security patrol and an ambulance in Dhale in south Yemen
• NYT – As Yemen fights rebels, many analysts believe that the conflict is less about controlling terrain than the president’s struggle to reassert his power

Iran

• IAEA – Today, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency departed Vienna International Airport and are expected to arrive in Tehran later today. The inspectors will be visiting a site recently disclosed by Iranian officials, located near Qum, Iran.
• ISNA – Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi called expansion of all-out relations between Iran and Turkey “necessary.” In a meeting with Turkish ambassador to Iran Salim Kara Osman Oglu on Sunday, Rahimi said Iran-Turkey trade cooperation can total over 20 billion dollars a year.
• Fars – Iranian and Indian officials held a meeting to confer on activating the North-South Transport Corridor linking India, Iran, Russia and a host of other countries. The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) was established in 2000 by Iran, Russia and India in order to promote transportation cooperation among the members. Later Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, Oman, Syria and Bulgaria joined the corridor.
• Payvand – Tehran’s Friday prayers, led by Kazem Seddighi, focused on “cleansing” the universities as a means of putting an end to the recent unrest. Mr. Seddighi claimed: “There is need for another revolution in the universities, like the first one.”
• AFP – Iranian authorities have detained 35 relatives and supporters of jailed reformists, including wives and children, the reformist Sarmayeh newspaper reported on Saturday.
• NCRI – Workers at Ahvaz Pipe Mills Co. held a gathering for the second day running on Wednesday October 21 outside the governorates office to protest against non-payment of their wages and bonuses for the past 10 months.
• The Standard – Iran has pledged to buy more Kenyan tea and help link exporters to other buyers in Central Asia. The new Iranian ambassador to Kenya Dr Seyyid Ali Sharifi Sadati called for increased trade relationships between the two countries, saying the West has often unfairly benefited from trade with Africa.
• Press TV – The Iranian Foreign Ministry has summoned Swedish Ambassador to Iran Magnus Wernstedt to protest the large scale violation of rights of minorities in Sweden

South Asia

• Al Arabiya – At least one thousand Afghans took to the streets of Kabul on Sunday to protest against what they said was the desecration of a copy of the Quran by foreign troops during a raid last week
• MEMRI – A high-ranking commander in the Afghan armed forces, Gholam Farough, intimated that Iran had delivered to Herat, Afghanistan 14 long-range missiles that have been discovered by the Afgan army. He added that Iranian groups were involved in destabilizing western Afghanistan, and that armed Afghan oppositionists were being trained in Iranian camps to carry out terrorist attacks in Afghanistan.
• IRIN – A major opium producer just a few years ago, Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar is now believed to be opium free, amid signs the once flourishing olive business is undergoing a revival
• Dawn – A US drone attack on a militant hideout in Damadola in Bajaur killed 24 people, three foreigners among them, on Saturday.
• Daily Times – Security forces took control of Kotkai – an important Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) stronghold and the native town of its chief Hakeemullah Mehsud – after intense fighting on Saturday. It has been also reported that the terrorists are shaving and trimming their beards to escape from the area.
• The News – The elders and Ulema of Mamond tribe Saturday raised the first Qaumi Lashkar to help the security forces in their endeavours to restore writ of the government in the troubled Mamond tehsil in Bajaur Agency. The volunteers also demolished and torched several houses of suspected militants, including that of a commander, in Tarkho area.
• Geo – Balochistan Education Minister Shafique Ahmed was killed in firing incident by some unidentified miscreants; also, his relative was injured in the incident, Geo News reported Sunday. Shafique Ahmed died on the spot in front of his house, where he was shot down in the head, as he was heading for his residence after getting down from his vehicle
• Times of India – Intel agencies found fresh proof of joint training camps and meetings between Maoists and Tamil Tigers in the forests of south and central India. Sources say a 12-member LTTE group recently sneaked into India
• Colombo Page – Sri Lanka police have arrested several key LTTE cadres from various parts of the country during the last twenty four hours.
• Zee News – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will pay a brief visit to Colombo on Monday for talks with Sri Lankan leaders and signing of several agreements to boost bilateral relations, according to officials.
• ISNA – Iran-Sri Lanka parliamentary friendship group is to visit Sri Lanka on November 4th to strengthen economic and political relations. In an interview with Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), the group’s Head Anoushirvan Mohseni said Tehran and Colombo have considerable cultural relations despite the fact that most people of Sri Lanka are Buddhist.
• CTB – Hizb ut-Tahrir in Bangladesh was banned by the government of Bangladesh on Thursday, October 22 for ‘anti-state’, ‘anti-government’, ‘anti-people’ and ‘anti-democratic’ activities in the country. However, as Animesh Roul pointed out in his CT Blog entry on the topic, the ban, thus far, appears to have done nothing to stop the branch from its anti-government, anti-democratic activities

Far East & Pacific

• CSM – Regional partners to a Southeast Asian trade bloc have outlined rival proposals for a European-style economic community in Asia, home to the world’s most dynamic economies. At a weekend summit in southern Thailand, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama talked up the concept of an “East Asian community” with a common currency that would “lead the world.” Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd separately proposed an Asia/Pacific economic bloc that includes the US and cooperates on security issues.
• Bangkok Post – Who did what; Key results of the ASEAN Summit
• Irrawaddy – An uncharacteristically edgy summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) threatened to boil over yesterday as Thai-Cambodian relations took another turn for the worse.
• Yonhap – South Korea will notify the North this week that it will provide small-scale corn aid to the impoverished country, responding to Pyongyang’s rare request for humanitarian assistance from Seoul, officials here said Sunday.
• Joint Chiefs – U.S. basing in Japan, Japanese help in Afghanistan and regional and global challenges were among the issues the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff discussed during a news conference in Tokyo.
• US Navy – USS City Of Corpus Christi (SSN 705), one of the U.S. Navy’s three forward deployed fast attack nuclear powered submarines, arrived in Laem Chabang, Thailand on Oct. 24 for a scheduled port visit

Europe

• euronews – European officials are hopeful that an exit strategy may be forming to get out of the Lisbon Treaty impasse. Eurosceptic Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who has held back from signing the reform document’s final ratification, has welcomed a proposal by current European Union presidency Sweden for a compromise to meet his special demand.
• UPI – U.N. nuclear officials discredited claims a nuclear engineer who died after a 17-story fall from the Vienna International Center was linked to talks with Iran. In a letter to U.S. news magazine Newsweek, Annika Thunborg, a spokeswoman for the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, described Hampton as a process engineer for her organization, adding the CTBTO “never had any role in the Iran negotiations.”
• RIA Novosti – A U.S. missile destroyer, which was a target of a terrorist attack in 2000, has arrived on a friendly visit to the port of Tallinn, the U.S. Embassy in Estonia said. USS Cole, an Arleigh Burke-class Aegis-equipped guided missile destroyer, will stay in the Estonian capital until October 27.
• Xinhua – American destroyer USS Ramage sailed into Gdynia port of Northern Poland on Sunday for a working visit which is to end on Wednesday
• Deutsche Welle – The FDP party reached agreement with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives for a new center-right government scheduled to take office on October 28. The coalition agreement reached by the two sides calls specifically for talks with NATO and the US to remove the weapons.
• Expatica – Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s new foreign minister and vice-chancellor in Angela Merkel’s new government, has neither ministerial nor foreign affairs experience. As leader of the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP), he has been given the two jobs which, traditionally in Germany, are handed out to the top-ranked junior partner in a coalition government.
• The Local – Unknown vandals defaced a mosque with animal blood in the Bavarian town of Elsenfeld on Saturday. The blood was discovered by children on their way to Koran studies.

Africa

• Garowe – The Kenyan military has been secretly training police officers on behalf of Somali’s fledgling transitional government in what Department of Defence spokesman Bogita Ongeri says is in line with international agreements.
• HRW – The Kenyan government should immediately stop the recruitment of Somalis in refugee camps to fight for an armed force in Somalia, Human Rights Watch said
• Mareeg – the Transitional Federal Government officials in Kalabeyrka in intersection in Hiran region have vowed that they will attack the Islamist fighters in the region and recapture areas under their control
• Xinhua – Somalia’s Al Shabaab Islamist movement on Sunday executed two young men for alleged spying for the Somali government in the southern town of Marka.
• Xinhua – A Chinese military vessel arrived in the Aden port Saturday on a goodwill official visit for the coming several days, official SABA news agency reported. The Chinese military vessel, named Chan Dokouh, is affiliated with the Chinese naval fleet now cruising in the international waters
• Sudan Tribune – The Southern Sudan Minister of SPLA affairs, Lt General Nhial Deng Nhial today accused Northern Sudan authorities of arming rampant tribal conflicts in the region.
• Ennahar – According to reliable sources of Ennahar, leaders of what is called the sixth division of the terrorist organization of Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) in the west of Skikda, would open workshops for the manufacture of traditional guns (Mahchoucha) and other small arms
• VOA – Nigeria’s most prominent armed group has declared an indefinite ceasefire to allow for peace talks with government. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, says the government has committed itself to what it called “a serious and meaningful dialogue” with the group to address its concerns.
• UPI – China has intensified its campaign to scoop up Africa’s massive mineral resources, particularly oil, and Nigeria, a key supplier to the United States, is one of Beijing’s main targets.

Line handlers watch as USS Nimitz (CVN 68) arrives here Oct 24, 2009, for a scheudled post visit. The visit by Nimitz marks the third time in history that an U.S. Navy aircraft carrier has docked pierside in Bahrain. The last carrier to moor pierside for a liberty call in Bahrain was the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) on May 19, 2009, and then over 50 years before that the 11,373-ton Commencement Bay-class escort aircraft carrier USS Rendova (CVE 114) in 1948

The Global War

• ABC – Alleged Arms Dealer Protected by Russia; Extradite Viktor Bout? Russia Counters U.S. Pressure
• UPI – Iran has acted as mediator with North Korea to deliver weapons of mass destruction and missile technology to Syria, a congressional report said. The U.S. Congressional Research Service said in a report released earlier this month that Iran is one of the biggest customers for North Korean arms, acting as a possible go-between for Syria’s arsenal. (read report here in PDF)
• EurasiaNet – Bruce Grant’s intriguing new book, The Captive and the Gift, causes readers to reflect not only on Russia’s two centuries of military involvement in the Caucasus, but also upon the United States’ involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Sights & Sounds

Mark Leon Goldberg and Sam Bell: UN Plaza: Sudan Policy Reviewed; Anti-genocide activists’ disappointments with Obama… Was the Sudan policy review worth the wait?… Can pressure make Sudan’s government change?… Sam: Obama’s absence from Sudan announcement worrisome… Has the new administration changed anything?… New activism on engaging investors to pressure Sudan

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DW – Hungarians have been remembering the ill-fated uprising of 1956 and their break with communism in 1989, but the transformation of the last two decades has not pleased everybody.

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Newshour – Columnists David Brooks and Mark Shields review the week’s news, including the coming Afghan runoff and the war of words between the White House and Fox News.

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