A brief world news roundup for 24 November 2009.

United States & the Americas

• US DOJ – Terrorism charges have been unsealed today in the District of Minnesota against eight defendants. According to the charging documents, the offenses include providing financial support to those who traveled to Somalia to fight on behalf of al-Shabaab, a designated foreign terrorist organization; attending terrorist training camps operated by al-Shabaab; and fighting on behalf of al-Shabaab.
• US DOJ – Jacques Monsieur, a Belgian national and resident of France suspected of international arms dealing for decades, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama to conspiracy to illegally export F-5 fighter jet engines and parts from the Untied States to Iran.
• US DOJ – Arrests were made today in a case involving a conspiracy to procure weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles. A criminal complaint, unsealed today, charged Dani Nemr Tarraf with conspiring to acquire anti-aircraft missiles (FIM-92 Stingers) and conspiring to possess machine guns (approximately 10,000 Colt M4 Carbines).
• AFPS – The Air Force’s top enlisted leader visited multiple locations in Canada to start building a permanent enlisted professional military education partnership with one of America’s closest allies
• canada.com – Twelve Canadians were proclaimed on Monday as recipients of one of the nation’s highest honours of courage — the Medal of Bravery.
• The Star – An Afghan rights agency, at one time entrusted to monitor Canadian-captured prisoners in Kandahar, says it has documented nearly 400 cases of torture from across war-ravaged Afghanistan. The latest report from the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, a translated version of which was obtained by The Canadian Press, comes as Canada’s top military commander confirmed the army halted transferring prisoners to Afghan authorities on more than one occasion over concerns about abuse.
• McClatchy – The red and black Sandinista graffiti scrawled on buildings, street lamps and trees in downtown Jinotega makes it seem like this traditionally conservative coffee town has suddenly had a political change of heart. But behind the facade of leftist propaganda, a right-wing rebellion is brewing
• France24 – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Brazil on Monday as part of a tour to countries who support Tehran’s diplomatic vision. Demonstrators from gay, religious and anti-racism rights groups gathered in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday in protest
• Prensa Latina – Colombia and Ecuador are reopening their respective embassies, after their charges d”affaires’ arrival, although both governments said full normalization of relations would only be effective when the so-called delicate issues are overcome.
• Columbia Reports – Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa again called on Colombia to increase surveillance along their mutual border, after activating two military security points in the region on Monday.
• MercoPress – Chile said that the alleged espionage case involving a Peruvian military that passed sensitive information to a Chilean counterpart is a “bilateral issue” and firmly denied it was to be discussed in the coming Unasur (Union of South American nations) Defence Council.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• RIA Novosti – France’s Mistral helicopter carrier on Monday made a port call in St. Petersburg, a Russian Navy spokesman said. Russia is seeking to buy a Mistral-class amphibious assault ship, worth 400-500 million euros and the ship arrived in Russia’s second city to be shown off to military personnel and the public.
• RFERL – At least eight people were killed and two injured today when munitions exploded at a Russian navy arms depot, the second such incident at the same arsenal in 10 days, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry said.
• Carnegie – Despite repeated attempts to enter the World Trade Organization (WTO), Russia is the only major economically sustainable country that has not received membership. However, discussions over Russian accession have intensified in recent months, giving rise to several important questions
• Javno – President Victor Yushchenko said Monday he would make EU and NATO membership his top priorities for Ukraine if he is re-elected when the nation goes to the polls on January 17. Yuschenko also said he would not extend a 1997 agreement with Russia that allows Moscow to keep ships in Ukrainian waters. “The Russian fleet in the Black Sea will leave Ukraine in 2017,” he said.
• Prague Watchdog – The North Caucasus is a major supplier of oil, gas and coal, and a manufacturer of agricultural machinery. It possesses significant resources of rare and nonferrous metal ores (lead, zinc, silver, tungsten and molybdenum), which are found particularly in Kabardino-Balkaria, and its hydropower resources exceed 50 billion kilowatt hours. At the same time, however, Russian government subsidies to the North-Caucasian republics are indeed extremely high. For this there is a simple explanation. The political system that was forcibly built during Yeltsin’s presidency continues to exist virtually unchanged in the North Caucasus under Putin’s “vertical of power”.
• RFERL -  The leader of Russia’s Muslim republic of Ingushetia, who narrowly survived an assassination attempt in June, conceded on November 22 that widespread state corruption was helping an Islamist insurgency in the region.
• Business New Europe – Four of the five Central Asian countries have muddled along with an often unsatisfactory, yet workable, shared electricity system that was devised after the break-up of the Soviet Union. This year, however, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have finally been provoked into announcing their withdrawal from the shared grid.
• SRI – Uzbekistan has closed its border with central Asian neighbor Kazakhstan to all but citizens of each nation returning home, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said on Monday, as swine flu spreads in both countries.
• Trend – On Nov. 23, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev received a U.S. delegation headed by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia Celeste Wallander, AzerTAj state news agency reported.

Middle East

• Al Bawaba – Iraq on Sunday for the first time said that the bombers who killed over 150 people in Baghdad on October 25 came from Syria. “The group came from Syria but we are not accusing Syria again,” said government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh on state television.
• Voices of Iraq – The director of the Criminal Investigations Department in Kirkuk has survived an assassination attempt when an explosive charge went off near his vehicle south of Kirkuk, a security source said on Monday.
• Jerusalem Post – Despite Hamas’s announcement that Palestinian groups have agreed to halt the attacks on Israel, three factions in the Gaza Strip said they were not aware of any agreement in this regard. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine strongly denied that its members were part of a cease-fire agreement. The group’s armed wing, the Abu Ali Mutapha Brigades, said it remained committed to the “option of confrontation and resistance against the occupation in all forms.” Islamic Jihad also denied that it had agreed to stop attacks on Israel.
• ynet – An Egyptian security official says police have seized a pickup truck loaded with a ton of explosives near the country’s volatile border with the Gaza Strip.
• Jordan Times – A Royal Decree was issued on Monday to dissolve the Lower House as of Tuesday, November 24. Meanwhile, another decree ordered that legislative elections be held in accordance with the existing Elections Law. (two years early)
• Al Manar – Kuwait plans to set aside a special port to receive imports of Iranian goods, the Kuwaiti prime minister has announced. “All Kuwaiti doors will be open to imports of Iranian products, and there will be a special port for the entry of Iranian products,” IRNA quoted Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah as saying during a meeting with Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi in Tehran on Sunday.
• NOW Lebanon – In an interview with the Voice of Lebanon Radio on Monday, Kataeb Party leader Amin Gemayel called on all leaders, especially those who were part of the Cedar Revolution, to take a responsible stand toward legitimizing Hezbollah’s weapons, which contradict Lebanon’s national interests and sovereignty.
• Michael Rubin – While the Obama administration and congressional leaders may justify renewed engagement with Syria with their desire to jumpstart the Middle East peace process, they ignore the very issue that lies at the heart of the Syrian threat to U.S. national security: Syrian support for radical Islamist terror. This may seem both illogical and counterfactual given past antagonism between the ‘Alawite-led regime and the Muslim Brotherhood, but there is overwhelming evidence that President Bashir al-Asad has changed Syrian strategic calculations and that underpinning terror is crucial to the foreign policy of the country.
• Press TV – Yemen’s Houthi fighters say they have repelled attacks by Saudi forces and prevented their further penetration into Yemeni territory.
• Al Jazeera – Saudi Arabian forces have carried out an incursion into Yemeni territory using tanks, artillery and aircraft, the Houthi rebel group has said. The statement from the Yemen-based group said that the attacks on Monday were taking place in the border districts of Malahiz and Shada provinces.
• Asharq Al Awsat – An authoritative Saudi military source has asserted that the infiltrators still have what it described as “bad and hostile” intentions to penetrate the Saudi borders and continue their operations. The source said in a statement issued by the armed forces’ command in Saudi Arabia’s southern sector yesterday that the forces deployed on the battlefront repelled yesterday an attack by the infiltrators in the Jabal Dokhan, Al-Dawd, and Al-Rumayh areas which resulted in heavy losses on the enemy’s side
• Saba – Some 30 Somalis have been seized in Bok’a district, Saada, who are suspected to have links to the Houthi group, a local authority source has reported. The Africans are suspected to have played a role in the war in the far north, fighting the troops in support of the Houthi insurgents, who have been fighting the army since 2004
• Saba – The Shawthab Foundation for Childhood and Development called on Sunday parts of conflict to stop recruitment of children under 18 years in the fighting. In a press conference held in Sana’a, the director of the foundation Lamya al Eryani said the foundation has worked to raise awareness among society about importance of children protection in time of war.

Iran

• Mehr – The Caspian Sea states have completed 70 percent of the work necessary to draft the legal regime for the Caspian Sea, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said here on Tuesday. He also said regional countries can easily deal with any regional problem themselves and the presence of foreign forces in the region cannot be justified.
• NOW Lebanon – Iran’s military on Monday conducted a drill aimed at dealing with possible chemical attacks and also tested home-built radars on the second day of a series of maneuvers, ISNA news agency reported.
• Press TV – Two advanced submarines will join the Iranian Navy as the country is stepping up its presence in the pirate-infested waters of Somalia
• Press TV – With the US vehemently denying having links to a notorious terrorist group active in southeastern Iran, a top Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) commander talks of evidence on US intelligence support for the rebels.
• Press TV – In an exchange of gunfire, Iranian security forces kill at least four members of a terrorist group planning to cross the southeastern borders of the country. “A group of ten terrorists were trying to enter the country via the frontier town of Mirjaveh when they were spotted by security personals,” said local police commander Hossein Zolfaghari.
• MEMRI – The leader of the Sunni-Baluchi organization Jundallah, Abdolmalek Rigi, has called on the Saudi government to help in the Baluchis’ struggle in Iran, which he says is aimed at securing their rights.
• Xinhua – Iran’s Central Bank governor Mahmoud Bahmani said on Monday that the country has gained 5 billion U.S. dollars by shifting its foreign currency reserve from the U.S. dollar to the euro
• Bahman Aghai Diba – Iran, while holding the second largest natural gas reserves in the world, is not a major exporter of the commodity. The EU seeks a lowering of its dependence on Russian energy, and Iran potentially could benefit by joining projects like the Nabucco gas pipeline.
• Payvand – Iran was the third major oil supplier of China in the month of October, during which some 1,646,000 tons of crude oil was exported, SHANA news agency reported
• Press TV – Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has rejected the claims made by the UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan about three Persian Gulf islands.
• The Independent – Iran has taken a step closer to its goal of moving its capital away from Tehran to a new, as yet unbuilt location near the town of Qom. This seems like an extreme move but it’s one that has been repeated throughout history – as far back as the Egyptian dynasties of the Middle Kingdom, in ancient China and many times during the Roman empire. Sometimes there are practical reasons for capital-moving. In Iran’s case it claims that Tehran, a city of 12 million people, sits on 100 seismic fault lines and is therefore a major natural disaster waiting to happen

South Asia

• Alexander Benard – Once Barack Obama concludes his review of U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan, he must turn to the urgent task of repairing our country’s diplomatic relationship with Hamid Karzai, freshly inaugurated for another five-year presidential term. That relationship, critical to our efforts in Afghanistan, is presently in dire straits.
• AP – Bombings and shootings killed 12 people across Afghanistan, including four American troops and three children, as President Barack Obama convened his war council again Monday to fine-tune a strategy to respond to the intransigent violence.
• UK MoD – As part of an observation party which directs fire as and when required, Army fitness instructor Gunner Danny Woodridge is currently keeping an active look-out for the enemy in Afghanistan.
• US Army – A newly established NATO command was activated Saturday at Camp Eggers in Kabul, as the Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan merged with the new NATO Training Mission – Afghanistan to create a unified command for the training of the security forces in Afghanistan.
• Military.com – Underpaid, under-equipped and under-trained, Afghanistan’s 93,000-member police force is the weak link in an ambitious security strategy to hand over defense of the country to Afghans so American and other foreign troops can go home.
• NATO – Operational Update, Nov. 22: Afghan-International Security Forces Kill, Detain Militants in Ghazni, Logar, Kandahar
• Xinhua – Unknown armed men destroyed a girl school in Logar province, 60 km south of the Afghan capital Kabul, a private television channel reported Monday.
• NEFA Foundation – The NEFA Foundation has released exclusive raw video footage obtained by NEFA Senior Investigator Claudio Franco depicting the July 13, 2008 Wanat-Kamdesh battle in which 9 U.S. soldiers died. The video follows the progress of the battle from early morning, when the firefight first broke out at around 4:45am, until the point at which a Taliban squad appears to approach the perimeter of the U.S. outpost
• Dawn – The military took control of the last resistance point in Shahu Khel, leaving seven militants dead and scores of them injured after a gun battle on Monday. The death toll of militants rose to 20 after clashes with security forces over the control of Shahu Khel in Hangu district.
• Geo – Nine terrorists have been killed while 3 soldiers were injured during operation Rah-e-Nijat in last 24 hours. According to ISPR, on Jandola – Sararogha Axis security forces secured Zinda Narai 1 Km west of Janata and also cleared Borora Narai near Janata, during encounter 1 soldier was injured and huge cache of arms and ammunition recovered from Janata. On Shakai – Kaniguram Axis, terrorists fired 3 rockets at Asman Manza which was responded effectively. During encounter at Karam, 2 soldiers were injured while 1 terrorist killed
• DNA – Two policemen were gunned down by unidentified assailants in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta. The policemen were on a routine patrol on a motorcycle at Qambrani Road when they were shot by the gunmen, officials said.
• Khabrien – Seventeen years after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the Liberhan Commission of Inquiry will be tabled in parliament, Home Minister P. Chidambaram promised Monday as a political storm engulfed both houses following reports that the probe had indicted BJP leaders, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani
• Times of India – India’s nuclear-capable intermediate range Agni-II missile, test-fired for the first time after sunset on Monday, reportedly failed to get the desired results.
• Thaindian – The Indian Navy has floated a Request for Information (RFI) for a newer generation of aircraft which can operate from the two indigenous aircraft carriers it will commission over the next 10 years.
• Hindustan Times – In a militant strike, five Assam Rifles personnel including two officers were killed in Manipur’s border area on Monday. However, Manipur-based proscribed outfit United National Liberation Front (UNLF) that claimed responsibility for the ambush said the death toll was 10. A group of well-armed militants attacked a patrol party of 43 Assam Rifles who were travelling in a mini truck and a gypsy near the hilly terrain of Old Somtal village, 125 km south of Imphal in the Chandel district.
• Colombo Page – The Sri Lankan government is to commence construction on the second international airport at Mattala in the Hambantota District on 27 November, Ports and Aviation Ministry officials said. The new airport will be constructed on a plot of 2,000 hectares in Hambantota district at a cost of US$200 million. The Government of the People’s Republic of China will financially assist the project, providing a soft loan facility. [me: that isn't China's only interest in the Hambantota area, see this post and this post]

Far East & Pacific

• Telegraph – Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force is reportedly planning to construct a new 284 metre long destroyer capable of transporting 14 helicopters, 4,000 people and 50 trucks. Its primary function will be to patrol seas contested by China. Japan’s neighbour has strengthened its naval capabilities and advanced destroyers armed with cruise missiles have been spotted near gas fields in the East China Sea
• Asia Times – There are at least three dimensions to Maoism’s resurgence in China. One is simply a celebration of national pride. Given the fact that the Helmsman’s successors ranging from Deng Xiaoping to President Hu Jintao have imposed a blackout on public discussion about the great famine and other atrocities of the Mao era, most Chinese remember Mao as the larger-than-life founder of the republic and the “pride of the Chinese race”.
• Robert Ebel, CSIS – Energy and Geopolitics in China; Mixing Oil and Politics
• Chosun Ilbo – Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie is in North Korea in the first visit by a Chinese defense chief since April 2006. “No force on earth can break the unity of the armies and peoples of the two countries and it will last forever,” Liang was quoted by the official KCNA news agency as saying Sunday
• Chatham House – With preparations for the 2010 elections underway, there is a need for a renewed focus on the complex political and ethnic divisions within Burma. Despite on-going conflicts, 18 armed ceasefires have been agreed. The ceasefires have allowed for improvements but have created new problems in Burma’s border areas. However, these agreements serve as potential models for wider peace agreements and reconciliation.
• NY Times – In one of the worst episodes of election-related violence in the Philippines in recent memory, a group of more than 40 people — including lawyers, journalists and relatives of a local politician — were kidnapped by armed men on Monday, and military officials said at least 21 of them had been killed.
• news.com.au – Gunmen fired on the home of two US academics in the Indonesian province of Aceh today, the latest in a string of attacks directed against foreigners.

A special operations assault force consisting of soldiers from Croatia, Lithuania and Hungary prepare to board a Mi-171 during the Jackal Stone 2009 Exercise Distinguished Visitor Day held at Udbina, Croatia. The main purpose of the exercise, which Special Operations Soldiers from 10 different nations are participating, is to enhance the capabilities and interoperability

Europe

• SAAG – Two employees of the same Madina Trading Company in Brescia —- 60-year-old Mohammad Yaqub Janijua and his son 31-year-old Aamer Yaqub Janijua—– who were managing the company were arrested by the Italian authorities on November 21, 2009, on a charge of aiding and abetting international terrorism as well as illegal financial activity. According to Stefano Fonzi, the head of the anti-terrorism police of Brescia, on November 25, 2008, they sent money using a stolen identity to a U.S. company to activate an Internet phone account used by the terrorists involved in the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
• RIA Novosti – The Latvian foreign minister said on Monday that the country’s military drills with NATO scheduled for next summer are not a response to Russia-Belarus exercises held in September this year.
• Latvia MFA – The minister accentuated that, in view of Latvia’s geographical location and the numbers of population, it must be regarded as an achievement that its two representatives have been chosen to work with the elaboration of the EU and NATO’s future strategies. “The vice-president’s post held by former President of Latvia, Vaira Vike-Freiberga in the European Union Reflection Group, and the participation by former Ambassador to the United States and NATO, Aivis Ronis, in the development of NATO’s new Strategic Concept is acknowledgement of our diplomacy and foreign policy,” said Mr Riekstins.
• Vladimir Socor – Moscow Backtracks From Strategy to Bypass Ukraine’s Gas Transit System
• Itar Tass – Tariffs for Russian gas transit to Europe across Ukraine will grow by 60 percent in 2010, Naftogaz Ukrainy chief executive officer Oleg Dubina told a briefing at the Cabinet on Monday.
• UPI -  The Nord Stream natural gas pipeline should lay more than 6 feet below the floor of the Baltic Sea in order to avoid shipping damage, Polish officials said… The report said Poland has put up several roadblocks to Nord Stream. [me: note that Nord Stream bypasses Poland]
• BBC – A French court has jailed Tamil Tiger militants convicted of extorting millions of dollars from the Tamil community in France. Twenty-one people were found guilty, including the leader of the Tamil Tigers in France, Nadaraja Matinthiran
• Balkan Insight – A Serbian Army base known as Jug has been officially opened near the town of Bujanovac in South Serbia. While Serbian officials say the base will offer a guarantee for peace and stability in the region, ethnic Albanians are against its opening.

Africa

• Garowe – Ethiopian officials have reportedly crossed the border to neighbouring Somalia to hold secret talks with former administrators of Somalia’s southern region of Bakool in the southwestern border village of Yeed, sources reported
• Bua – Members of the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council are due to arrive in Khartoum on Monday for a briefing on the situation in Sudan. The delegation of the AU Peace and Security Council would meet will a number of senior officials and would visit Al-Fasher in Dafur and Juba, capital of Southern Sudan.
• BBC – The UK government is urging tourists not to visit Timbuktu in northern Mali because of the threat of terrorism.
• Ennahar – In Algeria, six people were arrested and brought before the judge at the court of El Harrach late last week by the anti terrorist unit of judiciary police. They have been detained. The security services are conducting a vast campaign against the supporting cells and elements back from Iraq and candidates to join the resistance in Iraq earlier after it was found that they to constitute the core of dormant cells in the capital.
• Guardian – A British high street solicitor laundered “huge sums of money” in bribes to Nigeria via accounts in Switzerland and Monaco, an extradition hearing was told today.
• ICC – The trial in the case The Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui will start before Trial-Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (ICC) tomorrow, Tuesday, 24 November, 2009. It is the second trial in the context of the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
• LA Times – The endless virgin forests depicted in the film have been decimated, and Madagascar has been left paralyzed and lawless in the wake of a coup this year — perfect conditions for the pillaging of the lemurs’ remaining habitat.

Members of the 78th Highlanders stand at the entrance of the Citadel in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Nov. 20, 2009. (photo by Cherie Cullen)

The Global War

• Hurriyet – American, Russian and Chinese companies vying for Turkey’s multibillion dollar program on the purchase of high-altitude anti-missile air defense systems will have to submit their best and final offers to the defense procurement office by Dec. 1, procurement officials said.

Sights & Sounds

Africa Today – The UK government warns tourists not to visit Mali because of the threat of terrorism. Kenya kicks off an HIV testing campaign. And, Eritrea denies reports that hundreds of its citizens are fleeing to Sudan.

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BBC – In the third instalment of The Crescent and the Cross, Owen Bennett Jones examines one of the most important Muslim empires in history – the Ottoman Empire. In particular, it focuses on the time of Suleiman The Magnificent, a towering figure in the rivalry between Christianity and Islam, and a crucial battle – the 1565 Seige of Malta.

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NPR – The massive reservoir behind China’s Three Gorges Dam was supposed to be filled to capacity this month. But landslides on the reservoir and water shortages downstream have delayed the process. Questions have been raised about the dam, which is the world’s largest hydropower project, and what it might mean for the Yangtze River.

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Terrence McNally – Interview; A former Marine captain with combat experience in Iraq, Matthew Hoh, also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department. This summer he was the senior US civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed. In September Hoh became the first US official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war. His four page letter of resignation explains that he became convinced that our war in that country will not only inevitably fail, but is fueling the very insurgency we are trying to defeat

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