A brief world news roundup for 17 November 2009.

United States & the Americas

• Times of India – The India-US nuclear deal is expected to crop up during Tuesday’s dialogue in Beijing as US president Barack Obama seeks the support of  Chinese leaders on his stand on Iran and North Korean nuclear issues, informed sources said. He is expected to discuss both security and trade issues during his meeting with Chinese president Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jiabao on Tuesday
• US DOJ – U.S. Joins False Claims Act Lawsuit Against Kuwait-Based Companies That Supplied Food to U.S. Troops in Middle East
• Santiago Times – Seven months after Chile’s Defense Minister expressed interest in purchasing a fleet of used (U.S. made) F-16 Fighter Jets from Holland, the U.S. government helped seal the deal by supporting Chile’s bid to buy missiles for the jets.
• Zee News - A number of pacts, including one in the field of civil nuclear cooperation, are expected to be signed tomorrow between India and Canada, the biggest supplier of the uranium in the world. The two countries are also expected to announce launch of feasibility study for a Free Trade Agreement when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper for the delegation-level talks.
• Washington Post -  In his first interview with a journalist since the Fort Hood rampage, Yemeni American cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi said that he neither ordered nor pressured Maj. Nidal M. Hasan to harm Americans, but that he considered himself a confidant of the Army psychiatrist who was given a glimpse via e-mail into Hasan’s growing discomfort with the U.S. military
• SouthCom – Dense jungle surrounds the Payamino River, an important water-way in Ecuador. This river, along with countless others in the eastern provinces of Ecuador, is a lifeline for local communities, the Ecuadorian military and illegal armed groups. Recognizing the importance of Riverine operations, the U.S. Military Group in Ecuador, in partnership with the Ecuadorian Army, began training together in October to enhance the capabilities of jungle units to control the rivers in their zones.
• Columbia Reports – According to Venezuela’s ambassador to Bogota, his country must prepare for war as there is a ‘pre-war situation’ now Colombia allows the United States to use its military bases.
• Press TV – Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicholas Maduro is expected to arrive in Tehran on Monday. The Venezuelan ambassador to Iran, David N. Velasquez, said that Maduro is making the visit to work on the details of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s upcoming visit to Venezuela.
• El Universal – Paraguay’s Armed Forces confirmed on Monday that the landing of a Venezuelan military plane last week in Asunción was routine, thus denying media reports about the alleged undercover entry of Venezuelan intelligent agents into the country.
• MercoPress – Brazil launched Sunday military exercises involving the three services and located in three states next to landlocked Paraguay with the “main target” being the recovery of a bi-national hydroelectric dam that has fallen into the hands of an enemy country.
• Xinhua – China and Brazil here on Monday reached the five-point consensus to strengthen bilateral military exchanges during talks between their senior military officers. Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie held talks with visiting Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim Monday afternoon.
• Fars – Tehran and Brasilia enjoy the required potentials to develop their cooperation in nuclear energy fields, a Brazilian diplomat said Monday.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• RIA Novosti – Russia plans to increase its naval presence in the world’s oceans, President Dmitry Medvedev said on board a Russian warship during an official visit to Singapore on Monday. Russia announced in 2007 that its Navy had resumed and would build up a constant presence throughout the world’s oceans. Once one the world’s most powerful forces, the Russian Navy now has few ships regularly deployed on the open seas.
• Interfax – The arrested Kazatomprom ex president Mukhtar Djakishev, who led the national uranium company, Kazatomprom, for nearly a decade and practically turned it into one of the world leading producers, believes that Russia is obstructing the development of the Kazakh nuclear sector.
• UPI – Azerbaijan awaits further progress from potential suppliers for the Nabucco natural gas pipeline for Europe, the country’s energy minister said.
• Georgian Times – A company from the II brigade’s 23rd battalion will depart to Afghanistan to join the NATO-led operations on November 16, the Georgian Defense Ministry said.
• BBC – The first international flight to leave conflict-hit Chechnya in 15 years has taken off from the airport in Grozny. The Boeing 757 left with 200 pilgrims travelling to Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia.

Middle East

• RFERL – Gunmen wearing military uniforms shot dead 12 men in a predawn attack at a village near Baghdad, villagers and police said. The attack took place in the mainly Sunni village of Zauba, west of Baghdad, which at the height of the fighting in Iraq was viewed as a hotbed of support for Sunni Islamist insurgents
• Al Sumaria – A source from the fourth region Border Guards Forces Command in Shat Al Arab revealed that large quantities of bombs and recently manufactured missiles coming from Iran were seized after they were hidden along Iraqi borders. The missiles and bombs were hidden temporarily in Naher Jasem border region in eastern Basra, the source speaking on condition of anonymity told Alsumaria News.
• AFPS – Iraqi security forces, working with U.S. advisors, arrested 21 terrorism suspects in various operations in recent days, military officials reported.
• Haaretz – Israel, Jordan, and Turkey conducted a joint search and rescue military drill two weeks ago, the Turkish daily Zaman reported on Monday, pointing to an apparent ease in recent tensions between Jerusalem and Ankara. The exercise reportedly took place in the Turkish army’s special forces training ground, in the vicinity of the Turkish capital.
• Today’s Zaman – A third letter mailed to civilian prosecutors in ?stanbul by a military officer has revealed that the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) had more plans to destroy the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government and give a new shape to society.
• NOW Lebanon – Al-Hayat’s Monday edition stated that Dahiyeh has recently been the center of attention as a result of worsening security conditions, adding that both the Amal Movement and Hezbollah – which have a stronghold in the area – have sent representatives to meet with Interior Minister Ziad Baroud to solve the situation.
• Al Jazeera – Yemen has repeated its accusation that Iran is funding Houthi rebel fighters in their war against government forces in the north of the country. General Yahya Salih, Yemen’s counter-terrorism chief, told Al Jazeera on Sunday that it would be impossible for the group to be able to wage its campaign without foreign support.
• ynet – Saudi clerics have accused Yemeni Houthi rebels of working with Iran to try to spread Shiism in Sunni Islam’s heartland, days before the start of the annual Muslim haj pilgrimage. “Iranian cooperation with Houthi rebels in Yemen is a collusion for sin and aggression,” Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Aziz al-Sheikh said in remarks published on Monday.
• Al Arabiya – Saudi and Yemeni forces pounded Shiite rebel positions along the border between the two countries on Sunday as the rebels claimed they used Katyusha rockets in attacking a Saudi military base in the border Jizan region to avenge the deaths of civilians killed.
• Yemen Gazette – defense ministry website, 26-September Sunday said military units recaptured territory from the Zaydi Shiite rebels in Sadaa while warplanes struck rebels positions in Harf Sufian amid reports of troops reinforcement moving from Sanaa to combat zone in north Yemen.
• Kyodo News – Yemeni tribesmen have kidnapped a Japanese engineer and a Yemini driver near the capital Sanaa and are seeking the release of jailed relatives, the Japanese Embassy in Yemen and news media said Monday.
• Saba – Police have captured 234,000 pieces of different weapons and thousands of bullets since the beginning of 2009 till November 10th, according to the latest statistics issued by Security Departments in all governorates

Iran

• Press TV – After Israel released photos it said proved that a huge shipment of weapons for Hezbollah came from Tehran, Iranian news agencies publish evidence showing that the photos are forged.
• ISIS – IAEA Report on Iran: Fordow enrichment plant at “advanced stage of construction;” decline in nummber of P1 centrifuges enriching but P1 centrifuge efficiency increases; discovery of previously unknown stock of heavy water
• Al Jazeera – Iran’s belated revelation of a second uranium enrichment site has raised concerns about possible further secret nuclear sites in the country. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) raised its fears in a report obtained by several news agencies on Monday.
• Russia Today – Moscow says the nuclear power plant it is building for Iran will not go online this year. The project is now 10 years behind schedule. The facility near the city of Bushehr is part of Iran’s nuclear program
• Mehr – Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki who arrived in New Delhi on Monday morning held talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna behind closed doors. An Indian official said talks between Mottaki and Krishna would cover the much-delayed 7.5-billion-dollar gas pipeline project that was first mooted in 1994, AFP reported.
• Trend – “Iran has launched producing new thermal missiles “air-to-air”. The Defense Ministry manages this large-scale production,” Commander of the Iranian Army Air Force General Hassan Shah Safi was quoted as saying by the Irna news agency.
• Payvand – Iran has decided to send more ships to the Gulf of Aden to protect Iranian merchant containers and oil tankers from Somali pirates in the volatile waters. A senior commander says Iranian special forces have bee sent to the Gulf of Aden to preserve shipping security and go ahead with a plan to arrest Somali pirates.
• AP – The portfolio of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard keeps on growing. Its troops watch over nuclear facilities, its rocket scientists enlarge Iran’s missile arsenal and its engineers have taken on a rail line as their latest big-ticket project. Could media mogul be next? Sometime early next year, a new voice is expected to join Iran’s state-sanctioned media blitz: a full-service news agency with video, photos and print

U.S. Army soldiers rush to firing positions as anti-Afghan forces attack their position, during a three-hour firefight in Waterpur Valley, Kunar province, Afghanistan, Nov. 3, 2009. The soldiers are assigned to the 4th Infantry Division’s Company C, 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment. (photo by Pfc. Cody Thompson)

South Asia

• AFPS – Combined Afghan and international forces killed or detained numerous enemy fighters in Afghanistan in recent days, military officials reported.
• ABC – Insurgents fired two rockets Monday into a crowded market northeast of Kabul where the head of French forces in Afghanistan held a meeting with tribal elders. The attack killed three children and wounded 20 other people, the French military said. Capt. Michel, who can only be identified by his first name according to French military policy, said the attack appeared to have targeted Brig. Gen. Marcel Druart, who met in the marketplace with elders from the Tagab Valley to discuss a major French offensive there.
• UK MoD – The first RAF Merlin helicopter has arrived in Afghanistan as part of a move to boost air support on the front line.
• Radio France – At one point Atta declared that he would not accept Karzai’s authority and threatened to organise protests against the result. But he has backed down on those threats. The main foreign players in Afghanistan recognised Karzai, despite their concerns over the poll and his record in office. That has cut the ground from under the opposition’s feet, the leader of the Balkh Provincial Council, Farhad Azimi, told RFI, not without some bitterness.
• Quqnoos – Afghan government officials in the western Char Borjak district of Nimroz province say that Iran doesn’t want a dam to be built in the district. According to officials construction of the dam would further trigger Iran’s complaints regarding the water availability, as Iran invested huge amounts of money on water in Zabul province in the eastern part of Iran.
• Dawn – Forced to flee fighting between the army and militants in South Waziristan, members of the Mehsud clan have found a new home in Karachi’s Majeed Colony in Landhi Town. However, they are not content in the city and wish to return as soon as the Operation Rah-i-Nijat is over.
• Geo – District Coordination Officer (DCO) Peshawar Sahibzada Anis said at least three people were killed and 20 others inured in the blast, Geo News reported Monday. Talking to Geo News, he said the suicide attacker was coming on the road from Khyber Agency, when he was signaled to halt; on this, he ran his explosive-car into the police station
• NPR – In Pakistan, the army is waging war against Taliban militants along the northwest frontier with Afghanistan. Despite the international attention trained on extremists in Pakistan, many Pakistanis regard India, on the eastern border, as their biggest security threat. But analysts say Pakistan is paying a price for sowing anti-India sentiments.
• B. Raman – There are two jihadi terrorist organisations by the name the 313 Brigade. The first is Kashmir-centric and is associated with the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) of Qari Saifullah Akhtar. It has been in existence since at least 1999 and is a member of the United Jihad Council, based in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, which is headed by Syed Salahuddin of the Hizbul Mujahideen. It looks upon India as its main enemy and is not against the Government of Pakistan, its Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
• Indian Express – A top Border Security Force official of the rank of deputy inspector general was killed, while some other persons of his security squad including the driver were injured in an IED blast triggered by militants on Indo-Pak International Border in Ramgarh sector of Samba border district in Jammu region on Monday morning.

Far East & Pacific

• Chosun Ilbo - When Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visited Pyongyang in October, North Korea and China boasted they had opened a new era of cooperation. The two countries described their talks as “constructive” even though no palpable progress was made in the North’s nuclear issue. But according to a senior source in North Korea, one significant step was a secret agreement to restore intelligence cooperation.
• Russia Today – The President of Singaporean industrial conglomerate, Keppel Corporation, Chiau Beng Choo, believes Gazprom may become an exclusive supplier of liquefied natural gas to Singapore
• WSJ – Taiwan and China clinched long-awaited pacts that will help open their financial industries to each other’s companies, marking a significant new step in normalizing economic ties between the rivals.
• SMH – The 22 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who left the Australian customs vessel Oceanic Viking and are being held in Indonesian detention are being kept separate from other detainees out of fear they will be targeted because they are receiving special treatment.
• Brig Gurmeet Kanwal (retd), Tribune India – India-Myanmar ties: A strategic perspective

Europe

• Manchester Evening News – A religious leader is among five men arrested on suspicion of terrorism. The Muslim preacher and three others were arrested in raids across Greater Manchester this morning. The man, who has not been named, teaches the Koran at a number of mosques across the region.
• Expatica – France has asked Switzerland for judicial assistance in an investigation into a nuclear physicist arrested in France over alleged links to Al-Qaeda.
• euobserver – The tasks of the proposed new EU foreign minister look relatively clear-cut and powerful on paper but analysts and politicians in Brussels suggest the person will need to be superhuman to manage all that is foreseen under the Lisbon Treaty. Formally known as the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the beefed-up position puts foreign policy clout and the financial means to implement it into the hands of one person.
• Guardian – One of the Royal Navy’s new £2bn aircraft carriers could be sold off under government cost-cutting plans, the Guardian has learned. It is understood that India has recently lodged a firm expression of interest to buy one of the two state-of-the-art 65,000 tonne carriers, which are still being built by BAE Systems in the UK.
• US Army – About 1,500 U.S., Romanian and Bulgarian Soldiers enhanced their combat skills with the Deployable Instrumentation Systems Europe (DISE) at the Babadag Training Area in eastern Romania and the Novo Selo Training Area in Bulgaria from the beginning of August to the end of October as part of Joint Task Force-East’s (JTF-East) 2009 exercise.

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. The fighting erupted on Saturday night after heavily armed insurgent fighters carried out surprise attack on Burundian troops based at Jalle Siad Military base north of Mogadishu.
• Shabelle – More Ethiopian troops with heavily armed vehicles have vacated from the Kala-beyrka intersection in Hiran region, officials and witnesses told Shabelle radio on Monday
• Sudan Tribune – The Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) dismissed as “lies” reports that it has recently received large supplies of military hardware from Chad.
• MEMRI – On November 14, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) released a new film in its “In the Shade of the Swords” series titled “The Ziama Mansouria Attack.” The 25-minute video documents an February 22, 2009, AQIM attack on a base used by private security guards employed by Sonelgaz in Jijel province in eastern Algeria
• BBC – Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi throws a party for 200 girls but then tells them why they should become Muslims
• LA Times – That’s just one reason Guinea- Bissau has been an easy mark for the world’s drug cartels. The country’s navy has a single aging ship to search for smugglers, and the head of the navy fled the country amid accusations that he was involved in the drug trade. When a Gulfstream jet from Venezuela landed last year at the Bissau international airport, its $250-million cargo of cocaine was whisked away in army trucks before police arrived.
• Reuters – The United States wants Kenya to hand over a Rwanda genocide suspect it believes the east African nation has been harboring for years, President Barack Obama’s war crimes envoy said on Monday.

A Kenyan soldier drives a two-and-a-half ton cargo/troop carrier as U.S. Navy Petty Officer First Class Steven Archar, naval operations support specialist, guides the vehicle off the loading ramp of the Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab Tor Line transport ship, Nov. 14. This vehicle is one of 37 military vehicles provided by Kenya to support a Djiboutian military training exercise early December 2009 (photo by Master Sgt. Carlotta Holley)

The Global War

• McClatchy – Work on the F-35 joint strike fighter program is far behind schedule and over budget despite the completion Saturday of a milestone test flight. Reports prepared by the Defense Contract Management Agency for Defense Department officials show that Lockheed and other contractors are months late on deliveries of test airplanes and components for future production aircraft.
• The National – A laser-guided rocket developed by a partnership between a UAE firm and one of the world’s largest defence companies has been successfully tested and could be in service with the Armed Forces by the middle of next year, an executive says
• Press TV – Saudi Arabia’s King Abdallah receives the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as both countries become more involved in the deadly war in Yemen.

Sights & Sounds

AEI – Troubled Waters for the U.S.-Japan Alliance?

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BBC – Owen Bennett Jones explores five crucial battles in the relationship between Christianity and Islam. This episode looks at the Crusades

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