Peace Like A River

Cables, dispatches and memoranda

10 February, 2009 (00:55) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba

Cables, Dispatches and Memoranda A brief world news roundup for 10 February 2009.

United States & the Americas

Washington Times – Lethal microbes and toxins stored at the Army’s main biological weapons defense laboratory in Maryland were not accounted for in the main computer database, leading the lab to suspend research until all samples are logged, Army officials said Monday.
Reuters - Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said on Monday that the rising cost of the country’s military mission in Afghanistan was worth the expense, even though the economic crisis is starting to bite hard. Skeptical opposition legislators grilled MacKay over why, at a time of big budget deficits and soaring unemployment, Ottawa was pouring billions of dollars into a combat mission that critics say shows few signs of success.
AP – The federal government detained Cancun’s police chief Monday and brought him to the capital to ask him about the torture and killing of a retired army brigadier general near the resort city, Cancun’s mayor said. It was unclear if police chief Francisco Velasco was considered a suspect in the triple murder of decorated army Brig. Gen. Mauro Enrique Tello, an active-duty lieutenant and a civilian who were found dead Feb. 3 in an abandoned car outside Cancun.
IslamOnline – Sudan is moving to create new political and economic allies in Latin America in what is seen as a diplomatic offensive against mounting pressures from the West over the Darfur conflict.
SANA – Deputy Foreign Minister Dr. Fayssal Mikdad and Assistant Secretary General of Political Affairs at the Brazilian Ministry of External Relations Roberto Jaguaribe signed on Monday a Memo of Understanding between the two Ministries on political consultations and coordination in foreign affairs and international organizations.
BBC – Two top Chinese officials have started visits to Latin America as part of an intensified effort to strengthen ties with the region. Chinese Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu is to visit Argentina, Ecuador, Barbados and the Bahamas. Vice-President Xi Jinping is visiting Jamaica, Colombia, Venezuela and China’s two biggest trading partners in the region, Brazil and Mexico.
Miami Herald – As Washington watches its influence wane in Latin America, Russia is picking up the slack, with military exercises and arms deals in Venezuela, billion-dollar gas pipelines across the continent, and now, casinos in Bolivia. But Bolivian authorities are worried that foreign-run gambling is far from a boon for the country.
LAHT – The Venezuelan government arrested 11 suspects in the attack on the Caracas synagogue over the weekend, but in a press conference on Monday, Interior and Justice Minister El Aissami tried to put the blame on the Jews themselves.
COHA – Guatemala – Central American Crime Capital

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

WSJ – The global economic downturn is squeezing Russian natural-gas giant OAO Gazprom as falling demand for energy forces it to cut gas sales to Europe and deprives the company of valuable export revenue. In an interview, Alexander Medvedev, Gazprom’s deputy chief executive, said the price its European customers pay for gas will fall 32% to $280 per thousand cubic meters this year from $409 per thousand cubic meters last year. Exports to Europe will decline 5% to 170 billion cubic meters.
RIA Novosti – Russia’s Defense Ministry will pay 25 billion rubles ($690 million) for 24 MiG fighters that Algeria has refused to accept due to their “inferior quality,” a Russian deputy prime minister said on Monday. “The issue of the Defense Ministry’s procurement of a large batch of fighters under a former Algerian contract has been settled,” Sergei Ivanov said.
RTT – United States, facing a set back over Kyrgyzstan’s move to close its military base, was offered transit of its non-military cargo through Kazakhstan to Afghanistan.
RFERL – A Kyrgyz parliamentary committee has given first approval to a plan to close the Manas U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan. The cabinet submitted the bill to parliament last week after President Kurmanbek Bakiev announced the Manas base would be closed. The approval of the measure by the Security and Defense Committee appears to lessen the chances of a reversal. In a next step toward final approval, the draft law is expected to be considered by the opposition Social Democratic Party’s parliament group on February 11.
Georgian Times – Russia commenced to build wall on occupied territory of South Ossetia. Foreign minister Grigol Vashadze stated that construction of the wall by the Russian occupants aims at preventing local population and Russian soldiers from running to the territory controlled by Georgian side.
Russia Today – Special services in Ingushetia prevented two major explosions at a gas station near the capital Nazran on Sunday evening – local police reported. At 8pm local time (5pm GMT) FSB officers in the town of Malgobek discovered two home-made bombs 200 metres from a petrol station. Counter-terrorist officers launched the operation after a tip-off that militants were planning an attack somewhere in the capital’s Nasyr-Kortsky district.
Dzhambulat Are – Although the current rulers of Central Asia call themselves presidents, regional heads, leaders of Islamic Republics and other Jamahiriyas, they are really no different from the shahs, khans, beys, kings, sultans and emirs of former days. But the vast scale of nepotism in Chechnya makes the practices current in Central Asia look like examples of the triumph of democracy and human modesty. Having built a mosque on the square named after his father and next to the monument to him, Ramzan Kadyrov continues to create memorials to his ancestors, installing members of his immediate family in the institutions of power as he goes along.
Baybak – Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan met his Azeri counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov and President Ilham Aliyev in the capital, Baku. Bilateral relations, regional developments and the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute were high on Babacan’s agenda. The Turkish foreign minister met Saturday with his Armenian counterpart Eduard Nalbandian and President Serzh Sargsyan in the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

U.S. Army soldiers board a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter after completing Operation Gunslinger Bonzai XXX in Hussaniyah Nahia, Iraq, Feb. 3, 2009. The soldiers are assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, currently attached to the 82nd Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team. The air-assault operation was conducted with Iraqi national police officers. (photo by Sgt. Brad Willeford)

Middle East

Asharq Al Awsat – Dr Haydar al-Ibadi, a leading figure in the [Islamic] Dawa Party, which is led by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, denied that the government contacted armed groups to include them in the political process. He said: “In my view, no armed groups remained in Iraq, except the Al-Qaeda Organization remnants.”
MNF Iraq – Due to the increased security and stability in Iraq, the Republic of Estonia has transitioned its forces from Coalition operations to the NATO training mission in Iraq. Multi-National Corps – Iraq held an end of mission ceremony for the forces of Estonia in the Coalition at the Joint Visitor Bureau on Camp Victory Feb. 7.
NY Times – Mr. Habboubi, a former Baath Party member who has largely been out of politics since the American invasion in 2003, managed to defeat soundly not only candidates from the religious parties that controlled Karbala Province, but also Mr. Maliki’s preferred candidates, gaining nearly twice as many votes as his two closest competitors.
Jurist – A senior Iraqi official confirmed Monday that four Iraqi prisoners were released from the Guantanamo Bay military prison into Iraqi custody for further interrogation. The anonymous official also confirmed that only one Iraqi citizen remains a prisoner at Guantanamo.
Voices of Iraq – Four gunmen believed to belong to the so-called al-Naqshabandiya group turned themselves in to the police forces in Kirkuk, a local police chief said on Monday. Al-Naqshabandiya is a group that introduces itself as an Islamic spiritual dogmatic organization, but its ideologies changed into ones of armed struggle against the occupation forces.
Col. Richard Francey, Pentagon briefing – You can imagine being the – one of provinces that borders with Iran – every time I get a visitor, that’s the number-one subject everybody wants to talk to me about. Iranian influence is in Wasat. You got to recognize, if you were in southern Texas, Mexican influence would be in Texas. It’s something that’s there. It’s always been there and will always be there. What is the malign influence that we want to balance or defeat? The Iranian influence will be there. You can see it both in non- kinetic – I see certain projects that will start popping up in different areas, and I know it’s not GOI money, and I know it’s not U.S. money. So I can – and I now there aren’t any outside investors coming in quite yet, no.
Military.com – A suicide car bomber struck a U.S. patrol in northern Iraq on Monday, killing four American soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter in the deadliest single attack against U.S. forces in nine months. The blast occurred as U.S. vehicles were passing near an Iraqi police checkpoint in Mosul.
NOW Lebanon – In an interview with the Kuwaiti daily al-Seyassa on Monday, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Farid Makari described the wiretapping carried out by Hezbollah as “practices that challenge the state’s authority and are a violation of citizens’ privacy.”
Naharnet – The senior official representing the Fatah Palestinian faction in Lebanon Sultan Abul Ainein on Monday accused Hamas of arming up its partisans in refugee camps and agitating them against the mainstream group. Abul Ainein told a press conference at the southern Rashidiyeh refugee camp that Hamas had killed 20 Fatah fighters during the Israeli attack on Gaza and shot 120 others “most of them in the knees,” in an apparent attempt to cripple them.
Jerusalem Post – The arrests and weeklong detention of two Coptic Christians at the Cairo International Book Fair on February 1 has reignited the seemingly endless tension that continues to grow between Christians and Muslims in Egypt. State security officials arrested Mina ‘Adil Shawki and ‘Issam Kadees Nassif after they were seen handing out Bibles at the book fair. An Egyptian human rights center said police filed a report against the two men for “defaming Islam.”

Iran

NCRI – The republics of Nakhchivan and Azerbaijan, along with other Central Asian countries, continue to be at the centre of the Iranian regime’s export of fundamentalism and terrorism. An internal report from inside the regime reads, “Central Asia and Azerbaijan, in virtue of their geopolitical status, are in the security sphere of the Islamic Republic of Iran. That is why the ninth administration has dedicated part of its foreign policy to this region. As such, the necessity of establishing a strong Iranian presence in Central Asia as well as the significance of this region must continually be promoted and explained.”
IRIB – IRI embassy in Syria held a ceremony on Sunday night to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution’s victory (1979). Syrian high-ranking governmental and military officials including Parliament Speaker Mahmud al-Abrash, Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Hassan Turkmani, Army Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Ali Habib, Minister of Religious Endowments Mohammad Abdul Sattar al-Sayyed and Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmad Arnus participated in the ceremony.
CSM – As Iran marks the 30th anniversary of its revolution on Tuesday, the ayatollah’s defiant spirit still towers above all. From Iran’s opposition to America as the “Great Satan,” to the spread of its ideology of resistance – as well as loving family moments – Khomeini’s legacy lives on in fact and myth.
Press TV – A top Iranian commander says despite making repeated threats, Washington would not dare to militarily attack a powerful and secure Iran. “Enemy forces have been stationed around Iran with the aim of scaring the Islamic Republic into changing its attitude,” the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Chief, Major General Mohammad-Ali Jafari, said Monday.
Fars – Basij (volunteer) forces have been assigned by the Supreme Leader to fight the threat of soft regime change plans against the Islamic Republic, Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari said here on Monday.
Mianeh – Experts predict that the severe drop in prices will be devastating for Iran’s economy, which relies heavily on oil revenue. According to official figures, the Tehran authorities derive 70 per cent of its revenues from sales of crude. To counter the financial problems facing the country, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad presented a plan to parliament at the end of last year, under which energy subsidies would be scrapped. This would have a major impact on Iranians, who are used to paying some 36 US cents for a gallon of petrol.

South Asia

UNODC – Afghanistan: Opium Winter Assessment, January 2009
RIA Novosti – The first rail shipment of high-quality Russian flour has arrived in the Afghan city of Hairaton, an economic and trade advisor to the Russian Embassy in Afghanistan said on Monday. The deliveries of food to Afghanistan, where about 300 people have recently died of hunger and cold during an unusually severe winter, have been set up by the UN World Food Program. “The first two rail cars of flour sent by Russia as humanitarian aid in response to a request from the Afghan government arrived in the Afghan river port of Hairaton via Uzbekistan on Sunday,” Georgy Mishin said.
Javno – Jalalabad in east Afghanistan has new asphalt roads, traffic lights and a public park, but some residents say it is at the expense of historical treasures such as the tomb of an Afghan king and national hero. The shrine of Amanullah Khan, one of Afghanistan’s last monarchs and credited with liberating the country from British involvement in 1919, is in a large marble plaza, covered by a dome roof held up by blue columns in the heart of Jalalabad.
CentCom – Two Coalition service members, one member of the Afghan National Civil Order Police and one local national civilian were killed Feb. 8, by an improvised explosive device in Helmand, Afghanistan. Additionally, one member of the Afghan National Civil Order Police was wounded.
CJTF101 – Members of the Afghan government, security leadership and International Security Assistance Forces from Nangarhar, Nuristan, Konar and Laghman met at the Nangarhar governor’s compound Feb. 2, to conduct the N2KL Joint Security Conference. The purpose was to create a forum where leaders across all four provinces could gather monthly to share information and ideas from all the Afghan National Security Forces and government representatives on how to improve security in N2KL.
The News – Naib Ameer to central chief of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Baitullah Mehsud has survived attempt on his life and one commander killed when their vehicle was detonated with remote control bomb in Makeen area in South Waziristan Agency late last night. According to sources, some unknown accused targeted the vehicle of Naib Ameer TTP Maulana Noor Sayyed with remote control device while he was on his way back home after attending a meeting in Makeen.
Geo – At least nine people were killed, including five militants, in different violent acts in restive Swat valley on Monday. The militants blew up yet another girls school and basic healthcare center situated in Matta tehsil. According to sources, security forces backed by helicopter gunships and artillery shelled suspected hideouts of militants in Oogro, Takht Band and Angro Dherai areas, on the outskirts of Mingora, killing five militants and a civilian. Meanwhile, militants blew up a bridge with remote-controlled bomb in Takht Band area
Xinhua – A total of 25 people were killed and 40 others were injured Monday by rocket shells by militants in northwestern Pakistan, according to the private Geo TV. Militants fired mortar shells on a school where local people took shelter, said the Geo TV. Local people put the dead bodies on the road and protest against the killing at the Dera Adam Khel tribal town in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP).
MEMRI – In Pakistan’s tribal district of Khyber Agency, two militant organizations – Lashkar-e-Islam and Ansarul Islam – are fighting against each other, according to a report in the Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Express.
APP – A suicidal attack on a Frontier Reserve Police Check-post manned by the Frontier Constabulary (FC) troops here in the jurisdiction of Bakka Khel Police Station left at-least eighteen FC troops injured Monday morning, DIG Bannu Muhammad Masood Khan Afridi said. DIG M.Masood Khan Afridi told APP that an unknown suicide bomber, riding a mini truck, rammed his explosive laden vehicle into the Baran police check post, injuring eighteen FC jawans. The building of check post was totally destroyed as a result of the explosion.
Xinhua – Militants killed two persons in Pakistan’s tribal areas on charges of spying for the United States, according to local press reports. The body of an Afghan national was found Monday near the roadside in the Spinwam area of Miranshah, North Waziristan. A note found near the body said that he had been spying for the United States.
US News - Instead, many have apparently joined hands with different Taliban groups to “avenge” the killing of their relatives and friends in ongoing Pakistani military operations and U.S. drone attacks in the restive northern tribal belt along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. A recent report by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies suggests that hundreds of angry young men, who earlier along with their families had taken shelter in different refugee camps set up by the government with the help of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, have joined the Taliban ranks during the past few months.
Al Arabiya – Taliban murders music and merriment in Pakistan; Hostile climate for anyone associated with entertainment
Hindustan Times – The Jammu and Kashmir police on Monday said they have arrested the chief operational commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen, dealing a severe blow to the Pakistan-based terrorist outfit. Muzaffar Ahmed Dar alias Ghaznavi alias Ali was arrested from his hideout in Hazratbal, close to the University of Kashmir, on the outskirts of Srinagar.
Sify – Ten policemen, including a police station chief, were killed on Monday when suspected Maoist guerrillas attacked them in (India) Bihar’s Nawada district, the police said
Sri Lanka MoD – At least 28 people including 8 civilians were killed and 64 others including 40 civilians reported injured when an LTTE woman suicide bomber blew herself at an IDP rescue centre, North of Visuamadu in Mullaittivu this morning (Feb 9) at around 11.30 a.m. 3 woman soldiers were also among the military fatalities reported.

Far East & Pacific

news.com.au – Police are hunting down a serial arsonist believed to have been responsible for lighting the worst of the Victoria fires. Police have confirmed that they believe the man who lit the devastating Delburn Complex of fires around nearby Boolarra last month, destroying 29 houses and more than 6000ha, is the same person responsible for the Churchill blaze.
The Australian – The Australian understands the state Government was advised during crisis meetings yesterday morning of predictions of at least 230 deaths. The grim tally amounts to at least three times the number of lives lost in the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983 and the Black Friday fires of 1939. The weekend’s blazes are expected to have destroyed almost 1000 houses.
JTA – An Islamic leader’s comments that Israel’s invasion of Gaza was worse than the Holocaust has severely strained Jewish-Muslim relations in Australia. Ikebal Patel, the chair of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, made the allegation last month and has refused to withdraw his comments despite demands by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. In a Feb. 2 letter, the Executive Council’s president, Robert Goot, said if the remarks were not withdrawn “publicly and unequivocally,” the Jewish community would be unable to work with the Islamic community.
Jakarta Post – The government is set to purchase Russian-made submarine, a legislator said Monday as quoted by Antara state news agency. “There’s always been a plan to purchase submarine and I’ve surveyed a few submarine workshops in Moscow, Russia. This submarine is to display our naval strength and also anticipate any armed conflicts,” deputy speaker of the House of Representatives’ Commission I on political, security and foreign affairs Yusron Ihza said Monday.
Stars and Stripes – The top U.S. military commander in South Korea called for North Korea to quiet talk about testing nuclear missiles and instead agree to an open dismantling of its nuclear weaponry. “We call on North Korea to stop provocations and act like a responsible country,” Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said at a luncheon with reporters in Seoul.
Yonhap – Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone was to arrive in Seoul late Tuesday for talks with his counterpart Yu Myung-hwan on bolstering Seoul-Tokyo ties, countering the North Korean nuclear threats, and jointly supporting the reconstruction of Afghanistan, officials said.
WN – Sangchu a famous Tibetan town in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, eastern Tibet is once again victimized by Chinese military forces, foreign visitors have not been allowed to enter the town since the beginning of Chinese New Year, January 25. Now, as Tibetan New Year, (Losar), approaches, and paramilitary force is again evident, there is growing concern that Chinese military will again terrorize the Tibetan people of Sangchu County.
China Daily – Former French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin Monday said he hoped France and China would restart dialogue soon. Beginning his weeklong visit to China, his second in 10 months, to repair soured Sino-French ties, Raffarin said bilateral relations should be put back on the track.
Irrawaddy – Sixty years on, Burma’s famous Battle of Insein, when Karen forces tried to take Rangoon, still resonates.
ICG – A year after Timor-Leste’s president José Ramos-Horta was shot, security is markedly improved but at the cost of an army that is unreformed and increasingly unaccountable. There are worrying signs of disdain for the justice system and civilian control over the army. The police and army depend too heavily on a few individuals and on personal relationships that have been able to hold the security forces together. The government needs to reform the army and police, but they also need to tolerate dissent, be more transparent, and get a grip on corruption

Europe

Germany Foreign Ministry – Berlin is opposed to holding out the prospect of NATO membership to Ukraine and Georgia. Is this standpoint the result of the strategic partnership which links Berlin and Moscow? Neither is correct. NATO offered a clear perspective to both states – with the support of both Poland and Germany. Incidentally, we decided at the Bucharest summit that it’s too early at present for the necessary preliminary step along this path, namely the Membership Action Plan (MAP). You’re aware of the reasons for that. They lie in Ukraine and Georgia themselves.
David Miliband, FCO – My session at the Munich Security Conference was entitled “Nato, Russia, Oil and Gas”. John McCain pulled out because of the Senate’s debate of the UK Stimulus Package. But I was sorry that Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ivanov shifted from this session to a discussion on disarmament. It left the panel without a Russian voice – other than the speaker in the audience who complained about the lack of Russian representation.
euobserver - The Nordic countries – Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland – could pool military forces, maritime monitoring and satellite surveillance, a report commissioned by the five foreign ministers says. Drafted by former Norwegian foreign minister Thorvald Stoltenberg, the study out on Monday (9 February) puts forward 13 proposals to be endorsed at a Nordic foreign ministers meeting in Reykjavik in April.
Islam in Europe – Radicalization in the Norwegian extreme Islamic communities is increase, says the PST, the Norwegian security service, in its threat report for 2009. The PST did not uncover concrete plans for a terror attack in Norway and the threat level continues to be low.
Javno – On Monday afternoon, the Slovenian parliament adopted with a two-thirds majority the Law on the Ratification of Croatia’s Accession Protocol for Entry into NATO. Beforehand, members of the Slovenian parliament unanimously adopted the law on Albania’s accession protocol to NATO. With this act, the Slovenian parliament became the 21st out of the 26 NATO members which ratified the protocol on expansion of the Alliance to Croatia, the statement said.
AGI - A mini-van loaded with explosives has blown up in Madrid but did not injure anyone, as reported by the state-owned radio RNE. The latter quoted police sources, who said that warning of the attack had been received by the local Red Cross about an hour and a half before it occurred. At the moment no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but investigators immediately laid the blame on ETA separatists.
Xinhua – Czech President Vaclav Klaus on Monday warned against some countries’ tendency to embrace protectionism amid the ongoing global financial crisis, saying it is not desirable and must be averted. “It is a huge present-day task to avert this (the rise of protectionism),” Klaus said after a meeting with his Slovak counterpart Ivan Gasparovic. “I am glad to hear the Czech government saying that it considers protectionism unacceptable.” The president’s remarks came on the heels of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s criticism last week on French carmakers for having transferred production to the Czech Republic.
Xinhua – An Albanian Supreme Court judge has been injured in a gun attack over the weekend, but his injuries were not life-threatening, police said on Monday. The 40-year-old Ardian Nuni was shot in the shoulder and leg when he was emerging from his car near his home on Sunday. “This is an attack on Albania’s justice system, and the persons responsible for this should be punished by the law,” Albanian Justice Minister Enkelejd Alibeaj said.

Africa

Shabelle – Somalia’s newly elected president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed told Monday Islamist leaders and commanders of government forces that he was ready to practice the Sharia law. Somali’s president Sharif Sheik Ahmed was attending a large meeting in former Police Traffic Centre in Mogadishu on Monday, and encouraged peace and forgiveness to the Somalis. Sheik Abdulqadir Ali Omar, the leader of the Islamic Courts Union and Gen. Abdi Hassan Awale( Qeibdid), the commander of the Somali police forces shook hands and said they made up and reconciled.
Xinhua – British and Ugandan army chiefs met here on Monday and discussed the security situation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) and Somalia, a statement from the Ugandan army said. According to the statement from the army’s spokesman’s office, Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt, the Chief of General Staff of the British Army and Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, Chief of Defense Force of Uganda People’s Defense Force, discussed Uganda’s hunt for rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army in eastern DR Congo and its peacekeeping mission in Somalia. This was the first time since Uganda, a former British colony, gained independence in 1962 that a British general of that level visited the country.
ISN – A South African court ruled on 5 February that African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma would stand trial on charges of corruption, fraud, money-laundering and racketeering on 25 August. The trial would therefore proceed after the upcoming elections, which are expected to take place in mid-April.
EABW – The wait for the landing of an undersea fibre-optic cable to boost communication in the region could be coming to fruition as indications point that one arm is almost at the East African coast. Officials at SEACOM, an undersea cable partly funded by East African countries, have announced that the first portions of the cable are now resting on the seabed of the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. The 15, 000-kilometre Sea Cable System (SEACOM) is valued at US$650 million.
France24 – Madagascar’s defence minister resigned Monday in protest at a deadly police crackdown on opposition supporters, as a UN envoy met with rival leaders to end a political power struggle. As the tug-of-war between President Marc Ravalomanana and opposition leader Andry Rajoelina escalated, Cecile Manorohanta said she did not want to remain in a government that condoned the shooting of civilians.
BBC – Journalists have condemned the reported abduction on Saturday of four women reporters by supporters of female genital mutilation. Reports say the female kidnappers accused the women of insulting their traditions by criticising the practice. Witnesses said the women were stripped and marched through the street in the city of Kenema before being released.
Angel Rabasa, RAND – Radical Islam in East Africa
Henri Boshoff, Jean Marie Gasana, and Richard Cornwell, ISS – Burundi: The End of the Tunnel?
AFRICOM - More than 100 people – including African academic researchers, U.S. Embassy staff, and U.S. Africa Command personnel – gathered February 7-8 at the alpine resort town of Garmisch, Germany, for a conference on “the Evolution of African Militaries.” The conference, co-hosted by the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Africa Command, discussed the roles of African militaries in their countries, to include their history and their current role in the African Union and in peacekeeping missions. The conference was not aimed at making any decisions but instead allowed a free exchange of ideas between leading academic researchers on African security issues, as well as staffs from U.S. Embassies and U.S. Africa Command.

operational update on the military forces based on Guam

Commander of U.S. Naval Force Marianas Navy Rear Adm. William D. French, right, speaks with Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright, center, on the Andersen Air Force Base flight line following an island tour of Guam, Feb. 7, 2009. Cartwright visited Andersen to receive an operational update on the military forces based on Guam and the status of plans for moving Marines from Okinawa, Japan to Guam. (photo by Airman 1st Class Courtney Witt)

The Global War

Daily Times – A video received by the BBC from an Al Qaeda leader believed killed last year warned India that it would have to pay a ‘heavy price’ if it tried to attack Pakistan. Sheikh Mustafa Abu Yazeed, who had been operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, was reported killed in a US drone strike in August 2008. In the 20-minute video in Arabic, Yazeed said: “We will bring mujahideen and suicide attackers from all over the Muslim world to confront you [India]. They will target your economic centres and raze them to the ground,” Yazeed said in the video sent to BBC.
Bloggers Roundtable – Sgt. Major Thomas Coleman, sergeant major of Program Executive Officer Soldier, joined bloggers and online journalists Feb. 6 to discuss the DoD IG’s recommendation to return about 33,000 body armor ESAPI plates
Asia Times – When Iran launched its little Omid satellite in early February, it said it had peaceful intentions. China has done nothing to support Iran’s stance, and this silence is not helping matters as Israel’s war drums beat louder by the minute. For Beijing, Omid represents an unusual opportunity, indeed a gift from Iran as China seeks to play a bigger role on the world’s stage.
US Army – Exercise Cobra Gold is a two-week annual joint training exercise scheduled this year from Feb. 4-17 in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The Royal Thai Army, Navy, and Marines as well as U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC) with support from U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM), U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet (PACFLT), U.S. Marine Forces Pacific (MARFORPAC), U.S. Air Force Pacific (PACAF) and contingencies from the militaries of Indonesia, Japan, and Singapore will participate in the exercise that has been conducted since 1981. Exercise Cobra Gold 2009 is the latest in a continuing series of exercises designed to promote regional peace and security, and will consist of a computer-simulated command post exercise, field training and live fire exercises, as well as humanitarian and civic assistance projects
Dr. Jeffrey Record - The author takes a fresh look at Japan’s decision for war in 1941, and concludes that it was dictated by Japanese pride and the threatened economic destruction of Japan by the United States.

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Cables, dispatches and memoranda

11 November, 2008 (00:42) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba

Cables, Dispatches and Memoranda A brief world news roundup for 11 November 2008.

United States & the Americas

Matthew Levitt and Michael Jacobson – The Money Trail: Finding, Following, and Freezing Terrorist Finance
Raheel Raza – The Islamist Role in the 2008 Canadian Elections
Reuters – Canadian and Afghan officials denied on Monday that any jailed Taliban leaders were released in exchange for a Canadian journalist freed after being held hostage for a month in Afghanistan.
Kommersant – Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin completed a tour of three Latin American countries, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, on the weekend. His trip was rewarded with the signing of several large contracts. They may not be practical, however, due to the political situation in some of those countries.
Prensa Latina – Followers of opposition candidate to Mayor of Managua, Eduardo Montealegre, staged riots in the city on Monday, where their main rival, Sandinista Alexis Arguello, proclaimed himself the winner, according to preliminary official figures.
America.gov – Mauro Costa-Mattioli wins the 2008 Eppendorf and Science Prize for Neurobiology for identifying a protein that controls the formation of long-lasting memories. America.gov traces Mattioli’s journey from Uruguay to the United States and explores how proteins control memory formation.
BBC – A search is underway in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo for a gang which broke into a police station. They stole drugs and weapons, including submachine guns, and then blew up the building up before escaping.
Javno – President Felipe Calderon named one of Mexico’s top criminal lawyers as his new interior minister on Monday, putting him in charge of implementing justice and security reforms to help combat drug gangs. Fernando Gomez Mont, is in his mid-forties and was a federal lawmaker when the ruling National Action Party, or PAN, was in opposition. He replaces Calderon’s former right-hand man Juan Camilo Mourino, who died in a plane crash last week.
Latin Business Chronicle – Thanks to falling oil prices, Venezuela’s economy is heading for a major slowdown after five years of strong growth. Next year, Venezuela’s GDP will likely expand by a mere 2.0 percent, the International Monetary Fund predicts.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

RIA Novosti – The Russian Defense Ministry denied on Monday media reports that the former commander of the Chechen Vostok battalion, Sulim Yamadayev, had been assigned to a new post. The Kommersant business daily reported earlier that Yamadayev had been appointed deputy commander of a special forces brigade in southern Russia.
CRN – The battalions “Zapad” (West) and “Vostok” (East) of the 42nd Motorized Rifle Division of the Russian Ministry of Defence, deployed in the territory of Chechnya, are transformed into motorized rifle companies; is was announced by General-Colonel Vladimir Moltenskoy, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Land Forces.
Kavkaz Center – We would like to remind that the current ringleader of Chechen apostates Kadyrov, who has long enmity with Yamadayevans and Kakiyevans, has achieved their liquidation. Previously it has been announced that Sulim Yamadayev is being wanted in order to arrest and to bring him for questioning in Gudermes. According to sources in the province of Nokhchicho (Chechnya), Kadyrovans have greeted the news on the disbandment of “East” and “West” gangs with intensive shooting. Shooting in the air, by which Kadyrovans expressed their winning joy over the “fallen” competitors were heard for a half an hour.
Newsweek – Behind the Russian Sub Disaster
Astrid Sahm, ISS – Many Europeans had been cautiously optimistic that September’s parliamentary elections in Belarus would help break the deadlock in EU-Belarusian relations. However, not a single opposition candidate was elected, and international observers declared that the elections fell short of international standards. Is Minsk serious about rapprochement with the West? And how can the European Union best encourage progress with its eastern neighbour?
EurasiaNet – A financial catastrophe is looming for Central Asia’s poorest countries, as migrant workers in the once booming powerhouses of Russia and Kazakhstan are having increasing trouble finding work, and are thus unable to send cash back to loved ones in impoverished Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
RFERL – An explosion has killed two Georgian police officers near breakaway South Ossetia, drawing a call for calm from EU cease-fire monitors already concerned over an alleged border incursion at the weekend.

Middle East

Asharq Al Awsat – A suicide bomber struck Monday in a crowd gathered at the site of an explosion that moments earlier had damaged a bus filled with schoolgirls, with both blasts killing at least 28 people and wounding 68 others, authorities said.
AFPS – Coalition forces in Iraq today captured 11 suspects in operations aimed at dismantling Baghdad’s car-bomb networks, military officials reported.
NEFA Foundation – The NEFA Foundation has transcribed and translated a highly controversial new interview with Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, the leader of Al-Qaida in Iraq. During the interview, produced by the official media wing of Al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Hamza pointedly accused various other Sunni insurgent groups—including the Islamic Army of Iraq (IAI), the Mujahideen Army, and the 1920 Revolution Brigades—of treachery and collaboration with U.S. forces.
Amir Mizroch – How Damascus could leave Teheran isolated…and why that’s not going to happen anytime soon.
Al Jazeera – Thousands of Gazans have been left without electricity following Israel’s suspension of fuel shipments to the Hamas-controlled territory’s only power plant.
Haaretz – Defense Minister Ehud Barak decided late Monday to resume minimal quantity fuel shipments into Gaza to power the territory’s electricity plant despite continued Qassam rocket fire, defense officials said, after Gaza officials shut down the facility, cutting power to much of Gaza City. Israel stopped the shipments last week and closed Gaza’s border crossings in response to a wave of Palestinian rocket attacks, which followed an Israeli incursion into Gaza and a fierce gunbattle between Israel Defense Forces troops and Hamas forces.
Hizballah – Hizbullah foreign affairs official Nawwaf Moussawi spoke out on Sunday against a UN conference on religion proposed by “Israel”. Addressing a political gathering organized by Hizbullah, Moussawi said that “Israel” had called for a UN conference called “Dialogue between Religions,” and said, “first, this conference has no relation with dialogue among religions; it is rather a backdoor way of enforcing normalization with “Israel”.”
NOW Lebanon – Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, on the sidelines of the Quartet for Mideast peace held on Sunday in Sharm al-Sheikh, that Moscow must respect a weapons embargo on Hezbollah. Livni said a very clear message must be sent to Syria and Iran to halt the flow of Russian-supplied weapons to the Lebanese militant group.
Ya Libnan – Lebanese and Syrian interior ministers meeting in Damascus have agreed to co-ordinate efforts to fight terrorism and crime and control their joint border.
Noah Pollak – It seems that there is finally some closure about that Israeli airstrike on Syria in September, 2007. The headline of this story should remove all but the most improbable doubt: “IAEA found uranium traces at alleged Syrian nuclear site”
MEMRI – On November 6, 2008, the Islamist forum Al-Fallujah posted two communiqués by a new jihadist organization called Jahafil Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad fi Filastin (“The Armies of Monotheism and Jihad in Palestine”). The first communiqué announced the establishment of the organization, and declares that it was vowing loyalty to Al-Qaeda.
Spiegel – Ahmet Türk, 66, head of the Kurdish Party for a Democratic Society, discusses the recent escalation between Turkish police and Kurdish protesters, the legal challenge facing DTP and the threat of a civil war in Turkey.

Iran

Fars – During the two-day trip, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Undersecretary for International Affairs Ali Bagheri, who will pay the visit at the official invitation of his Indian counterpart, is also due to discuss regional topics, energy, energy swap and north-south corridor. Baqeri’s New Delhi visit comes after Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukhrajee’s trip to Tehran during which Iran and India signed several agreements for economic, agricultural and judicial cooperation.
IRNA – A Spanish official from Foreign Ministry said Madrid is ready to expand ties with Iran in political, cultural, economic, parliamentary and trade fields.
Press TV – Iran has successfully test-fired a new domestically-designed and -manufactured missile in line with enhancing its combat capabilities. The Samen missile was launched Monday during an Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) military drill in the border city of Marivan in the Western province of Kurdistan, Iran.
AKI – More than 30,000 police agents and members of the security forces were expected to take part in a series of anti-riot drills in the Iranian capital, Tehran, from Monday. During the drills, eight roads will be closed to traffic to facilitate the movement of the security forces over the next week. The drills’ aim was for the country to “be ready to confront the psychological aggression of the enemy,” said recently ousted Interior Minister Ali Kordan.
NCRI – More than 1,000 angry workers of Kiyan-Tire Factory gathered on Monday outside Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s office in Tehran demanding their unpaid salaries for past seven months.
Mehr – The Second Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea inaugurated on Monday in Tehran. The plenipotentiary members from five littoral states of the Caspian Sea including Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, and Turkmenistan are attending the three-day conference.
Hudson Institute – The Hudson Institute Center for Middle East Policy cordially invites you to a foreign policy discussion and luncheon on Iran, Hezballah, and Hamas: Tehran’s War against the West by Proxy?

South Asia

Daily Star – Fourteen Afghan security guards were killed in a clash with US-led troops, the government said Monday, but the American military insisted they were suspected militants who had fired first.
Times of India – Afghan President Hamid Karzai has fired his transport minister for “negligence and for carrying out suspicious activities”, the presidential palace said on Monday. Karzai ordered a legal investigation into Qaderi for not creating the necessary facilities for sending Afghans on the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca on time.
Andrew Klavan – Five Days at the End of the World; My visit to Afghanistan, and the War on Terror movie that Hollywood would never make
Dawn – Militants in northwest Pakistan hijacked 13 trucks carrying supplies for Western forces in Afghanistan on Monday as they passed through the Khyber Pass, a government official said. Most supplies, including fuel, for US and other Western forces battling a Taliban insurgency in landlocked Afghanistan are trucked through neighbouring Pakistan.
ABC – An American Humvee races across a desert, a flag waving from the side, a gunman in the turret taking sight. But there is something wrong with this picture. The flag is not American, and the gunman is not wearing a U.S. uniform. The Humvee had just been stolen by the Taliban movement in Pakistan.
Times Online – The map tells a war story of its own. Sketched by a Taleban commander, it is of a stretch of territory fought over in Bajaur between the Pakistani Army and the insurgents. The ground has been neatly divided into specific areas of responsibility for different Taleban units.
Geo – Ten leading militants commanders are reported to have surrendered to authorities in Bajaur agency. Frontier Constabulary sources said those surrendered belonged to Atman Tribe and had been engaged in activities against security forces for a long time. Formation of tribal Lashkr and subsequent pressure by tribal elders are reported to be factors that led to their surrender.
Pak Tribune – Security forces killed Eleven militants during carried out airstrikes on their positions in Zorbandar and Sabagi areas of Bajore here Monday.
Frontier Post – The security forces Monday killed seven militants in the militancy-hit Swat valley in the on-going offensive, the army said. Several other militants injured during an exchange of firing with security forces in various parts of Swat district, according to the army’s Media Centre.
ICRC – ICRC response to Baluchistan quake; Latest report on ICRC activities in the field
Times of India – Residents of Kaluvas, near Bhiwani, attacked two girls with machetes, axes and stones and later set them on fire for going to some boys’ house on Diwali.
Colombo Page – Advancing Sri Lankan troops of Army Task Force 1 have entered the Tiger-controlled marshlands of Pooneryn amid adverse weather and stiff enemy resistance, the military said today. While acknowledging few soldiers also had been killed, defense officials said the troops of 583 Brigade attacked an LTTE strong point in Chempankundu yesterday evening and inflicted heavy damages to the terrorists.
ISN – As Sri Lanka makes headway against Tamil Tiger rebels, Tamil lawmakers urge India to intervene in the name of Tamil civilians caught in the crossfire, but New Delhi feels its hands are tied, Ravi Prasad writes for ISN Security Watch.

Far East & Pacific

Jakarta Post – The Philippines will not grant political asylum to ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra after his British visa was revoked, preventing him from returning to London where he has been living in exile, an official said Monday.
iStockAnalyst – Kazakhstan’s national nuclear corporation, Kazatomprom, will be involved in the construction of new nuclear power plants in China, Kazatomprom chief Mukhtar Dzhakishev told a press conference.
RIA Novosti – Russia is discussing with the Cambodian leadership the possibility of writing off most of Cambodia’s debt, which stands at around $1.5 billion, a senior Russian lawmaker said on Monday. “Russia and Cambodia are holding talks to write off Cambodia’s debt of around $1.5 billion. The principal sum (about 70%) of the debt could be written off as part of Russia’s participation in the Paris Club of Creditor Nations,” said Valery Yazev, deputy speaker of the lower house of Russia’s parliament, after a trip to Cambodia and Laos.
Xinhua – Chinese navy ship (CNS) Zhenghe entered the Bangkok Port on Monday morning, starting its four-day official visit to the capital of Thailand. On the reception ceremony, Thai officials welcomed all the crew on Zhenghe and said the visit will definitely deepening the understanding between the people of China and Thailand.
Bangkok Post – A bomb explosion in Narathiwat killed one paramilitary ranger and severely wounded five others on Monday. A pick-up truck of paramilitary rangers on patrol was ambushed by insurgents using a remote controlled bomb on a road in Ruso district. After the blast, the driver of pick-up truck, who was severely wounded sped away from the scene to avoid further assaults by the assailants.
AP – Japan lodged a protest with the United States after an American nuclear submarine made an unannounced visit in southern Japan, the Foreign Ministry said Monday. The USS Providence arrived in the White Beach Naval Facility on the southern island of Okinawa on Monday without prior notice, a requirement under a bilateral agreement, and stayed there for two hours, the ministry said.
Malcolm Colless, The Australian - The Government’s announcement that the ABC board must be depoliticised to establish independence and public confidence in the control of the national broadcaster is just political spin. If anything needs depoliticising it’s the ABC’s editorial department. But don’t hold your breath for that to happen.

Europe

Kommersant – Britain and Sweden have backed up the move to revive partnership negotiations of Russia and the European Union. Foreign ministers of those countries released the respective statement Monday. The ministers said they backed up the restart of talks with Russia, as it was in the interests of the 27-state bloc.
The Sun – Hate preacher Omar Bakri masterminded the plot to help extremist pal Abu Qatada flee Britain, The Sun can reveal. Bakri, 50, gave the order to followers to hatch an escape plan just days after Qatada was freed from jail and placed under house arrest. Qatada, 47, was re-arrested in a dawn swoop on Friday after authorities received a tip-off about his escape plot. Government sources believe Lebanon was his likely destination – where Bakri has lived since 2005.
Vladimir Socor – On November 5 Austria’s OMV energy company advanced toward a final agreement with Russia’s Gazprom to share the Baumgarten gas terminal near Vienna. That terminal, however, is the designated end point and regional distribution center for the Western-backed Nabucco gas transport project. Sharing Baumgarten with Gazprom risks pulling the rug from under the Nabucco project.
Doris Pack, The Parliament – Bosnia and Herzegovina lost years before it signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU, and now its politicians are not even capable of nominating a coordinator for dealing with the IPA funds – the European financial aid – which is foreseen in our EU budget for countries that have signed the SAA, to help them reform their economic, environmental and other such problems.
Francesca Barca, Interview with Elie Barnavi – Given the title, my first question has to be, why frigid? “Europe no longer incites passion in her citizens. She has lost her sex appeal, is no longer exciting or arousing curiosity, since everything has become bureaucratic.” Barnavi wrote this book to tell Europeans their own story.
Euronews – Spain has made it clear that it will maintain its troop levels in Afghanistan. It comes after two soldiers were killed and four others injured yesterday in a suicide attack on a joint Spanish-Afghan convoy coming back from a training exercise.
EurActiv – The Union’s foreign ministers yesterday (10 November) decided to proceed with negotiations over a new EU-Russia basic treaty, disregarding the objections of small member state Lithuania.
EU Observer – Europe’s Arctic adventure – The new cold rush for resources

The crew of the merchant vessel MV Faina stand on the deck after a U.S. Navy request to check on their health and welfare. The Belize-flagged cargo ship owned and operated by Kaalbye Shipping, Ukraine, was seized by pirates Sept. 25 and forced to proceed to anchorage off the Somali Coast. The ship is carrying a cargo of Ukrainian T-72 tanks and related military equipment. (photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Jason Zalasky)

Africa

Kenya Red Cross – Armed bandits are reported to have attacked Elwak town in Mandera Central District, 230km from Mandera town, at 1am on Sunday, 9th November 2008, and abducted two Catholic nuns and three vehicles. The nuns were abducted from their residence in the town. There are fears that the bandits have crossed the border into Somalia with the nuns and vehicles.
Xinhua – Ghanaian Vice President Aliu Mahama has warned on the flow of sophisticated weapons to Africa, which eventually end up in the hands of rebels to perpetuate conflicts, according to the Ghana News Agency on Monday.
IRIN – The fall in international copper prices is causing unease in Zambia, one of the world’s largest producers, whose impressive economic growth in recent years has been based on copper exports.
Australia DoD – Australian Defence personnel serving with the United Nations in Sudan are to conduct a commemorative service at the Khartoum War Cemetery as part of a Remembrance Day service honouring Australian lives lost during all conflicts.
Elizabeth Dickinson – Why Rwanda and France can’t just get along

Purple irises greet visitors at the entrance to the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery. (photo by Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs)

The Global War

New York Times – The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials. These military raids, typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004.
Michael Yon – Our enemies are winning. The enemies know it. We know it. Who are they? The Taliban, with its deep local roots, is enemy number one. Al-Qaeda is hanging around to make trouble. Some Paks, who don’t want to see a thriving Pushtun state on their border, are our enemies. They fund and shelter the Taliban even though we rely on them to help us defeat it. Nothing is straightforward in this part of the world. We have other enemies in Afghanistan who hate the Taliban. Most of our allies are not very helpful.
Robert Hunter, European Affairs – The post-cold war vision proffered by the U.S. and its allies in NATO was an inclusive model of security for all the countries in Europe and for Russia and its neighbors to the south. Russia’s leadership has turned away from it, but the vision remains sound and open to Moscow – if the Kremlin thinks wisely about the future.
Gen. Conway, USMC – On our 233rd birthday, first remember those who have served and those “angels” who have fallen – our reputation is built on their sacrifice. Remember our families; they are the unsung heroes whose support and dedication allow us to answer our Nation’s call.
US Army – The 55th Annual National Veterans Day Observance will take place at Arlington National Cemetery Tuesday at 11 a.m. Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake, Military District of Washington Commander Maj. Gen. Richard J. Rowe Jr., and Superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery John C. Metzler Jr. will host the event in honor of all past and present members of the U.S. armed forces who served and continue to serve in defense of the nation.
Hugh Griffiths and Mark Bromley, SIPRI – Stemming destabilizing arms transfers: the impact of European Union air safety bans

Sights & Sounds

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Cables, dispatches and memoranda

24 October, 2008 (00:58) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba

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

United States & the Americas

America.gov – The United States has agreed to redirect $25 million of Peru’s debt into local funds to protect the country’s tropical forests, the State Department announced October 20. In a debt-for-nature agreement, countries redirect their debt payments to the United States into local funds that administer competitive grants that support forest conservation.
US Courts – Fort Dix Terrorism Trial Evidence Listing
Martin Kramer – Seven years ago this week, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy published my book Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle East Studies in America. I’m pleased to announce that as of this morning, and for the first time, the entire book is available from the Institute as a free download (pdf). Click here to download.
RIA Novosti – The manufacturer of Kalashnikov assault rifles has sent the first shipment of equipment to Venezuela for the licensed production of AK-103 rifles, the company said on Thursday. “The first consignment of equipment was shipped to Venezuela on October 18,” Izhmash’s press service said, adding that the installation of the equipment would be completed by late 2009 and the plant would go into operation in 2010.
COHA – Oil-Rich Venezuela Meets Oil-Hungry China (with Washington Scheduled to Pay a Price)
Cultere11 – Ever heard of the Darien Gap? I hadn’t until I ran into a Vanguard Video report on Current.com. Here, Jael travels to Yuvisa, the end of the Pan-American Highway, near the Darien Gap, where South America is separated from entering Central America. The Pan-American Highway runs from Alaska to Argentina, with a sixty mile stretch that isn’t paved. This is called the Darien Gap. The Gap is referred to as the “stopper” because often drug trafficking is hindered here.
BBC – Argentine stocks have sunk 20% since President Cristina Fernandez unveiled plans on Tuesday to nationalise private pension funds. Brazil’s stocks fell 10% despite moves to let state-run banks buy up stakes in private financial institutions. Trading in Sao Paulo was halted for the fifth time in recent weeks. Elsewhere in the region, Mexican stocks sank 7%, Chile’s index fell 6% and Colombia’s dropped 5%.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

Kremlin – The Latest Video Message in Dmitry Medvedev’s Blog Deals with the Global Financial Crisis (transcript)
Sergei Blagov – The Kremlin has moved to expedite construction of the Eastern Siberia Pacific Oil Pipeline (ESPO), as a project considered of the utmost importance in terms of the domestic economy and foreign policy considerations.
Kavkaz Center – A daring combat operation has been carried out by the Mujahideen of Urus-Martan Sector of Armed Forces of the Caucasus Emirate. In a telephone conversation with editorial staff of ChechenCenter website, Amir Abdul-Malik said that on Thursday, a unit of the Mujahideen entered the village of Saadi-Kotar. In the first hour of the battle 4 Kadyrov’s apostates were eliminated. The convoy of the apostates has been blown up by a remote-controlled mine. 12 apostates in total were eliminated and wounded during the battle.
Jos Boonstra, EU-Russia Centre Review – Russia and Central Asia: From Disinterest to Eager Leadership
Javno – Russia’s war in Georgia showed its military would be no match for a bigger enemy because it has not adapted to post-Cold War realities, said Jane’s report released on Thursday. On Thursday, the defence ministry said Russia’s Pacific fleet will cut more than 4,500 officer jobs by the end of 2009.
IWPR – Two video-clips posted on the Internet showing brutality in the ranks of the Azerbaijani army have fueled allegations that hazing is rife, despite unprecedented increases on spending on the military in recent years. Azerbaijani prosecutors have made arrests and launched an enquiry into the incidents recorded on the clips, after initially denying that they were authentic.

A Humvee is parked near the Syrian/Iraq border during Operation Al Anbar Border Initiative, north of Al Qiam, Iraq on Oct. 12, 2008. Operation AABI's mission is to prevent smuggling to and from Syria and Iraq. (photo by Cpl. Tyler Hill)

Middle East

Bloomberg – Nine people died when a suicide bomber drove a car full of explosives into the convoy of Iraqi Labor Minister Mahmud Jawad al-Radi, who escaped unhurt.
MNF Iraq – Coalition forces continue to degrade the Special Groups network with the capture of three suspects Thursday morning during two separate operations in New Baghdad. Acting on intelligence information, Coalition forces targeted suspected Iranian-trained criminals assessed to conduct attacks on Iraqi and Coalition forces; specializing in Explosively Formed Penetrators, sniper attacks and intelligence collection.
Al Jazeera – Iraqi forces have been handed control of security in the province of Babil, south of Baghdad, by the US military. It is the twelfth of Iraq’s 18 provinces to be handed back to Iraqis.
Al Arabiya – Rumors that an assassination attempt was made on Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasralleh, which circulated in the Arab and Israeli media, were denied for the first time on Thursday by a top Hezbollah leader. Ghaleb Abu Zeinab told AlArabiya.net that an official statement will be issued by Hezbollah soon on this regard.
NOW Lebanon – Security sources told An-Nahar newspaper on Thursday that security services arrested 21 persons in al-Ouzaai area in the southern district of Beirut. Reports said that those people were followers of Islamic Labor Party leader Fathi Yakan and came from North Lebanon to enter Hezbollah’s military training camp.

Iran

Iran Press Service – On Iran, Olmert argued that Israel had lost its “sense of proportion” when stating that it would deal with Iran militarily. “What we can do with the Palestinians, the Syrians and the Lebanese, we cannot do with the Iranians”, Olmert said, in stark contradiction to his own earlier warnings on Iran as well as the rhetoric of many of his hawkish cabinet members.
Press TV – Tehran has warned that any attack on the country would be ‘insanity’ because in this case the war would be extended beyond Iran’s borders. “Iran will not be confined to its borders in responding to any aggression against its territory,” Fars news agency quoted Brig. Gen. Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr a senior military official, as saying on Wednesday.
Fars News – Iran and Pakistan said they are willing to undertake bilaterally a stalled multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline even if India does not join the project.
IRNA – The Iranian and Bahraini interior ministers underlined the need to promote the level of cooperation between the two countries in security-related issues. During a meeting which took place on the sidelines of the fifth meeting of interior ministers of Iraq’s neighboring states, Iran’s Interior Minister Ali Kordan called for further development of bilateral ties in economic, security and social fields.
Amnesty International – Esha Momeni, a student and women’s rights defender, was arrested by Iranian security officials on 15 October. She is being held in Section 209 of Evin Prison in Tehran, which is run by the Ministry of Intelligence. She has not been charged with any offence, and is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. Esha Momeni is a graduate student at California State University, Northridge.
Mark Silverberg – In May 2008, U.S. negotiators entered into a pact with Iran, the essence of which was that in return for reducing Iranian-assisted terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan and stabilizing oil prices, the U.S. Administration would refrain from military action against Iran’s nuclear installations for the remainder of the Bush presidency. In return, the Iranians undertook to limit their support for Afghan insurgents, opened the way for the U.S. military and the Iraqi government to destroy al Qaeda and the foreign Sunni insurgents in Iraq, and allowed President Bush to claim with some justification that his surge had been successful prior to his leaving the White House. Tehran ordered Iranian intelligence officers and the Revolutionary Guard Quds Force working undercover in Iraq to halt attacks on U.S. troops by pro-Iranian militias including Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army, although, jihadist training camps in Iran have continued to flourish.

South Asia

Canadian Press – The U.S military says a roadside bomb in western Afghanistan killed three U.S. coalition troops. In a statement released Thursday, the military said the bomb that struck the U.S. coalition vehicle Wednesday also wounded another coalition member. It did not provide the exact location of the attack or the nationalities of the victims, but the majority of coalition troops in that area are American. Also in southern Uruzgan province, a U.S. coalition airstrike killed 15 militants Wednesday, including a Taliban commander. The U.S. military said another three militants were killed inside a cave in western Farah province’s Bala Buluk district during a raid by American and Afghan troops Wednesday.
Asia Times – The Kabul to Kandahar highway, reconstructed by the United States as “a symbol of Afghan renewal and progress”, has instead become a symbol of the Taliban’s resurgence. A trip on the 500-kilometer road now involves running a fearful gauntlet of kidnap, ambush and execution, and there is nothing the security forces can do to make it safer.
Air Force – In Afghanistan, an Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II fired cannon rounds onto anti-Afghan forces in the open in the vicinity of Orgun-E. In the vicinity of Morghab, an Air Force B-1B Lancer dropped guided bomb unit-31s and GBU-38s onto a group of enemy fighters on motorcycles firing against coalition forces.
CJTF-A – Taliban commander Mullah Ghafar was killed and two other militants were wounded in a Coalition airstrike in Helmand province Oct. 20. Coalition forces positively identified Ghafar entering a vehicle and traveling south on a roadway through Helmand province and called for close air support.
NATO – A high tech system checking cars and trucks for explosives is now operational at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan, twelve weeks ahead of schedule. The project is part of a series of technologies being deployed by the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A) to counter the threat posed by improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan.
Daily Star – A donkey loaded with explosives was remotely blown up close to a police vehicle in southern Afghanistan Thursday, killing a policeman and wounding three others, police said.
Asia Foundation – On Tuesday, October 28th, The Asia Foundation will release findings from its most recent public opinion poll in Afghanistan, which covers the largest population sample ever surveyed at one time in all 34 of Afghanistan’s provinces.
Jayshree Bajoria – Backgrounder; India-Afghanistan Relations
Registan – Nuristan, in Pictures
Times Online – The US defied a warning from Pakistan not to hunt militants in its territory when an American missile strike on an Islamic school today claimed at least nine lives. The attack, which was intended to kill a Taleban warlord who is a close ally of Osama bin Laden, hit the compound of a madrassa, or Islamic school, close to the town of Miranshah in the tribal region of North Waziristan near the Afghan border.
Geo – In Bajaru, gunship helicopters have started shelling in Cheenar, Kohi and Babarha areas of Nawagai Tehsil destroying various underground hideouts and bunkers of militants. Security forces in their latest crack down killed 5 militants while 18 militants were killed in the last night operation in Mamund Tehsil.
Geoff Morrell, Pentagon Spokesman – Now, with regards to operations by the Pakistani military, I think in Peshawar, in Swat, in particular over the past, well, two- plus months, dating back to August, you’ve clearly seen stepped-up operations by the Pakistani military. It is welcomed by this building. It is stepped up not just in terms of tempo, but in terms of effectiveness. And as a result, we have seen some improvement in the flow of foreign fighters across the, across the border into Afghanistan. So that is a welcome sign.
NY Times – As the strength of the militants in the tribal areas grows, and as the war across the border in Afghanistan worsens, the Pakistanis are casting about for new tactics. The emergence of the lashkars is a sign of the tribesmen’s rising frustration with the ruthlessness of the Taliban, but also of their traditional desire to run their own affairs and keep the Pakistani Army at bay, Pakistani officers and law enforcement officials say.
Times of India – In a new twist to the blast at Malegaon in Maharashtra and Modasa in Gujarat during Ramzan on September 29, Maharashtra police on Thursday said it was investigating the alleged involvement of a Hindu right wing group in the blasts.
Sify – Against the backdrop of demands by political parties in Tamil Nadu to stop military aid to Sri Lanka, India on Thursday virtually ruled out that option saying the island nation’s security is “connected” with its security and it would not like “international players in our backyard.”

Far East & Pacific

Xinhua – China and Singapore on Thursday signed a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) ahead of the seventh Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) to be held here on Oct. 24-25.
Xinhua – China on Thursday welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to attend the seventh summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).
Kommersant – The Thai government has decided to break the U.S. monopoly on arms sales to the country by buying Russian helicopters. This is the first time Southeast Asia’s largest country has purchased weapons from another country other than the United States. Thai Prime Minister and acting Defense Minister Somchai Wongsawat has approved the contract for the purchase of three Mio-17 helicopters for a total of $9.2 million.
Straits Times – Six people have been arrested in northern China for mixing melamine powder with milk products in a nationwide food scam that has sickened more than 53,000 children, state media said on Thursday. The six were all arrested in Inner Mongolia on suspicion of involvement in putting the industrial chemical into milk and milk products destined for the factories of major dairy producer Mengniu.
ICG – A new Supreme Court ruling has ended hope of a peaceful resolution in the near future to the decades-old conflict between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Philippines government. Peace talks have broken down before but not like this. It will be much harder this time, even if talks resume, to simply pick up from where they left off. The immediate task now is to prevent escalation of fighting and discourage the government and local officials from arming civilians.

Europe

AFP – France’s minister for European affairs on Wednesday said he was opposed to Georgia and Ukraine entering the NATO military alliance for now because it would not benefit Europe. “I think that it is not the right time for membership for Georgia and Ukraine,” Jean-Pierre Jouyet said on the sidelines of a European Parliament session.
Nouriel Roubini – I have recently spent a few days in Hungary, a country that is now at the center of financial pressures in emerging markets. In recent weeks, the stock market has fallen, interest rates have increased, the currency has weakened and financial institutions have suffered shortages of liquidity.
SE European Times – Unresolved conflicts in the Black Sea area are the region’s flashpoint and can reignite at any time, Romanian President Traian Basescu warned on Wednesday, in a speech to a security conference in the Black Sea resort of Constanta. He insisted the Black Sea area needs a stronger NATO and EU presence to maintain stability.
RFERL – Two former top Western diplomats have warned that Bosnia-Herzegovina is in danger of collapsing and that the international community could be “sleepwalking into another Balkan crisis.”
IHT – A car bomb killed two journalists in central Zagreb on Thursday, state television reported. One of those killed was the manager of a leading Croatian weekly, it said, citing unofficial sources.
National Ledger – The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has his own doll now – a voodoo doll – that comes with its own pins (12 of them), and a manual for how to use it properly. According to the BBC, Sarkozy is suing to have the dolls removed from stores, saying it infringes on his own personal copyright.
AP – A Paris criminal court convicted nine people on Thursday including a French-Algerian former prison inmate who admitted establishing an Islamic group that called for armed jihad in France.
Russia Today – New evidence has come to light which indicates the lawyer in the trial of murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya was not intentionally poisoned. However, France’s Le Figaro newspaper quotes a police transcript which reveals that the previous owner of the vehicle had broken a mercury thermometer inside it.
BBC – A second Greek minister has resigned after being accused of involvement in a controversial land deal that has become a scandal engulfing the government. Minister of State Theodore Roussopoulos – who was one of PM Costas Karamanlis’s closest aides – denies any wrongdoing.
Terror Finance Blog – The Court of First Instance of the European Communities annulled the European Union Council of Ministers’ decision (2007/868) to maintain the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK) on the EU terrorist list, ruling that the EU had failed to give sufficient reasons to keep the PMOI on the list, following a British judgment of the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission removing the organization from the national list.

Africa

IHT – In a blow against high-seas piracy, the French navy captured nine pirates near the Gulf of Aden and handed them over Thursday to authorities in Somalia. A French navy vessel intercepted the pirates in two small boats in a routine check about 115 miles (185 kilometers) from the nearest coast, the Defense Ministry said.
Press TV – Five policemen are killed and 11 civilians injured in a hit-and-run attack on a police station in the north of the Somali capital Mogadishu. The incident occurred in the early hours on Thursday when insurgents attacked a police station with hand grenades in the northern district of Yakhshiid in the turbulent Somali capital.
UN – More than 35,000 people were forced to flee their homes after renewed fighting in Mogadishu last month, bringing the total number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Somalia to over 1 million, the United Nations humanitarian wing announced.
Enough Project – Since 1996, more than 200,000 women and girls have been raped and sexually assaulted in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where rape is used as a weapon of war in the deadliest conflict since World War II. With violence and atrocities again on the rise, the Enough Project is kicking off a multi-year, multifaceted national campaign to protect and empower Congo’s women and girls.
NPR – Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur is the first memoir written by a woman caught in the war in Darfur. After treating the traumatized victims — some as young as 8 years old — Bashir spoke out, igniting a horrifying turn of events.
Magharebia – Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is “dying”, an Algerian expert said Tuesday at a Cairo conference on combating the terrorist organisation, El Khabar reported. In his speech, Amar Djefal of Algiers University said al-Qaeda is suffering a “real crisis” because repentant terrorists are increasingly laying down arms to benefit from national reconciliation. Algerian security forces have eliminated some 10 al-Qaeda senior leaders within the last five months, he noted.

Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group and Indian Navys Western Fleet

INS Rana of the Indian Navy's Western Fleet leads the passing exercise formation, behind the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan. The formation involving the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group and Indian Navy's Western Fleet received honors in passing from the Indian flag ship INS Mumbi (photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Gary Prill)

The Global War

CNN – Enough processed uranium to make six nuclear weapons was secretly transported thousands of miles by truck, rail and ship on a monthlong trip from a research reactor in Budapest, Hungary, to a facility in Russia so it could be more closely protected against theft, U.S. officials revealed Wednesday. The shipment, conducted under tight secrecy and security, included a three-week trip by cargo ship through the Mediterranean, up the English Channel and the North Sea to Russia’s Arctic seaport of Murmansk, the only port Russia allows for handling nuclear material.
Oxford Analytica – General David Petraeus, the man largely credited in Washington with reducing the level of violence in Iraq, on Friday becomes the head of Central Command (Centcom). At his new post, Petraeus will oversee a combatant command (US regional military theatre) stretching from the Horn of Africa to the Kazakh-Russian frontier.
Pentagon – Beirut Barracks Bombing, 25th Anniversary and Remembrance
Nosint – A US Navy Virginia class submarine recently fired a Raytheon Tomahawk Block IV missile from the Gulf of Mexico to engage a simulated target. The flight completes the integration of the Tomahawk cruise missile onto the Navy’s newest fast-attack submarine, adding another platform to the list of combatant vessels that can carry the combat-proven weapon.

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Cables, dispatches and memoranda

14 October, 2008 (00:23) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba

Cables, Dispatches and Memoranda A brief world news roundup for 14 October 2008.

United States & the Americas

Army Times – 2 get Silver Stars for actions in Afghanistan
ABC – The gate at the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, Mexico, was pockmarked with bullet holes Monday, a day after assailants shot at the building and threw a grenade that failed to explode. No one was injured.
CSM – Journalists targeted in latest Mexico drug violence; A newspaper editor, a columnist, police officers, and bar patrons are among those killed in separate acts of violence this past week.
Forbes – The European Union proposed on Monday establishing a strategic partnership with Mexico to forge closer ties in areas including security, diplomacy, trade, and the environment.
LA Times – Facing a crackdown in Mexico, smugglers turn to Argentina as a base for importing ephedrine, which is turned into meth destined for the U.S. The trade has brought killings and intrigue.
Latin Business Chronicle – Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa expelled Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht last month, blaming it for faulty construction of the San Francisco hydroelectric dam. [And last week, the government rejected an offer from Odebercht to solve the dispute]. Will the Odebrecht expulsion stifle private sector interest in upcoming energy projects in Ecuador?

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

Russia Today – Russia’s two stock markets fell further on Monday despite government intervention aimed at helping overcome the global financial crisis. Despite trading on the exchanges being halted more than 10 times in the last two weeks, accompanied by new regulations which enable the Federal Financial Markets Service to order the exchanges to halt if they move beyond 5% of their opening marks on any day, Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin told journalists on Saturday that he saw little value in longer term closures.
Moscow Times – In the first major sign that the liquidity crisis is affecting Russia’s state banking giants, VTB, the country’s second-largest bank, will apply for government bailout money to refinance its foreign loans for this year and next year, and plans to cut internal costs by 15 percent to 20 percent in the fourth quarter.
Voice of Russia – Russian warships have weighed anchor at the end of a three-day call to the Libyan port of Tripoli. One of them, a frigate, is on its way to the Horn of Africa on a mission to bust piracy. The rest, led by the nuclear-powered cruiser ‘Peter the Great’, are under sail to the Caribbean for November wargames with Venezuela.
RIA Novosti – Ukraine’s energy ministry has approved a Russian company’s winning bid to construct a nuclear power plant (NPP), Ukraine’s UNIAN news agency reported on Monday.
RFERL – In a bid to improve relations with Uzbekistan, the EU has lifted visa bans on eight top officials held responsible for the mass killing of demonstrators in Andijon in 2005. They cited improvements in the country’s record in dropping the ban. However, officials privately concede that while real improvements are meager, the EU is increasingly interested in having influence in Central Asia

An Iraqi airman gives another airman a water bottle, Oct. 11, 2008, at Joint Base Balad, Iraq. The Iraqi airmen were on a cargo resupply mission with the U.S. Air Force 370th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron. They are assigned to 23rd Squadron, which operates three C-130 Hercules aircraft used for transporting troops, supplies and distinguished visitors. (photo by Airman 1st Class Jason Epley)

Middle East

Asharq Al Awsat – Iraq’s prime minister said the 4,100 British troops in southern Iraq are no longer necessary to provide security, a newspaper reported Monday. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told The Times of London that there may be a need for a few British troops to remain for training and technical issues. But as a fighting force, al-Maliki said the British were no longer needed.
AKI – Al-Qaeda in Iraq has denied responsibility for the recent killings of Christians in the northern city of Mosul, which have driven hundreds of families from their homes. “We honour the agreement signed in Mosul by Abu Hamza al-Muhajir and prominent Christian tribal chiefs in 2007,” said the Islamic State of Iraq’s spokesman in Mosul, Abu Uthman al-Ansari.
Reuters – Syria has sent its first ambassador to Baghdad in decades, the Iraqi government said on Monday, the latest move from a fellow Arab country to strengthen diplomatic ties with Iraq.
MNF Iraq – Four wanted men were among the 10 suspected terrorist detained by Coalition forces today during operations targeting al-Qaeda in Iraq in Mosul and Baghdad.
Ya Libnan – Beirut- Lebanese Christian leader Michel Aoun surprised the Lebanese Christians and Muslims alike on Monday when he said that Iran was helping Lebanon to achieve national unity. Antoine Haddad a Lebanese political observer told Ya Libnan. “Aoun is stuck . His memorandum of understanding with Hezbollah is forcing him to take these positions of praising Iran and Syria and attacking Saudi Arabia. He is trying to earn the trust of Hezbollah and its allies because he knows no one on the other side trusts him anymore and he lost all their respect.”
Al Ahram – Breaking with its customary reserve in dealing with Hizbullah, Cairo has invited the Lebanese resistance party for talks in Cairo. The move surprised many, as Hizbullah and Cairo don’t exactly see eye to eye on many issues, from Israel to Iran to Lebanese domestic affairs. But there are a host of reasons, most pragmatic, that enticed Cairo to move in that direction.
ynet – Hizbullah leadership chose Hashem Safi al-Din to be the chairman of the organization’s executive council and, as such, the successor to the organization’s secretary-general, the Iranian newspaper Khoursid reported Monday.

Iran

Washington Post – The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said Sunday that American intelligence reports suggest Iran has attempted to bribe Iraqi lawmakers in an effort to derail a bilateral agreement that would allow U.S. troops to remain in Iraq after the end of this year.
Press TV – Iran has dismantled an offshoot of the Jundullah terrorist group, which planned to carry out covert operations in the Islamic Republic. Before succeeding to accomplish their objectives, the members of the group were killed, wounded or taken into custody by Iranian intelligence officers during a confrontation in the Pir-Souran mountainous area of Sistan-Baluchistan Province bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Javno – Iran’s moderate former president Mohammad Khatami hosted several former Western leaders on Monday, a move analysts saw as a bid to boost his standing ahead of the country’s presidential election in 2009. Among the guests at a conference called “Religion in the Modern World” were former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan, former Italian premier Romano Prodi and former presidents Mary Robinson of Ireland and Jorge Sampaio of Portugal.
France24 – A week-long strike against a new value added tax shut down Tehran’s bazaar on Sunday, until the Iranian government suspended the measure for two months. The bazaar reopened on Monday.
Payvand – Photos: First Day of New School Year, Qom Seminaries

South Asia

CJTF-A – Members of the National Directorate of Security and Coalition forces captured a Taliban commander and three additional persons of interest in Kandahar, Oct. 5. Hafiz Abdul Khaliq, a known Taliban commander, and three militants were located through intelligence reports in known safehouses in Panjwayi District.
Guardian – The Seray combat outpost is a base in Afghanistan’s Chowkay district, 10 miles from the border with Pakistan, manned by US army and Afghan national army soldiers. A small team of US marine tactical trainers is embedded to help the Afghans. Seray, high in the mountains, is attacked by Taliban fighters almost daily. While the photographs in this slideshow were taken over the course of a week, the audio is taken from a single five-hour attack on October 9.
Péter Marton – Pomeranian grenadiers in the Hindu Kush: A look at the Afghanistan mission from a cost/benefit perspective.
Free Range International – Traveling in the West of Afghanistan; The security situation in the western provinces of Afghanistan has deteriorated significantly over the last year. (great photos)
Michael Yon – Since leaving the British embed, I’ve gone unilateral. I flew back and forth between Kandahar and Lashkar Gah, drove around and talked with people down south, then flew up to Kabul. In Kabul, I met Tim Lynch and Shem Klimiuk (a retired USMC and ex-Aussie paratrooper, respectively), and we drove in an unarmored truck east to Jalalabad. The canyon-filled drive would be dangerous even if there was no war, but there is a war – a rapidly growing one — and Tim pointed out burnt spots on the road where ambushes had occurred.
Press Trust – At least 10 Taliban militants were killed today by Pakistani security forces in fresh clashes in the troubled northwestern Swat valley. Exchanges of fire erupted after the security forces launched a search operation in a militant stronghold in Khwazakhela sub-district this morning.
CBS – A 20-year-old American man was arrested late Monday at a checkpoint near the Afghan border in a tribal region where Pakistani troops are fighting Taliban and al Qaeda militants, police said. Officers were investigating what the man was doing in the border area.
Khaleej Times – At least 27 Tamil Tiger rebels and five government soldiers have been killed in the latest clashes in northern Sri Lanka, the island’s defence ministry said on Monday. The ministry said the fighting took place on Sunday around Kilinochchi, the administrative centre of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the target of the current government offensive.

Far East & Pacific

news.com.au – Three key Islamic militants on death row over the 2002 Bali bombings could be executed as early as next week. The Indonesian Government took the unusual step of announcing that an announcement about the executions will be made on Friday, October 24.
Jakarta Post – Cambodian and Thai foreign ministers failed to agree Monday in talks on their territorial dispute that recently erupted into a brief military clash. Foreign Minister Hor Namhong met for two hours with Thai Foreign Minister Sompong Amornwiwat in the first high-level encounter since the gunfight.
Xinhua – Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie on Monday urged the United States to immediately abolish its proposed arms sale to Taiwan and end its military connection to the island, stressing the sales plan had damaged China-U.S. military ties.
Bloomberg – China’s trade surplus widened to a record in September, boosting the currency reserves that may shield the world’s fourth-biggest economy from the global crisis. Exports rose 21.5 percent from a year earlier to $136.4 billion after gaining 21.1 percent in August, the customs bureau said on its Web site.
Korea Herald – North Korea said that it will cooperate in the verification of its nuclear program and allow outside inspectors access to its Yongbyon atomic complex, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Newsweek – Things are so buoyant that Indonesia invites comparison to another Asian giant: India. Both remain corrupt, chaotic and excruciatingly complex. Yet each is also an attractive emerging economy, and in India’s case, a star of the developing world. Could Indonesia be next? Its economy grew by 6.3 percent last year, the main stock exchange ranks among the world’s best performers since 2003 and last year foreign direct investment nearly tripled, to a respectable $4 billion.

Europe

Irish Times – European central banks said today they would lend out as much US dollar liquidity as commercial banks need in a further joint bid to tame money market tensions. In a joint announcement with the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank said they would meet all bids from commercial banks at a fixed interest rate.
Times Online – Germany and France put mountains of cash on the table today as they led continental Europe in an offensive to rebuild trust in banks with state guarantees worth over €1trillion (£780 billion).
Daily Spain – Spain’s socialist government will set aside a maximum of 100 billion euros (134 billion dollars) to guarantee inter-bank loans, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Monday.
Kommersant – Gaz de France Suez, formed from the merger of Gaz de France and the Franco-Belgian Suez, Europe’s largest gas concern, has signed a development strategy with Russia through 2013. GdF is the world’s top seller of liquefied natural gas. It owns shares in gas liquefaction plants in Egypt, Norway and Latin America.
Maclean’s – France’s first lady has become personally involved in the case of a former leftist terrorist from Italy, visiting the severely depressed woman in a hospital, the president said Monday.
Balkan Insight – Blasts were heard and ambulances streaming out of the centre of Montenegro’s capital as pro-Serb demonstrators clashed with police during a rally against Montenegro’s recognition of Kosovo’s independence. Some 10,000 pro-Serbian protesters took to the streets of Podgorica for a rally against the government’s decision last week to recognise the independence of Kosovo, as the opposition harshly criticised the ruling coalition for “stabbing Serbia in the back.”
Washington Times – Swiss authorities say they have found high concentrations of melamine in biscuits from Thailand and Sri Lanka and have called on other European countries to withdraw the products.

Africa

Press TV – More than 40 Ethiopian soldiers are killed after their vehicle hit a landmine near Bardale, a town 350 km from the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
Garowe – Islamist fighters in Somalia’s southern port city of Kismayo executed a well-known clan militia commander Sunday night, local sources told Garowe.
Reuters – Islamist rebels attacked African Union (AU) peacekeepers in Mogadishu for a second day running Monday after more than 800 AU reinforcements from Burundi arrived.
Daily Nation – Pirates holding the Ukrainian ship carrying arms cargo are reported to have rejected mediated talks. The pirates are reported to have earlier agreed to discuss freeing the mv Faina they hijacked 18 days ago, but later refused as they are not happy with some of the local mediators.
BBC – A Sudanese militia leader wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes in Darfur is in custody, a minister has confirmed. The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Ali Mohamed Ali Abdel-Rahman – known as Ali Kushayb – in February last year.
IRIN – The cholera epidemic is still out of control across Guinea-Bissau, with the number of cases doubling in the past three weeks, bringing the total number of people stricken to 10,476 as of 9 October.
AFRICOM – U.S. Navy Ship Elrod pulled into the port of Lobito, Angola on October 13, marking the second time a U.S. Navy warship has visited the city and the fourth U.S. Navy ship to visit the nation of Angola.

Stryker vehicles belonging to the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, from Ft. Wainwright, Alaska, lie waiting in a motor pool with other equipment at a port facility in Kuwait awaiting transport to their respective units. Most of the brigade's vehicles were recently offloaded in Kuwait following a nearly 10,000 mile journey from southern California on the USNS Bob Hope (photo by Richard Hyde)

The Global War

Seattle Times – France, which opposed the Iraq war, is in talks to resume sales of military equipment to Iraq, French and Iraqi officials say. This means that France, a major global arms vendor and once a key supplier to ex-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, is maneuvering back into a lucrative military market that the United States has dominated since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
BBC – An Army interpreter serving in Afghanistan, described as a “Walter Mitty”-style fantasist, became an agent for Iran, a court has been told. Tehran-born Daniel James, of Brighton, translated for Gen David Richards, the former UK commander in Afghanistan. It is alleged he sent coded messages to an Iranian military attache in Kabul telling him “I am at your service”.
FAS – Kidnapping and other forms of terrorist violence have developed into a significant form of asymmetric conflict, according to a new U.S. Army manual (pdf) that describes the theory and practice of kidnapping with numerous case studies from recent years.
US Navy – The Secretary of the Navy, Donald C. Winter released the following birthday message to the fleet in anticipation of the Navy’s 233rd birthday. “On 13 October 1775, the Continental Congress voted on a resolution to commission a swift sailing vessel with a crew of 80 men and ten carriage guns to embark on a three-month cruise intercepting transports carrying munitions and supplies to British troops in America. The resolution also called for a second vessel to be outfitted for the same purpose. The resolution passed, and the U.S. Navy was born.”

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Cables, dispatches and memoranda

30 September, 2008 (00:55) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba

Cables, Dispatches and Memoranda
A brief world news roundup for 30 September 2008.

United States & the Americas

Washington Post - A bipartisan rebellion in the House killed a $700 billion rescue plan for the nation’s financial system yesterday, sending global stock prices plunging.
Secretary Paulson – I’m disappointed in today’s vote, but leaders on both sides of the aisle worked hard. I’ve spoken to them and I know they share my great disappointment. We have experienced significant turmoil in our financial markets in the last few days, including the collapse of Washington Mutual and Wachovia here and the failure of two major financial institutions in Europe. Markets around the world are under stress, and that reduces the availability of credit that businesses across America depend on to meet payroll and to purchase inventories.
Xinhua – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s approval rate soared to 80 percent in September, up from 72 percent in June, according to a CNI/Ibope study released on Monday.
BBC – The authorities in the Mexican border city of Tijuana have found 16 bodies in 24 hours, in what police believe is part of a wave of drug-related murders.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

Russia Today – It’s been reported that a firefight has broken out on the Ukrainian ship Faina, which was hijacked by Somali pirates last week. The captive freighter, currently off the coast of Africa is carrying 33 T-72 battle tanks and other military supplies reportedly on their way to Kenya.
NY Times – The tattered Georgian flags, the NATO-style uniforms and the American assault rifles clutter a small corner of the Russian Central Armed Forces Museum in Moscow. They are trophies from Russia’s recent war with Georgia, gathered haphazardly but displayed with a clear message.
John Roberts – Europe needs oil and gas from the South Caucasus and the Caspian. So while the conflict between Georgia and Russia might appear to be mainly about territory, the biggest practical effects are being felt in energy supply. None of the solutions is especially appetising.
CRN – A woman of 50, who was a passenger of fixed-route taxi, was killed by an explosion tonight in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan. The bomb was planted into a garbage bin in the roadside of the Shamil Avenue. The bomb exploded at the moment, when a militia UAZ van and a fixed-route taxi were bypassing the bin.

MH-53 Pave Low helicopters prepare to take off for their final combat mission, Sept. 27, 2008. The MH-53s' mission was to supply special operations forces in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The MH-53, which is scheduled to retire from the Air Force inventory, Sept. 30, 2008 (photo by Airman 1st Class Jason Epley)

Middle East

Al Arabiya – A suicide car bombing killed three people and wounded six east of Algiers on Sunday evening, official media reported on Monday, the first such attack in the OPEC member country in more than a month.
Daily Star – Hizbullah has reportedly asked the Lebanese Army to stop flying over several areas of southern Lebanon, defined as off-limits by the party, according to a report published by the German magazine Der Spiegel on Sunday. The report said Hizbullah has sent a letter to the Lebanese army demanding “in a threatening tone” that the military stop flights over areas considered off-limits by the group.
NOW Lebanon – French-Lebanese Association President Gerard Bapt warned on Monday that Salafist groups, connected to al-Qaeda, were trying to make North Lebanon a “new center of international terrorism,” by destabilizing the security, two days after the explosion in Damascus.

Iran

IRNA – Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said on Monday that Iran will continue uranium enrichment to produce fuel citing the rights enshrined by Non-Proliferation Treaty.
MEMRI – In his Friday sermon marking International Qods (Jerusalem) Day, Tehran’s interim Friday prayer leader, Hashemi Rafsanjani said that the issue of Qods was “still most acute, most vital, and most pivotal issue of the Islamic world, and probably [of the] international community.”

Southeast Asia

Daily Star – Afghan insurgent leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has claimed responsibility in a video message for an August ambush that killed 10 French soldiers, an Afghan news agency reported Monday, saying it had seen the footage. In the video statement, Hekmatyar also said he lost several men in the battle in Sarobi, the independent Pajhwok Afghan News agency reported.
LA Times – An Afghan policeman opened fire on U.S. troops at a police station, killing an American soldier and wounding three before American troops shot him dead, officials said Monday.
Zee News – Afghanistan’s ambassador- designate to Pakistan, who was kidnapped by militants last week was on Monday rescued from the restive Khyber Agency, reports said. Sources in the Afghan consulate in Peshawar told TV channels that Abdul Khaleq Farahi was recovered from the Khyber agency, located near the city.
Ghosts of Alexander – Well, the insurgency is interesting, I give it that. So “interesting” that the media needs to lump every insurgent into the “Taliban” category so as not to make things too complicated. Let’s take a ride with some reporters down south to hang out with the “Taliban.” I can’t embed the video but you can watch it here. It is distributed through Journeyman Pictures, which in regards to its Afghanistan content varies from gold to garbage. This report is somewhere in between.
The News – Thirteen people, nine of them members of the tribal Lashkar and four Taliban fighters, including senior commander Abdul Muttalib, were killed and several others injured in first ever face-to-face fierce fighting between the two sides in Darra area of Salarzai Tehsil of Bajaur Agency on Monday.
MEMRI – According to a report in the Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Jasarat, Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, the head of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (Movement of the Pakistani Taliban), has slipped into coma after prolonged illness.
IB Times – Two separate bomb explosions in the neighboring states of Maharashtra and Gujarat on Monday night have killed at least 5 people and left over 80 injured.
Colombo Page – Sri Lankan Army troops have captured a four kilo meter stretch of the Akkarayankulam – Murukkandy road in Kilinochchi following a day-long battle that killed seven Tigers and a soldier.

Far East & Pacific

Phnom Penh Post – Army officials claim Thai military jets on Monday flew into Cambodian airspace over two key flashpoints along the border.
Korea Herald – South Korea expressed its support for Russia’s entry to the World Trade Organization, despite U.S. opposition to Moscow’s bid in the wake of Russia’s armed aggression in Georgia last month.
SMH – Australian stocks wiped more than $55 billion off the value of the market today after the US House of Representatives rejected a $US700 billion plan to rescue the financial system. The S&P/ASX 200 Index fell as much as 231.1 points, or 4.8 per cent to 4576.3.
Asia Times – The Philippines is heavily dependent on imported oil – with over 95% of the country’s transport now running on the fuel – and has been particularly hard hit by rising global fuel prices. Failure from as far back as early 2000 to realize government plans to use more natural gas in the country’s energy mix has undermined economic competitiveness and had an adverse effect on the national standard of living.

Europe

Spiegel – Interview with German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück; “We are experiencing the most severe financial crisis in decades, although one should be careful about historic comparisons with 1929. One thing is clear: After this crisis, the world will no longer be the same. The financial architecture will change globally.”
Kommersant – Gazprom will set to direct shipment of gas to power plants of Italy from October 1, supplying 900 million cu meters a year till 2022. The supplier is a venture, where Gazprom is represented by German ZMB and A2A and Iride will stand for Italy. It is the first accomplished deal of Russia’s gas monopoly on retail gas market of Italy.
IAEA – All is “not well” at the world´s top nuclear organization, IAEA Director General, Mohamed ElBaradei, informed his membership. He spoke in Vienna at the opening of the week-long General Conference of the Agency´s 145 Member States.
Guardian – The Icelandic government has seized control of one of the nation’s biggest banks, Glitnir, the latest victim of the crisis gripping the world’s financial markets. The move will stoke long-held fears that Iceland could be facing financial ruin.

Africa

AFRICOM – After long preparations, the new U.S. Africa Command that President Bush announced in February 2007 is scheduled to become fully operational October 1. On the eve of its official launch, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs Theresa Whalen said the command–known as AFRICOM–will be the most visible element of the U.S. goal to strengthen ties with Africa through sustained engagement.
Asharq Al Awsat – Egyptian and Sudanese troops rescued an abducted 19-member European tour group in an assault on the kidnappers in the remote Sahara borderland, officials said. The tourists and their Egyptian guides returned safely to Cairo on Monday. The operation, apparently backed by European special forces, ends a 10-day hostage drama that took the 11 Europeans and their eight drivers and guides across a barren stretch of the Sahara Desert.

Lance Cpl. Jeffery Evans (above), a Tube-Launched, Optically Tracked Wire-Guided gunner with Mobile Assault Platoon, Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, fires an M220 TOW missile from a Humvee turret, Sept. 21, 2008. The platoon performed the live-fire exercise in conjunction with medium and heavy machine gun suppression to train junior Marines who are trained TOW gunners by military occupational specialty. (photo by Cpl. Chris Lyttle)

The Global War

RIA Novosti – Russia will start deliveries of MiG-29K Fulcrum-D carrier fighters to India in the spring of 2009, the aircraft manufacturer’s marketing director said Monday. Russia and India signed a contract on January 20, 2004, stipulating the delivery of 12 single-seat MiG-29K and four two-seat MiG-29KUB by 2009, to be deployed on the Admiral Gorshkov, currently being retrofitted in Russia for the Indian Navy.
Mudville Gazette – Dawn Patrol 9/29/08

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Cables, dispatches and memoranda

29 September, 2008 (00:56) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba

Cables, Dispatches and Memoranda
A brief world news roundup for 29 September 2008.

United States & the Americas

Javno – Russia cannot be allowed to veto NATO membership for former Soviet states such as Ukraine and Georgia, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview published on Sunday. Rice said Moscow should not be permitted to profit from its military victory over Georgia last month, and said its 15-year effort to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was in danger. “We will not permit Russia to veto the future of NATO, neither the countries offered membership nor their decision to accept it,” Rice said in an opinion piece published in Greek in the Typos newspaper.
Kommersant – Gazprom has invested over $100 million in Venezuela; the extraction of heavy crude has been specified as priority, Interfax reported from Orenburg, where Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev met with Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez.
Reuters – Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa claimed victory in a referendum on Sunday after exit polls showed he won strong support to push socialist reforms similar to those begun by his allies in Venezuela and Bolivia.
AP – President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that Russia will help Venezuela develop nuclear energy — a move likely to raise U.S. concerns over increasingly close cooperation between Caracas and Moscow.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

RIA Novosti – Russia will not allow Czech and Polish inspectors at its missile bases but is ready for further talks on the presence of its observers at U.S. missile shield sites in central Europe, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday. Foreign media reported last week that both the Czech Republic and Poland oppose a permanent Russian presence at planned U.S. missile defense facilities on their territories claiming that the permission could be granted only on the basis of reciprocity.
NY Times – Russia continued its international muscle-flexing on Friday, strengthening its ties to Venezuela through a $1 billion military loan and a new oil consortium as it announced an upgrade of its own military focusing on nuclear deterrence and permanent combat readiness.
RFERL – Russia last week avoided a massive financial crisis by pumping tens of billions of dollars into its economy. A repeat of the 1998 meltdown now appears unlikely, but Russia will need much longer to repair its investment reputation.
CRN – On Thursday, September 25, the regional centre for domain registration closed, on decision of the court, the website “Ingushetia.Ru”, which belonged to Ingush oppositionist Magomed Evloev, who was murdered on August 31, but a similar website named “Ingushetia.Org” has appeared on the Internet.
AP – The opposition won no seats in Belarus parliamentary elections with most races decided, the elections commission said Monday. Opposition leaders called on the West not to recognize the results. The opposition has alleged the vote was rigged and said the results cast doubt on authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko’s commitment to democratic reform in the former Soviet republic, after his promises that Sunday’s election would be free and fair.
NY Times – In a campaign to punish families with sons suspected of supporting the insurgency, at least a dozen homes have been set ablaze since midsummer, residents and a local human rights organization said. The burnings have been accompanied by a program, embraced by Ramzan A. Kadyrov, Chechnya’s president, that has forced visibly frightened parents of insurgents to appear on television and beg their sons to return home.

The amphibious transport dock ship USS San Antonio transits through the Suez Canal. San Antonio is deployed as part of the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group supporting maritime security operations in the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet area of operations. (photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Brian Goodwin)

Middle East

Al Jazeera – At least 26 people have been killed and dozens wounded after two car bombs exploded in the west of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. A dozen people died and 35 were hurt after a bomb on board a minibus blew up outside a mosque in the city’s Shurta area on Sunday. A second blast killed one person and wounded another in Hai al-Amil.
MNF Iraq – Coalition forces apprehended three suspected members of the Kata’ib Hezbollah network early Sunday in Naharwan, about 25 km east of Baghdad. Kata’ib Hezbollah is assessed to be a proxy of Iran and its members are believed to employ improvised rocket assisted munitions as well as explosively formed penetrators in civilian areas.
Al Bawaba – Counter-terrorist agencies in Syria on Sunday hunted for those behind a car bomb attack that killed 17 people in Damascus. Saturday’s bombing near a Shiite shrine in the Syrian capital, which also wounded 14 people, drew worldwide condemnation, including from the United States.
Joshua Landis – A friend who recently opened up a hotel in a renovated Ottoman house in the old city of Damascus called and said that he had lost $40,000 worth of business overnight due to the car bomb. All his October reservations have cancelled.
NOW Lebanon – Al Mustaqbal newspaper reported on Sunday that Syrian troops were digging long trenches between Rachaya and Haqel Ashty in the Kfarkouq area near the northern Lebanese border. Syrian troops have remained in this area despite the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon in April 2005. The report added that the troops were violating UNSCR 1559 and said that they had entered into the Lebanese territories through the Masnaa Gate northern border crossing in the Bekaa Valley.
NY Times – A car bomb exploded near a bus carrying Lebanese Army soldiers near Tripoli on Monday, killing five and wounding 17, security officials said. Four of the dead were soldiers in the bus targeted in the attack, the second on the Lebanese military in a little over a month.
Daily Star – Turkish warplanes successfully struck 16 targets in a fresh raid targeting separatist Kurdish rebels in neighboring northern Iraq, a senior Turkish general said Friday.

Iran

ISNA – Iran has started the second round of negotiations over Caucasus crisis. Foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki pursued Tehran’s initiative on Caucasus crisis in a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov in New York. Mottaki offered further details about Iran’s plan in two major spheres of economy and security. Lavrov for his part welcomed the plan, called “Caucasus diplomacy” or the “3+3 plan”, and emphasized it must be put into practice.
Press TV – Iran’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations has rejected a Security Council resolution against the country as ‘illegal and unfortunate.’ The 18-line resolution adopted on Saturday does not impose new sanctions on the Islamic Republic but reaffirms three previous sanctions on Iran, calling on the country to halt uranium enrichment and increase cooperation with the UN nuclear agency.
MEMRI – Yahya Rahim Safavi, security advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said during International Qods (Jerusalem) day on September 26 that the countdown to the fall of Israel had begun, and that in the future, the map of the region will be drawn without it.
Payvand – National Iranian Tanker Company managing director Mohammad Souri declared on Sunday that the first consignment of Iran’s Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) will be prepared by 2012 and most of which will be sent to China. Iran plans to expand natural gas production by 3 times by 2017 and export one thirds of the outputs, Souri said.

Southeast Asia

abc.net.au – Afghanistan’s most prominent policewoman has been assassinated. Malalai Kakar was shot dead outside her home in the southern city of Kandahar, and the Taliban say they carried out the attack.
AFPS – Coalition forces killed six militants and detained eight others in operations in Afghanistan’s Regional Command – East over the past two days. U.S. forces launched multiple operations to disrupt terrorist networks and deny them sanctuary.
Times Online – For a self-confessed and enthusiastic killer of British soldiers there was something strangely naive in the manner of the Taleban bomber. The lightly bearded 23-year-old looked younger than his years, with gentle features beneath his black turban and a habit of asking odd questions. Between the moments of naive curiosity, he boiled with a visceral hatred of Westerners.
Expatica – The commanders of two Dutch platoons in the Afghan province of Uruzgan wrote to the military trade union VBM/NOV claiming that Dutch lives are at risk due to a shortage of equipment, such as armoured vehicles and ambulances. They say existing equipment is poorly maintained.
PR-Inside – A police official says a suicide bomber on a motorbike has attacked an Afghan border police convoy, killing three police and three civilians. Border police official Abdul Razzaq says 17 other people, including two police and 15 civilians, were wounded in Sunday’s explosion in Kandahar province near the Pakistan border.
Asharq Al Awsat – Islamic militants struck back at security forces in Pakistan’s northwest while gunmen Sunday abducted a Polish engineer and extended a wave of attacks on foreigners. Iqbal Khattak, a government official in Bajur, said militants attacked security forces in three places overnight. He said the troops repulsed each attack, killing 11 fighters.
VOA – Pakistani military officials say at least 1,000 militants have been killed in a month-long operation along the Afghan border. Major General Tariq Khan told reporters Friday that at least five militant commanders, including foreigners, were among those who have been killed in the Bajaur tribal region. Khan said more than 60 Pakistani troops also have been killed in Bajaur since the military launched its offensive against Taliban and al-Qaida militants in August.
AP – The death toll from a bomb blast in a New Delhi flower market rose to two on Sunday after a man died from injuries, and investigators hunted for the two motorcycle riders who left the explosive, police said.
Dawn – An Indian soldier and 11 militants were killed in fighting in occupied Kashmir after unseasonably cold weather forced militants out of the mountains, police said Sunday. Seven militants and an Indian army soldier were killed in protracted gunbattles in the forests of Kangan, northeast of Srinagar, army spokesman Anil Kumar Mathur said.
IHT – A suspected Tamil Tiger rebel suicide bomber blew up near a vehicle carrying police in a northern Sri Lankan town Sunday, killing a civilian and wounding eight others, the military said. The blast came as fierce clashes between government troops and the rebels killed 10 guerrillas and two soldiers, the military said. Also, the air force used fighter jets and helicopters in a series of bombings on rebel positions in Kilinochchi and Welioya regions.
Richard Boucher, Assistant Secretary of State – Briefing on Sri Lanka

Far East & Pacific

Washington Times – A year after the Burmese government violently cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrators, its neighbors and key foreign countries are still unable to agree on how to encourage reforms by the nation’s ruling generals.
canada.com – China’s submarine fleet is now one of the world’s largest with nearly 85 vessels. More than that, old and unreliable boats mostly acquired from the old Soviet Union are being rapidly replaced by modern submarines armed with highly sophisticated anti-ship missiles and radar-dodging cruise missiles able to attack land targets. Beijing is even building at least five ballistic missile submarines, each carrying 12 intercontinental missiles and each missile having three nuclear warheads.
BBC – Japanese Transport Minister Nariaki Nakayama has resigned, just four days after taking the job. The resignation will be seen as a setback for new Prime Minister Taro Aso, who took office on Wednesday.
US Navy – Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy returned to San Diego Sept. 25 after completing Pacific Partnership, a four-month humanitarian, civic assistance and theater security cooperation mission, conducted with countries from the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia. Throughout the 2008 Pacific Partnership mission, Mercy served as an enabling platform for military and nongovernmental organizations to coordinate and carry out relationship-building work in the Republic of the Philippines, Vietnam, the Federated States of Micronesia, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea.
Straits Times – Suspected separatists on Sunday shot dead two Muslim village chiefs in the restive Thai south, police said. Both were elected community heads of their respective villages, a frequent target for southern insurgents battling the Thai state.
Korea Times – Eleven Chinese sailors have been detained for illegally catching fish in Korea’s exclusive economic zone in the West Sea and attacking Korean coast guards dispatched to stop them, resulting in the killing of a Korean coast guard, police said Sunday.

Europe

Deutsche Welle – Germany has recalled its ambassador to Iran because a German diplomat attended a military parade in Tehran, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said Saturday. The spokeswoman confirmed a report in the news magazine Der Spiegel that Ambassador Herbert Honsowitz had been told to report to Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Monday morning. The magazine said the foreign minister was “very angry” that the embassy’s defense attache attended the parade after ambassadors from EU member states had agreed to boycott it.
CNN – A significant terror trial opened in Manchester this week. Significant because it is the first time anyone in Britain has been brought to trial accused of directing terrorism.
Telegraph – Austria’s two far-Right parties, which campaigned on anti-immigrant and anti-European Union platforms, took almost 30 per cent of the vote to deliver a stunning blow to Austria’s political establishment.
WSJ – Support slumped for conservative allies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Sunday’s election in the state of Bavaria. The outcome poses a severe problem for Ms. Merkel’s re-election bid in next year’s national vote.
CBS – The U.S. Navy was honored Saturday for its key role in the massive amphibious wartime invasion that helped propel the Allies to victory in World War II. Hundreds of uniformed American sailors and French well-wishers – as well as a few Navy veterans of the war – joined U.S. and French officials on Utah Beach for the inauguration of Normandy’s first monument honoring the sacrifices of U.S. sailors in the conflict against Nazi Germany.
LA Times – In Albania, the “Accursed Mountains” tower high above the Shala Valley, snow clinging to their summits even in the summer. Their jagged peaks hide one of Europe’s most remote areas, where tribal culture lives on even as the modern world encroaches. Here a rapidly vanishing way of life lingers in the traditions of the Kanun, the code of 15th-century prince Lek Dukagjin.

Africa

Khaleej Times – A Russian warship rushed to intercept a Ukrainian vessel carrying 33 battle tanks and a hoard of ammunition that was seized by pirates off the Horn of Africa -a bold hijacking that again heightened fears about surging piracy and high-seas terrorism. U.S. naval ships also were in the area Friday and “monitoring the situation,” but there has been no decision about intercepting the vessel. A U.S. Defense Department official said Washington was concerned about the attack.
ABC – A Somali pirate spokesman told The Associated Press his group was demanding a $20 million ransom to release a cargo ship loaded with Russian tanks.
The Monitor – A commercial plane landed in Mogadishu despite prohibition by Al-Shabaab, the Islamist group fighting the government in Somalia, against the use of Aden Abdulle International Airport. Following the attack at the airport, artillery from pro-government forces and also suspected to be from Amisom forces, landed in parts of the city including Bakara Market, the main trading centre in Mogadishu. At least 8 people died at Bakara and scores injured and caused mayhem to shoppers and traders.
African Press Agency – An explosion Sunday in Jijiga, an Ethiopian town along the border with Somalia killed four people and injured 10 others, police confirmed here. According to the Ethiopian Federal police, the explosion was caused by a bomb which was planted on a roadside near a taxi station in the town.
MONUC – In Dungu in Orientale Province, a crowd of hundreds of people attacked the MONUC observation post and the liaison office of the UN agency OCHA, plundering and destroying United Nations material and equipment. In addition clashes were announced on 24 September between the DRC Armed Forces (FARDC) and the troops of the Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP) in Rugari, some 30km from Goma on the Rutshuru road, such as the area of JTN south of Nyanzale.
Al Arabiya – Sudanese forces have killed six kidnappers who had abducted 19 tourists and Egyptians in a remote desert nine days ago, and arrested two, in a gun battle after a high-speed chase near the Egyptian border, Sudanese presidential advisor Mahjoub Fadl Badri told reporters on Sunday.

An F/A-18C Hornet assigned to the "Stingers" of Strike Fighter Squadron 113 departs a tanker track in Southern Afghanistan to head back to the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, while two other Hornets join a British Royal Air Force L-1011 aerial re-fueling aircraft at sunset. (photo by Cmdr. Erik Etz)

The Global War

Defense News – U.S. European Command (EUCOM) has deployed to Israel a high-powered X-band radar and the supporting people and equipment needed for coordinated defense against Iranian missile attack, marking the first permanent U.S. military presence on Israeli soil. More than a dozen aircraft were required to transport an AN/TPY-2 X-band radar to Israel. (U.S. Missile Defense Agency) More than a dozen aircraft, including C-5s and C-17s, helped with the Sept. 21 delivery of the AN/TPY-2 Transportable Radar Surveillance/Forward Based X-band Transportable (FBX-T), its ancillary components and some 120 EUCOM personnel to Israel’s Nevatim Air Base southeast of Beersheba, said sources.
UNS – What began as a mission to find and eliminate terrorists earlier this year in Iraq ended up being a life-defining moment for one member of 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. Spc. Joe Gibson was on a secret night mission Apr. 26, 2008 when he placed his comrades’ lives ahead of his while evacuating wounded American Soldiers and engaging in hand-to-hand combat with a suicide bomber. His actions that day saved the lives of fellow Rangers.
ITIC – During the past year Osama Bin Laden, Al-Qaeda leader, waged an intensive media campaign after a long silence. Its objective was mainly to inspire global jihad operatives to increase terrorist activities worldwide.
Daily Times – Using all the political clout it can muster in its closing days in office, the Bush administration managed to score a congressional victory when it successfully persuaded the House of Representatives to pass the controversial Indo-US nuclear co-operation agreement by a vote of 298-117. However, the legislation still has to be passed by the Senate, although it has been already approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

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Cables, dispatches and memoranda

23 September, 2008 (00:37) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba

Cables, Dispatches and Memoranda
A brief world news roundup for 23 September 2008.

United States & the Americas

CSM – Detainees’ rights subverted at Guantánamo, their lawyers say; A federal judge asks for statements from two guards accused of threatening a detainee.
NY Times – When he heads to the United Nations, President Felipe Calderon of Mexico will for the first time be able to use his presidential jet without having to ask permission from Congress.
Washington Times – Police say hooded gunmen have killed 15 people on an alleged drug trafficker’s ranch in southern Brazil.
NEFA Foundation – This paper is a follow-up to two previous NEFA Foundation reports on the state of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-FARC), Latin America’s oldest and largest insurgency. The purpose of this paper is to examine the FARC’s little-known international support network , which spans Latin America and Europe. This network is comprised of an unusual mixture of state actors (Venezuela and Nicaragua, particularly) and non-state actors, often under the guise of non-governmental organizations.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

Russia Today – For the first time in modern history, a Russian naval squadron is making its way towards Latin America. The nuclear-powered cruiser ‘Peter the Great’, an anti-submarine ship and two support vessels will sail from the Arctic to the Caribbean to take part in joint manoeuvres with Venezuela. After covering 15,000 nautical miles, in November the ships will perform several combat training tasks, including missile and artillery exercises.
Kommersant – Egypt, Russia, Qatar, Algeria and Iran are willing to host a secretariat office of Gas Exporting Countries’ Forum (GECF), but only three of them – Egypt, Algeria and Iran – have officially applied for it, Iran’s envoy to OPEC Mohammad-Ali Khatibi told Shana Agency. The GECF states will deliberate on the issue when they meet in Caracas, Venezuela.
RIA Novosti – Kazakhstan will increase oil production by 12 million metric tons in 2009 and is interested in pumping it via Russia, the Kazakh president said Monday. “It is very important that Kazakh oil should pass through Russia. We expect oil production to increase next year. It will grow by 12 million tons during the year,” Nursultan Nazarbayev said at the end of a Russian-Kazakh border region forum.
CRN – This year, the Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) “Russian Railways” (RRWs) plans to invest 180 million US dollars into Armenian railways. Journalists were told about it by President of RRWs Vladimir Yakunin. According to Mr Yakunin, so far, the volume of investments into Armenian railways made 80 million US dollars. In the long term, the OJSC RRWs plans to invest 572 million US dollars (of which 220 million US dollars in the nearest five years) into development of Armenian railways.
Kavkaz Center – Ingushetiya.Ru has published the results of an investigation into the killing of the site’s owner, Magomed Yevloyev. According to the results of the investigation, Yevloyev was killed on the orders of the President of Ingushetia, Murat Zyazikov.

U.S. Soldiers empty a bag of leaflets out the door of a UH-60 Black Hawk over a predesignated point over the Sadr City District of Baghdad, on Sept. 21, 2008. The U.S. Soldiers are members of the 312th Psychological Operation Company, 4th Infantry Division, 4th Infantry Division. (photo by Sgt. Manuel Martinez)

Middle East

Asharq Al Awsat – Forced off Iraq’s streets and with diminished political clout, what anti-American Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia do next will be crucial if they are to remain relevant.
AFPS – Coalition forces targeting al-Qaida in Iraq courier networks captured one wanted man and three additional suspects today, further degrading the terrorist organization’s ability to communicate, military officials reported. Forces operating near Tarmiyah, about 20 miles north of Baghdad, captured a suspected terrorist who admitted to being a letter courier for a long-time al-Qaida operator. He also is believed to have connections with multiple al-Qaida operatives throughout the area.
Press TV – Five Iraqi children have been killed and two other people wounded after a bomb hidden in a street stall exploded, according to police. The incident happened in the northern city of Mosul.
Al Jazeera – About 15 people have been hurt at a busy Jerusalem intersection after a driver steered his car into a group of pedestrians, Israeli rescue services said. Describing the incident as a “terrorist attack”, police said the driver was shot and killed after the incident late on Monday.
ITIC – Hamas security forces exerted massive military power to confront the Dugmush clan and operatives of the Army of Islam, a network affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
Al Arabiya – All 19 hostages seized on a safari in a remote desert border area of Egypt have been released and are safe, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said on Monday. The captives were released near the Libyan-Sudanese-Egyptian border, he added.
NOW Lebanon – The head of the Israeli Military Intelligence Research Center General Yousi Paydats told the Israeli cabinet during his weekly report on Sunday that Hezbollah was using the current period of calm to strengthen itself militarily for a war with Israel. Paydats also said that Syria was transporting large loads of weapons to Lebanon, strengthening its relations with Iran, arming itself with advanced missiles to use against Israeli planes, and trying to use the events in former Soviet Georgia to obtain weapons from Russia.
Daily Star – Thousands of Syrian troops have amassed along the Lebanese border in what Damascus says is an effort to combat smuggling, Lebanese military sources said on Monday, stoking speculation and concern in Lebanon. A source in the Lebanese Army confirmed that Syrian forces had deployed in the northern region of Abbudiya, but he told The Daily Star, “There is no need to worry.”

Iran

Payvand – Speaking to reporters upon arrival in John F. Kennedy to attend the 63rd UN General Assembly meeting for the fourth year since 2005 when he assumed presidential post, President Ahmadinejad said that throughout history, especially in the past three years, the ill-wishers have been trying hard to obstruct Iranian nation’s progress under different pretexts but to no avail.
Caitlin Talmadge – Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz tops the list of global energy security nightmares. Roughly 90 percent of all Persian Gulf oil leaves the region on tankers that must pass through this narrow waterway opposite the Iranian coast, and land pipelines do not provide sufficient alternative export routes. Extended closure of the strait would remove roughly a quarter of the world’s oil from the market, causing a supply shock of the type not seen since the glory days of OPEC.
Gordon Chang – Mohamed ElBaradei, in unusually blunt terms, warned that Tehran might be hiding elements of a covert nuclear weapons program. “Iran needs to give the agency substantive information,” the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency told his governing board. At the same time, David Albright, a nuclear weapons analyst, said Iran had made substantial improvements in its centrifuges, which enrich uranium. These complicated devices “now appear to be running at approximately 85 percent of the stated target capacity, a significant increase over previous rates.” Based on this, he has concluded that the mullahs might be just six months from being able to build a bomb.

Southeast Asia

Dawn – A shadowy group calling itself ‘Fedayeen of Islam’ has claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing of Islamabad’s Marriott Hotel in a telephone call to al Arabiya television, the channel said on Monday. The Dubai-based station’s correspondent in Islamabad said he received a text message on his mobile phone showing a telephone number, which he called and then heard a recording in which the group admitted launching Saturday’s attack. The speaker on the recording, who identified himself as Ahmad Shah Abdali, spoke in English ‘with a South Asian accent,’ he said.
Walid Phares – Hence, the logic of the Mariott attack. It was chiefly to strike at the forthcoming ideological advance against the Jihadists. In short this was a preemptive blow against a Government which may not hesitate in engaging a battle of ideas against the medieval forces in Waziristan and against the circles of Jihadophiles in Islamabad. From their hideouts, Bin Laden, Zawahiri and Mullah Umar have urged their Pakistani brethren to smite the head of the secular establishment in the country.
Daily Times – Unidentified gunmen abducted Afghanistan’s consul general in Peshawar and killed his driver in a brazen ambush on Monday. Six attackers in a black car chased the vehicle of Abdul Khaliq Farahi in Phase III of Hayatabad, forced it to pull over and shot his driver in the head, witnesses and police said.
Press TV – Pakistani troops have repelled a suspected US ariel attack by shooting on intruding helicopters and forcing them back into Afghanistan. The helicopters flew into the tribal North Waziristan region from Afghanistan’s Khost province at around midnight, the local media reported Monday.
ABC – The U.S. denied the report. The helicopters did not return fire and re-entered Afghan airspace without landing, the officials said.
The News – The police force Monday claimed to have killed 10 Taliban fighters and arresting six others in clashes at Pir Qala area in Shabqadar tehsil of Charsadda district on Monday.
The Hindu – A suicide bomber on Monday rammed his explosive-laden car into a security check post in Pakistan’s restive north-western Swat valley, killing at least nine security personnel and injuring several others.
DoD – The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died Sept. 20 in the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when their vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.
Stars and Stripes – Afghanistan’s defense minister estimates there are between 10,000 and 15,000 full-time insurgents in his country, including an increase of foreign fighters and al-Qaida terrorists coming into the country through Pakistan.
Newsday – Militants stopped three buses carrying Afghan laborers through western Afghanistan and kidnapped everyone on board — around 155 people, officials said Monday. The laborers were working on a military base for the Afghan army in the city of Farah, said Gov. Younis Rasouli.
Michael Yon – Living with British troops of 2 Para at FOB Gibraltar and watching them fight, I witnessed one of the great paradoxes of Afghanistan. The troops are fighting hard and killing the enemy. They are professional and extremely competent. Their morale is high. They are doing a great job. And we are losing the war.
Colombo Page – Heavy battles raged in Sri Lanka’s northern war zone yesterday as government soldiers pushed ahead with the plan to capture Tamil Tiger rebel’s de-facto capital of Kilinochchi. The military said 59 Tigers and 7 soldiers were killed and another 15 Tigers and 25 soldiers were injured in the day-long battles.

Far East & Pacific

Taiwan News – North Korea has asked the U.N. atomic watchdog to remove seals and surveillance equipment from its Yongbyon nuclear plant, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said. “This morning, the DPRK (North Korea) authorities asked the Agency’s inspectors to remove seals and surveillance equipment to enable them to carry out tests at the reprocessing plant, which they say will not involve nuclear material,” ElBaradei told the IAEA’s 35-member board of governors here.
Japan Times – The U.S. Army is increasing its operational capability in Japan to levels not seen since the postwar Occupation to expedite troop deployment, according to the new U.S. Army commander in the country.
ICG – Street protests are threatening to bring down the government led by the People Power Party (PPP) just nine months after it won a decisive victory in general elections. Clashes between pro- and anti-government protesters have left one dead and 42 people injured. Mass action is hurting the economy, including the lucrative – and usually sacrosanct – tourism industry.
AP – Taro Aso, who was elected Monday to head Japan’s ruling party and stood on the brink of becoming prime minister, has a reputation for being just about everything his predecessor wasn’t.
BBC – A hearing has begun in a Bangkok court to determine if alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout should be extradited to the United States.
Radio Australia – New Zealand says it will begin free trade talks with the United States. It’s been seeking a trade deal with America for several years and it’s estimated it could be worth as much as $US1 billion a year.
news.com.au – Sixteen Papua New Guineans are dead after a jilted lover sparked a running tribal fight in the Highlands region.

Europe

Military.com – Both houses of France’s Parliament authorized the government Monday to continue its military commitment in Afghanistan, and the prime minister pledged 100 extra troops following a deadly ambush there last month.
AKI – A leader of the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb has threatened France and Spain in an audio message broadcast on jihadist Internet forums on Monday. “To those that are involved in the war against Islam and have betrayed the Islamic nation, we say to them: Repent before God punishes you with his hands and with ours,” said Abdel Malik Droukedel, who uses the name Abu Musab Abdel Wudud.
Atlas Shrugs – Anti-Islamisation Rally: “Really dark night for Germany”
GAO – NATO Enlargement: Reports on Albania and Croatia Respond to Senate Requirements, but Analysis of Financial Burdens Is Incomplete
CNN – A car bomb exploded early Monday in northern Spain, killing an army soldier and wounding 10 others in an attack authorities blamed on the Basque separatist group ETA. It was the third car bombing in 24 hours blamed on ETA.
RFERL – When the year began, Tomislav Nikolic appeared poised to take the Serbian presidency. Now, the future of the ex-Radical Party leader appears in doubt — and with it, the role of the nationalists in Serbia’s highly fluid political arena

Africa

Al Arabiya – Islamist insurgents pounded Mogadishu on Monday in attacks that brought the death toll in the last 24 hours to at least 30 people, witnesses said. The Somali rebels attacked two bases of African Union (AU) peacekeepers, shelled the city’s main airport and also struck government targets in the bustling Bakara market area.
US Navy – Since the inception of the Maritime Security Patrol Area (MSPA), Combined Task Force (CTF) 150 has helped deter more than a dozen attacks in the Gulf of Aden. However, criminals have still successfully targeted several vessels in the region. The Maritime Security Patrol Area was established Aug. 22 in support of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) call for international assistance to discourage attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Gulf of Aden.
Reuters – Weeks of heavy fighting between the army and Tutsi rebels in eastern Congo’s North Kivu province has forced 100,000 people from their homes, the United Nations said on Monday. Congolese forces and rebels led by renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda started their latest bout of fighting in late August when a January peace deal aimed at ending more than a decade of violence collapsed.
IRIN – Two men were killed and a third injured after a bomb exploded on 21 September close to King Mswati III’s Lozitha palace, 25kms east of the Swazi capital, Mbabane. Police suspect that the bomb exploded prematurely as it was placed at a road bridge by the perpetrators.
This Day – 19 persons including a policeman were shot dead and over 40 others wounded at the weekend in Ganye town in Adamawa state, when trans-border armed robbers attacked the Ganye cattle market situated near the border with the Republic of Cameroun, carting away millions of naira from the traders.

The amphibious assault ship USS Essex is pulled by tugs from her berth as she departs for a scheduled deployment. Essex is the lead ship of the only forward-deployed U.S. Expeditionary Strike Group and serves as the flagship for Combined Task Force 76, the Navy's only permanently forward-deployed amphibious force commander. (photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Joshua Wahl)

The Global War

Carnegie – The increasing use of unconventional, “soft” measures to combat violent extremism in Saudi Arabia is bearing positive results, leading others in the region, including the United States in Iraq, to adopt a similar approach. Understanding the successes of the Saudi strategy—composed of prevention, rehabilitation, and aftercare programs—will be important in the fight against radical Islamist extremism, says Christopher Boucek in a new Carnegie Paper.
NY Sun – The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to extend the NATO-led force in Afghanistan but was critical of the growing number of civilian casualties, and urged its troops and American-led forces to make major efforts to minimize civilian deaths.
DefenseNews – Pakistani military forces flew repeated helicopter missions into Afghanistan to resupply the Taliban during a fierce battle in June 2007, according to a U.S. Marine lieutenant colonel, who says his information is based on multiple U.S. and Afghan intelligence reports.
Nosint – If proof of that is needed, it is abundant in the new Virginia-class submarines. Gone are the Cold War days when the Navy planned to fight a Soviet enemy. Here are the days of a global war on terrorism, when stealth and covert sea and land operations take precedence. The Navy plans to build 30 Virginia-class subs. The fifth to be built was the New Hampshire, which will be commissioned into the fleet at a ceremony at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Oct. 25.

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Cables, dispatches and memoranda

15 August, 2008 (00:05) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba

Cables, Dispatches and Memoranda
A brief world news roundup for 15 August 2008.

United States & the Americas

State Dept – On August 14, 2008, the United States and Libya signed a comprehensive claims settlement agreement in Tripoli. The agreement is designed to provide rapid recovery of fair compensation for American nationals with terrorism-related claims against Libya. It will also address Libyan claims arising from previous U.S. military actions. The agreement is being pursued on a purely humanitarian basis and does not constitute an admission of fault by either party.
CBS – A federal appeals court ruled Thursday [opinion] that Saudi Arabia and four of its princes cannot be held liable in the Sept. 11 attacks even if they were aware that charitable donations to Muslim groups would be funneled to al Qaeda.
US Census Bureau – Minorities, now roughly one-third of the U.S. population, are expected to become the majority in 2042, with the nation projected to be 54 percent minority in 2050. By 2023, minorities will comprise more than half of all children. In 2030, when all of the baby boomers will be 65 and older, nearly one in five U.S. residents is expected to be 65 and older. This age group is projected to increase to 88.5 million in 2050, more than doubling the number in 2008 (38.7 million).
IPS – Amidst anticipation and apprehension regarding the imminent political transition, Paraguay is gearing up for Friday’s inauguration of centre-left President-elect Fernando Lugo, known as the “bishop of the poor”, who is putting an end to six decades of Colorado Party rule. More than ideological differences, the biggest challenge for Lugo will be resolving conflicts of interest between the various groups in his government, political scientist Line Bareiro said.
Javno – Hooded gunmen dressed in black burst into a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in northern Mexico, dragged patients out of a prayer session and shot them dead in an attack that killed eight people.
Oxford Analytica – The Argentine authorities will be hoping to see a rise in investor confidence this week, after announcing on August 10 a new ‘integral financing strategy’ involving plans to buy back bonds maturing in 2008. Around 100 million dollars worth of bonds were repurchased the following day (out of an estimated total of about 1 billion).

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

France24 – US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to arrive in Tbilisi on Friday to secure Georgia’s signature to a fragile peace deal with Russia. This as Tbilisi said Russian tanks were moving deeper into Georgian territory.
AP – Russia’s foreign minister declared Thursday that the world “can forget about” Georgia’s territorial integrity, and American and Georgian officials said Russia appeared to be targeting military infrastructure, including radars and patrol boats at a Black Sea naval base and oil hub.
McClatchy – Perhaps more than any other piece of land in Georgia, the road from Gori to Tbilisi on Thursday symbolized the humiliating defeat that Georgia has suffered at the hands of the Kremlin, which was its overseer during the days of hard-line rule by the Soviet Union.
TIME – From Russia there is only one way to get in and out of South Ossetia. The Transcaucasian Highway, or Transkam, runs from Vladikavkaz, the capital of the semi-autonomous republic of North Ossetia to the 3.5 km-long Roki Tunnel, which opens into South Ossetia. All the men and material that Russia is now using to fight Georgia came along this road. I went up the Transkam on Wednesday to determine if the Russian army was pulling any men or machines out of the fight.
EurasiaNet – Public sentiment in Azerbaijan is clearly on the side of neighboring Georgia, but the Azerbaijani government is treading lightly, not wanting to do or say anything that might provoke Russia. Baku, which is intent on recovering its own separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, is concerned about how the fighting in Georgia will impact the fates of Georgia’s break-away entities of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Stars and Stripes – The first C-17 was greeted with applause from the waiting group of Georgians. Then, shortly after touching down in Tbilisi, the plane was back in the air and bound for Ramstein Air Base, Germany, to reload. “It’s flying a leap frog,” said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Corey Barker, a spokesman for U.S. European Command. In all, about $2 million in humanitarian aid was delivered aboard back-to-back U.S. military flights Wednesday and Thursday, according to EUCOM.
OSCE – The situation in and around the South Ossetia conflict area remains “fragile” and up to 100 additional OSCE monitors are needed, the Special Envoy of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Heikki Talvitie, told a special meeting of the Organization’s Permanent Council in Vienna.
ICG – President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has turned Kyrgyzstan in effect into a one-party state, but its surface calm could soon be shattered if he does not deal with its real problems of corruption and economic crisis before winter sets in. A further deterioration in living conditions could spark serious anger among a public already worn down by power cuts, the steady increase in fuel prices and the memory of the previous grim winter. If anger turns to violence, it risks being brutal, destructive and xenophobic – and the remnants of the discredited opposition may not be able to channel demonstrations into a more controllable form.

Middle East

BBC – Eighteen people have died and another 75 were injured after a female suicide bomber struck in southern Iraq. The female attacker blew herself up while among a group of Shia pilgrims in the town of Iskandariya.
Bloggers Roundtable – Owing to the combination of forces, and especially the co-location of U.S. and Iraqi troops in towns and villages around Babil, victories have been recently scored against Al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Jaysh al-Mahdi militia. In turn, improved security has enabled growth in government and economic systems, Army Col. Thomas James explained.
Al Arabiya – Syria and Lebanon agreed on Thursday to resume work towards formally demarcating their borders but Damascus said the boundaries of the disputed Shebaa Farms would not be drawn until Israel withdrew from them. Demarcation of the borders between Syria and Lebanon would be a major step towards meeting international demands on Damascus to formalise ties with its smaller neighbour.
AFP – Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday accused Israel of seeking to eliminite the Lebanese Shiite movement’s leaders, in a televised speech on the second anniversary of the summer war with Israel.

Iran

Hurriyet – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met with Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Thursday to discuss bilateral ties, including the enhancement of an energy partnership, and Tehran’s nuclear program. Turkey and Iran failed to reach consensus on an energy deal, but signed other cooperation deals.
Washington Times – Iranian state radio says three Kurdish separatists and one Iranian soldier were killed in a shootout in the northwest of the country.
Al Arabiya – A number of Iranians are flocking to Malaysia, attracted by a fellow Islamic country with a relatively low cost of living, instead of pursuing their dreams in traditional exile hubs such as Canada or Sweden.
MEMRI – The Iranian daily Kayhan, which is close to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, stated that since January 2008 the Saudi television network Al-Arabiya had been waging a minor and clandestine war on Iran, and that its Farsi-language website served to egg on Iranian opposition groups and as a platform for hostile reformist criticism of the government of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Southeast Asia

Newsday – An explosion targeting international troops on a foot patrol in southern Afghanistan killed three members of the U.S.-led coalition Thursday, the coalition said.
AKI – Around 135,000 residents have reportedly fled a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan to avoid clashes between security forces and Taliban militants. Officials said that up to half of the population of some villages in the troubled Bajaur tribal district had fled, although militants were trying to stop people from leaving.
National Interest - Despite the explosive nature of the crisis and apparent consensus between the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees about the need for additional focus on the area—as well as military forces there—the popular analysis of the situation often fails to appreciate the very basic facts of the issue. At the core of this insurgency is Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), which encompasses about 27,220 square kilometers of mountainous terrain and is home to approximately 3.5 million Pashtuns. Ethnic Pashtuns not only strongly dominate FATA and the adjoining North-West Frontier Province, they also straddle the Afghan-Pakistan border, demarcated by the British in 1893.
Daily Times – The coalition government has offered indemnity and security to President Pervez Musharraf if he resigns, sources privy to the developments said on Thursday. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif has agreed to change his rigid stance against the president, who is likely to finalise a decision in the next few days. The drop scene is likely in a few days, the sources said.
News Agency of Kashmir – Curfew relaxed in Kashmir, Kishtwar still under seize ; Protests continued, 45 injured in fresh violence across valley; Curfew defied in Uri, Baramulla, Rafaiabad
AP – A wave of battles across the front lines in Sri Lanka’s 25-year-old civil war killed 14 ethnic Tamil rebels and two government soldiers, the military said Thursday. Government jets hit a series of Tamil Tiger targets in the Mullaittivu region early Thursday in support of troops fighting on the ground.
Red Cross – Tens of thousands of people have fled areas affected by fighting in the Mannar and Kilinochchi districts following an escalation of hostilities between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in northern Sri Lanka. Among those displaced – most of whom headed towards Kilinochchi – are people who have had to abandon their homes several times in recent months. Access to food, shelter, sanitation and clean water is an urgent priority. Although health facilities in the area are struggling to cope with the increased demand, they have so far been able to meet the population’s basic needs.

Far East & Pacific

Daily Yomiuri – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s announcement Monday that the United States would postpone removing North Korea from its list of terrorism-sponsoring nations came after Washington and Pyongyang failed to reach an agreement on procedures to verify North Korea’s declaration of its nuclear programs.
Xinhua – Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill will meet with South Korean envoy Kim Sook in New York Friday to discuss the nuclear issue of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Thursday. The visit comes amid another visit by Sung Kim, director of the office of Korean affairs at the State Department, to China on the DPRK nuclear disarmament.
NPR – A series of attacks in the Xinjiang region of northwest China have raised concern about Muslim separatists, who the government says is responsible for the violence. Michel Martin talks to Dru Gladney, president of the Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College, about understanding the religious and political goals of the diverse Muslim community in China.
Reuters – Japan marked the 63rd anniversary of its surrender in World War Two on Friday, but Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda was expected to avoid visiting a shrine for war dead seen by Asian neighbors as a symbol of Tokyo’s past militarism.
Times Online – The New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark, was evacuated in atrocious weather from a mountain in the country’s South Island after her mountain guide and close friend died of a heart attack during an alpine camping trip.

Europe

Irish Times – Warsaw and Washington have signed a preliminary agreement to install 10 American missile interceptors in Poland, as concerns over the Georgian conflict helped break an 18-month deadlock. Prime minister Donald Tusk appeared on national television yesterday evening, announcing that US negotiators had agreed to help boost Poland’s air defences in exchange for it hosting part of Washington’s missile shield.
Prague Monitor – The Czech Republic has been the largest supplier of tanks, self-propelled guns and artillery to Georgia in the past two years, the daily Pravo reported Wednesday, referring to information from the Russian Defence Ministry published in the Komsomolskaya pravda Russian paper. The Russian paper writes that the Czech Republic has also supplied missile launchers to Georgia. Moscow has accused Georgian troops of having massacred the inhabitants of Cchinvali exactly by these tanks and missile launchers.
CSM – Russia’s invasion of Georgian territory last week, in addition to reasserting Moscow’s military strength, has complicated Europe’s effort to diversify its oil and gas supplies away from the growing dominance of Kremlin-controlled energy giant Gazprom. The Russo-Georgian conflict is the latest in a series of setbacks for Europe’s planned Nabucco pipeline – its best hope of weaning itself off Gazprom, which set off alarm bells by cutting crucial gas supplies to the continent in the winters of 2006 and 2008.
Daily Star – Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard is ready to stand trial in Jordan over his controversial caricature depicting the Prophet Mohammad with a bomb in his turban, the press reported on Thursday. A Jordanian prosecutor summoned Westergaard for questioning in June after local media outlets sued him over his cartoon, which was republished in at least 17 Danish dailies in February, sparking violent protests in Muslim countries, including the kingdom. “I would like to go to Amman to stand trial. However, what I fear is that I am convicted in advance,” Westergaard told the government-owned Jordan Times in Copenhagen.
Brussels Journal – I recently wrote an essay regarding how the Council of Europe, in close cooperation with the European Union, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Arab League and other Islamic organizations, are working to combat “Islamophobia” in Europe by all means necessary. Now the French blog Galliawatch takes a look at the CoE as well. This should be considered required reading for all those numerous people who still stubbornly dismiss Eurabia as a “conspiracy theory.”

Africa

Afrol – International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has raised concern with increased hijack and attack reports in recent weeks, off Somali coast. On Tuesday, Somali pirates hijacked a Thai general cargo ship, which is the third in a series with a month.
Press TV – Around 20 Ethiopian soldiers have been killed by their fellow servicemen in the Somali military in the southern district of El Warego. The region was a scene of heavy fighting between Ethiopian soldiers and Somali troops, Press TV correspondent reported.
This Day – At the solemn ceremony held at the Perigrino Hall of Government House, Calabar, the Nigerian delegation led by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Aondoakaa, exchanged flags with the Deputy Prime Minister of Cameroon, Mr. Ahmadu Ali. That signalled the final withdrawal and transfer of authority in the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon.
The Citizen – Debate over the establishment of Islamic courts in Tanzania yesterday split parliamentarians after the minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Ms Mathis Chikawe, presented his 2008/09 budget estimates. The opposition MP said their call for the establishment of the courts is based on the fact that there are special issues in Muslim communities that need to be handled only by Kadhi courts.
AllAfrica – Zimbabwean officials have blocked Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and other top party officials from leaving the country to attend this weekend’s summit of the Southern African Development Community. (It was returned.)
World Bank – An additional US4 million food price crisis response grant for Sierra Leone was approved by the Bank’s Executive Board of Directors, following swiftly on the heels of the US3 million dollars in budget support approved earlier this month to offset lost revenues resulting from the spike in food prices. The grant will be specifically used to support the implementation of an emergency cash-for-work program with the objective of providing temporary employment opportunities for those most susceptible to the crisis.
Carnegie – The bloodless military coup that overthrew Mauritania’s democratic government poses challenges for U.S. policy in the region. Washington can encourage the military to move toward elections by leveraging its military assistance, and humanitarian and institutional capacity-building programs.

The Global War

RIA Novosti – The composition of the Russian Air Force is estimated by a number of sources to be as follows: 90 strategic bombers, including 16 Tu-160s (Blackjack) and 74 Tu-95MSs (Bear); 124 long-range Tu-22M3 (Backfire) bombers; 20 A-50 early warning aircraft; Su-25M close support aircraft, Su-24 (Fencer) tactical bombers and Su-34 (Fullback) fighter bombers totaling 800 planes; 725 MiG-31 (Foxhound), MiG-29 (Fulcrum), MiG-25 (Foxbat) and Su-27 (Flanker), including Su-27SMKs, interceptor fighters; around 300 An-12, An-22, An-124 (Condor) and Il-76 (Candid) airlifters and Il-78 (Midas) tanker planes; 650 Mi-8, Mi-17, Mi-24, Mi-26, Ka-50 and Mi-28N helicopters. In addition, it has 1900 anti-aircraft missile launchers, including S-300V, S-300P Favorit, S-400 Triumf and other systems.
ISN – The US Geological Survey presented the first publicly available assessment of the Arctic Circle’s petroleum resources on 23 July, revealing an estimated 90 billion barrels of undiscovered, but technically recoverable, oil north of the Circle. If the report is accurate, the find would account for roughly 13 percent of undiscovered oil in the world – enough to meet worldwide supply for the next three years (at current consumption rates). In addition, the area also contains 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered natural gas.

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