A brief world news roundup for 7 December 2009.

United States & the Americas

• The News – Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday that the United States would not pursue the Taliban leaders in Pakistan and that it was up to Islamabad to address the threat posed by the militants on its territory.
• McClatchy – When a couple of VM-22 Osprey tilt rotors joined a fleet of CH-53 helicopters, dropping out of the predawn darkness Friday in the northern end of the Now Zad valley in Helmand Province to deliver the first of more than 1,000 NATO and Afghan troops, it marked not only the first large assault since President Obama’s announcement that the U.S. would be sending more troops here, it also was the first major combat operation for the Osprey.
• France24 – Bolivian President Evo Morales easily won re-election this Sunday with at least 61% of the vote, according to various early exit polls. His closest challenger, conservative candidate Manfred Reyes Villa, is credited with only 23% of the vote
• Columbia Reports – A Colombian judge requested the arrest of a member of Venezuela’s delegation to the Latin American Parliament for the politician’s alleged ties to the FARC.
• Reuters – Thousands of people dressed in white demanded soldiers leave Mexico’s most violent city on Sunday, accusing troops of provoking a surge in drug-war killings and running protection rackets.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• CNN – Suspects in an explosive inferno at a Russian nightclub that killed at least 112 people will face charges Monday, authorities have said. The fire broke out Friday night in the Ural Mountain area industrial city of Perm, sweeping through a party in full swing at the Lame Horse, a nightclub celebrating its eighth year in business.
• RIA Novosti – An explosion hit Russia’s Angarsk Oil Refinery in east Siberia owned by state oil company Rosneft on Sunday, one person was killed, regional emergencies officials said. The plant belongs to the Angarsk Petrochemical Company, owned by Rosneft. It is one of Russia’s largest refineries processing west Siberian oil coming via Transneft pipelines.
• Prague Watchdog – To those who do not usually enter deeply into the logic of events in the North Caucasus, the Kavkaz Center statement will seem like an empty declaration which seeks to present the underground as a powerful underground terrorist organization with enormous resources – indeed, the sort of assessment that was heard yesterday from some Chechen and Russian officials and experts. While there may be grounds for such conclusions, the attempts of a group of Russian Muslims who have sworn allegiance to Dokka Umarov to take the credit for the blast at the Sayan-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power plant looked absurd, even though in that case there was an attempt to back the claim with concrete proof

Middle East

• MNF Iraq – Iraqi Security Forces arrested a Jaysh al-Mahdi (JAM) leader and three suspected criminal accomplices today in southeastern Baghdad during a joint security operation. Acting upon joint security team intelligence, ISF and U.S. advisors searched a residential building in Sadr City where the suspected JAM leader was located.
• Al Sumaria – Iraqi Interior Ministry purchased a 49-million-dollar border surveillance system to monitor borders with Iran and Syria
• Voices of Iraq – Security forces on Sunday found Iranian-made rockets in a farmland near Kut, according to a local police source. “On Sunday, a force from the Information and National Investigations Department found a cache containing Iranian-made shells and rockets in a farm in al-Suweira district (135 km north of Kut),” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The cache included 12 rockets of different types and sizes, and seven missiles manufactured in 2006,” the source noted.
• NOW Lebanon – Al-Manar television quoted a security source on Sunday who said the army intelligence arrested a terrorist network consisting of four agents in the town of Majdel Aanjar in the Bekaa.
• Press TV – One man was shot dead on Sunday in southeastern Turkey in clashes between Turkish police and demonstrators denouncing the prison conditions of jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan
• UPI – Al-Houthi rebel representatives warned that continued Saudi intervention into Yemen could provoke widespread war in the region.

Iran

• Fars – The final stage of construction of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant is moving forward at a good pace, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said on Saturday.
• Press TV – A senior Iranian official has admonished the Saudi government for entering the Yemen conflict by launching an offensive in northern parts of the country. Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani called into question the Saudi motive behind its offensive into northern Yemen, which he said had exacerbated the already worsening situation in Yemen.

A Stryker armored vehicle operated by Soldiers with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment sits stationary at a patrol base, Rajankala, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, Nov. 28. The U.S. Army operates from combat outposts to add flexibility to operations in their sectors.

South Asia

• The Australian – Two gruesome beheadings just outside the main Australian coalition base in Afghanistan’s southern Oruzgan province have served as a chilling reminder to newly arrived Australian Federal Police, Diggers and their coalition counterparts of the ability of Taliban insurgents to strike on their doorstep.
• Dawn – Pakistani security forces killed 13 militants, including a prominent commander identified as Gul Mulla, in gun battles in two parts of the northwest over the weekend.
• Dawn – Maulvi Rafiuddin, a ‘commander’ of militants and key aide to Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief, was among seven militants who were captured in Hangu on Saturday.
• Geo – At least four extremists have been killed including a key Taliban commander amid skirmishes with security forces in Dangram – an outskirt area of Mingora on Sunday morning, Geo news reported
• Times of India – An agreement on India-Russia civil nuclear cooperation that goes beyond the “123 pact” with US in offering India much firmer fuel supply guarantees even in the event of the bilateral arrangement being called off is likely to be a highlight of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Moscow.

Far East & Pacific

• Phnom Penh Post – Ethnic Uighurs who participated in violent demonstrations against the Chinese government earlier this year have travelled to Cambodia in a bid to seek political asylum, rights advocates said Thursday, sparking concerns that the government will ignore their requests and deport them to China.
• Yonhap – The U.S. envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, held a series of last-minute consultations with top South Korean officials Monday, the eve of his high-stakes trip to North Korea.
• Xinhua – Australia’s resources giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto will focus their energies on appeasing competition regulators across several jurisdictions, after signing a binding agreement for an historic 116 billion U.S. dollars iron ore merger at the weekend. Submissions seeking approval for the proposed joint venture have been filed with the European Commission and Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, with similar documentation expected to be submitted to regulators in China and Japan by the end of the year.

Europe

• euronews – Rioting has broken out in Greece on the first anniversary of the police shooting of a teenage boy. In Athens shops and banks were vandalised and rubbish bins set on fire by protestors, some of whom police say have travelled from across Europe to take part.
• Copenhagen Post – Participants in the COP15 climate summit should not be subject to Christmas symbols such as fir trees, says the foreign ministry. Although the COP15 climate conference is set to take place during the Christmas season, the Foreign Ministry believes the holiday and all its symbols should be kept well clear of the summit.
• Javno – Romanians voted on Sunday in a presidential run-off that could end a political deadlock holding up crucial international aid to the recession-wracked EU member.
• Times – The American author Anne Applebaum, wife of Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish Foreign Minister, has been given special police protection after the engine of her jeep exploded in as yet unexplained circumstances

Africa

• Garowe – Heavily armed Al-Shabaab militants attacked a mosque in the Somali town of Basra between Afgooye and Balcad, northwest of the Somali capital Mogadishu, killing seven people and injuring 13 others. According witnesses, the guerrillas forced their way into the mosque where celebrating people gathered to commemorate a ritual but met with force, leading to all out violence.
• AP – Gunmen killed five Rwandan soldiers in a series of attacks on the international peacekeeping force in Darfur, a spokesman for the mission said, marking a swift upsurge in violence in the western Sudanese region
• IslamOnline – From the very heart of a village in Wajir town in Kenya’s Muslim-dominated region, the voices of Quran students emanate and echo around the sleepy sprawling settlement. “This traditional system of Islamic education dates back to the times of our beloved Prophet (SAW),” teacher Moalim Nur Osman told IslamOnline.net.
• Magharebia – Two Algerian police officers were ambushed and killed by terrorists early Sunday morning (December 6th) in Sidi Aissa, M’sila province, El Watan reported
• East African – Officials in Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi are conniving with arms dealers and gold smugglers working for rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a panel of United Nations experts charges in an unreleased report.
• VOA – Morocco says Guinea’s military ruler has undergone successful surgery for gunshot wounds sustained on Thursday in an apparent assassination attempt.  Guinea’s military government is offering a reward for the capture of the former head of the presidential guard whose men are accused of carrying out the attack.

A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System with Battery A, 3rd Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment, 18th Fires Brigade (Airborne), launches a rocket during a live fire exercise on Fort Bragg, N.C., Dec 1 (photo by Staff Sgt. Jacob McDonald)

The Global War

• Reuters – Malaysia said on Sunday it recalled its envoy to the United Nations in Vienna for “consultations” after he voted against a resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency rebuking Iran
• Haaretz – The Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, was set to arrive in India on Sunday for the first official visit to the country by an Israeli military chief.
• Payvand – Russia has signed several Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with India and Pakistan to join construction of Peace Pipeline in the two countries, said Russian state-owned gas producer Gazprom representative to Tehran

Sights & Sounds

Malou Innocent and Michael Goldfarb: Afghanistan Review – The speech: Was Obama’s heart really in it?… Mike calls BS on the effects of Obama’s lengthy deliberation… The catch-22 of Karzai’s corruption… How much wiggle room is there for withdrawing in 2011?… Malou: There aren’t enough troops for counterinsurgency to work

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Heritage – The Next Front: Southeast Asia and the Road to Global Peace with Islam

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