A brief world news roundup for 16 November 2009.

United States & the Americas

• White House – Statements By President Obama and President Medvedev of Russia After Bilateral Meeting
• LA Times – The CIA has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Pakistan’s intelligence service since the Sept. 11 attacks, accounting for as much as one-third of the foreign spy agency’s annual budget, current and former U.S. officials say. The Inter-Services Intelligence agency also has collected tens of millions of dollars through a classified CIA program that pays for the capture or killing of wanted militants, a clandestine counterpart to the rewards publicly offered by the State Department, officials said.
• McClatchy – Over the years, the Pentagon has sworn out military commission charges against 26 detainees at Guantanamo. Here’s how those cases stand after Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement that five 9/11 conspirators will be prosecuted in civilian court in New York
• Al Jazeera – At least 15 people have been killed in a single day of violence in Ciudad Juarez, a Mexican city bordering the United Sates, the Mexican authorities have said.
• UPI – Chilean officials have denied allegations a Peruvian air force officer acted as a spy for the Chilean government. “Chile does not spy,” Carolina Toha, a spokeswoman for Chile’s Interior Ministry, said Saturday. “Chile takes international relations as a serious matter.”
• Xinhua – Venezuelan Ambassador to Iran David Velasquez Caraballo said here Sunday that Iran and Venezuela are determined to broaden mutual and regional cooperation in the face of plots, the official IRNA news agency reported.
• Miami Herald – The chief of Colombia’s secret police says a mob assaulted three of its agents as they tried to arrest a suspect with alleged guerrilla ties.
• Columbia Reports – Four soldiers from Venezuela’s National Guard captured in Colombian territory will be repatriated in a bid to ease tensions between the South American neighbors, President Alvaro Uribe’s government said Saturday.
• SouthCom – Joint Task Force-Bravo helicopters, based at Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras, distributed 61,000 pounds of food, water and clothing to remote villages of El Salvador Nov. 13. The villages of Verapaz, Guadalupe, Santa Maria Ostumas and San Vicente were most affected by the floods completely cutting the towns off by damaging the roads and bridges after the Nov. 8 mudslides

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• Russia Today – The President of Chechnya – Ramzan Kadyrov – says the close associate of warlord Doku Umarov, Islam Uspakhadzhiyev, was killed during a special operation on Friday. Helicopters carried out a rocket strike on Friday in an area of the North Caucasus where the combatants had been spotted. At least twenty of them were killed.
• Kavkaz Center – A source in a staff of Sunzha Sector of the Caucasus Emirate reported to Kavkaz Center about a successful operation of the Mujahideen, which was carried out early on Sunday morning near the village of Arshty. As the deputy commander of the Sunzha Sector of AF of CE Emir Arbi reported, at at 4 o’clock 30 minutes a unit of Mujahideen attacked a base of Russian infidels located in the area of Arshty village. The base of infidels was struck by rocket-propelled grenades, AGS, machine guns, and submachine guns
• Steve LeVine – Though Ukraine has paid its latest Gazprom bill in full, one would be a fool to bet against the prospect of a fourth cutoff this winter, as Jerome a Paris notes over at the European Tribune; indeed, Michael Kahn and Anna Mudeva at Reuters report that central Europe is carrying out actual infrastructure changes in case the yearly dustup recurs. Recently, Gazprom has been attempting to spruce up its image with a $250,000-a-month contract with Ketchum, a skilled PR agency with offices in London and Washington
• Caucasian Knot – The restoration works in Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, continue, but the process is hampered by “the long chain of receiving money from Moscow.” This was stated on November 12 by Zurab Kabisov, head of the State Restoration Committee, at his meeting with journalists.
• RIA Novosti – The former Georgian republic of Abkhazia switched to Russian telephone codes at midnight on Sunday, the republic’s information and communications department said.
• Civil Georgia – Tamaz Ninua, who for few months served as Georgia’s security minister under late President Gamsakhurdia, and his wife were found dead with gunshot wounds in their home in Tbilisi on November 13, the Georgian media reported.
• RFERL – Armenian Energy Minister Armen Movsisian says that despite complaints by Iranian officials Yerevan is fully complying with an agreement to import natural gas from Iran, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reports

The Iraqi Navy Ship Fatah leads during the naval review Nov. 12 in Umm Qasar, Iraq (photo by Lt. Ryan Schumacher)

Middle East

• MNF Iraq – Iraqi forces, aided by U.S. advisors, arrested terrorism suspects and a suspected terrorist cell leader in Iraq in recent days, military officials reported. Iraqi Security Forces arrested eight terrorism suspects, Nov. 13, while conducting three combined security operations in pursuit of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) members operating in northern Iraq.
• Voices of Iraq – Emergency Police personnel in Khanaqin, Diala province, captured on Saturday nine armed men of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) network in the district of Jalawlaa, southwest of Khanaqin, the department chief said. “The forces, acting on intelligence tip-offs, launched a large-scale crackdown on villages of Jalawlaa, (30 km) southwest of Khanaqin, and arrested nine AQI operatives,” Maj. Delir Sayyed Qader told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. Khanaqin, one of the disputed areas between the central government in Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, lies 155 km northeast of Baaquba.
• Al Arabiya – Iraq’s Camp Bucca, the U.S.-run jail where around 100,000 prisoners were kept over six years, was a breeding ground for the al-Qaeda terror network, according to police and former inmates
• Al Sumaria – Member of Iraq’s External Relations Parliamentary committee Sami Al Askari announced that evidence submitted to UN Chief special envoy to Iraq Oscar Fernandez Taranco include confessions of Baathists and terrorists who were arrested and photos of armed groups crossing Iraqi borders from Syria.
• UPI – Representatives from the Vienna-based consortium for the Nabucco gas pipeline expressed confidence Iraqi gas could be contracted for the project.
• ynet – Five Hamas operatives and two Iranian Revolutionary Guards trainers were killed in an explosion that took place on a Hamas military base near Damascus, Syria, Kuwaiti daily al-Siyasa reported on Sunday. According to the report, the explosion occurred at the start of November, and five more Hamas operatives were also injured during weapons training.
• Jerusalem Post – Hamas on Saturday claimed IDF reports that the group had test-fired long-range rockets were an Israeli attempt to justify a new military operation in the Gaza Strip, DPA reported. “These claims are part of the Israeli lies to justify a new aggression on the Gaza Strip,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum was quoted as saying.
• Al Manar – In a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy got the impression that as far as Israel is concerned, the military option against Iran’s nuclear plans is very much alive, and he was sure to pass this message on to Syrian President Bashar Assad, “knowledgeable” French sources told al-Hayat newspaper.
• Hurriyet – Turkey has proposed a new formula to the Iranians on behalf of the international community in an attempt to make headway in dealing with Tehran’s nuclear plans, according to the foreign minister.
• Press TV – Yemeni and Saudi forces have intensified attacks against the Houthi fighters in Yemen’s mountainous north, after sending more reinforcements to the beleaguered region.
• Saba – Saudi sources announced that Border Guard Forces have managed to captured a Houthi leader, the state-run 26sep.net reported on Sunday.
• Yemen Gazette – (Oct 30)  The Chinese vessel laden with weapons that was imported by tribal chieftain and arms dealer, Sheik Hadi Mothana has left the port of Hodeida back to China without off loading its cargo, the independent website, Marib Press said on Friday, adding “the Chinese ship arrived in Sudan where it off loaded oil drilling equipment it was carrying and has started sailing back to China.”

Iran

• Press TV – With the delivery of an advanced air defense system to Iran long overdue by Russia, Tehran says it is capable of mass-producing replicas of the controversial Russian-made missile in the near future.
• Fars – Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei stressed on Sunday that the western world should waive sanctions against the Islamic Republic to receive Iran’s positive response to its proposal for the exchange of nuclear fuel with Tehran.
• UPI – Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has amassed unprecedented power in defending the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad since his disputed re-election in June triggered widespread unrest
• Payvand – Following the surfacing of Mohsen Hashemi’s speech, in which he strongly criticizes Ahmadinejad for his accusations against Hashemi’s family during his election debates, Ahmadinejad is attempting to take the control of the subway system from Tehran’s City Hall. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, announced that not only his administration will take over Tehran’s subway system; it will also appoint its president
• BBC – Iranian police have set up a special unit to monitor political websites and fight internet crime. The head of the unit, Col Mehrdad Omidi, said it would target political “insults and the spreading of lies”.
• Loghman Ahmedi – Iran has increased its military presence in the Kurdish city of Sine (Sanandaj) since the execution of the Kurdish actvist Ehsan Fatahian.
• Intellibriefs – Iran and Jundullah: IRAN TODAY Report  (video)
• Press TV – Iran plans to reduce the monthly quota of subsidized gasoline for private motorists by 20 percent in the coming winter, a senior official says.

South Asia

• Denver Post – Photographer Collection: David Guttenfelder in Afghanistan
• CSM – The insurgents’ tactics are familiar. Night letters warn village elders to cooperate or face death. Religious “taxes” must be paid, and fiery sermons in mosques attack the Karzai government and international forces. The locale is startling, however: Afghanistan’s northern Balkh province, which in the years after the fall of the Taliban emerged as one of the most stable – and in its urban hub of Mazar-i-Sharif – most prosperous places in Afghanistan.
• Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung – German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg’s helicopter convoy was fired at during a surprise trip to Afghanistan (in German)
• Independent – Tucked into a private home down a dusty dead-end alley, women are indulging in playing at dressing-up in the province in which the fight against the Taliban rages and where more than 90 British troops have lost their lives since the start of the Afghan war in 2001
• ABC – Hundreds of French and Afghan troops on Sunday pushed into a hostile valley in eastern Afghanistan where militants launch quick attacks, then disappear into hillside villages. The mission: secure the area for a planned bypass road around the Afghan capital to move supplies from neighboring Pakistan.
• Times – The capture of Musa Qala was declared a model for how this war might be won. The Taliban were bribed to switch sides, the Afghan army was portrayed as the victor and a reconstruction plan prepared. “The eyes of the world will be on Musa Qala,” said Bill Wood, the former US ambassador to Afghanistan. Now, we were back with B Company to hold a front line that, after two years of heavy fighting, has moved barely two miles north and south of the “liberated” town centre. We watched as the Taliban were pounded with bullets, grenades, shells, missiles and airstrikes — and still they came back for more.
• Washington Post – By the end of the month, the U.S. military plans to begin moving the first of its approximately 700 detainees at Bagram Airfield to a new $60 million holding complex
• Dawn – The military on Sunday claimed killing at least 17 militants during various clashes in South Waziristan and Swat. Search operations to flush out militants from the restive areas were ongoing. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said security forces also recovered caches of arms and ammunition during operations in South Waziristan.
• Dawn – At least 12 militants were killed and a big ammunition depot was destroyed when jetfighters pounded hideouts of Taliban in lower Orakzai Agency on Saturday. A huge quantity of ammunition and food and seven camps of Taliban were destroyed in the air strikes in Sultanzai, Feroze Khel, Bezote and Sam areas of Orakzai Agency.
• Geo – Peshawar is still in the grip of sombre atmosphere one day after the Pashta Khara suicide car bomb explosion, whereas security measures have further been stepped up in the metropolis. Twelve people including innocent children lost their lives in the attack, while 27 other injured are under treatment at various hospitals in the city
• The News – Intelligence agencies have captured a top leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) from a major city of the Punjab after trailing him for a week. The leader who can only be identified by his initials N.A.Z owing to sensitive ongoing interrogations is said to rank amongst the top leaders of the category -3 classification done by the law enforcing agencies. Category-1 includes Osama Bin Laden, Mulla Omar and Aymen al-Zawahiri. Category-2 includes Hakeemullah Mehsud, Maulvi Fazlullah etc, while Category-3 top leaders comprise the cadre that is directly responsible for specific territories, which in this terrorist leader’s case was the entire Punjab and the federal capital. He was described by an investigating official as an “information treasure trove”.
• Fars – Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani stressed the necessity for the launch of operation by a multi-billion-dollar pipeline which is due to take Iran’s rich gas reserves to his energy hungry nation.
• Times of India – An alleged Pakistani spy has been arrested from the Indira Gandhi International airport here by security agencies. Official sources said that security agencies have seized some documents and photographs from him.

Far East & Pacific

• Macleans – North Korea briefly activated radar for its surface-to-ship missiles Sunday, forcing South Korean naval vessels to move away from a disputed western sea border where the two countries’ navies clashed last week, news reports said
• Xinhua – Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met in Singapore on Saturday with his U.S. counterpart Hillary Clinton, and the two exchanged views on bilateral ties, President Barack Obama’s planned visit to China and the regional and international issues of common concern.
• FEER – The Looming Crisis in U.S.-Japan Relations
• Bangkok Post – The People’s Alliance for Democracy delivered a six-point statement attacking convicted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at a major gathering in Bangkok. Participants at the gathering, which drew about 15,000, were asked to pledge their loyalty to His Majesty the King, religion and the nation.
• news.com.au – Communist rebels in the Philippines today freed unharmed a soldier they seized two weeks ago amid deadly clashes that have left almost two dozen guerrillas and security force members dead
• Jakarta Post – Indonesian officials say they have detained a group of 41 Afghan asylum seekers suspected of trying to reach Australia.

Europe

• Russia Today – On Saturday Russia signed a final agreement with Slovenia paving the way for the South Stream gas pipeline project. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says all European partners involved are now fully on board.
• Quilliam Foundation – A new report by Quilliam on prison radicalisation, Unlocking Al-Qaeda: Islamist extremism in British prisons, reveals that government measures to stop Islamist radicalisation in prison are failing to halt the spread of jihadist ideology in British prisons. Quilliam warns that failure to tackle prison radicalisation risks creating a fresh wave of hardened extremists, both inside and outside prisons, who are willing and capable of conducting terrorist violence.
• MSNBC – Authorities have identified a 27-year-old German convert to Islam as an al-Qaida associate suspected of traveling to Afghanistan and planning to attack German targets. The report could fuel concerns about European converts being recruited by Islamist terrorist groups for attacks.
• Magharebia – Spanish police in Pamplona arrested an Algerian terror suspect allegedly linked to a larger European terror cell dismantled last week, Algerian and international press reported on Saturday (November 14th). The suspect is accused of making false identity papers that generated some one million euros
• APA – Azerbaijan intends to supply compressed natural gas to Bulgaria, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Industry and Energy Natig Aliyev told a press conference after the trip to Bulgaria.

Africa

• Garowe – At least seven people have been killed and 11 others injured in heavy clashes between African Union peacekeeping forces and Somali insurgent fighters in the restive capital Mogadishu, witnesses said on Sunday.
• Shabelle – the transitional Federal Government troops in Bakol region have started military movement in Dolow district in Gedo region, just as the Islamist officials in the region responded the soldiers’ movement there in southern Somalia, officials told Shabelle radio on Sunday.
• BBC – Ethnic-Somali rebels in the south-east of Ethiopia say they have launched an offensive against government forces and captured several towns. The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) said it began attacking on several fronts on Tuesday.
• Xinhua – The Somali Islamist rebel group of Al-Shabaab on Sunday accused the United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP) of being “an obstacle” to the war ravaged country’s agricultural production. Spokesman for the militant group, Ali Mohamoud Raage, said the UN food agency “deliberately” imports food aid during harvest seasons in Somalia to discourage farmers from growing food grains.
• Sudan Tribune – Ugandan rebels have killed at least 4 civilians in their latest devastating attack in the far southwest of Southern Sudan Nzara County, the County Commissioner Col Sentina Ndefu confirmed on Saturday
• Reuters – Cattle raiders killed at least 10 people in arid northern Kenya Sunday and stole more than 200 livestock, police and residents said.
• Al Ahram – According to Wen Jiabao, China-Africa trade exceeded $100 billion in 2008 with a 33.5 per cent increase compared to previous years, while the number of African countries trading with China has grown to 53. The volume of Chinese direct investment into the continent has exceeded $7.8 billion, which stands for almost 10 per cent of total Chinese investment overseas. Despite the repercussions of the economic crisis, the first quarter of 2009 has seen a 77.5 per cent increase in Chinese investment in Africa.

The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force guided-missile destroyer JDS Kongo (DDG 173) is underway with the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73). George Washington, the Navy's only permanently forward deployed aircraft carrier, is participating in Annual Exercise, a yearly bilateral exercise with the U.S. Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (photo by Seaman Apprentice Anthony Martinez)

The Global War

• Haaretz – A former Iranian defense official who disappeared in 2006 was kidnapped by forces collaborating with the Mossad and is currently being held in an Israeli prison, an investigative news website in Iran claimed on Sunday in a report picked up by Army Radio.
• RIA Novosti – Russia will soon sign a new deal with India on additional funds to finish a refit of the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, Russia’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said on Sunday
• The National – Top US and European aerospace executives have highlighted the importance of the Middle East for growth in defence spending, although there was little new business signed on the opening day of the Dubai Airshow yesterday.
• Sudan Tribune – An Iranian businessman denied a UN report accusing his company supplying sophisticated military equipment to the Sudanese government. A UN panel of experts established to monitor compliance with UN Security Council resolutions relating to the Darfur region has found that that unmanned aerial vehicles used in Darfur were equipped with video surveillance technology ordered by a company based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). After investigating the source of video recorders it turned out to be sold by Millennium Product Company LLC, with a sales manager the report named as Mojtaba Sadegbi and managing director Saeid Mousaei, both Iranian nationals.

Sights & Sounds

Military.com – Washington Post military correspondent Greg Jaffe stops by the Editor’s Desk to chat about The Fourth Star, his new book (co-authored with David Cloud) that takes an in-depth look at the military lives of Generals Petraeus, Casey, Abizaid, and Chiarelli. How has the Army changed when viewed through the prism of these four men’s careers?

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Newshour – Columnists Mark Shields and David Brooks break down the top political headlines of the past week, including Justice Department plans to try five Guantanamo Bay detainees in federal court in New York, and President Obama’s Afghan strategy review

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Newslink – Germany’s new defense minister has stirred up a hornet’s nest in Berlin by declaring he’ll send more troops to Afghanistan. Also, after decades of civil war Turkey has announced steps to normalize relations with its large Kurdish minority. And, in a clear break with Bush administration policy, the US has decided to try several 9/11 terror suspects in criminal court in New York City

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