Peace Like A River » Cables, dispatches and memoranda

Cables, dispatches and memoranda

September 24, 2008 (12:41 am) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba

Cables, Dispatches and Memoranda
A brief world news roundup for 24 September 2008.

United States & the Americas

White House – President Bush Addresses United Nations General Assembly
OGJ – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his country and China plan to construct two refineries, one in each country, with a formal agreement to be signed soon. Earlier this month, China National Petroleum Corp. subsidiary PetroChina Co. said it would need to import more Venezuelan crude to feed its upgraded 180,740 b/d Liaoyang refinery in northern China. PetroChina has completed upgrading a vacuum distillation unit at the refinery that will enable it to process 70,290 b/d of Venezuelan high-sulfur crude.
NY Sun – President Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina called on Iran to extradite five former officials to stand trial for a 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and injured 150. Former Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian, four other Iranians, and one Lebanese member of Hezbollah are wanted by Argentina for the attack on the AMIA Jewish center.
Oxford Analytica – Economic growth, political stability and unprecedented access to bank credit are driving a consumer boom in Latin America, particularly in Brazil, which is benefiting from high international commodity prices. Aware of demand, mining companies are tapping Brazil and Paraguay for their diamond deposits, reactivating an industry that was overshadowed by the dominance of South Africa from the early 20th century

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

RIA Novosti – Russia is negotiating with Cuba and Venezuela on the joint use of Russia’s Glonass navigation satellites, the head of the federal space agency said on Tuesday. Glonass (Global Navigation Satellite System) is the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS), which is designed for both military and civilian use.
Russia Foreign Ministry – There are real chances for further diplomatic operation, which confirms the IAEA, after which – the decisive word in “nuclear matters”. So that some “fire”, which would require, at the height of the busy in the General Assembly of United Nations, to throw everything else and urgently to be encountered for considering the Iranian nuclear program, we do not see.
Kommersant – Food prices went up 12.2 percent in Russia from January through August, Interfax reported with reference to the country’s statistics authority Rosstat. Of interest is that the prices averagely stepped up no more than 3 percent in the European Union.
CRN – Today, as a result of bombardment, three civilians were killed in the Altiev Municipal District of the city of Nazran in Ingushetia. Also, in the morning in Nazran, an explosive blew up at the gate of the house, where Public Prosecutor of the city of Karabulak Abukar Uzhakhov lives. Fortunately, nobody suffered.
Kavkaz Center – A unit of the Mujahideen under command of Amir Ilyas attacked special group of Russian infidels/mercenaries in the village of Chishki (Argun Gorge), Profince of Nokhchicho (Ichkeria/Chechnya). Amir Abdul-Malik said that the Mujahideen have destroyed BTR armored personnel carrier and an URAL armored truck. During the gunbattle 8 Russian infidels, including the commander of the gang, were eliminated, a large number of trophy weapons and documents were captured.
RFERL – Kazakhstan has held joint military exercises with NATO, a move likely to irritate Russia, which sees the Central Asian state as part of its traditional sphere of interest.

The Justice Battalion of the Iraqi national police and Soldiers from the 1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry Regiment, await extraction from UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters during Operation Abbeville near Darwish Village, Sept. 19, 2008. Abbeville was an air assault operation aimed at locating individuals facilitating insurgents seeking refuge from coalition and Iraqi operations in the Salah ad Din province, Iraq. (photo by Sgt. 1st Class Kevin Doheny)

Middle East

Asharq Al Awsat – Iraq has resumed oil supplies to Jordan for the first time since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, according to Jordanian Oil Minister Khaldoun Qteishat. The first shipment of 18,500 barrels of Iraqi crude arrived overland at Jordan’s eastern desert border with Iraq and was expected to be trucked into the kingdom later in the day.
Xinhua – Insurgents have blown up the house of Iraqi Sunni Arab member of parliament in the city of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, a local official said on Tuesday. “The house of Hashim Yahiyah al-Taie, a lawmaker and member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, was destroyed when gunmen blew it up at about 8:00 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Monday,” said Yahiyah Abed Mahjoob, a member of Nineveh provincial council, told Xinhua.
NEFA Foundation – In response to allegations from Ansar al-Islam accusing their dissident brothers of conspiring with the Americans against Al-Qaida, the “Shariah Committee” fired back with a detailed 32-page breakdown of criminal behavior and atrocities committed by Al-Qaida’s forces in Iraq without any apparent objection from Ansar al-Islam.
Xinhua – China and Jordan on Tuesday inked a deal on a power station expansion project, the first of its kind implemented by Chinese firms in Jordan’s power generation sector and hailed by the Chinese ambassador in Jordan Gong Xiaosheng as a result of bilateral cooperation.
AME Info – At the end of June, Jordan signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with the UK. However, the most significant development in Jordan’s efforts to develop nuclear power came in late August when it signed a nuclear agreement with France and an MoU with French company, Areva, on nuclear cooperation.
AFP – One man was killed when a bomb exploded in the Ain el-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of the Lebanese port city of Sidon on Tuesday, a Palestinian official told AFP. The official said the bomb exploded near the camp’s Noor mosque, which houses an office belonging to Sheikh Jamal al-Khattab, spokesperson for the Islamic Movements Alliance. The alliance is an an umbrella group of Islamist factions that works with the Fatah faction of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in providing security in the camp.
Pierre Maroun – Hasan Nasrallah: A Leader or A Wheeler Dealer?
Haaretz – The kidnappers who seized 19 hostages including European tourists in a remote desert area of Egypt have threatened to kill them if attempts are made to find them by plane, an Egyptian official said on Tuesday. Egypt’s foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said at the United Nations on Monday that the tourists had been freed and were safe and sound, but officials later denied that account.

Iran

Fars News – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared Monday that the turmoil on Wall Street was rooted in part in US military intervention abroad and voiced hope that the next American administration would retreat from what he called President Bush’s “logic of force.”
Tehran Times – The British charge d’affaires to Iran was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday to hear Iran’s strong protest over the recent arson attack on the Iranian embassy in London. On Monday at 19:45 GMT the entrance door of the Iranian embassy in London was subjected to a petrol bomb attack but no one was injured in the attack, a source at the Foreign Ministry said.
IRNA – Minister of Interior Ali Kordan said on Tuesday that the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a big asset for Islamic Revolution has brought tranquility and national pride for the country. (me: Regarding Kordan, recall this story.)
Michael Ledeen – I wrote a letter to President Ahmadinejad, posted on NRO on Monday. I thought you’d want to see it: “I’m writing to you about death, one of your favorite themes. Your adult life has revolved around it…”
Uskowi on Iran – Sacred Defense Week Video

Southeast Asia

ABC (Australia) – United States officials say there has been no loss of unmanned aircraft, despite Pakistani reports that a drone crashed near the border village of Angor Adda.
Daily Times – Unidentified men blew up a gas pipeline near Mingora city in Swat on Tuesday. The Swat valley has also been without electricity since Sunday when militants blew up a grid station in the area. The non-availability of electricity has also caused scarcity of water in the area.
Dawn – A paramilitary soldier was killed and six others were wounded when militants attacked a police mobile van with a rocket in the Pir Qella area of Shabqadar in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) on Tuesday, officials and residents said. The militants had laid siege to the Saro Police Station to demand release of one of their associates who was held during a clash on Monday.
DoD – Cryptologic Technician Third Class Petty Officer Matthew J. O’Bryant, 22, of Duluth, Ga., died September 20 in the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan. O’Bryant was assigned to the Navy Information Operations Command Maryland, Fort Meade, Md.
UNS – Known Taliban commander and weapons facilitator Mullah Hazratullah and at least seven other militants were killed in a Coalition forces air strike in Tagab Valley, Deh Rawood district, Oruzgan province Sept. 22.
Anne Applebaum – Fixing Failed Aid; The chaos of foreign aid in Afghanistan
CDI – Afghanistan Update: August 2008
BBC – Two Indian soldiers have been killed in a clash with militants in Indian-administered Kashmir, the army says. Officials say the clash happened on Monday in Poonch region, close to the Line of Control that divides Indian and Pakistani-administered Kashmir. An Indian army spokesman accused the Pakistani military of providing covering fire for the militants. There is no word from Pakistan.
CNN – The death toll from monsoon floods in eastern India rose to more than 2,400 Tuesday as authorities reported that another 32 people had perished in the disaster that has affected millions of people.

Far East & Pacific

Taipei Times – Islamic militants have burnt down a village in the southern Philippines in the latest of a series of raids that have displaced about half a million people, the military said yesterday. Sixteen houses and three government buildings including health care facilities were put to the torch in the village of Dugengen near Mamasapano town on Mindanao island late on Sunday, army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner said.
Radio Free Asia – Experts are divided on the commitment of Nepal’s Maoists to democracy, following a 10-year civil war and elections in April that gave the party a majority of seats in the country’s legislature. More than 19,000 Maoist fighters have still not been integrated into Nepal’s regular army—a condition of the peace agreement negotiated when the Maoists laid down their arms two years ago, she said.
AFP – Australia, Peru and Vietnam have expressed interest in joining a budding Asia-Pacific tariff-busting plan which received a boost Monday with the participation of the United States, officials said. On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, US Trade Representative Susan Schwab announced the launching of negotiations for the United States to join a free trade agreement now confined to Singapore, New Zealand, Chile and Brunei.

Europe

Press TV – Chief executive of Hungarian oil and gas says the Nabucco gas pipeline will be realized only if Iran joins the project as a supplier. The Nabucco consortium has said it is necessary to add gas suppliers outside the Caucasus region, including Iraq and Iran, in order to fill the pipeline. “An empty pipeline is pretty expensive,” Hernadi said.
Helsinki Times – The Kauhajoki shooting incident will also lead to an investigation of the actions of the police. Matti Juhani Saari, who killed ten people at the Kauhajoki vocational school, had been questioned by the police a day before the shooting, but the police let him keep 22-calibre handgun.
AKI – Sixteen people, including outspoken journalist Tuncay Ozkan, were arrested in Turkey on Tuesday in relation to a plot to overthrow the government.
BBC – Police in France have arrested two suspected members of the Basque separatist group Eta. Eight have now been held in the past two days.
Guardian – Italy ordered the deployment of 500 soldiers yesterday to tackle violent crime in response to the mafia killings of six African migrants near Naples last week. Ignazio La Russa, the defence minister, said the majority of the troops would be sent to the area around Casal di Principe, home to the Casalesi clan, the most feared grouping within the Naples Camorra, which is suspected of 10 other killings this year. Last week’s murders led to rioting by migrants in the area.

Africa

Press TV – Gunmen have murdered at least two people and injured four others in a new series of attacks near the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Earlier, 18 people were killed in a heavy fighting between the Union of the Islamic Courts and a militia group in the southeast of the country.
IRIN – At least 100 people were killed and thousands fled their homes in the “worst fighting” to hit Mogadishu in recent months, locals told IRIN. The fighting on 22 September pitted Ethiopian troops, African Union peacekeeping troops (AMISOM) and Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces against insurgents. More than 200 people were reportedly wounded, hospital sources said.
TVNZ – Somali gunmen have abducted two foreigners working for the aid agency Medecins du Monde along the border with Ethiopia, the organisation and witnesses said on Wednesday.
Javno – Nigerian oil rebels said on Tuesday the military had launched an air assault on militant camps in the oil-producing Niger Delta but said they were maintaining a unilateral ceasefire announced on Sunday. Brigadier-General Mohammed Yusuf, spokesman for Nigeria’s defence headquarters, did not confirm or deny a strike but said the joint military task force, including ground troops, navy and air force, were a permanent presence in the delta.
UNICEF – According to local authorities ninety children were kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Dungu territory, Orientale Province on Wednesday, September 17, 2008. During simultaneous attacks on the Kiliwa, Duru, and Nambia villages the LRA took fifty children from a primary school in Kiliwa and forty others from a secondary school in Duru. The children are presumed to have been taken to nearby LRA bases in the forest.

The pressurized rescue module is recovered from the water after performing a submarine rescue exercise with the Chilean submarine CS Simpson off the coast of San Diego. (photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Alexia Riveracorrea)