28 April, 2009 (01:38) | Bloggers Roundtable | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 28 April 2009.
United States & the Americas
- The DEW Line – Lockheed Martin will build a demonstrator airship with a massive radar system called the Integrated Sensor is Structure (ISIS) under a $400 million contract awarded today by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
- ISNA – Iran’s Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar stepped in Venezuela to hold talks with defense and political officials and visit military and industrial centers of the southern American country. Najjar was warmly welcomed by his Venezuelan counterpart Raul Baduel and Vice President Ramon Alonso Carrizales Rengifo upon his arrival at the airport. Najjar will discuss issues of mutual interests and expansion of bilateral cooperation during his three-day stay in Venezuela. He is the first Iranian Defense Minister traveling To Venezuela after Islamic Revolution in 1979.
- LAHT – The Palestinian National Authority will open an official diplomatic office in Caracas at the beginning of the week, an event for which Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki is traveling to the Venezuelan capital. The Palestinian official and his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolás Maduro are scheduled to sign a document formally establishing the start of diplomatic relations between Caracas and the PNA.
- COHA – Correa Triumphs in Ecuador, and Thereby Becomes One of Latin America’s Most Successful Political Figures
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- Russia Today – Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that “Russia will not take part in NATO drills in Georgia, and doesn’t advise other countries to do this either.” Some of them have already stepped out of the May exercises.
- Kremlin – I already met with President Hu Jintao this year at the G20 summit in London. We have a busy programme of contacts lined up for this year, including the Chinese President’s visit to Russia and a number of other events in which we will both take part. This makes us very happy, because we think that good friends should meet and consult regularly, all the more so at a time when economic and political considerations make it essential.
- RIA Novosti – Sochi’s acting mayor, a member of the ruling United Russia party, has won a landslide victory, garnering 76.8% of the votes in the mayoral election in the Black Sea resort city, set to host the 2014 Winter Olympics
- Kavkaz Center – Gang members of ‘death squads’ tell about their crimes in Chechnya
- Interpol – Dubai police’s request for INTERPOL’s assistance and the issuance of Red Notices, or international wanted persons’ notices, for seven men in connection with the murder of a Russian businessman in March, has been welcomed by the Secretary General as an important step in co-operation against transnational crime and public safety. The seven men, all Russian nationals, are wanted in relation to the killing of Suleyman Yamadaev who was shot in Dubai on March 28. [One, Adam Delimkhanov, is a former deputy prime minister of Chechnya]
- EurasiaNet – Visa-free travel between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan does not mean that crossing the border between the two Central Asian states is free of hassles. Uzbeks and Kyrgyz traders alike complain that convoluted customs procedures and corruption are hampering commerce
- MEMRI – The Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa cites “highly sensitive sources” as saying that authorities in Azerbaijan several months ago arrested two Lebanese nationals who were active in a cell of Hizbullah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) that planned operations against Western targets in the country’s capital in response to the February 2008 assassination of senior Hizbullah official ‘Imad Mughniya.
Middle East
- Stars and Stripes – American and Iraqi officials are negotiating exemptions from the June 30 deadline for all U.S. combat troops to be out of Iraqi cities. According to U.S. military officials, the exceptions to the timeline — agreed upon in the security agreement signed late last year — would focus on Mosul and certain parts of Baghdad.
- Al Sumaria – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki said he could confirm that security authorities have arrested so called Islamic State of Iraq Chief Abou Omar Al Baghdadi, an Al Qaeda ally. The BBC quoted Al Maliki as saying that Iraqi security forces had been tracking Al Baghdadi for two months.
- Reuters – Seven suspected al Qaeda insurgents were killed in clashes with U.S. forces in a largely Sunni Arab province of Iraq, the U.S. military said Monday
- MNF Iraq – Coalition forces arrested six suspected members of the JAM Special Groups and Promise Day Brigade and killed one suspected network criminal early Sunday in Al Kut. In an operation fully coordinated and approved by the Iraqi government, Coalition forces targeted a network financier, who is also responsible for smuggling weapons into the country to support JAM Special Groups and Promise Day Brigade.
- Al Bawaba – Iraq’s prime minister denounced a deadly U.S. raid on Sunday as a “crime” that violated the security pact with Washington and demanded American commanders hand over those responsible to face possible trial in Iraqi courts
- Voices of Iraq – Three ‘Special Groups’ members on Monday were arrested in Babel’s Hilla city, according to a police commander. “The arrests were made during raids on three houses in central Hilla city,” Maj. Majid al-Imara told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
- NOW Lebanon – Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem said on Monday that “from the beginning the Resistance was clear that it wants to win the upcoming parliamentary elections to build a resistant Lebanon, where all its components participate in its governance.” In a meeting with Hayan Haidar, who was running for a Shia seat in the Baalbek-Hermel district but recently withdrew in favor of the Resistance’s candidate, Qassem lauded the security forces “for discovering and arresting spies” working in the South for Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency.
- Naharnet – Security forces continue their interrogation of two Mossad-linked cells that have been arrested on charges of spying for Israel, following the detention of the so-called “al-Alam cell.” The daily As Safir on Monday said security forces have arrested two cells – the first is made of two members identified as Robert Edmond Kfouri from Zahle and Mohammed Ibrahim Awad, a Palestinian living in the villa sector in Sidon, while the second is operated single-handedly by Lebanese citizen Ali Hussein Mantash from Zibdin, but residing in Nabatiyeh.
- Press TV – Turkey and Syria are to hold their first joint military exercise this week to enhance ties between the two countries’ land forces. A press release issued by the Turkish General Staff said that the land forces of Turkey and Syria would perform the joint military exercise across the border, which is due to end on April 29.
Iran
- Mehr – The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps has defeated a group of Jundullah terrorists in a battle in eastern Iran, an IRGC official announced on Sunday. The IRGC struck a serious blow against the terrorist group, the Supreme Leader’s representative to the IRGC, Hojjatoleslam Mojtaba Zolnour, said in a statement.
- Rooz – On Saturday new round of armed clashes were reported between members of PJAK group (an off-?shoot of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and the Passdaran Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and ?law enforcement services. The two sides are reported to have engaged each other for hours resulting in ?the death and wounding of tens of individuals on both sides.?
- Hurriyet – Neighboring Turkey and Iran agreed to boost trade and economic ties by implementing a set of new projects, the ministers of trade on both sides announced. State Minister Kür?at Tüzmen and his Iranian counterpart, Masood Mirkazimi, participated in the Turkey-Iran Business Forum in Ankara and signed a protocol on preferential trade tariffs. Tüzmen said the two countries were planning to increase the trade volume to $20 billion in five years thanks to a new regulation that will allow the two countries to trade with each other in their national currencies.
- Payvand – Iran plans to start excavation in its northern oil-rich region, Caspian Sea, beginning on May 15. This will make Iran’s first time oil exploration in Caspian Sea, said Iran’s North Drilling Company Managing Director Asghar Rafiei adding President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be present at the inauguration whether directly or through videoconference.
- IRNA – Information Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejeie said on Monday that a terrorist network affiliating to Zionists was identified and busted before they could carry out any anti-security actions.
- RFERL – Teachers in several cities and provinces of Iran are in the midst of a three-day strike to protest low wages. The main demand of the teachers is implementation of a pay-parity bill passed by parliament in 2007. The bill, which would bring teachers’ wages in line with other government workers, has not been instituted, despite recent promises by Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.
- Fars – Mojtaba Zonnour, deputy representative of the Supreme Leader in the IRGC, reminded that security of the Persian Gulf has been fully entrusted to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and added, “Possessing a large number of radar-evading vessels designed and produced inside the country, the IRGC Navy is so powerful that it is able to monitor any alien vessel within our security zone and confront any threat posed by them.” Reminding IRGC’s aerospace deterrence power and missile capabilities, Zonnour noted, “Our land-to-sea missiles can cover all longitudes and latitudes in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman.”
U.S. Army soldiers and Afghan National Police cross a clearing during a patrol near Combat Outpost Sabari, Afghanistan, April 24, 2009. The soldiers are assigned to the 25th Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, Company D, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team. (photo by Sgt. Christopher T. Sneed)
South Asia
- AFPS – In Kandahar province’s Zharmi district, Afghan and coalition forces conducted a complex operation after receiving a tip on the location of Taliban operatives. In a separate operation northeast of Jalalabad in the Sarkani district of Konar province, Afghan forces, with a small element of coalition forces in support, searched a compound where suspected al-Qaida operatives were located. In operations yesterday, Afghan army commandos, assisted by coalition forces, captured a Taliban commander in Farah province’s Gulistan district. In an overnight operation that began April 25, Afghan and coalition forces detained three men in eastern Afghanistan during efforts to capture a militant associated with the Haqqani terrorist network and the Baitullah Mahsud extremist group in Pakistan.
- Daily Times – The Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-Muhammadi has suspended talks with the NWFP government to protest against the military action in Dir, spokesman Amir Izzat Khan told Daily Times in Mingora city on Monday. The situation in Swat meanwhile drifted towards chaos as Taliban set up checkposts, occupied government buildings and kidnapped a policeman, local residents told Daily Times.
- Daily Times – Operation Toar Tander-I (Black Thunderstorm-I) continued in the Maidan area of Lower Dir for the second day on Monday, as the Frontier Corps (FC) killed 26 more Taliban including key commanders.
- Dawn – In an unprecedented move, top leaders of the Tableeghi Jamaat have denounced enforcement of Sharia at gunpoint, religious extremism, militancy and terrorism. Leaders of the Jamaat, who scrupulously avoid speaking on controversial issues, also called for promoting inter-faith harmony, tolerance, human rights, social justice and peace.
- Geo – Militants took control of 10-15 percent area of Buner, Commandant FC Zafarullah Khan said on Monday. According to FC Commandant, Taliban seized Shal Bandi and Sultanvas areas of Buner. He said we would retaliate if FC officials targeted. Taliban have also looted the offices of NGO?s in Buner, he added.
- SAAG – Pakistan’s Talibanization: Strategic Implications for China and Options
- Asia Times – With the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on the brink of defeat, the Sri Lankan government says its three-decade hunt for chief Velupillai Prabhakaran is nearing an end. His fate has serious implications for India, which might well prefer to see him escape to foreign shores rather than deal with the fallout from his capture or death.
Far East & Pacific
- Chosun Ilbo – North Korea has begun reversing its nuclear dismantlement process. “The reprocessing of spent fuel rods from the pilot atomic power plant has begun,” a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said Saturday. That indicates North Korea is putting threats to “bolster its nuclear deterrent” into action in response to sanctions imposed by the international community following its long-range rocket launch earlier this month. Seoul interprets the comment as meaning the North has begun repairing its nuclear reprocessing facilities, which had been deactivated, rather than that it has actually started reprocessing spent fuel rods.
- Yonhap – North Korea blasted Japan on Tuesday for passing the blame over stalled nuclear disarmament talks, insisting Tokyo is responsible for the deadlock by not fulfilling its obligations. The criticism came in response to Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura, who a day earlier denounced Pyongyang’s reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods as “not constructive” and urged the country to return to the six-party talks.
- Straits Times – Japan’s foreign minister criticised China for withholding information about its nuclear weapons on Monday and urged more transparency from Beijing.
- Bloomberg – Toshiba Corp., Japan’s largest supplier of reactors, is in talks to buy nuclear-fuel rod assemblies from Kazakhstan after opening a new uranium mine in the central Asian nation.
- IslamOnline – Indonesia’s Islamic parties are edging closer towards a coalition with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s ruling Democratic Party, the biggest winner of the parliamentary race.
- The Australian – The Australian Defence Force will spend $167 million to buy a special satellite payload to boost its tactical communications for military serving in Afghanistan and nearby theatres in the Indian Ocean region. The ADF will own the UHF payload on board the Intelsat 22 satellite, which will be launched in mid-2012.
Europe
- Vladimir Socor – Turkish Government Stalling on Nabucco Project Ahead of Critical Deadlines; The high-level conference on energy in Sofia on April 25 and the European Union’s summit in Prague on May 7 are survival opportunities for the Nabucco gas pipeline project
- euobserver – Icelandic voters punished the centre-right party that had governed the country for most of the last 18 years and dominated it for generations, delivering a clear majority in a snap general election to the centre-left Social Democrats and far-left and ecologist Left Green Movement.
- euronews – Andorra has gone to the polls against a backdrop of uncertainty over its tax haven status. While failing to win an absolute majority, the social democrat party took 14 of the micro states 28 seats in parliament. In a campaign dominated by banking secrecy rules, the result ends the government of the centre right liberal party.
Africa
- Garowe – Islamist hardliners in southern Somalia have shut down an independent radio station and detained three of its staff, Radio Garowe reports.
- Shabelle – Yasin Hussein Said, a governor of Karkar region in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland has been shot and killed overnight near kardo town in the centre of Puntland by unidentified armed group, witnesses told Shabelle radio on Monday.
- Sudan Tribune – The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir acknowledged for the first time that Israel may be behind the attack on a suspected arms convoy in the Eastern of the country that was uncovered by US officials last month
- MEMRI – Sudanese presidential media advisor Mahjoub Fadhl Badri has denied that the Sudanese government had news regarding the sinking of an Iranian weapons ship off its coast. The incident was reported in the Egyptian weekly Al-’Usbu.
- Asharq Al Awsat – Al-Qaeda’s North African branch has threatened to execute a captive Briton if the British government does not release a Muslim cleric within 20 days, SITE Intelligence Group reported on Sunday.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, right, escorts visiting Greek Minister of Defense Evangelos-Vassilios Meimarakis through a cordon of honor guards and into the Pentagon, April 27, 2009. Meimarakis will attend a luncheon with senior Pentagon policy officials and later meet with Gates for bilateral security talks. (photo by R. D. Ward)
The Global War
- UK PM – The Prime Minister has announced a “new chapter” in Britain’s relationship with Pakistan during a visit to Islamabad. Gordon Brown visited Afghanistan and Pakistan today to outline a strategy to combat terrorism in the border region between the two countries.
- SIPRI – New data released today by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reveal a significant rise in arms transfers to the Middle East. There were also increases in arms deliveries to East Asia, the Caucasus and Pakistan. The USA remains the world’s largest exporter, followed by Russia and Germany.
- US Navy – Coalition naval forces from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Pakistan, Bahrain and seven regional nations completed a nine-day exercise in the Arabian Gulf, which focused on air, surface and maritime security training April 27.
Sights & Sounds
Read more »
Sphere: Related Content
Comments: -
9 March, 2009 (00:17) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 9 March 2009.
United States & the Americas
- Secretary Clinton – Bob, we are in the final stages of our policy review on Afghanistan and Pakistan and I don’t want to preview that or try to summarize where we are in the process until we are ready to unveil it. But Iran borders Afghanistan. In the early days of the military efforts by the United States and our allies to go after the Taliban and al-Qaida, Iran was consulting with our ambassador on a daily basis. Where it is appropriate and useful for the United States and others to see whether Iran can be constructive, that will be considered. I’ve said it and many of you have heard me say it over and over again: there is a great deal of concern about Iran from the entire region. I heard it over and over and over again in Sharm el-Sheikh, in Israel, in Ramallah. It is clear that Iran intends to interfere with the internal affairs of all of these people and try to continue their efforts to fund terrorism, whether it’s Hezbollah or Hamas or other proxies. So we have said consistently that we are ready to engage, but we want to make sure it’s constructive, and that goes for Afghanistan and it goes for all the rest of the region.
- Khaleej Times – US President Barack Obama will visit Turkey in about a month’s time, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Saturday, as she visited strategic ally Ankara to repair ties damaged over the Iraq war
- Washington Post – The U.S. military announced Sunday that 12,000 American soldiers would withdraw from Iraq by September, marking the first step in the Obama administration’s plan to pull U.S. combat forces out of the country by August 2010.
- FBI – A former inmate in a California state prison who formed a domestic terrorist group that planned to attack United States military operations, “infidels,” and Israeli and Jewish facilities in the Los Angeles area was sentenced to 16 years in federal prison
- Javno – An Armenian convicted of conspiring to smuggle Russian military arms into the United States including rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other weapons was sentenced to 22 years in prison on Friday. The other four conspirators included three Georgians and one Ukrainian
- National Post – Canadian soldiers soared into western Zhari District Saturday to disrupt suspected Taliban compounds, the first air-assault mission done with Canadian helicopters in the country’s military history.
- LA Times – A U.S. citizen was one of the three men who were found decapitated this week in Tijuana, Mexican authorities said Friday. Authorities said they suspected that it was an organized crime hit.
- ABC – Bodies stacked in the morgues of Mexico’s border cities tell the story of an escalating drug war. Drug violence claimed 6,290 people last year, double the previous year, and more than 1,000 in the first eight weeks of 2009. Workers toil up to 12 hours a day, sometimes seven days a week, to examine the remains. When Tijuana coffin makers fell behind during the December holidays, the morgue there crammed 200 bodies into two refrigerators made to hold 80.
- IRIB – The Islamic Republic of Iran and Venezuela stressed acceleration in implementation of joint economic projects. IRI’s economic delegation in a meeting with Venezuelan Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez on Saturday studying bilateral agreements in banking and economic fields, called for expansion of mutual cooperation. They also called for rapid implementation of industrial, economic and banking projects.
- Javno – The Columbian police reported on Friday that they confiscated four tonnes of cocaine and 1.7 tonnes of cocaine paste in a laboratory on the south of the country, that belongs to the paramilitary group “Black Eagles”. The drugs were found in a secret laboratory for which the police claim can produce up to five tonnes of cocaine per week, and is located 950 km south-west of Bogota, on the border with Equador, said the police in their report.
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- Georgian Times – Russia and Abkhazian separatist regime have signed an agreement, which says that the Russian military bases will remain in Abkhazia for 49 years, Abkhazian separatist leader has told a Russian newspaper The Nezavisimaya Gazeta. According to Baghapsh, in Gudauta aerodrome Russians will construct military air base and naval base in Ochamchire. Several military boats of the Russian fleet will emerge in Ochamchire to control the Abkhazian waters.
- Russia MFA – Question: How would you comment upon the recent statement of the head of the MFA of EU President Czech Republic, Karel Schwarzenberg, who actually linked the questions of recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia by Belarus and the Euro-integration of Minsk under the Eastern Partnership program of the EU? Grigory Karasin: The statement of Schwarzenberg has to be deemed an act of gross public pressure by the EU presidency on Belarus. In an impermissible ultimatum form, Minsk is being asked, for the sake of a possibility for rapprochement with Europe, to waive its right of sovereign decision making on major foreign policy issues.
- NY Times – Reconstruction is moving slowly in the Georgian enclave of South Ossetia, and most of Russia’s promised aid has not arrived.
- Itar-Tass – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said he has had a detailed discussion with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on preparations for the first meeting of the two countries’ presidents, which is to take place in London at the beginning of April. “We discussed in detail the so-called ‘sore spots’ in our relations. We took a look at how to organize the work to clear away the piles of problems inherited from the past, and how to ensure the constructive vector and targeted partner-style cooperation dominate in our relations,” Lavrov told a news conference following his first working meeting with the chief of the US diplomacy.
- Kavkaz Center – Jamaat Shariat web-site has posted a statement confirming recent casualties of Mujahideen. Russian forces killed five and detained four other people (three men and a woman) in three separate, but apparently linked raids on February 21, 2009, in Makhachkala. Mujahideen belonging to several special operational groups, who entered the city in order to carry out a major operation, fought stubborn battles against outnumbering forces of disbelievers in Shamilkala (formerly Makhachkala) for two days and nights.
- Russia Today – The planned Nord Stream gas pipeline, which will link Russia and the EU via the Baltic Sea, will improve energy security in Europe, says Russia’s First Deputy PM Viktor Zubkov, who has paid a working visit to Sweden.
- Kremlin – Dmitry Medvedev will meet with Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany on March 10
- Siemens – Siemens and the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the creation of a joint venture in the field of nuclear energy. The joint venture plans to push ahead with further development of Russian pressurized water reactor (VVER) technology.
- Spiegel – Siemens is pressuring Russian atomic energy agency Rosatom over its involvement in building Iran’s first power plant in the southern port of Bushehr. Siemens CEO Peter Loescher initially hailed the joint venture as a great opportunity “to enlarge our footprint in nuclear business with a very strong and experienced partner.” He later became critical of Russia’s political and financial contributions to the Bushehr reactor and demanded that the Kremlin address international concerns over Tehran’s uranium enrichment activities.
- Trend – On March 6, the Armenian Armed Forces opened fire at Azerbaijani troops at 07:10-07:20. The shots were fired from the Mosesgah village Berd region at the nameless heights in Tovuz region, as well as from Kuropatkino and nameless heights in Khojavand region. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported that the Armenian soldiers fired at Azerbaijani troops from an area outside the Ashagi Abdulrahmanli village nameless heights in Fuzuli region.
Middle East
- Al Jazeera – At least 28 people have been killed and dozens more wounded after a suicide bomber on a bicycle attacked a police recruitment centre in Iraq, police said. Eight police were among those killed in the attack on Sunday at Baghdad’s main police academy and the rest were would-be recruits.
- MNF Iraq – Program managers from the United States and Iraq, along with representatives from the General Dynamics Contract Logistics Support (CLS) group, met to discuss the fielding of M1A1SA Abrams tanks for the Iraqi Army, March 4.
- Voices of Iraq – Diala security forces arrested six members of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) network in central Baaquba on Sunday, a senior police official said.
- Asharq Al Awsat – The Western-backed Palestinian prime minister submitted his resignation Saturday, improving the odds of a possible unity government of Fatah moderates and Hamas militants, followed by new Palestinian elections. Salam Fayyad announced that he will step down once a new government is formed, but no later than the end of March.
- Hizballah – Hizbullah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem reiterated on Saturday that his party would not place its bets on international changes. “We won’t bet on US President Barack Obama against former US president George Bush…we don’t expect political changes in how the new US administration would deal with us.” Speaking during a cultural event in Beirut’s southern suburb, Sheikh Qassem called to keep in mind “the fact that when we are strong no one could impose their conditions on us from overseas.” His eminence emphasized that “the resistance shall remain strong and so shall Lebanon.”
- Naharnet – MP Saad Hariri has been conducting “behind the scenes” talks with Hizbullah to discuss the party’s reservations to a memorandum of understanding between the government and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the pan-Arab al-Hayat daily said Sunday.
- NOW Lebanon – The vice president of the Higher Shia Islamic Council, Sheikh Abdel Amir Qablan, on Sunday met with US envoys Jeffrey Feltman and Daniel Shapiro and US Ambassador to Lebanon Michele Sison at the council’s headquarters. Qabalan also requested the US administration extend “bridges of dialogue” to Hezbollah and Hamas and deal with the Lebanese with a “spirit of fairness and justice.”
- Hurriyet – Two Turkish children were fired on by Iranian soldiers while attempting to cross the border from Turkey into Iran, killing one, Dogan News Agency (DHA) reported on Sunday. One Turkish child was killed and another was injured after being fired upon by Iranian military as they attempted an illegal crossing from the Saray township in the eastern Turkish province of Van into Iran.
- Al Sumaria – The Turkish military reported that around 375 rebels from Kurdistan Workers Party were killed and wounded since October 2008 due to Turkish shelling on their positions in northern Iraq.
Iran
- Press TV - Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has questioned the motive behind a Moroccan decision to cut diplomatic ties with Tehran. The Moroccan Foreign Ministry on Friday accused Iran’s Embassy in Rabat of trying to “alter the religious fundamentals of the kingdom” and threaten the religious unity of the Sunni Arab kingdom.
- Vos Iz Neias – Shoe Thrown at Iranian President Ahmadinejad in Urmia; An Iranian website, Urmia News, reported that a shoe was hurled at the president as his convoy drove through a central square. Security guards waded into the crowds but failed to find the culprit. A hat was also thrown in Ahmadinejad’s direction before his car sped away. The event went unreported on mainstream Iranian news outlets but has been hotly discussed on the country’s highly active blogosphere
- Fars – Iran has decided to open its first nuclear power plant in Bushehr for Tourist in an effort to highlight Tehran’s peaceful nuclear drive.
- Jerusalem Post – Iranian news agencies were divided over the range and purpose of a missile fired by the Islamic republic on Sunday. According to Reuters, while state-run television reported that a long-range missile was fired, the Fars News Agency said an anti-ship air-to-surface missile, with a range of 110 km. had in fact been tested. The latter report cited a missile having far less range than the Shihab-3 missile which Iran says can reach as far as Israel.
- Mehr – Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said on Saturday that Iran is “deeply concerned” about the suppression of human rights by French police.
- Payvand – The 10th Summit Meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is to be held in Tehran on Wednesday, it was announced here on Saturday. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi added that the 18th ECO foreign ministerial session will also be held in the Iranian capital on Monday. Talking to reporters, he added that Azeri President Ilham Aliyev is to hand over the ECO presidency to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the ECO summit. Presidents of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari, of Tajikistan Imomali Rakhmon, of Turkey Abdullah Gul, of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, and President Aliyev are to attend the ECO summit as main guests, Qashqavi further announced.
- Press TV – A railway to ease trade between members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) will extend to as far as China, says the ECO chief. ECO Secretary General Khurshid Anwar said on Sunday that the organization aims to ultimately extend a railway to transport cargo between ECO members to the city of Urumchi in northwestern China.
- IRNA – An informed source in the province said in an armed conflict on Saturday afternoon in eastern borders of the country six bandits were killed.
- Payvand - Photos: Azerbaijan Grabs First Title in World Wrestling Championship
Two U.S. Army soldiers walk their vehicle through the muddy paths of Forward Operating Base Airborne south of Kabul, Afghanistan, March 6, 2009. The soldiers, assigned to the 10th Mountain Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team and part of Task Force Spartan, took control of the base last month. (photo by Fred W. Baker III)
South Asia
- Iran VNC – The US commander of international forces in Afghanistan accused Iran of supporting the Taliban insurgency in that war-torn country, and urged Tehran to join international efforts to bring stability to its eastern neighbor. “We believe there is a certain training support, funding support and there is a certain complicity in the narcotics trade,” General David McKiernan said in an interview with Reuters.
- AFPS – U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan killed 16 enemy fighters in several operations, military officials reported. In addition, forces captured two weapons smugglers March 6.
- canada.com – A Canadian soldier died Sunday and four others were seriously injured when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in Shah Wali Kot District, north of Kandahar City.
- Air Force – In Afghanistan, Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs targeted enemy snipers during a battle between anti-Afghan forces and coalition soldiers in a valley outside Bagram. After marking the snipers’ positions with smoke, the A-10s rolled in, using 30mm Avenger cannons to hit each enemy fighting position. After eliminating the sniper threat, the A-10s reengaged and strafed an enemy command position. Following the engagement, the aircraft flew a show of force over a base in order to deter enemy small-arms fire from outside the base perimeter
- CSM – A pair of recent cease-fires in Pakistan has drawn many of the same critiques as past deals: They give militants legitimacy as well as an opportunity to regroup or relocate. But this time may be different. In the tribal agency of Bajaur, the military for the first time made significant headway before observing a truce.
- Daily Times – US Central Command (CENTCOM) has denied reports that a drone was shot down in South Waziristan by the Taliban on Saturday. “As far as CENTCOM goes, all of our drones have been accounted for. So it’s not ours, if there is one that was shot down,” Major Marie Boughen, a spokeswoman for CENTCOM, said.
- Geo – Security forces in an action in Mohmand Agency killed 15 militants, sources said on Sunday. Security forces backed by gunship helicopters pounded militants hideouts in Gorgaray, Sapri and Mula Ghani areas of Tehsil Yaka Ghand, killing 15 militants. Meanwhile, curfew remains imposed in Machnai area of Tehsil Shabqadar during which search operation is underway. Security forces destroyed houses of 2 local commanders of the militants identified as Ahteshamul Haq and Raheel while 3 suspects have been arrested in Tehsil Haleemzai
- The News – Eight people, including seven security personnel, were killed in a remote-controlled car-bomb blast in Mashogagar village on the outskirts of Peshawar after terrorists trapped the cops by placing a body in the vehicle early on Saturday morning.
- VOA – Pakistani authorities have released 12 Taliban militants as part of a peace agreement with Islamist in the northwestern Swat Valley. Pakistani media report that no prominent Taliban members were among those freed.
- Times of India – The Lashkar-e-Toiba has opened a new wing to create unrest in the Northeast and districts of West Bengal bordering Bangladesh. This was known after interrogation of the LeT operative, Abu Taher, arrested from the crowded Sealdah station on Saturday evening, by the Special Task Force, a senior STF officer said.
- Straits Times – Indian activists marked International Women’s Day on Sunday by protesting over a spate of violent attacks launched on women by religious extremists in the name of ‘moral policing.’ A collective formed by residents in Bangalore, in India’s south, met in parks and open areas where young Hindu extremists have targeted women for wearing jeans, or being seen in public with men.
- Sri Lanka MoD – As Mullaittivu battles reached its last phase LTTE terrorists made several desperate attempts in vain, to infiltrate the military forward defences which left over 100 terrorists killed and as many injured since Friday dawn (March 6). LTTE terrorists were preparing for a large scale offensive towards the existing military defences at Palamathalan and North of Puthkkudiyirippu, inducting over 200 cadres including suicide bombers and sea tigers. Following the initial thrust terrorists had planned to send waves of 100 odd cadres to provide reinforcements. Bahnu, Lowrence, Soosai and few other high profile LTTE terrorists were directly involved in master minding the preemptive assault, security sources said.
- Colombo Page – Hundreds more Tamil civilians have crossed the front lines in the Mullaitivu District’s war zone and reached Army controlled areas, the military said today. A group of 45 civilians from uncleared areas of Mullaitivu reached the troops at the Puthukkudyiruppu East defence line Sunday (08) morning, Defence Ministry reported. The rebels have fired upon the fleeing group and a 17-year old girl was injured.
- Daily Star – A two-member team of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrived in Dhaka yesterday afternoon from New Delhi to assist Bangladesh probe the carnage at the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) headquarters. Confirming their arrival, US Ambassador James Moriarty hinted that a full FBI team would replace this advanced team after their departure.
Far East & Pacific
- Yonhap – Tension on the divided Korean Peninsula is expected to escalate further this week, as South Korea and the United States plan to kick off their joint military exercise as scheduled, despite a series of North Korean threats.
- BBC – People in North Korea are voting in parliamentary elections that observers say could give a clue to the country’s eventual succession. The elections to the Supreme People’s Assembly are always a formality, with each candidate elected unopposed. But for the first time, one of leader Kim Jong-il’s sons – Kim Jong-un – is rumoured to be on the ballot.
- China Daily – China’s port container handling volume recorded a year-on-year decline in February, expanding the drop in January as the financial crisis continues to hurt the country’s exports. The volume of containers handled by ports nationwide totaled 6.97 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in February, down 17 percent compared with the same month of 2008.
- Times of India – China, which has a long standing dispute with Japan over an island, has now entered in a tiff with Malaysia and the Philippines over another island in the South China Sea.
- Asia Times – The hopes of Japan’s opposition leader, Ichiro Ozawa, tipped to be the next prime minister, appear dashed due to a political donation scandal that has led to the arrest of his state-funded secretary. It is an issue with implications far beyond the domestic arena, as Ozawa apparently supports an almost complete US withdrawal from Japanese territory.
- PACOM – The semi-annual five-day Multi-Sail exercise brought 7th Fleet ships together to improve warfare mission readiness March 1-5, off the coast of Okinawa, Japan
- Stars and Stripes – Leadership comes with the territory for U.S. Army NCOs, and their Japanese counterparts are looking to move in that direction within the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. With that in mind, NCOs of the JGSDF Noncommissioned Officer Association traveled to Camp Zama last week and exchanged leadership ideas with some of their U.S. Army counterparts.
- Military.com – The US Navy on Friday said the critical weapons system of a warship was not damaged when it grounded a half-mile (kilometer) off Honolulu, contradicting an earlier news report. Propeller blades, the sonar dome and underwater hull were among the damaged parts of the guided-missile cruiser USS Port Royal, the U.S. Pacific Fleet said.
- The Australian – The Defence Department will conduct a thorough review of the rules of engagement governing covert operations against suspected Taliban fighters following the deaths of five Afghan children in a firefight last month.
Europe
- Irish Times – The Real IRA has allegedly claimed responsibility for the attack on a British army barracks in Co Antrim in which two soldiers were shot dead and four others injured. PSNI investigating officer Detective Superintendent Derek Williamson said at least two gunmen opened fire indiscriminately on a group of soldiers and the two delivery men as they arrived at Massereene Barracks last night.
- Stockholm News – Around five thousand people demonstrated against the tennis game between Sweden and Israel. A couple of hundred of them tried to attack the police outside the Baltic Hall and force the police´s barrages.
- SANA – A confidential EU report said that the Israeli occupation forces are attempting to hinder the establishing on an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital through settlement expansion, house demolitions, discriminatory housing policies and the West Bank barrier as a way of “actively pursuing the illegal annexation” of East Jerusalem. The report, which was prepared by EU diplomats on December 15th and published on Saturday in The Guardian, states that “many of Israel’s current illegal actions in and around the city have limited security justifications.”
- Expatica – Is France’s imminent return to NATO command a small step to tidy up decision-making in the alliance, or the death knell for Paris’ ability to act independently on the world stage? President Nicolas Sarkozy and supporters of the decision argue that it will boost France’s influence among the Western allies. Opponents, however, fear the move will be seen in world capitals as France falling into line behind the US superpower and will undercut the long-standing tradition of Paris forging its own policy.
- euronews – Three European nations that practice secret banking, two of whom are also tax havens, are meeting to decide on a joint strategy ahead of April’s G20 meeting in London. Switzerland is behind the mini-summit.
- US Navy – Sailors aboard the amphibious transport dock ship USS San Antonio (LPD 17) and embarked Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (26 MEU) helped strenthen ties with Greece during a reception on board the ship while in port Santorini, Greece, March 4. San Antonio is the first U.S. Navy ship to visit Santorini in 10 years
Africa
- Shabelle – The leader of Hizbul Islam Islamist group, Sheik Omar Iman Abu Bakar said Sunday that Somalia’s government could not anything about the situation of the country and was not different from the previous government led by former president Abdulahi Yusuf. He said AMISOM troops did not come to Somalia for peace keeping but to prevent the Islamists and their influence in the country.
- Garowe – A bloody clan battle in Somalia’s self-governing State of Puntland last Monday was triggered by aspirations to find oil, Radio Garowe reports. At least five militiamen were killed and 15 others were wounded in the hours-long battle in Ufayn district, located 90km east of the port city of Bossaso in Bari region.
- Mareeg – The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) claimed it killed Ethiopian soldiers in the Ogaden’s eastern region of Ethiopia and added that the fighting was ongoing. Hussein Nur, the information secretary of ONLF said that the Ethiopian soldiers who withdrew from Somalia and his ONLF fighters fought fierce battle in the border between Somalia and Ethiopia claiming they have inflicted heavy casualties to the Ethiopian army.
- Press TV – Madagascar’s opposition leader says he has gone into hiding as police has been trying to disperse anti-government protesters in the capital.
- France24 – A day after opposition leader Andry Rajoelina said he had gone into hiding, soldiers at a major military base on the outskirts of the Madagascan capital reportedly mutinied on Sunday against the government’s repression of the opposition.
- VOA – Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has threatened to expel diplomats, peacekeepers and more aid agencies in a continued show of defiance against critics and the International Criminal Court. Mr. Bashir spoke Sunday during his first visit to Darfur since the court said it was seeking his arrest for alleged war crimes in the region.
- Rwanda MFA – The government of Rwanda welcomes the move of the United Nations Sanctions Committee in adding to its list of individuals and entities for targeted sanctions, four members of FDLR submitted to the Security Council; Callixte MBARUSHIMANA, Stanslas NZEYIMANA, Pacifique NTAWUNGUKA, and Leopold MUJYAMBERE. Rwanda welcomes the travel ban and freezing of their assets in line with UN resolution 1857 of 2008.
- Zimbabwe Standard – Morgan Tsvangirai was yesterday in a “stable condition” but was flown to Botswana for “further examinations and treatment.” He was injured during a serious accident on Friday afternoon that killed his wife of 31 years, Susan Nyaradzo.She was 50. His party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) said the accident, which left the country in shock, could have been avoided had the state provided the head of the unity government police escort.
- Telegraph – ABC News in the United States cited unnamed US officials as saying the truck belonged to a contractor working for the US and British governments. The truck, which had a USAID insignia on it, was purchased by US government funds and its driver was hired by a British development agency, the report said. USAID stands for the US Agency for International Development.
- This Day – Fresh facts are now emerging on the killing of the Guinea-Bissau Army Chief, Brig. Gen. Batiste Tagme na Waie, which later triggered the assassination of President Joao Bernardo “Nino” Vieira. Waie was killed last Sunday when a bomb planted by unknown persons exploded in his office. A reprisal attack less than 24 hours later by elements within the army led to the tragic killing of Vieira. But the bomb that terminated the life of Waie has been linked to the Southeast Asian country of Thailand.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen salutes Mexican army soldiers at Chapultepec Park in Mexico City, Mexico, March 6, 2009. The chairman laid a wreath at the 201st Fighter Squadron memorial and talked with former squadron members, who deployed with U.S. forces to the Philippines during World War II. (photo by Air Force Master Sgt. Adam M. Stump)
The Global War
- Interpol – For the first time in the three months since those deadly attacks [in Mumbai] occurred, INTERPOL has received police information of paramount importance that will allow us to help Pakistan’s FIA thoroughly and comprehensively determine the full international dimension of these attacks. For the first time, we have police information on those who planned, facilitated and funded those attacks. For the first time, we have detailed information about telephone numbers, bank accounts used in terrorist financing, Internet addresses, and the equipment and materials used to perpetrate these attacks. Already Pakistan’s FIA has established links to seven countries including India and countries in the heart of Europe and the Middle East.
- Haaretz – In a rare breach of official American adherence to Israel’s policy of nuclear ambiguity, the U.S. military is terming Israel “a nuclear power” on a par with Russia, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea, all of which have declared their nuclear weapon status, and ahead of “nuclear threshold powers” Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and the “emerging” Iran.
- McClatchy – In this Taliban stronghold in the mountains south of Kabul, the U.S. Army is providing the security that will enable China to exploit one of the world’s largest unexploited deposits of copper, earn tens of billions of dollars and feed its voracious appetite for raw materials.
- Mark Katz – The Role of Iran and Afghanistan in US-Russian Relations
Sights & Sounds
Read more »
Sphere: Related Content
Comments: 2
4 March, 2009 (01:16) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 4 March 2009.
United States & the Americas
- Treasury Dept – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated 11 companies under Executive Order 13382 for their ties to Iran’s Bank Melli. E.O 13382 is an authority aimed at freezing the assets of Weapons of Mass Destruction proliferators and those who support them. Bank Melli has been designated as a proliferator by the United States, the European Union, and Australia for its role in Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Additionally, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1803 calls on all Member States to exercise vigilance with respect to activities between financial institutions in their territories and all Iranian banks, particularly Bank Melli.
- AFPS – The “umbrella crisis” in the financial world is complicating an already complicated world, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here today. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen shared his top three priorities with students at the Chilean War College. The chairman is visiting Latin American countries to help improve and maintain military-to-military contacts. Latin America is every bit as important as any other part of the world, the chairman said.
- Bangkok Post – The United States government has admitted for the first time that it had a secret jail in Thailand where suspected al-Qaeda operatives were flown in to be interrrogated, including being subjected to “waterboarding”.
- ICG – To keep Haiti on course and avoid further unrest, its government needs to build a broad national consensus, reaching out to parliament and civil society. The socio-economic situation today is worse than at the time of the April 2008 riots.
- MercoPress – Bolivia revealed Tuesday that 35.500 people have contracted the benign strain of the mosquito transmitted dengue disease while 20 have died from the deadly haemorrhagic variant. There are also fears that before the rainy season is over 50.000 people could be infected.
- BNA – An announcement by the Ecuadorian government that it will finally lift a ban on mining and allow companies to resume operations is “positive news,” the president of Aurelian Resources, Dominic Channer, told BNamericas.
- Xinhua – Visiting Panamanian President Martin Torrijos and President Hugo Chavez agreed to boost bilateral commercial ties after holding talks on Tuesday. The two leaders held talks in the Miraflores Place on issues of common concerns in a bid to strengthen friendly and cooperative ties, according to local media reports.
- El Universal – The Venezuelan government condemned on Tuesday Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos’ statements, and branded the official as a “threat to the stability and the sovereignty of Latin American countries.” In a press release, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry described as “reprehensible the arrogant attitude” of Santos, who last Sunday advocated as “legitimate right to self-defense” the attack on “terrorists who are systematically assaulting the population of a country, even though they are not within its territory.”
U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, right, and Brazilian Minister of Defense Nelson Jobim, center, walk past a Brazilian ship in the Amazon River in Ipiranga, Brazil, March 2, 2009. (photo by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Adam M. Stump)
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- RIA Novosti – Russia’s president denied on Tuesday media reports claiming that Washington had pledged to drop its Central European missile shield plans if Moscow helped resolve Iran’s controversial nuclear program.
- Moscow Times – Russia and Spain signed an energy agreement Tuesday that will give Spanish companies greater access to Russian fields and could smooth the path for Russian firms to buy stakes in Spanish companies.
- Itar-Tass – A ferry line between Varna and Kavkaz was opened in the Bulgarian seaport on Tuesday. Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin sent greetings to the ceremony participants. He congratulated Bulgaria on the 113th anniversary of the Bulgarian liberation from the five-year Ottoman rule as a result of the Russian-Turkish War 1877-1878 and stressed that the opening of the ferry line on the Bulgarian national holiday was symbolic. “Bulgaria is not only a strategic partner of Russia, it is also close to us historically and culturally. We are closely interrelated with the Bulgarian people. Thus, it is important to further develop interstate relations,” Levitin said.
- Asia Times – Continuing its efforts to firm alliances in the region, Russia has initiated cooperation with former rival Turkey in a variety of political and economic areas, taking advantage of Ankara’s cooling relations with the United States and the European Union. Washington is waking up to its worst nightmare: strategic cooperation among the powers of Eurasia.
- Ukrainiana – The Verkhovna Rada Tuesday fired Volodymyr Ohryzko, Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister, who had recently reprimanded Russian ambassador Viktor Chernomyrdin for meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs.
- Kyiv Post – The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, has overturned the presidential veto on the Ukrainian law, entitled “Provisional investigative commissions, the special provisional investigative commission and provisional special commissions of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.”
- SRI – Nikolay Tokarev, president of Russia’s Transneft, and Nurbol Sultan, head of Kazakh KazTransOil, met in Moscow last week to discuss cooperation in infrastructure projects, Interfax reported. They reportedly discussed the expansion of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pipeline and the Atyrau-Samara oil pipeline.
- Georgian Times – Abkhaz separatists begin military exercises along the administrative border of the breakaway region. The preparation works have been already over. The Russian army has deployed tanks and other military hardware to the training field. Russian officers will conduct the exercises.
- Trend – A meeting will take place between the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia over the next two months, the Russian co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Yuri Merzylakov, said on March 3. According to the diplomat, both sides supported this idea.
- MEI – MEI Bulletin for March 2009 focuses on Central Asia and the Caucasus
Middle East
- MNF Iraq - Early Tuesday morning, a joint 12th Iraqi Army Division and Coalition force patrol discovered a large weapons cache in the Mumbar Garhat district of Kirkuk province. The weapons cache consisted of launchers, 120mm shells, 60mm mortars and firing systems, RPK rounds, improvised mortar tubes, blasting caps and several other supporting items. The cache was safely disposed of by a joint US and Iraqi Army team.
- Voices of Iraq – A U.S. soldier was killed on Tuesday in a missile attack on the base in Mosul, the media adviser of the U.S. forces said. A police source had said earlier that eight Katyusha rockets hit the U.S. base in southern Mosul on Tuesday.
- MEMRI – Iraqi media reported that Iran has suddenly taken over the Iraqi island of Umm Al-Rasas, located east of Basra province in southern Iraq. It was further reported that Iran’s Foreign Ministry sent messages to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry demanding to annex the Iraqi oil port of Khor Al-Amaya to Iranian territorial waters.
- Haaretz – Israel Navy chief Maj. Gen. Eliezer Marom was spotted partying at south Tel Aviv’s GoGo strip club on Monday night. “I only spent a short time at [the strip club],” Marom said following the report. “I stopped by to say hello to a friend.” Following the incident, Marom wrote a letter of apology to Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi.
- ITIC – In the past several days, 42 days after the completion of Operation Cast Lead, there has been a surge in the number of rockets fired at Israel.
- NOW Lebanon – Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot reported on Tuesday that Head of the Defense Ministry’s Diplomatic-Security Bureau Amos Gilad told participants at a Tel Aviv University conference on Lebanon that Hezbollah wanted to turn Lebanon into a major threat for Israel because of Iran’s support. The paper reported that Gilad said Tehran’s goal was to create a balance of terror through the establishment of “Hezbollistan” in Lebanon.
- Daily Star – Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare met with Hizbullah officials before leaving Beirut for The Hague last week, according to sources from the tribunal’s investigative team. Sources from the UN commission probing the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri told Lebanon’s opposition leaning As-Safir newspaper that Bellemare had met with unidentified Hizbullah officials and denied reports that Hizbullah had refused to cooperate with the tribunal.
- Hizballah – Hizbullah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem launched the party’s electoral campaign in the Beqaa valley on Sunday saying that Hizbullah considers these elections as important, but not fateful. He also said that the opposition was represented in the cabinet and that foreign ambassadors and officials were “standing in line to talk to Hizbullah and, except for US and ‘Israel’, we have good relations with all. He said 10,000 people were involved in Hizbullah’s electoral campaign in the Beqaa region and that the party has been effectively working on its campaign for three months. “We want the Resistance to pave the way for development and we want development to reinforce the Resistance,” The Hizbullah Deputy Secretary General declared.
- Al Manar – Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri traveled to Tehran on Tuesday to take part in a conference on Israeli “war crimes” against the Palestinian people. MPs Hasan Haballah (Loyalty to the Resistance), Nabil Nicolas and Salim Aoun (Change and Reform) as well as MP Marwan Fares left Beirut on Monday to attend the conference.
- Al Arabiya – The United Arab Emirates has begun implementing a strategic plan to build a new port for exporting crude oil in order to counter Iranian threats to hinder marine traffic by closing the Strait of Hormuz. The emirates of Abu Dhabi and Fujairah started in January constructing a port through which 70 percent of Abu Dhabi’s crude oil will be exported.
Iran
- ISNA – Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman dismissed the statement of the Foreign Ministerial meeting of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council over Iran’s triple islands calling it interference in Iran’s interior affairs. The three islands have been inseparable parts of Iran over the history and the claims that are raised in this regard every while are legally baseless and unfounded and will not harm Iran’s sovereignty over the islands at all, Hassan Qashqavi said.
- IRNA - Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency has officially announced that some 400 uranium mines have been identified nationwide, which will help posterity benefit from nuclear energy.
- Fars – Russia is ready to help Iran in selling its gas to European countries, visiting Russian Energy Minister Sergey Ivanovich Shmatko said on Tuesday.
- Mehr – A top Iranian lawmaker called on Saudi Arabia to take measure to rectify its religious police’s disrespectful behavior toward Iranian pilgrims visiting the holy sites in Mecca and Medina. “We hope that this problem would be resolved before the concerned officials of the Islamic Republic take a decision,” Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Chairman Alaeddin Boroujerdi told reporters on Tuesday.
- IRIB – IRI Prosecutor General Qorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi said Tuesday that the only way to prevent any repetition of the Zionist regime’s Gaza crimes was to hand a severe punishment to the perpetrators.
- IRNA – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that he sees bright prospects for Iran-Turkey ties, it was reported on Tuesday. Receiving Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim, president Ahmadinejad referred to growing relations between Tehran and Ankara and said the two countries should make efforts to enhance bilateral cooperation to the highest level.
- Press TV – Two Iranians who had been kidnapped by unknown gunmen on the highway linking Herat to Islam Qala in Afghanistan have been released. The hostages were set free in a Tuesday military operation, local security officials said.
- MEMRI – The Iranian media are reporting that a senior official in the Hendijan police, in Khuzestan province, southwestern Iran, has been killed in an ambush set by unidentified forces. No opposition organization has yet taken responsibility for the killing.
- NCRI – 1,000 workers of Dena Tire and Rubber Company went on strike over pay dispute with the management since last week in the southern city of Shiraz. On Monday, the striking workers gathered on company grounds demanding their unpaid salaries and benefits for the past three months and an amount owed to them by the management from the last year (Persian calendar year starting March 21). It has become a habit for the mullahs’ regime to steal from what little the workers make toward the end of the year.
- ISNA – Photos: Maranjab salt desert, Iran
South Asia
- Air Force – In Afghanistan, Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs dropped general purpose 500-pound bombs, striking a large group of anti-Afghan fighters amassed for an attack on a coalition forward base near Asmar. The strike repelled the attack, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy force.
- CentCom – Coalition Forces kill four militants near Kandahar; Coalition Forces engaged several militants March 1, killing four, while conducting operations in Maywand District, Kandahar Province, approximately 80 km northwest of Kandahar. Coalition Forces learned through intelligence sources that enemy combatants were using the karez (water irrigation) system in Maywand District to hide weapons and munitions.
- Geo – Two soldiers were gunned down by militants in scenic Swat valley on Tuesday. According to Swat Media Center, soldiers were martyred when they were carrying water tanker.
- Geo – Five people were gunned down at Eastern Bypass in Quetta on Tuesday. The D.I.G. Operation confirmed that five people were killed in firing incident.
- All Things Pakistan – In this still-developing story, unknown gunmen opened fire on the Sri Lankan cricket team bus near Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, leaving several security officials dead and several Sri Lankan cricketers were rushed to the hospital.
- Sri Lanka MFA – President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister, Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani of Pakistan telephoned President Mahinda Rajapaksa today (03 March 2009) in Kathmandu, to strongly condemn the terrorist attack on the visiting Sri Lanka Cricket team in Lahore today, in which several team members were injured. Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama was associated with the President during the telephone discussions. President Rajapaksa who is currently on a State Visit to Nepal, has decided to return to Sri Lanka cutting short his visit by a day, after completing his official engagements, as a result of this terrorist attack.
- Sri Lanka MoD – Infantrymen of the 58 Division have further advanced into the Puthukkudiyiruppu built-up amidst heavy LTTE resistance as terrorists made desperate attempts to hold their last stronghold, battlefield sources in Mullaittivu said. Intense fighting was reported between troops and LTTE terrorists in Puthukudiyiruppu town perimeter yesterday, 2 March, security sources said. Meanwhile, troops of 10 Gajaba Regiment (10 GR) have found an underground bunker in the fringes of Puthukudiyiruppu junction yesterday. The bunker is believed to be used by the LTTE senior cadre, Bahanu, who is said to have withdrawn with his cadres to the rear LTTE defences in the face of heavy military assaults.
- Times of India – Indian involvement in the terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team cannot be ruled out, Lahore Commissioner Khushro Pervaiz was quoted as saying Tuesday. India was trying to weaken Pakistan, added Gen (retired) Hameed Gul, a former chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). He told Geo News that India wanted to declare Pakistan a terrorist state and the firing on the Sri Lankan team was related to that conspiracy.
- India MEA – We are shocked at the audacious attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers at Lahore this morning. We offer our sympathies and good wishes for their speedy recovery as well as, of those other individuals who have been caught up in the attack. Terrorism based in Pakistan is a grave threat to the entire world. It is in Pakistan’s own interest to take prompt, meaningful and decisive steps to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure once and for all.
- Daily Star – Newly appointed BDR Director General Brig Gen Md Mainul Islam said yesterday video footage taken during the massacre in Pilkhana shows movement of some unknown people wearing BDR uniforms.
- Daily Star – A number of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) personnel, who fled the BDR headquarters at different times during February 25-26, have told The Daily Star how a group of masked Jawans forced them to take up firearms during the first hour of mutiny. “Take up arms, else none of you will survive,” a BDR Jawan from Battalion-24 quoted a masked Jawan, brandishing a gun and firing blank shots into the air, as saying.
- BBC – Police in Bangladesh say they have arrested the alleged leader of a mutiny staged by border guards last week which left 74 people dead. Syed Tauhidul Alam was the “ringleader” behind the mutiny and was arrested along with at least four other men in a Dhaka slum, the officials said.
Far East & Pacific
- Japan Times – Aegis destroyers carrying Standard Missile-3 interceptors will be deployed to the Sea of Japan to prepare for a possible North Korean missile launch, defense sources said Tuesday. North Korea claims it is preparing to launch a satellite into orbit, but Japan’s missile defense guideline allows the defense minister to order an intercept when a rocket to launch a satellite appears likely to fall onto Japanese soil or territorial waters.
- Yonhap – North Korea on Wednesday accused the United States and South Korea of trying to attack the communist state and warned of further retaliations in case of any territorial intrusion. “Our military and people cherish peace and do not want war,” Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, said in a commentary. “But should the enemies invade even 0.001 mm into our territory, we will mobilize all our potential and deal retaliatory strikes that will be hundred times and thousand times more powerful.” The accusation comes as the two allies plan to go ahead with their joint military exercise starting next week despite mounting inter-Korean border tensions. The U.S. plans to mobilize 26,000 troops and a nuclear-powered carrier in this year’s drill to test its ability to quickly deploy forces should North Korea invade.
- China Foreign Ministry – Q: In its 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released on February 25, the US State Department once again criticized China’s human rights. Do you have any comment? A: The Chinese Government attaches great importance to protecting and improving human rights. China’s constitution and laws respect and guarantee human rights… We urge the US side to reflect on its own human rights problems, stop acting as a “human rights guardian” and stop interfering in other’s internal affairs by releasing human rights reports.
- PACOM – Preparations are underway for Pacific Partnership 2009, the fourth in a series of annual U.S. Pacific Fleet humanitarian civic assistance missions, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet (COMPACFLT) announced on his blog March 3. “This year we plan to head to Oceania and bring much needed supplies, medical, dental, veterinary and engineering aid to this region that has such a rich history with the United States,” said Adm. Robert. F. Willard in his blog posting. The mission will visit Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Tonga.
Europe
- German Defense Ministry – Defense Minister Dr. Franz Josef Jung met on Tuesday, 3rd March, in Moscow with Defense Minister Anatoly Serdjukow… Defense Minister Jung thanked him once more for the possibilities of transit of goods for our soldiers in Afghanistan through the Russian territory.
- UK MoD – The final Scottish regiment to serve in Iraq has come home to RAF Lossiemouth to a joyful welcome yesterday, Monday 2 March 2009, where they were greeted by emotional friends and family as well as rousing Scottish music and drams of whisky.
- European Union – Javier Solana European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), will meet the Georgian Prime Minister, Nika Gilauri, on Wednesday, 4 March 2009. The High Representative and Prime Minister Gilauri will discuss the latest developments in Georgia and EU-Georgia relations.
- Jerusalem Post – The Netherlands and France have sharply chastised the UN for singling out Israel in the preparatory text for its upcoming “Durban II” anti-racism conference, but said they are not yet ready to boycott the event.
- Eye on the UN – Durban Watch
- EurActiv – In a move that surprised and infuriated some, the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) suddenly decided to switch candidates at the top of its party list for the EU elections last week. EurActiv Hungary reports. Without consulting the party’s only MEP, Péter Olajos, who had been considered favourite to head the list, the MDF leadership decided to nominate former finance minister Lajos Bokros instead, a member of the Socialist cabinet in the 1990s.
- Expatica – Europe has seen a significant increase in anti-Semitic attacks since Israel’s 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip and the onset of the global economic crisis, a report said on Monday. The study by the European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) showed the number of anti-Semitic incidents in EU countries declined in 2007 and most of 2008 only to see an upsurge since December.
- Expatica – Switzerland’s top central banker, Jean-Pierre Roth, will retire at the end of 2009, the Swiss National Bank said in a statement Friday. Roth, 63, who also chairs the board of directors at the Bank for International Settlements, the bank for central bankers, is also credited with expanding SNB’s international profile.
- ISN – Ueli Maurer, the new Swiss minister of defense, has hit the ground running. Since taking over the office from his predecessor Samuel Schmid at the beginning of January 2009, he has already tackled several important orders of business for his department. What became known as the “Nef affair” in the Swiss press, plus the occurrence of several military training accidents during the same time period, simultaneously took their toll on the public image and general respectability of the army. Repairing these previous inadequacies and rebuilding the public and professional reputation of the armed forces has therefore been one of Maurer’s biggest goals, since coming to office.
Africa
- Garowe – A new batch of African Union peacekeepers arrived in Somalia’s capital Tuesday, days after 11 Burundian peacekeepers in Mogadishu were killed in a suicide bomb attack, Radio Garowe reports. A military transport plane delivered 500 new soldiers from Burundi, which will reinforce a 3,500-strong AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia, known as AMISOM.
- Shabelle – Mohamud Hassan Guuleed, the spokesman of WFP for Somalia has said on Tuesday that WFP signed a deal with the Islamic administration in Middle Jubba region in southern Somalia. Mr. Guuled who is in Nairobi told Shabelle radio that the agreement was about how the World Food Program agency would work again in Middle Jubba region afer the Islamic administration in the region accused the aid agencies for supplying an expired food for the people in the region that caused to their work in the region.
- Al Bawaba – The Algerian army has killed 16 armed Islamist fighters during an operation in the mountains of Blida province, about 100 kilometres south of Algiers, local media reported Tuesday. The 16 militants belonged to the same group and were killed near Soulahane on Saturday during a search operation that has been under way for several days, newspapers and the state-owned Chaine III radio reported.
- Xinhua – President Omar al-Bahir, addressed a crowd at the inauguration ceremony for Merowe Dam, the country’s largest hydropower project. The 9.7-km dam is the longest one in the world with a total capacity of 1.25 million kilowatt, twice as much as Sudan’s existing power supply.
- MEMRI – Arab and Touareg nomads from northern Mali and Niger have sent a threat via a third party to Al-Qaeda Maghreb, telling the organization that if it does not release the six people it abducted, including two Canadian diplomats, the tribes will launch a war against it. It was reported that the treat came after tribal leaders met with a top Algerian security element in southern Algeria.
- New Times – The Japanese government will soon open an embassy in Rwanda, to facilitate the “good cooperation between the two countries”, the Japanese Ambassador, Shigeo Iwatani confirmed yesterday.
- Rwanda MFA – On Tuesday, 3rd March, 2009 the Government of Japan extended to the Government of the Republic of Rwanda a Grant assistance amounting to 300 million Japanese yen (approximately 1.5 billion Rwf) for the Food Security Project for Underprivileged Farmers.
- Rwanda MFA – Rwandan troops began pulling out of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday, after an unprecedented joint operation with Congolese troops against FDLR elements. The actual retreat came after a ceremony in the Eastern North-Kivu capital of Goma between Congolese and Rwandese officials of which included the two armies’ Chief of Staff, thus underscoring their agreement to work for peace, following years of war and regional instability.
- APA – The extradition of the captured Congolese renegade rebel General Laurent Nkunda to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) may take some time, according to the Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Tuesday. Speaking during a press conference Tuesday in Kigali, the Rwandan President Paul Kagame said the discussions about his case were still going on between the two countries with their foreign ministers slated to meet next week.
- OGJ – ContourGlobal, New York, signed a contract with Rwanda’s government to extract solution gas from Lake Kivu to generate electricity. The $325 million KivuWatt project is to start generating 25 Mw in 2010 and another 75 Mw 2 years later. Power from a plant at Kibuye, Rwanda, is expected to ultimately supply Uganda, Congo (former Zaire), and Burundi as well as Rwanda. ContourGlobal plans to develop, build, and operate several barges to extract methane from lake water at 350 m. It will process the gas and move it by pipeline to the Kibuye generator, which will more than double the amount of power produced in Rwanda.
- Japan MFA – The Government of Japan has decided to provide a Japanese ODA loan of up to two billion yen to the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania as the “Sixth Poverty Reduction Support Credit.”
- AFRICOM – West Africa has seen an “absolutely shocking” increase in narcotics trafficking, which disrupts local communities and threatens the entire region, U.S. Africa Command’s civilian deputy told Ghanaian reporters March 2, 2009, while visiting a fishing community near the coastal city of Sekondi.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, right, escorts French Minister of Defense Herve Morin through an honor cordon into the Pentagon to discuss bilateral issues, March 3, 2009. (photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Molly Burgess)
The Global War
- Raymond Ibrahim – Having written at length on various aspects of Islam, it is always my writings concerning doctrinal deceit that elicit (sometimes irate) responses. As such, the purpose of this article is to revisit the issue of deceit and taqiyya in Islam, and address the many ostensibly plausible rebuttals made by both Muslims and non-Muslims. The earliest rebuttal I received appeared last year, days after I wrote an essay called “Islam’s doctrines of deception” for the subscription-based Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst. Due to the controversy it initiated among the intelligence community and abroad, the editors were quick to publish an apologetic counter-article by one Michael Ryan called “Interpreting Taqiyya.”
- Straits Times – China announced on Wednesday that its defence spending would rise by 14.9 per cent in 2009, as it insisted its expanding military power posed no threat to the rest of the world.
- US Navy – Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC) from Special Boat Team 20 (SBT-20), completed multiple free-fall parachute jumps Feb. 22-March 6, in preparation for an upcoming deployment. The Sailors jumped out of a plane at altitudes of up to 12,500 feet to maintain their free-fall jump qualification, which they need to be assigned to a Maritime Craft Aerial Delivery System (MCADS) detachment.
Sights & Sounds
Read more »
Sphere: Related Content
Comments: -
25 February, 2009 (01:07) | Uncategorized | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 25 February 2009.
United States & the Americas
- Gawdat Bahgat, Parameters – United States-Iranian Relations: The Terrorism Challenge
- The News – Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Monday called on CIA Director Leone Panetto, National Intelligence Director Admiral Dennis C Balir and Commander Special Operations Command (SOCOM) Admiral Eric T Olson. During the separate meetings, matters of mutual interest and cooperation were discussed. Gen Kayani is on a week-long official visit here. Meanwhile, the COAS visited the National Defence University, Washington.
- Chosun Ilbo – The U.S. state and defense secretaries on Tuesday warned North Korea against a missile test for which the Stalinist country seems to be preparing. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters if North Korea is preparing to test-fire a ballistic missile with the continental United States considered a potential target, then the U.S. could shoot it down
- National Post – Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon on Tuesday provided assurances to the Obama administration Canada will not “interfere” in its review of terrorism charges against Canadian Omar Khadr, the last westerner remaining at Guantanamo
- CSM – Colombian officials are mounting a full-court diplomatic press in the United States this week as they seek to stave off a fall from the high-flying status their country achieved in Washington as a favored ally of the Bush administration. Colombia was promoted as a Latin success story by President Bush but denigrated by human rights advocates and some members of Congress as a failed state. Now, it’s likely to find itself far from center stage in a Washington grappling with the economic crisis and still finding its foreign-policy footing.
- Xinhua - Iran plans to invest in Nicaragua’s energy and agricultural sectors, the Iranian ambassador to the country said Tuesday. Iranian investments in Nicaragua’s energy sector could reach 150 million euros (202 million U.S. dollars) under projects which include a dam and a hydroelectric plant, Ambassador Akbar Esmaeil Pour told local media.
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- Kremlin – On 24-26 February on invitation of Dmitry Medvedev there will be an official visit to Russia by the President of the Yemen Republic Ali Abdalla Saleh.
- RIA Novosti – Investigators have launched a probe into the death of a former Federal Security Services (FSB) general turned businessman who was found shot dead in his car in north Moscow, a police source said on Tuesday. Maj. Gen. Alexander Rogachyov, 46, was discovered dead in his Toyota Land Cruiser near a restaurant by security guards on Sunday.
- RFERL – Recent remarks by senior Russian clergy reinforce a sense that Kirill, the new patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, intends to intensify his church’s politically-fraught mission at home and in Russia’s “near abroad” — with the apparent full blessing of the Kremlin.
- EurasiaNet – Uzbekistan can play a key role in the European Union’s energy diversification plans, a senior Uzbek diplomat has said. The recent natural gas row between Russia and Ukraine highlighted a need for the EU to become less reliant on the Kremlin and “that is where Uzbekistan comes in,” says Jamshed Sharipov, an attaché at the Uzbek Embassy in Brussels.
- Itar-Tass – An aide to the prosecutor of Nazran’ s Barsukinsky municipal district was killed on Tuesday, Igushetia’s Interior Ministry has told Itar-Tass. According to the ministry, at 08:45 Moscow time unidentified persons opened fire on an Audi car, where Akhmed Torshoyev and his spouse were inside.
- Georgian Times – Russian occupants in Gali district marked the day of patriots by shooting in the air whole night. The drunken soldiers raided the families of local Georgians and took away food products. Locals say this is not the first incident when they have to feed the soldiers of the occupant army
Iraqi school girls sing a song in Arabic to thank the Iraqi and U.S. forces for their gifts of school supplies to the Al Kays and Al Yasameen elementary school, Oubaidy, Iraq, Feb. 19, 2009.
Middle East
- Al Sumaria – Police source in Najaf reported that more than 40,000 security forces were deployed for the commemoration of Prophet Mohammed death anniversary on Tuesday.
- IslamOnline – Bombs may explode everyday spreading death and fear in new Iraq, but none has created as deep a wound as those that shattered the Shiite holy shrine in the northern city of Samarra three years ago. “It is a day that will never be forgotten,” Ahmed al-Hayett, a spokesperson for the Association for Victims of Samarra Bombing, told IslamOnline.net.
- UPI – Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is accumulating too much power by moving to keep an anti-terrorism unit separate from the defense ministry, critics say. The 4,000-member Iraqi Special Forces unit is widely considered the finest military outfit in the country and the prime minister has had sole discretion through emergency anti-terrorism decrees in how it is deployed.
- Hizballah – Hizbullah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said in an interview with al-Akhbar daily on Tuesday that the electoral money in South Lebanon was spent in vain and would not affect those who were politically affiliated with any party. “It would only affect the weak or those indifferent to the elections,” he said. Qassem added that Hizbullah was committed to the Doha Agreement and confirmed that it did not hold any discussions with Future Movement leader MP Saad Hariri or his party. However, “Hizbullah would be committed to any mechanism reached to implement the agreement,” he said.
- Haaretz – Likud chair Benjamin Netanyahu still hopes to form a unity government with Kadima, and is planning to offer its leader Tzipi Livni to help him draft the criteria that other parties must accept in joining the coalition.
- Jerusalem Post – Syria has revealed that it has built a missile facility over the ruins of what the US says was a nuclear reactor destroyed by IAF warplanes, diplomats said Tuesday. The diplomats quoted Syrian nuclear chief Ibrahim Othman as saying during a closed meeting Tuesday that the new structure appeared to be a missile control center or actual launching pad.
- AKI – Egyptian police have arrested an Iranian man in connection with the deadly bomb blast that struck a crowded bazaar in Cairo at the weekend. A 17 year-old French teenage girl was killed and 20 others were injured in the bombing that targeted the Khan al-Khalili market on Sunday
- Asharq Al Awsat – A Yemeni security court on Tuesday sentenced three members of an alleged Al-Qaeda cell to seven years each in jail on charges of plotting attacks and possessing explosives. The fourth defendant, a 15-year-old, was handed a two-year prison sentence.
Iran
- IRNA - Foreign Ministers of Iran and Djibouti on Tuesday signed five protocols for economic cooperation in presence of Iranian and Djibouti presidents. The agreements envision cooperation between Iranian and Djibouti foreign ministries for lifting political visa issuance, establishment of technical and vocational training centers and supporting development projects.
- IRIB – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, heading a high-ranking delegation started on Tuesday morning a three-nation tour of Africa, which will take him to the Comoros, Djibouti and Kenya.
- Press TV – The (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council ([P]GCC) has criticized Iran for remarks over Bahrain’s sovereignty, even though Tehran has made efforts to clear up the misunderstanding. (P)GCC Secretary General Abdul-Rahman al-Attiyah said at a security forum in Manama on Tuesday that despite the positive stance of the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, on several occasions Iranian officials have repsonded with a ‘hostile, unfriendly and unjustifiable stance’.
- Meir Javedanfar – According to the Tehran based Parsine News Agency, Ayatollah Rafsanjani is preparing to embark next week on a seven day foreign trip. This is the longest foreign trip taken by any senior Iranian official. What is even more interesting is the destination: Iraq. One of the main reasons behind the trip are the expected negotiations between Tehran and Washington. It is thought that Rafsanjani’s trip will be used for consultations with Iran’s allies there.
- Mehr – Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Ahani who was visiting Uzbekistan has called for regional cooperation to stabilize Afghanistan, the Foreign Ministry said in a press release here on Tuesday. In a meeting with Uzbek Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov, Ahani said, “Finding a solution to the problems of Afghanistan necessitates negotiation and cooperation between regional countries.” The veteran Iranian diplomat said the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan has only added to the “spread of terrorism” and a huge increase in drugs production in the Central Asian country.
- Fars – Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Education and Research Ali Ahani said here Tuesday that the Muslim world should have a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. Ahani further told Uzbek Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov that the time has come for the UN Security Council to be reshuffled.
South Asia
- AFPS – Soldiers from the Afghan National Army, aided by coalition forces, killed 16 militants in Afghanistan’s Helmand province yesterday, military officials reported. The combined forces were conducting a routine patrol when their convoy came under heavy small-arms fire. The forces responded with small-arms fire. The militants then began firing mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. As the threat escalated, the forces responded with several precision strikes to kill the militants.
- CentCom – Four Coalition members were killed Feb. 24, in southern Afghanistan when their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device. The incident happened at about 12:40 p.m. while the Coalition members were on a joint patrol with Afghan National Security Forces. An Afghan civilian working with the Coalition forces was also killed in the incident.
- CentCom – Coalition forces confirmed three militants and thirteen noncombatants were killed during a Coalition forces’ operation near Gozara district, Herat province, Feb. 17. An Afghan National Army and Coalition forces investigation team, accompanied by international observers, inspected the site this week to determine the identities of those killed.
- Press TV – Unknown gunmen have abducted two Iranian nationals on the highway linking Herat to Islam Qala in Afghanistan, security officials say. The first Iranian national was kidnapped in the Ghourian district of Herat in January.
- GAO Report – Securing, Stabilizing, and Developing Pakistan’s Border Area with Afghanistan: Key Issues for Congressional Oversight,
- Washington Times – Three major Pakistani Taliban commanders have joined forces, a development that poses a significant threat to Pakistan’s stability and could hamper U.S. efforts to flush out al Qaeda from a safe haven in the country’s lawless borderlands. People based in North and South Waziristan along Pakistan´s border with Afghanistan told The Washington Times that the top Pakistani Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud, and two rival Taliban chiefs, Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Maulvi Nazeer, met at an undisclosed location recently and settled their differences to unite against U.S. and Pakistani government operations in the region.
- AKI – Pakistani militants in the country’s northwest are understood to have received 480 million rupees ( 6 million dollars) in compensation after agreeing to a cease conflict with government forces for an indefinite period. Well-placed security sources have told Adnkronos International (AKI) that the militants agreed to lay down their arms and endorse the deal between the government and local leader Sufi Mohammad to impose Sharia law in the region. “The amount has been paid through a backchannel, ” a senior security official told AKI on condition of anonymity.
- Daily Times – The security forces suspended their operations in Bajaur Agency on Tuesday and agreed to hold fire for four days. “Security forces have decided to observe a four-day ceasefire across Bajaur,” Political Agent Safirullah Khan told reporters. He described the decision as a “goodwill gesture” made at the request of tribal elders. A source said tribal leaders wanted to hold talks with Taliban in order to negotiate a permanent peace in the area, where observers have said the government was nearing victory after a massive, months-long campaign
- Pak Tribune – Banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Swat has announced ceasefire for indefinite period and also released four security officials as a goodwill gesture. TTP’s spokesman Haji Muslim said that the decision has been taken on the request of Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad. He said the decision was made in the Shura meeting held at undisclosed location under the chair of its leader Maulana Fazal Ullah.
- Geo – A roadside bomb killed two civilians on Rawalpindi Road near Kohat on Tuesday. The police said that miscreants had planted a 15-kg bomb on Rawalpindi Road in Togh Bagh area, on the outskirts of Kohat to target a police van. However, the bomb exploded after the van had passed from the blast?s place. Meanwhile, two motorcyclists fell victims to the attack.
- APP – In Quetta, four welders, a father and his three sons were killed and their two colleagues were seriously injured when two armed assailants opened fire at them in their welding shop on Tuesday night, police officials told APP. The incident occured on Munir Ahmed Khan Road near Balohistan University and Sariab Road. They said that two armed men riding a motorcycle opened fire at the vehicle of welders in front of their shop killing father and his three sons at the spot while two others were seriously wounded.
- Times of India – Militants behind last year’s attacks on Mumbai used cell phones that were activated in the United States and paid for with funds sent from Italy, an Italian newspaper reported on Tuesday. Corriere della Sera daily said India sent the intelligence information to Italy and other countries so anti-terrorism investigators could attempt to expose any ties to the network behind the November assault that killed at least 179 people.
- Sri Lanka MoD – Sri Lanka Army 59 Division soldiers today (Feb 24) foiled an attempted infiltration bid by the LTTE terrorists in Mullaittivu. According to battlefield sources, heavy fighting have erupted as troops of 1 Sinha Regiment (1SR), and 9 Field Engineers intercepted a group of terrorist trying to infiltrate army forward boundary east of the Nanthikadal lagoon this morning. After hours long fighting troops have so far collected 13 bodies of LTTE cadres along with large number of weapons, said the sources. Among the items found, there were jackets worn by suicide cadres, pistols fitted with silencers, T-56 riffles, maps, etc. The clearing operation is still on as troops suspect more terrorist presence in the area.
Far East & Pacific
- Asia Times – Beijing has sized up that the US’s relationship with India is entering a qualitatively new phase, which has shown some signs of friction. It pays well for Beijing to fish in troubled waters and pile up more pressure on its southern neighbor. Second, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced last week that invitations had been issued for the long-awaited Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) conference on Afghanistan in Moscow on March 27. The time is approaching for Beijing to take a position on the Afghan problem. Prevarication couched in pious homilies may no longer suffice.
- China Foreign Ministry – At the invitation of Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Mr. Hirofumi Nakasone, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, will pay an official visit to China from February 28 to March 1.
- Japan MFA – On 19 February, 2009 the fourth meeting between Japan and the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development – GUAM was held in Tokyo, Japan. GUAM was represented by Mr. David Jalagania, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Mr. Araz Azimov, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, Mr. Oleksandr Horin, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, and Mr. Valeri Chechelashvili, Secretary General of GUAM
- BBC – Japan has said it will pay the salaries of about 80,000 Afghan police officers for the next six months as part of its drive to help regeneration there. Japan would also help fund the construction of schools and hospitals and support teacher-training, a foreign ministry official in Tokyo said.
- Yonhap - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has given field guidance to various facilities in the country’s northeast, state media said Wednesday, as he appeared to be touring a province where rocket launch preparations are underway.
- Andrew Selth – Is there a Burma-North Korea-Iran nuclear conspiracy?
- Bangkok Post – Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is refusing to be intimidated by red-shirt protesters laying siege to Government House by saying he will defy them and walk into the building. Mr Abhisit’s determined stand caused several cabinet ministers yesterday to express nervous concerns that his presence could be seen as a challenge to the anti-government protesters who mainly support former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, government sources said
- Irrawaddy – The Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) has located an inland gas deposit in Dagon Myothit Eastern Township near Rangoon, according to residents in the exploration area. At least 21 multinational oil and gas companies from China, Singapore, South Korea, India, Russia, Malaysia, Thailand, the United States, France, Japan and Australia have long-term contracts with MOGE. The Burmese military government began to allow foreign investments in energy production in 1988.
- Australia DoD – This release is to address misinformation in the public arena with regard to Special Forces (SF) pay. “Today’s media release from Senator the Hon David Johnston and The Hon Bob Baldwin indicates that SAS soldiers will see their take home pay slashed. This is not true. Under the transition arrangements currently in place, all SF soldiers will be retained at their current pay group level, while time is allowed for them to become appropriately qualified,” Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie, said.
Europe
- NY Times – A French appeals court on Tuesday overturned terrorist conspiracy convictions for five former inmates of the Guantánamo Bay prison who were tried and convicted in 2007, after they were returned to France.
- Forbes – The Integration Of Muslims In Europe; France and the U.K. have varying success with economic, political and social integration.
- CEPS – This book addresses the greatest source of societal tensions and violent conflict in contemporary Europe, involving people from minority groups of Muslim culture. Six country case studies – on Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Russia and the United Kingdom – give a comprehensive account of Islam-related tensions and violence, from the jihadist terrorist acts seen in Europe in the aftermath of 9/11 in the US, through to the urban riots of the type seen in France in 2005.
- Javno – Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said on Tuesday his country was prepared to accept prisoners from U.S. detention camp Guantanamo Bay. He made his comments after his first meeting with U.S. counterpart Hillary Clinton. Moratinos said he had promised Clinton that Spain would make contact immediately to study possible transfers on a case by case basis.
- Italy MFA – “In the next few years we should see the first stone laid for a clean, safe Italian nuclear power station”. Speaking is Minister Frattini, referring to the Protocol to be signed today with the French President, Sarkozy. “Nuclear power is an important source of energy supply for Italy”, added the Minister, “and France has very advanced – and tried and tested – technology in this area. Today’s agreement will allow us to work together and help Italy too equip itself with a vital energy structure”.
- Iran Focus – Berlin has significantly cut the value of new credit guarantees it offers firms that do business with Iran, but German exports to the Islamic Republic still rose last year, according to new figures seen by Reuters. Germany has been one of the biggest exporters to Iran in recent years, although the government, under pressure from major allies, has called on German companies to limit trade with Tehran.
- Balkan Insight – Until there is progress in solving the border dispute, Slovenia will not stop blocking Croatia`s European Union accession negotiations, Slovenian Prime Minster Borut Pahor said on Tuesday.
- RIA Novosti - Russia does not rule out the possibility of holding a trilateral meeting with Moldova and the unrecognized republic of Transdnestr, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday. “We do not exclude that it could be necessary to hold a trilateral meeting,” Lavrov said following talks at the Moldovan Foreign Ministry, adding that the trilateral format was “on the agenda.”
Africa
- Shabelle – At least 22 civilians were killed and about 110 others were injured in a fresh fighting that erupted in Mogadishu, witnesses said on Tuesday. Dahir Mohamed Mohamud, the deputy director of Medina hospital confirmed about fifty wounded civilians were brought in the hospital. The fighting started after rebel Islamists attacked government forces in a Tribunka area in south Mogadishu, where government soldiers are based.
- Sudan Tribune – Heavy fighting broke up in Malakal, the capital of Upper Nile State, since today morning between the southern Sudan army and a Khartoum backed militia led by Gen. Gabriel Tang Ginya. No causalities yet reported from the troubled town. However, three people are said to be wounded with no death as the fighting continues. Following November 2006 clashes, the President of Southern Sudan government described Tang as criminal and asked Khartoum to hand him over to justice. But he had been transported to Khartoum by the Sudan Armed Forces. The fighting started when the General Tang arrived yesterday to Malakal and refused to leave the town.
- Xinhua – Sudan appreciated China’s tireless efforts in pushing for peace and stability in Sudan, said Sudan Ambassador to China Mirghani Mohamed Salih on Tuesday at an event to mark the golden jubilee of Sudan-China diplomatic relations.
- BBC – Hutu militias have re-occupied areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo despite the recent offensive against them, UN officials say. Fighters of the FDLR group were driven from their bases by a joint force of Congolese and Rwandan troops. But United Nations refugee agency officials say the FDLR has returned, as Rwanda starts to withdraw its troops.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, right, escorts Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos through an honor cordon into the Pentagon where the two will discuss bilateral defense issues over a working lunch, Feb. 24, 2009. (photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Molly A. Burgess)
The Global War
- Michael O’Hanlon, Brookings Institution – Resources for “Hard Power”: The 2010 Budget for Defense, Homeland Security, and Related Programs
- Air Force – Airmen of the 432d Air Expeditionary Wing here flew an MQ-1B Predator unmanned aircraft in a combat mission in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility Feb. 18, and the flight surpassed the 500,000 flight-hour mark for the aircraft. Members of the 15th Reconnaissance Squadron flew the milestone mission in support of operations in Iraq.
- US Navy – The Navy commemorated the completion of 1,000 Trident strategic deterrent patrols by the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine, Feb. 19, at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Ga
- CSBA – CSBA released a new report The US Navy: Charting a Course for Tomorrow’s Fleet by Vice President of Strategic Studies Robert Work at a briefing on Capitol Hill
Sights & Sounds
Read more »
Sphere: Related Content
Comments: -
18 February, 2009 (00:40) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 18 February 2009.
United States & the Americas
- Globe and Mail – A Federal Court judge has drawn a line between citizens such as Omar Khadr and overseas detainees with other connections to Canada in turning down two terror suspects seeking evidence from Canadian intelligence agents. The judge found only citizens can benefit from the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms when they are jailed overseas, and even then under limited circumstances. Ahcène Zemiri and Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who have both lived in Montreal, wanted Canadian material to bolster U.S. court cases seeking their release from Guantanamo Bay prison. (read decision here)
- Jordan Times – Jordan and Canada on Tuesday signed a cooperation agreement in the field of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes in a complementary step to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in June last year. According to the agreement, Canada will provide Jordan with technology to build a nuclear reactor for energy-generating purposes as well as water desalination, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
- Xinhua – Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping arrived midday on Tuesday in Caracas for an official visit to Venezuela. In a written speech issued at Simon Bolivar International Airport, Xi said that he came to strengthen friendship, amplify consensus, deepen cooperation and to promote development.
- COHA – China’s Latest Geopolitical Assault on Latin American Commodities and Bilateral Trade
- Al Jazeera – Felipe Calderon, the president of Mexico, has asked the US for “firm” measures against weapons trafficking, following the deaths of 15 people in drug violence in the country’s border areas with the US since Sunday.
- Miami Herald – Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom apologized to Cuba on Tuesday for his country’s having allowed the CIA to train exiles in the Central American country for the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- RIA Novosti – China will extend $25 billion in loans to Russian state-controlled crude producer Rosneft and pipeline operator Transneft at 6% per annum in exchange for long-term oil supplies, a source close to negotiations said Tuesday.
- Kremlin – Dmitry Medvedev sent a message to the President of the People’s Republic of China Hu Jintao on issues of further development of friendly cooperation in the economic sphere. The President of Russia emphasized the need to “promote consultations between OJSC Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Corporation on possible supplies of natural gas and electrical energy from Russia to the PRC.”
- Russia Today – Russia’s first liquefied natural gas plant comes on stream on Wednesday. A tanker with the first load of LNG produced on Sakhalin Island will set sail for Japan in March opening new market for Russian hydrocarbons.
- RIA Novosti – Iran’s defense minister is likely to discuss the delivery of Russian S-300 air defense systems to the Islamic Republic during a meeting with his Russian counterpart on Tuesday, a business daily said. Russia’s Kommersant said Moscow had signed an S-300 contract with Tehran, but would not rush to implement it due to a seeming thaw in Russia’s relations with the new U.S. administration.
- Itar-Tass – The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has warned Russian Ambassador in Kiev Viktor Chernomyrdin that he might be announced persona non grata over his ‘undiplomatic comments on Ukraine’. Chernomyrdin was invited to the ministry on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Vladimir Ogryzko protested against his “unfriendly and highly undiplomatic comments on Ukraine and the Ukrainian administration.”
- BBC – The US commander for the Middle East and Central Asia, General David Petraeus, is in Uzbekistan for talks with leaders. US officials said Gen Petraeus would meet President Islam Karimov to discuss key regional security issues.
- Moscow Times – Kyrgyzstan’s parliament said Tuesday that it will vote this week on a bill to close a U.S. air base that provides key support to military operations in Afghanistan, while the top U.S. commander for the region visited Uzbekistan in search of new supply routes for forces fighting the Taliban.
- RIA Novosti – Chechen separatist leader Akhmed Zakayev, who lives in self-imposed exile in Britain, said on Tuesday he was resolved to return to Chechnya and “work for a lasting peace” in the region. “I will definitely return to my motherland. I cannot abide the idea of living in a foreign land either for myself or for my children and grandchildren,” he said in an interview on Radio Echo Moskvy.
- today.az – “The Democratic party of Azerbaijan has made a statement which says that strengthening of ties between Turkey and Armenia contradics to the national interests of our country”, reports Day.Az with reference to the press service for the party. “The session considers that by unilateral strengthening of relations with Armenia, Turkey is losing Azerbaijan’s trust. The party hopes that official Ankara will be more cautious about this issue.
Command Sgt. Maj. James Pippin, with the 3rd Heavy Bde. Combat Team, 1st Cav. Div. from Archer City, Texas, and the brigade’s commanding officer Col. Gary Volesky, from Spokane, Wash., pay their respects to the five individuals whose lives were lost after a suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive attack detonated near their vehicle, Feb. 9, in Mosul, Iraq during a memorial service at Forward Operating Base Marez. (photo by Pfc. Sharla Perrin)
Middle East
- Al Sumaria – After militants bombed the Al Askari Shrine once in 2006 and another time in 2007, Iraqi officials hope the mosque can be restored to its former majestic glory in a few years. Meanwhile, a team of engineers has effectively redrawn the design from scratch and have started to rebuild the shrine.
- Haaretz – Israeli warplanes bombed seven smuggling tunnels on the Philadlephi Route in the Gaza Strip before dawn Wednesday, and struck a Hamas post in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis. The strikes came as a response to the firing of a mortar round by Palestinian militants into Israel on Tuesday evening.
- Press TV – Egypt has agreed to the establishment of a Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) base in the country as the terrorist group seeks a new home.
- Ya Libnan – Lebanese parliament majority leader MP Saad Hariri said after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that he supports Lebanon, the Lebanese state and the Special Tribunal for trying the killers involved in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
- Daily Star – A court ruling to indict suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri will be issued a few days before the June elections, An-Nahar daily reported Tuesday. The indictment is expected to be announced shortly before the June 7 parliamentary polls, the paper said, without elaborating.
- Saba – Turkey’s Foreign minister Ali Babacan arrived Tuesday in Yemen on a two-day visit during which he will hand President Ali Abdullah Saleh a letter from his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul. Babacan will meet with Yemeni senior officials to discuss ways to promote bilateral cooperation
- News Yemen – Minister of Interior Mutahar Rashad Al-Masri confirmed that Al-Qaeda is no more existed in Yemen, and that the 4000 wanted people announced by the ministry are wanted over criminal acts. Those people have no ties to al-Qaeda, but they are wanted over other crimes, al-Masri said in an interview with the Jordanian al-Dostor newspaper.
Iran
- Fars – Bushehr nuclear power plant will come into operation soon in future, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said in Moscow on Tuesday, describing construction of the nuclear facility as an instance of high level of cooperation between Iran and Russia.
- Press TV – Tehran says Western countries have resorted to misinformation in an attempt to force Moscow out of the Iranian nuclear market. In a Monday interview with RIA Novosti, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki suggested the West has launched a misinformation campaign against his country to force an end to Russian nuclear cooperation with Iran.
- Payvand – An Iraqi Kurdish official claims an agreement has been reached with Iran to halt its shelling of Iraqi border areas in pursuit of Kurdish rebels. Jabbar Yawer, the undersecretary for peshmerga (Kurdish armed forces) affairs in the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), told RFE/RL’s Radio Free Iraq that the agreement came into effect on February 14.
- Pak Tribune – Iranian Judiciary Spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi here Tuesday rejected claims by a US senator that former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared almost 2 years ago, is in Iranian jails.
- Mehr – Iran’s Judiciary spokesman announced on Tuesday that 24 Israeli officials responsible for the Gaza Strip massacres will soon be prosecuted for war crimes.
- Fars – Foreign Minister of the Republic of the Congo Basile Ikouebe announced his country’s enthusiasm for using Iran’s capabilities in different fields. Speaking to reporters following his meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki here Tuesday, Ikouebe referred to Iran’s capabilities in different fields, including energy, construction and road-construction, and announced his country’s willingness for using Tehran’s capabilities in these fields, particularly mechanization of his country’s agriculture.
- IRNA – Iran and Singapore explored ways of boosting cooperation. During a meeting with Iran’s visiting ambassador to the country Mohsen Omid Zamani, Singapore’s Minister of Foreign Affairs George Yeo discussed ways of further expanding the existing ties between the two countries.
South Asia
- AFPS – Coalition and Afghan forces have killed 16 insurgents in western Afghanistan in recent days, including at least three Taliban commanders, military officials reported. A coalition forces precision strike today killed a militant commander affiliated with the Hezb-e-Islam Gulbuddin organization and other Taliban commanders near Gozara district in Herat province.
- CentCom – Afghan National Army Commandos with the 207th Commando Kandak, assisted by Coalition forces, killed five insurgents while searching the compound of a suspected weapons facilitator in the Qala Ga District, Farah Province, located in western Afghanistan approximately 80 km from the Iranian border.
- IRIN – The closure of schools and continuing attacks on students in the southern Helmand Province forced Abdul Wakil’s parents to send him to a madrasa (Islamic school) in neighbouring Pakistan. Almost two months later, Abdul Wakil [not his real name] quit the school outside Quetta, capital of Pakistan’s Baluchistan Province, and returned home.
- Geo – Eight people were killed while 16 others injured when a blast took place in a vehicle outside the house of a Union Councillor here on Tuesday. According to CCPO Peshawar, the vehicle was parked outside Union Councillor Faheem’s house. Six people were killed on the spot while UC men gunned down two attackers when they tried to flee the scene.
- Daily Times – Security forces on Tuesday killed six Taliban during their ongoing operation to target suspected hideouts in Bajaur Agency, officials said. “Six militants were killed and scores injured during shelling by gunship helicopters in Inayat Qilay, Bhaicheena and Umerey areas in Mamoond tehsil,” the officials said on condition of anonymity
- The Acorn – It is the third time in the last year that the the Pakistani government is attempting to strike a deal with the father-in-law in order to get the son-in-law to cease violence. It has failed twice—because Mr Fazlullah and Swat are pieces on a larger chessboard that also includes, among others, Baitullah Mehsud and Waziristan. These two militant leaders have been able to whipsaw the half-hearted attempts by the Pakistani state machinery into submission.
- The News – Life returned to near normalcy in Swat on Tuesday as the elderly cleric Maulana Sufi Mohammad, heading a peace caravan of hundreds of his black-turbaned followers, reached Mingora after a three-hour drive from Timergara.
- Times of India – After Pakistan agreed to enforce Islamic law in large areas of its restive North West Frontier Province (NWFP), including Swat Valley, in a concession to buy peace in the region, intelligence sources on Tuesday confirmed the threat that Taliban actually poses to India which is not far from the Indian boundary. Sources have revealed that the Taliban have plans to attack western cultural centres in Indian cities. However, no specific intelligence inputs on the nature of the threat, the specific target, the timing or the group have been received.
Far East & Pacific
- Chosun Ilbo – North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has chosen his third son Jong-un as his heir apparent, the Mainichi Shimbun reported Tuesday. The Japanese daily quoted a North Korean official as saying the General Political Staff, the key organ of the People’s Army, has been distributing a memorandum saying Jong-un (26) was chosen as the heir early last month.
- Yonhap – South Korea’s top diplomat emphasized on Wednesday that North Korea’s missile program poses a serious threat to international security due to its ability to launch a nuclear bomb. Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan also said that Pyongyang would still face stern punitive measures from the United Nations even if it launches a satellite, and not a missile as feared.
- Canberra Times – Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith has visited the turbulent border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mr Smith who is on a three-day visit to Pakistan, flew by helicopter from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad to the northern city of Peshawar and on to the Khyber Pass. There he was briefed by Pakistani military and security officials on their efforts to suppress the Taliban and members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
- China Daily – A group of high-ranking Chinese military officials are in Japan to discuss the disputed Diaoyu Islands, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday.
- Japan Times – A Tokyo trading house extensively involved in exporting equipment to Pakistan for use in its clandestine nuclear arms program was forced to scrap the sale of key uranium enrichment devices after the United States became aware of the deal, a source connected with the company said Monday.
- Asia Times – By helping establish a new Eurasian transport corridor, Japan can honor commitments to its ally Washington in the “war on terror”, and revive its long-lost Central Asian initiative. This re-energized role in the region – namely, sending troops to Afghanistan – fits in well with Tokyo’s vision for an invigorated Japanese diplomatic strategy in the 21st century.
- AP – Japan’s finance minister resigned in disgrace Tuesday after slurring his speech and nodding off during the G-7 summit in Rome last weekend in yet another political distraction as the world’s No. 2 economy battles an ever-deepening recession. Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa denied he was drunk on the job and blamed his bizarre behavior at a press conference in Italy on cold medicine and jet lag, but friends and foes alike weren’t buying his excuse.
Europe
- Germany Foreign Ministry – At the start of a two-day trip to Iraq, Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrived in Baghdad this morning (17 February). In the course of the day, the Federal Foreign Minister will conduct talks with the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki and his counterpart, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. Talks with Human Rights Minister Wijdan Salim and Christian clergy are also planned. The visit, the first by a German Foreign Minister to Iraq since 1987, will focus on the future shape of German-Iraqi relations, as well as the current situation in Iraq and the region.
- Austrian Times – Two Lower Austrian policemen have been suspended from duty and arrested for spying for the Kazakhstan secret service. Interior Ministry spokesman Rudolf Gollia today (Tues) confirmed the news as reported by the weekly magazine “Falter.” He said the two policemen had been working in Lower Austria but declined to identify the location.
- EurActiv – Growing political instability in Latvia, Ukraine and Georgia are mainly triggered by the global economic crisis and deep internal problems, such as corruption. But problems with Moscow could be adding an extra “irritant” to an already bad situation, according to leading analysts questioned by EurActiv. Ukraine, Georgia and Latvia are moving into a period of political instability as they sink deeper into economic recession.
- EUbusiness – Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose nation holds the rotating EU presidency, on Tuesday denounced protectionism and nationalism in Europe in a fresh implicit attack on France.
- Eurostat – During 2008, euro area trade recorded a deficit of 32.1 bn euro, compared with +15.8 bn in 2007. The EU27 recorded a deficit of 241.3 bn in 2008, compared with -192.4 bn in 2007.
Africa
- Shabelle – Ethiopia started arming and training Somali militias in Mustahil District in the Somalia regional state of Ethiopia, witnesses said on Tuesday. Sources say the Somali militias led by former warlords who were forced to flee from Hiiraan ,Gedo, Bay and Galgaduud regions in Somalia are regrouping in Mustahil, where Ethiopian officers are training their militias. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Friday he would support any group that wants assistance to face al-Shabaab and recapture the territories they used to control.
- CSM – Why did Sudan make a deal with Darfur rebels?
- BBC – An unidentified armed group has launched an attack on the presidential palace in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea. The West African country’s ambassador to London accused Nigerian militants and said they had been repulsed. But the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) denied this, telling the BBC: “They are paranoid.”
- Reuters – Nearly 600 rebels laid down their weapons in northern Mali on Tuesday, state radio reported, in the latest sign that military pressure and Algerian mediation may be helping end a rebellion led by Tuareg nomads. Algeria has brokered several agreements between Mali’s government and the rebels, who are calling for greater autonomy and development in the north, but the latest progress follows a military offensive launched last month against rebel bases.
- Vanguard – Amidst fear the global economic recession may have on the country negatively, the Nigerian government today urged the Chinese government to come to its rescue.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, right, escorts Iraqi Minister of Defense Abd al-Qadir Al-Mufriji into the Pentagon to discuss bilateral security issues, Feb. 17, 2009. (photo by R. D. Ward)
The Global War
- MIT International Review – One of the most important political questions of our time is: Where is Osama bin Laden? We use biogeographic theories associated with the distribution of life and extinction (distance-decay theory, island biogeography theory, and life history characteristics) and remote sensing data (Landsat ETM+, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, Defense Meteorological Satellite, QuickBird) over three spatial scales (global, regional, local) to identify where bin Laden is most probably currently located. We believe that our work involves the first scientific approach to establishing his current location.
- UPI – The U.S. Navy has contracted BAE Systems for the company to develop and demonstrate an electromagnetic railgun. British company BAE was awarded the 30-month contract from the Office of Naval Research. Under the $21 million deal, BAE will develop an electromagnetic railgun to support the Navy’s strategic mission objectives as part of the Innovative Naval Prototype Railgun program. (h/t DPN)
Sights & Sounds
Read more »
Sphere: Related Content
Comments: 1
17 February, 2009 (01:05) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 17 February 2009.
United States & the Americas
- State Dept – I have come to Asia as my first trip as Secretary of State to convey that America’s relationships across the Pacific are indispensible to addressing the challenges and seizing the opportunities of the 21st century. By strengthening our historic Asian alliances, starting right here in Japan, and forging new partnerships with emerging nations, we can begin together to build networks around the world to help us solve problems that none of us can solve alone. The bilateral relationship between the United States and Japan is a cornerstone of our efforts around the world.
- Middle East Times – Canadian troops recently conducted exercises at the U.S. Army’s Fort Bliss to experience environmental conditions similar to the summer in Afghanistan. Soldiers from the 12th Armored Regiment of Canada are part of Task Force 1-09 that is training for a deployment to Afghanistan.
- Prensa Latina – Russian and Bolivian Presidents Dmitri Medvedev and Evo Morales, respectively, analyzed on Monday in this capital the prospects for extending bilateral cooperation in the economic and trade spheres, highlighting energy collaboration. Morales highlighted the significance of the Russian presence in Latin America, for strengthening the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the projects of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA).
- El Universal – The chair of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Tibisay Lucena, Sunday announced that 54.36 percent of voters (6,003,594 people) endorsed President Hugo Chávez’s proposal to amend the Constitution in order to establish endless reelection of all elected officials, while 45.63 percent of Venezuelans (5,040,082 people) rejected the amendment.
- LAHT – Venezuela will be exporting as much as 1 million barrels per day of oil to China by the early part of the next decade, the Andean nation’s foreign minister said. “We have a long-term energy alliance for the next 100 years covering joint oil production, oil refining and the provision of a million barrels a day,” Nicolas Maduro said in a statement Sunday.
- UPI – A weekend truck crash in Haiti left one Argentine soldier dead and 11 injured, military officials said. The accident occurred Saturday while the troops were performing routine peacekeeping duties.
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- Russia Today – Palestine’s Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movements were not invited to take part in Moscow’s Middle East conference, says Russia’s Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. Russia is planning a peace conference on the Middle East, with representatives of all states of the region invited, in the first six months of 2009.
- Rosoboronexport – Russia has signed contracts for arms supplies totaling $US 20 billion. According to a source close to the Rosoboronexport, there is the possibility of an order for the Navy fighter MiG-29K/KUB from India and possible contracts for the supply of MiG-29 in Middle Eastern countries , for example, in Syria. The Russian Air Force discussed with Algeria the purchase of more MiG-29UBT. The total number of such aircraft, purchased before 2011, could amount to 84.
- Rosatom – Russia and Turkey consider cooperation in the field of peaceful use of nuclear energy as an important part of their economic relations, says the declaration adopted by Russian and Turkish delegations in the Kremlin.
- Moscow Times – President Dmitry Medvedev dismissed four governors and demoted Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev in an unprecedented shuffle Monday that analysts said smacked more of a publicity stunt than an anti-crisis measure. Medvedev ousted the governors of the Oryol, Pskov and Voronezh regions and the Nenets autonomous district and proposed that Gordeyev become the Voronezh governor, the Kremlin said.
- Russia Foreign Ministry – On 5 February, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov had a telephone conversation with the Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China Yang Jiechi at the Russian side’s request. During this constructive conversation, the two Ministers discussed prospects of developing bilateral cooperation and their interaction within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, as well as other international issues of mutual interest.
- Itar-Tass – A police patrol has come under a fire attack in Makhachkala, Dagestan, mounted by unidentified gunmen. The incident occurred at 13:30 Moscow time. One police was shot dead and another gravely wounded and taken to hospital.
- abc.az – Russia keeps promoting Daryal information & analytic center (Gabala radar station) in Azerbaijan into a single anti-missile defense system in Europe formed by the US under another scheme. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in interview to Spiegel German magazine that it’s not late to return to proposed by Russia the anti-missile project with use of Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan.
- Baybak – The monument erected for the memory of victims of Khojaly Genocide in Khatai district and Alley of Martyrs will be visited on February 26. Moreover, Victims of Khojaly Genocide will be commemorated for a minute of silence at 17.00 in the country.
- Georgian Times – Foreign minister of Georgian Grigol Vashadze will pay visit to Poland on 17-18 February. Deputy foreign minister Davit Jalaghonia stated about it on a press conference held today. As he says, Vashadze will meet with representatives of legislative and executive government. Future perspective of cooperation existent between Georgia and Poland will be discussed. Foreign minister of Georgia will visit Armenia on 20-21 February.
- RFERL – On February 16, 1999, a series of bombings shattered the morning calm in the Uzbek capital, killing 16 people. History has treated the bombings not as isolated incidents, but as a watershed event that heralded the arrival of terrorism to Central Asia. Since then, a number of indigenous groups have made their mark in the region and even further abroad, while others have entered the scene from outside the region.
Middle East
- Al Sumaria – Major Youssef Dhari announced the arrest of Saadi Nayef Ali Rikhait, an Al Qaeda chief, on his way back from Syria where he took refuge.
- Voices of Iraq – Three civilians were killed and 10 others wounded when a roadside bomb went off in southeastern Baghdad on Monday, a security source said. “The explosion took place while a bus full of pilgrims coming back from Karbala was passing by,” he said.
- MNF Iraq – Three officers from the Training Directorate of the Iraqi Army traveled to San Diego, Calif. and West Point, N.Y. for focused discussions on military ethics training and character development, Jan. 29 – Feb. 4. At the International Society of Military Ethics Symposium in San Diego, the officers engaged presenters from all branches of the U.S. military, as well as Canada and Australia, in discussions on character development programs within their respective services. A key message of the conference was summed up in a statement made by a Canadian Defense Force chaplain who stated, “Ethics instruction is always a leadership issue. The best person to teach ethics is the commander. It is always leadership and ethics, together.”
- Naharnet – The Lebanese army, in cooperation with Hizbullah, has arrested an informant working for the Israeli intelligence in the southern town of Nabatiyeh, Al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday. The daily said the spy identified only as Marwan F. was arrested ten days ago following months of surveillance by the army.
- Hizballah – Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah declared on Monday that the Islamic Resistance has the full right to possess all kinds of weaponry, including anti-aircraft weapons, emphasizing that the Resistance has the courage to use such weapons. His eminence renewed his pledge to retaliate the assassination of Islamic Resistance top commander Imad Moghnieh (Hajj Redwan), noting that the Resistance’s great martyr has scared the ‘Israelis’ following his assassination more than ever.
- NOW Lebanon – Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qamati on Friday said national dialogue aimed at restoring political decision-making so that it stood “side by side with the elements of the defense strategy, together in the face of the Israeli enemy.” During a ceremony to commemorate the party’s martyrs, Qomati said Hezbollah stood on equal levels militarily and politically. “Official decisions should be made according to an equation of force, terror and deterrence in the face of Israel,” he added.
- Jerusalem Post – A powerful Sudanese rebel leader met secretly with top Israeli espionage officials in Israel earlier this month, Israeli defense officials said Monday. The officials would not disclose the substance of the talks between Abdulwahid Elnur of the Sudan Liberation Movement and officials from the Mossad. Israel claims weapons have reached Gaza Strip militants via Sudan and that Palestinian terrorists operate there.
- ynet – An Israeli citizen accused of contacting a foreign agent and passing information to Iran was convicted Monday at the Tel Aviv District Court as part of a plea bargain. As part of the deal, the clause of passing information for the enemy’s benefit was removed. An agreement has yet to be reached between the sides on the punishment, leaving it for the court to decide. The man told his investigators that in 2006, during a visit to Turkey, he had arrived at the Iranian Consulate in Istanbul on several occasions. In his meetings at the consulate he had agreed to cooperate with Iranian intelligence officials.
- AKI – Yemeni police arrested an alleged Saudi Al-Qaeda militant with in the southwestern province of Ibb, located 192 kilometres from the capital Sanaa. The arrest took place on Sunday during Yemeni police raids agaist suspected new Al-Qaeda cells made up of former Guantanamo detainees, said Saudi daily al-Watan.
Iran
- IRNA – Foreign Ministry Spokesman said that Iran-Bahrain relations have always been upon mutual respect to their sovereignty and in direction of deepening and expanding and would never be affected by insignificant issues. According to the report of Foreign Ministry Media Department on Monday, Hassan Qashqavi was commenting on Iran Bahrain relations in reply to a question concerning reactions of a number of Arab countries officials to a recent statement by Hojjatoleslam Ali Akbar Nateq Noori.
- Rooz – Political circles in Tehran reacted harshly to the publication of a front-page editorial in hardliner Kayhan daily, which warned that Khatami may experience the same fate as ?Benazir Bhutto.
- Michael Rubin – This past week was also the anniversary of master terrorist Imad Mughniyeh’s death in a Damascus bombing. To commemorate the occasion, an Iranian website released several hitherto unpublished photos of Mughniyeh.
- Fars – Syrian Prime Minister Muhammad Naji Al-Utri is scheduled to visit Iran in March at the head of a high-ranking delegation of economic officials. Al-Utri is due to take part in a meeting of the two countries’ high commission for joint economic cooperation and hold talks with Iranian First Vice-President Parviz Davoudi, an informed source told FNA on Monday.
- Mehr – Iranian Industries and Mines Minister Ali-Akbar Mehrabian entered Doha on Monday to review the expansion of Iran-Qatar economic and industrial relations. Mehrabian held talks with Qatar’s Vice Prime Minister and Energy and Industry Minister Abdallah Bin Hamad al-Atiyah, calling for the promotion of bilateral economic ties.
- Iran Focus - Iran said on Sunday Crescent Petroleum must agree to a new price and other terms for a gas export deal to go ahead, but the UAE firm said it had met all contractual obligations and called for judiciary intervention. The two sides agreed in 2001 to deliver natural gas from Iran’s offshore Salman field to meet rising energy demand in the United Arab Emirates. But prices have risen since then and talks have stalled over how much Crescent should pay for the gas.
- Press TV – The Leader of the Islamic Revolution says the Iranian nation should be vigilant about a new wave of plots that threaten the country. In a Monday address, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said since the 1979 Islamic Revolution the enemy has attempted to bully the Iranian nation.
- IRIB – Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei Monday morning in a meeting with thousands of devout and revolutionary people of East Azarbaijan province said that the great lesson of Arbaeen was to understand the situation and take a timely and brave action.
- Guardian – Opium, heroin and hashish have long been the targets of Iran’s war on drugs. Now officials have turned their attention to a dangerous new source of substance abuse: toads. Experts say addicts have begun breeding toads for the purpose of rolling their dried skins inside cigarettes. Police have intensified their efforts against heroin and opium, which is smuggled in from Afghanistan. This week, officers in the central province of Qom discovered 282.5kg of opium hidden in the stomachs of 17 camels that had been transported in vans from near the Afghan border. Agents had been alerted by the sudden sale of cheap camel meat, which is rare in Iran.
- Press TV – Iranian police have killed 10 armed drug smugglers in a clash in northeastern Khorasan Razavi Province, seizing 1,284 kg of narcotics. The clash took place near the city of Taybad over the last 48 hours, the police reported on Monday.
- NCRI – Seven prisoners were transferred to solitary confinement in preparation for hanging soon in central city of Isfahan, according to human rights and democracy activists in Iran on Sunday.
U.S. soldiers assigned to 101st Airborne Division's Personal Security Detail provide security amid swirling snow during an operation in Bagram, Afghanistan, Feb. 15, 2009. (photo by Sgt. Prentice C. Martin-Bowen)
South Asia
- AFPS – Afghan National Army soldiers and coalition forces killed a Taliban commander during an early morning search of a suspected insurgent compound near the village of Khak-e-Safid in Farah province. When combined forces entered the compound, the militant had an AK-47 rifle aimed at them. Coalition forces fired on the subject in self-defense, killing him. The forces positively identified the militant as a known senior Taliban commander and weapons facilitator within Farah province. Elsewhere, coalition forces killed the Taliban leader of Badghis province and eight of his associates with a precision air strike near Darya-ye-Morghab in Badghis province.
- APP – Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani Monday said the peace deal in Swat will be beneficial for the country and was part of government’s policy of dialogue, development and deterrence.Talking to reporters after inaugurating the tripartite labour conference, Prime Minister said the government has opted to hold dialogue as it believed that use of force was not the only solution.
- Geo – Tehrik-e-Nifaz Shariat Muhammadi (TNSM) has decided to send a peace caravan from Temar Garah to the restive Swat valley on Tuesday. The caravan led by TNSM chief Sufi Muhammad will leave for Swat today. The decision in this connection was taken by the Markazi Majlis-e-Shura at a meeting here. TNSM spokesman Amir Izzat Khan told Geo news that the Majlis-e-Shura had also approved the peace truce inked with NWFP government about enforcement of Sharia in Malakand region.
- Daily Times – At least 30 Afghan refugees were killed, while three others critically injured in a missile strike on a refugee camp in Kurram Agency on Monday, locals and officials said. The three missiles believed fired from a US unmanned aircraft destroyed a house used by a local Taliban commander, witnesses said. It was the first known drone strike in Kurram, AP reported.
- The News – Five militants were killed and several others were wounded after fighter jets attacked suspected militants’ hideouts in Bajaur Agency on Monday. Meanwhile, security forces backed by fighter jets and artillery pounded militants’ positions situated in Inayat Klay, Rehman Abad, Shainkot and Bai Cheena areas of Khar tehsil.
- Statesman – Reassuring government that they would not give asylum to miscreants and renewing the pledged to strengthen the hands of the government in maintaining lasting and durable peace the tribal elders of tehsil Ambar handed over 12 more wanted persons to political administration in Ghallanai Monday.
- The Post – Balochistan Liberation United Front (BLUF), an outfit which accepted the responsibility of kidnapping head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) US national John Solecki has announced to extend its 72 hours deadline on the appeal of Baloch leaders.
- Times of India – Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was on Monday quoted as linking the Samjhauta train blasts near Panipat in 2007 to the Mumbai terror attacks in November last year. According to Dawn, Qureshi told reporters in Multan that the Samjhauta Express incident and the Mumbai attacks were interconnected and that the probe could continue only if India responds to questions raised by Pakistan.
- NDTV – For more than a decade and a half, top Naxal leader Sambasividu was a terror for the police force in Andhra Pradesh and was reportedly involved in several murders and attacks on police stations. On Monday, Sambasividu surrendered before the state home minister, claiming he did not actually lead a violent life.
Far East & Pacific
- Australia DoD – AUSTRALIA’S DEFENCE POLICY; Speech to the Australian Defence Magazine Congress
- Bloomberg - Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said he was in poor health at the Group of Seven meeting in Rome last weekend and will submit a medical certificate to parliament. Nakagawa said that he didn’t plan to resign following calls for him to step down over his performance at a G-7 press conference in Rome. Nakagawa said taking too much medicine after drinking “a sip” of wine caused him to slur his words and appear sleepy at the Feb. 14 briefing.
- Deccan Herald – In what could come as a major embarrassment to Japan’s strident anti-nuclear stance, Japanese companies have been found to have played a key role in supplying at least 6,000 ring magnets and other materials to rogue Pakistani scientist A Q Khan. This supply “knowingly or unknowingly” helped Islamabad to acquire nuclear capability and were incorporated in its supply framework, it emerged.
- Japan Times – Economic priorities are expected to outweigh territorial gripes when the leaders of Japan and Russia hold a summit Wednesday at the launch of a gas plant on Sakhalin Island. But while amicable relations raise hopes, worries are also being voiced that economic concerns will hamper Japan as it tries to negotiate on its No. 1 priority — return of the Russia-held islands off Hokkaido
- Irrawaddy – The Karen National Union (KNU) has rejected claims by Burma’s state-run media that it shelled a number of sites near a town on the country’s border with Thailand, suggesting the attacks were staged by the Burmese army to portray its enemies as terrorists.
- China Daily – China’s actual use of foreign investment plunged 32.67 percent year on year to 7.54 billion U.S. dollars in January, a Ministry of Commerce (MOC) official said here Monday.
- Bangkok Post – Five police were wounded when suspected insurgents detonated a roadside bomb in the southern province of Pattani on Tuesday morning. The bomb was detonated when the police’s vehicle were patrolling in Khok Pho district. The police were providing security for teachers when they were attacked.
- Chosun Ilbo – North Korea on Monday insisted it is preparing to launch a satellite, not a long-range missile as has widely been reported. “It is a naked provocation to make outlandish remarks that we are preparing to fire a long-range missile,” the official Korean Central News Agency fulminated on Monday, the 67th birthday of leader Kim Jong-il.
- Yonhap – President Lee Myung-bak assembled the largest annual national security meeting Tuesday amid heightening fears of a North Korean provocation, the defense ministry said. The meeting, which drew roughly 200 top military, intelligence, law enforcement and local government officials, marked the first time that a South Korean leader has presided over it in five years.
- ICG – Six months after the collapse of autonomy negotiations between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippines government, low-intensity conflict continues but moves are under way to resurrect talks. It is not clear whether negotiations will resume and if they do, with what agenda. Certainly no settlement is likely during the remaining tenure of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo; the two sides are too far apart, the potential spoilers too numerous, and the political will too weak. The best that can be hoped for is progress around the edges.
Europe
- Copenhagen Post – Hans Engell, head of the Conservative Party during the 1990s and editor-in-chief for Ekstra Bladet newspaper from 2000-2007, told TV2 News on Saturday that it is almost certain that Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen will leave his post within the next couple weeks to take the job as Nato’s next secretary general.
- Roman Kupchinsky – Bulgaria’s “Overgas,” a Russian Spy in Canada, and Gazprom
- Telegraph – A growing number of young British men are seeking to join Islamic radicals in Somalia, it has been disclosed. Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, voiced his concerns over increasing numbers of young men travelling to the East African country in an interview with the Daily Telegraph last month. He talked of “networks that help individuals go and take part or provide support to extremist gangs in Somalia” and may return to attack Britain.
- Spiegel – In an interview with SPIEGEL, British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith discusses her country’s experience in taking in former inmates from the Guantanamo prison camp and how her country is seeking to reach out to young Muslims before they radicalize.
- RIA Novosti – Moldova’s breakaway republic of Transdnestr has rejected Chisinau’s proposals for the future status of the separatist region, a deputy foreign minister of Transdnestr said on Monday.
- Mehr – The managing director of the Austria-based Unger Steel Construction Company in a meeting with Iran’s vice president said that sanctions against Iran are ineffective and Austrian companies seek to invest in Iran’s markets.
- El Universal – The Spanish Foreign Ministry summoned the Venezuelan Ambassador in Madrid to condemn the treatment given late Friday to Spanish deputy Luis Herrero, a member of the European Parliament, who was expelled from Venezuela, Spanish diplomatic sources said Saturday.
- IslamOnline - A London-based Islamic insurance firm has hit UK roads with a Shari`ah-compliant car insurance product that immediately attracted Muslim and non-Muslims for its ethical nature.
Africa
- Shabelle – Somalia’s new Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke said in an interview he wants to meet Islamist insurgents and use dialogue to end violence that has plagued the country for nearly two decades.
- Sudan Tribune – Sudanese government and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) will sign tomorrow a declaration of goodwill expressing their willingness to engage in peace process, three years following JEM’s rejection of Abuja deal in May 2006. The negotiations between the two sides which started last Tuesday were deadlocked over the issue of the release of prisoners of war that JEM considered as crucial part of confidence building measures prior to sitting at the negotiating table
- Al Bawaba – Gunmen killed eight Algerian troops in two separate attacks on Sunday, days after seven people died in roadside bombs, an Algerian newspaper reported on Monday. Rebels detonated a bomb as a military truck passed through Stah Aftis village near the border town of Tebessa, 700 km east of Algiers, killing five troops and injuring four, El Khabar daily quoted an unnamed local source as saying. Three soldiers were also shot dead by gunmen at an impromptu checkpoint in Bordj Menail in Boumerdes region just east of the capital, the report added.
- ISN – A draft of Libya’s first constitution since the 1969 Green Revolution will be put to popular councils at month’s end as the country looks to address domestic concerns regarding systemic governance dysfunction while negotiating its relationships to outside state and business partners. No details of the constitution draft were released in domestic media statements on its completion, following a three-year formulation process. However, significant moves to modify the political system and bureaucratic structure in a manner that, at least symbolically, promotes the initial revolutionary goals of resource control and diffusion of power can perhaps be expected.
U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Archie Smith gives a command to a troop formation before the start of the change of command ceremony for Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa on Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, Feb. 5, 2009. Army Gen. William Ward, the commander of U.S. Africa Command, presided over the ceremony, in which Navy Rear Adm. Anthony M. Kurta assumed command from Adm. Phillip H. Greene. (photo by Staff Sgt. Joseph L. Swafford Jr.)
The Global War
- Telegraph – Israel has launched a covert war against Iran as an alternative to direct military strikes against Tehran’s nuclear programme, US intelligence sources have revealed. It is using hitmen, sabotage, front companies and double agents to disrupt the regime’s illicit weapons project, the experts say. The most dramatic element of the “decapitation” programme is the planned assassination of top figures involved in Iran’s atomic operations.
- International Commission of Jurists – In one of the most extensive studies of counter-terrorism and human rights yet undertaken, an independent panel of eminent judges and lawyers today presents alarming findings about the impact of counter-terrorism policies worldwide and calls for remedial action. The Eminent Jurists Panel on Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights, established by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), has based its report “Assessing Damage, Urging Action” on sixteen hearings covering more than forty countries in all regions of the world.
- The Hindu – Israel has emerged as India’s largest defence supplier, overtaking Russia. It has signed defence deals worth $9 billion with New Delhi in the last decade, a media report said on Sunday.
Sights & Sounds
Read more »
Sphere: Related Content
Comments: -
16 February, 2009 (00:50) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 16 February 2009.
United States & the Americas
- USA Today - Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, likely made Pakistan squirm by indicating that the armed, unmanned U.S. drones operating in Pakistan are based there, the Los Angeles Times reports. For months, Pakistani leaders have criticized the use of Predator-launched CIA missiles against Islamic extremists along the northwest border. The California Democrat’s remarks came during a Congressional hearing in which she expressed surprise over Pakistani opposition to the use of the missiles. “As I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base,” she said.
- McClatchy – The Obama administration has begun to indicate that it’s willing to reconsider the Bush administration’s push to deploy a ballistic missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland — if Russia helps curb Iran’s push to develop nuclear weapons.
- Edmonton Journal – Khan began working in this violent corner of Afghanistan three years ago. He is based out of a police substation in Pashmul, in eastern Zhari District. Despite the fact that he is an ethnic Hazara, a northern minority group that has fought periodic wars with the Pashtuns, the Canadians say he knows his turf like a seasoned beat cop
- Venezuela Analysis – On Sunday Venezuelans will go to the polls to vote for or against an amendment to the constitution to eliminate the two-term limit on all elected offices. As no campaigning is allowed on Saturday, both sides rallied, marched, attended concerts, and participated in motorcades on Thursday and Friday, to close off their campaigns.
- El Universal – Venezuela’s Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) Roy Chaderton rebutted on Sunday the remarks made by Spanish Deputy and member of the European Parliament Luis Herrero, who was evicted from the country. The diplomat underlined that the role of observers is precisely to observe and then submit their respective reports.
- MercoPress – Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said on Saturday she was annoyed at “meddling” comments by former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who wrote in an article that Chile snatched Bolivia’s only sea access in the 19th century. The issue, dating back to the War of the Pacific (1879), has long been a very sensitive issue between Chile and landlocked Bolivia that still do not have full diplomatic ties.
- Xinhua – Visiting Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on Saturday broke ground for a China-funded convention center in Montego Bay, north of Jamaica. At the ceremony, Xi described the amity between China and Jamaica with a Chinese saying which says bosom friends stay close at heart though thousands of miles apart.
- LAHT – The Ecuadorian government hopes to receive nearly $2 billion from China to finance the construction of the country’s largest hydroelectrical plant, Coca-Codo-Sinclaire, in the Amazon region. President Rafael Correa said that on Friday he met in Quito with Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, who is on an official trip to Ecuador.
- IRIB – The Islamic Republic of Iran opened on Friday an embassy in the Ecuadorian capital of Quito. In the opening ceremony, IRI’s Ambassador to Quito Majid Salehi said IRI and Ecuador has inked over 25 cooperation documents in different fields including agriculture, technology, trade and energy.
- AP – Authorities in Mexico say gunmen killed a state police officer, 10 members of his family and a street vendor last night. The dead include five children, one as young as 2.
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- Kremlin – DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Yes the rouble certainly has dropped and the rouble’s weakness is due to the fact that the economy has changed. Unfortunately our revenues are down and our debts payable in foreign currency have increased. This could not help but affect the real exchange rate. We had to carry out such changes, but it had to be done calmly and in good faith, and in my opinion this is what the Central Bank did. We are not saying that the rouble should be frozen. At the moment according to the Central Bank the rouble’s value corresponds to the actual state of our currency, its condition at the moment, and our current financial solvency. Naturally the Central Bank will monitor the course of these parameters in order to prevent any sudden shifts. In my view what is most important is that the weakening of the rouble was gradual, which was totally unlike the barbaric way that this was done in 1998 when people’s wallets, in fact everyone’s wallets, suddenly slimmed down by 300 percent, and this wave swept over everyone and it was very unpleasant. In this case, the drop in value that has occurred, something of the order of 30-35 percent, was handled with great care.
- Moscow Times – Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin offered assurances over the weekend that the plummeting ruble would stay around its current level for now and that no steep devaluation of the currency should be expected
- Russia Today – Evo Morales has become the first Bolivian President to visit Russia, after touching down in Moscow. The visit is being viewed as another sign of Russia’s increased interest in Latin America. New gas deals are the first matter on the diplomatic agenda. Russia’s energy giant, Gazprom, is set to invest $US 3 billion to develop new fields in Bolivia.
- David Trilling – Speculating over the future of the US air base in Kyrgyzstan is a popular pastime in Central Asian capitals these days. The general consensus is that Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev is taking a gamble, playing a waiting game in the expectation that Washington will come up with more money to retain Manas air base. But some experts believe that with the United States now actively pondering its options, the Kyrgyz leader faces the danger of overplaying his hand.
- Itar-Tass – Three militants were killed in the course of a police operation in Dagestan’s Sergokali district, a source at the Dagestani department of the Federal Security Service told Itar-Tass on Sunday. The operation began in six locations of the district at 9:00 a.m. Moscow time. The militants were blocked in a woodland dugout, two kilometers south of Myurego. They were killed in the gunfire exchange. Plenty of armaments and ammunition, including two bombs ready to go off, three submachine guns and cartridges, and Wahhabi books were bound on the incident scene.
- Zee News – Russia’s top security agency on Saturday claimed to have eliminated a ‘suicide squad’ which was planning terror attacks to assassinate the newly appointed leadership of country’s Caucasian Republic of Ingusethia.
Middle East
- Voices of Iraq – Over seven million visitors have converged on the holy Shiite city of Karbala throughout the past 10 days to commemorate al-Arbaeen pilgrimage, Karbala’s governor said, adding that an estimated 4 million pilgrims are expected to stay in the city on the pilgrimage day. “The number of visitor is expected to reach 9 million by Monday,” Governor Aqil al-Khazaali told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
- Khaleej Times – Influential Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has reached out to foe Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as political factions scramble to form coalitions in the aftermath of Iraq’s provincial elections last month
- Israel MFA – Since the end of the IDF operation in Gaza (18 Jan 2009), 91,214 tons of aid and 6,970,900 liters of fuel have been delivered to the Gaza Strip.
- ynet – Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni wrote in a private note captured by cameras on Sunday that her centrist Kadima party would not join any coalition government headed by right-wing Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
- Haaretz – Hamas will not release abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit unless senior militants from the organization are released by Israel, a spokesman for the group announced Sunday
- CNN – Turkey’s Foreign Ministry summoned Israel’s ambassador to the Turkish capital of Ankara on Saturday to issue a formal complaint over a top Israeli commander’s reported remarks criticizing Turkey. The complaint is part of the escalating war of words between the two regional allies, stemming from Turkey’s outspoken criticism of the recent conflict in Gaza.
- Ya Libnan – A huge rally marking the fourth anniversary of the killing of Rafik al-Hariri turned into a show of support on Saturday for a U.N. court that will open in March to try suspects in the former Lebanese prime minister’s slaying.
- Al Arabiya – Egypt’s leading Christians have accused the governor of Cairo of trying to Islamize the streets by changing the names of some of the country’s oldest areas from Christian ones to Islamic ones
Iran
- IRNA - Defense Minister Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad Najjar is to leave Tehran for Russia Monday at the head of a top-ranking Iranian delegation. Developing bilateral ties between the two countries and pursuing military agreements made earlier are among the objectives of the visit, which is to take place upon an invitation by Najjar’s Russian counterpart, Anatoly Serdyukov.
- MEMRI – Iranian Air Defense Commander Ahmad Miqani said that, since September 2008, the Iranian Air Defense branch has been operating as a separate unit (independent of the air force), alongside the ground, air and naval branches of the armed forces
- Tehran Times – Tehran and Ashgabat will take “firm steps” to increase ties, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday in a meeting with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov. The statement came as Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari and Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister Tachberdy Tagiyev signed an agreement on gas cooperation.
- IRNA – Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani talked with his counterparts from Sudan and Niger by telephone on Saturday evening. They talked about importance of Palestine situation and an international conference which is to be held here in Tehran. Referring to the situation in the Middle East region, Larijani called Palestine a sensitive and important issue for Muslim countries and underlined the necessity of continuation of support for the Palestinian people.
- Fars – A draft bill introduced to the Iranian parliament has requested a two-fold increase in fuel prices for the next Iranian year (starting on March 21), an MP said on Sunday. Despite being OPEC’s second biggest oil producer, Iran imports gasoline due to its lack of adequate refining capacity. The Islamic Republic has implemented a gasoline rationing program to cut excessive fuel consumption in the country.
- Rooz – Yusef Azizi Bani Taraf is an Iranian journalist with a membership in the Association of Iranian Journalists and he is also a scholar on Iranian minority ethnic groups. In a recent conversation with Rooz, he expressed his belief that because of the violent events of the last five years in the Arab, Baluch, Kurdish, Turki, and Turkmen, regions of the country the forthcoming presidential elections will be different.
Tribal leaders walk to a wash point at Combat Outpost Wilderness to wash before afternoon prayers following a meeting there, Feb. 8, 2009, hosted by the Paktia provincial reconstruction team. About 40 tribal leaders from three districts turned out to meet the provincial governor. (photo by Fred W. Baker III)
South Asia
- Bakhtar – District chief of Nadar Shah Kot in Khost province was killed in a roadside blast. The NATO information center in Khost said that district chief of Nadar Shah Kot district, Badiuzzaman Sabri was seriously wounded in the blast. It added that he was rushed to the military hospital but succumbed to his wounds in the facility. Badiuzzaman Sabri was a resident of Majlis village of Sabri district.
- Deutsche Welle – Afghan President Hamid Karzai says he will send a delegation to the United States to join Washington’s strategic review of its war on terror. Speaking at a joint news conference in Kabul, the US special envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke and Karzai said their countries would cooperate in reassessing the situation in Afghanistan
- e-Ariana – Iran is helping Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, said General David Petraeus, who is in charge of U.S. forces in the Central Asian nation and Iraq.
- AFPS – Afghan National Army commandos and coalition forces captured a suspected weapons facilitator in the Anar Dara district of Afghanistan’s Farah province yesterday, military officials reported. The suspect is believed to have been supplying insurgent forces with weapons, munitions, bomb-making materials, and financing insurgent activities throughout western Afghanistan.
- IRIN – At least 12 people, including six children, were killed and tens of houses were damaged by heavy snow in Herat and Ghor provinces over the past four days, according to Afghanistan’s National Disasters Management Authority (ANDMA). Dozens of livestock perished in the cold weather.
- Pentagon – Staff Sgt. Marc J. Small, 29, of Collegeville, Pa., died Feb. 12 at Faramuz, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and small arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Bragg, N.C.
- UK MoD – It is with deep regret that the Ministry of Defence has confirmed the death of Marine Darren Smith of 45 Commando Royal Marines on operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan on 14 February 2009. He was a member of X-ray Company, 45 Commando Royal Marines and was based in Forward Operating Base Nolay, in southern Sangin.
- LA Times – Suspected U.S. missiles slammed into a Pakistani compound near the Afghanistan border Saturday, killing about 30 people, local officials said. Most of those killed were thought to be militants linked to the Taliban or Al Qaeda. The compound targeted Saturday belonged to an associate of Baitullah Mahsud, the leader of Pakistan’s Taliban movement, and was not far from Mahsud’s headquarters. But he was not believed to have been at the compound, and it was unclear whether he was the intended target.
- The News – Syed Nabi, a close associate of Tehreek-i- Taliban Pakistan Chief Baitullah Mehsood was died on Sunday. According to details, Syed Nabi was seriously injured on February 9 in South Waziristan by land mines laid by his rival group. His driver and another man had died on the spot.
- Dawn - Police have arrested arrested six alleged terrorists belonging to Waziristan’s Baitullah Mehsood group in Karachi. Addressing a press conference on Saturday, Capital City Police Officer Karachi Waseem Ahmed said that the arrested terrorists had allegedly been involved in subversive acts since 2001,including attacks on Nato supply lines and kidnapping of Pakistani security personnel.
- Telegraph – Taliban fighters in north-west Pakistan’s Swat valley called a 10-day ceasefire on Sunday after local officials agreed to enforce Islamic laws
- Geo – A five-point agreement for the enforcement of Shariat in Malakand Division has been finalized in the successful talks held between the NWFP government and Maulana Sufi Muhammad.
- Frontier Post – Taliban militants have released a Chinese engineer six months after he was abducted, security officials said Sunday. The man was released on late Saturday and shifted to Peshawar, a security official said.
- Pak Tribune – Taliban trying to take over Pak: President Zardari; The Taliban has established itself across a large part of Pakistan adding that Islamabad could have fallen if he had not enjoyed the full support of the army.
- IslamOnline – Local Taliban militants have issued stern threats to groups battling Indian forces in disputed Kashmir to either ally with them in fighting against Islamabad, leave their areas or face retaliation. “We have been asked to vacate Swat and Dir just because we are not ready to fight our own people,” a spokesman for Hizbul Mujahiddin, a group based in Pakistan and Pakistan-ruled Kashmir and active in India-controlled Kashmir, told IslamOnline.net.
- Press Trust – At least six suspects detained by Pakistan in connection with the Mumbai attacks, including LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, have reportedly been remanded to the custody of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for interrogation for two weeks.
- Sri Lanka MoD – The LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran still in Vanni will continue to hold the innocent civilians until the military captures him the two LTTE Black Tiger suicide cadres, who have surrendered to Army revealed. In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Observer they said that Prabhakaran’s son Charles Anthony was commanding their forces with other prominent LTTE leaders like Banu and Lakshman. The two Black Tigers in their twenties had surrendered to the troops of the 57 Division at Therumurukandy on Jan. 28, after they failed in their attempts to bomb the bund of the Iranamadu Tank which if succeeded could have caused immense disaster.
- Colombo Page – The Sri Lankan troops continued their push to overrun the remaining LTTE stronghold in the Wanni region of Northern Sri Lanka as more and more Tamil civilians took flight from the rebel held areas to reach government controlled areas. Troops of 59 Division launched an attack against the Tigers Saturday (15) afternoon in Vaduwankal area of Mullaitivu inflicting heavy casualties, the military said.
Far East & Pacific
- JoongAng – North Korea has moved all materials needed to test-fire a long-range missile to a missile base in Musudan-ri, Hwadae County, North Hamgyong Province, adding to a possibility that a missile launch is imminent, a senior military official said yesterday. “We have closely observed North Korea’s Taepodong-2 missile launch process recently,” the official said.
- Yonhap – North Korea’s titular head of state Kim Yong-nam Sunday warned Pyongyang will take “decisive actions” against Seoul if the South continues to challenge the communist nation, becoming the highest North Korean official yet to directly make such a threat since inter-Korean relations turned sour early last year.
- Australia DoD – The Minister for Defence, the Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon MP, has today departed for a visit to Ethiopia and Poland, where he will discuss a range of issues regarding Australia’s involvement in Afghanistan and Africa. Mr Fitzgibbon will first travel to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, where he will meet with the Ethiopian Defence Minister senior African Union (AU) officials and ambassadors to the AU from Africans nations. The Krakow meeting is an important opportunity for those nations who have forces deployed to Afghanistan to exchange views on future plans and coordinate our efforts.
- The Australian – Senior federal ministers are now venturing deep into Africa in search of Kevin Rudd’s diplomatic holy grail – a seat for Australia on the UN Security Council. Joel Fitzgibbon today will become the second senior minister in less than three weeks to make the long trek to Addis Ababa in pursuit of one of the Prime Minister’s cardinal foreign policy goals.
- news.com.au – Australia’s nation’s top military brass is at war with the Federal Government over plans to cut perks including servants, limousines and first-class travel. The Courier-Mail can reveal many generals are furious about losing taxpayer-funded butlers, valets, batmen, housekeepers, cooks, drivers, first-class travel (reduced to business class), spouse travel and access to the RAAF’s luxury VIP aircraft fleet.
- Irrawaddy – Driven by strong demand from Africa and Bangladesh, Burma’s rice exports have increased rapidly since the beginning of this year, according to traders in Rangoon, who say that sales in January have already nearly quadrupled the total for the first half of the current fiscal year. Meanwhile, a joint report by the World Food Program and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, released on January 22, said that there are more than five million people below the food poverty line in Burma.
- Bangkok Post – The arrest of two Thai members of a drug gang that tricks Thai women into becoming drug couriers is just the first step in a clampdown on a West Africa-based drug trafficking network. The two women helped the gang in its recruitment of female drug mules, mainly from restaurants and nightspots in the Nana, Patpong and Sukhumvit areas. They deceived them into carrying drugs mainly from India to sell in China. India is a hub where drugs smuggled from Pakistan or Afghanistan are transported to other countries such as China and the United States, police said.
- IHT – More than a quarter-million Rohingya – an ethnic Muslim minority from western Myanmar – have come here to southern Bangladesh to escape the hunger, humiliation and official brutalities in their homeland. Many have landed in a place called the Kutupalong Makeshift Camp. It is an obscenity, this camp.
- My Sinchew – After being in a state of denial for weeks, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has finally admitted to international media that Thai authorities pushed Rohingya boat people back out to sea and abandoned them. In an exclusive interview with CNN on Thursday (12 Feb), Abhisit said there was reason to believe some incidents had occurred.
- Japan Times – Japan’s five-year-long operation to aid in the reconstruction of Iraq came to a formal conclusion Sunday with a ceremony commemorating the return of personnel from Kuwait to the Air Self-Defense Force base in Aichi Prefecture. The personnel had been carrying out tasks related to Japan’s withdrawal since early December at a Kuwaiti base
- Washington Times – Japan, the world’s second-biggest economy, will likely report on Monday that its fourth-quarter output plunged at an annual rate of nearly 12 percent, according to a survey of economic forecasters.
- Xinhua – A U.S. military ship had a minor collision with a small boat Sunday near the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture of east Japan, local media reported. The military ship, believed to be the 9,217-ton Aegis destroyer Lassen, hit the 14-ton boat, which was at anchor carrying four men fishing. No one was injured in the accident which occurred at 12:25 p.m., Kyodo news quoted Coast Guard officials as saying.
Europe
- Radio France – France’s public deficit jumped over 60 per cent in the last year amid the global economic crisis and lower than expected government revenues. The announcement, made Friday, came on the backdrop of the European Union officially entering a recession.
- Jules Evans – One of the biggest risks for the global economy right now is Ukraine. The country’s currency is rapidly depreciating, which is causing serious trouble for the foreign banks who own a majority of the financial sector. The foreign banks, led by names like Raiffeisen, Unicredit and BNP Paribas, have piled into Ukraine ever since the Orange Revolution in 2006, on the bet that Ukraine would move ever closer to the EU, and eventually accede.
- NY Times – Many Romanians dreamed of escaping during decades of dictatorship. The exodus of poor, rural Romanians began after the fall of Communism in 1989 and intensified two years ago when Romania joined the European Union. Spain, Italy and a handful of other countries softened immigration rules to attract less expensive workers from the East. Diligent Romanians became the strawberry pickers, construction workers and housecleaners of choice, doing jobs that workers in richer neighboring countries no longer wanted. But while migration has brought economic gains — migrants sent home nearly $10.3 billion in remittances last year — it has also exacted a heavy toll on the country left behind.
- euronews – Serbia has told the EU it will not block Kosovo from trying to join international financial organisations. But recognise the territory’s self-declared independence? Never.
- SE Times – Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said on Saturday (February 14th) that his country will become a member of NATO at the organisation’s next summit in early April. Sanader, who is on an official visit to Vienna, said to the Austrian press agency APA that “NATO cannot wait”, and added that he is sure there will be no referendum on his country’s membership in the Alliance.
- ECCHR – The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) in Berlin expresses its deep concern about the circumstances and the lack of political and legal consequences in the context of the murder of the Chechen torture victim Umar Israilov in Vienna on 13 January 2009. Israilov, who was as political refugee recognised in Austria, was the key witness in a trial of the ECCHR against the current President of the Russian constituent republic Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, for torture and murder.
- Iveta Kažoka and Dace Akule, European Policy Institutes Network – Latvia: Extreme Political Turbulence
- Nosint – The frigate F-314 “THOR HEYERDAHL” is the fifth and last of the series that Navantia has built for the Royal Norwegian Navy. Navantia has launched on 11st. February, at 17:12 p.m., in the Fene-Ferrol shipyard, the fifth frigate for the Royal Norwegian Navy, the F-314 frigate “Thor Heyerdahl”, named after this famous XX centuryNorwegian explorer.
Africa
- Garowe – Ethiopian troops have pulled out a strategic crossroad in central Somalia, after spending two weeks inside the international boundaries of Somalia, Radio Garowe reports. The troops backed by armed trucks withdrew from their position at Kala-Beyr crossroads in the central Hiran region. The crossroads connects Somalia’s central and northern regions to Ethiopia’s Somali-inhabited Ogaden region.
- Sudan Tribune – The Sudanese army claimed that it repulsed an attack by the Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in West Darfur area of Jabal Marra. The army spokesperson Brigadier General Osman Al-Agbash said that they have inflicted heavy casualties on JEM forces and destroyed 14 armed vehicles while they lost 4 soldiers with 3 injured. He also described statements by JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim as “empty propaganda” that is aimed at strengthening his position at the negotiation underway in the Arab Gulf State of Qatar with the Sudanese government.
- Daily Star – Two bombs exploded in eastern Algeria hours after President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika announced he would run for a new term, killing at least seven people, the state APS news agency said Friday. Two women, a baby and a man were killed late Thursday by one bomb which exploded as their van passed by in Foum al-Metlag.
- Reuters – Algerian security forces killed a senior member of Al Qaeda’s north African wing after a tip-off from a former militant led them to his hideout, an Algerian newspaper reported Sunday.
- MAP - Customs officers of the northern port of Tangier seized on Saturday night a record drug catch of 3.26 tons concealed in a potato cargo bound for Spain. The hash, which was revealed thanks to the scanner, was contained in large bundles of 20kg each, and charged onto a Spain-registered TIR truck that was loaded in a farm in the Atlantic city of Agadir.
- AFP – The remnants of the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army are trapped by opposing forces in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo and will have to surrender, a Congolese government spokesman said Saturday. “The hard core of the Lord’s Resistance Army is in a swampy forest in the Garamba national park,” spokesman Lambert Mende told AFP, putting their numbers at about 250. Mende said the rest of the LRA had surrendered or disbanded, adding that the aim of the joint operation against the rebels had almost been achieved.
- New Vision - A regional offensive to finish off the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, planned and equipped with US support, has seen over 146 of the rebels killed and six rebel commanders captured.
- BBC – The Ugandan army says it has been given permission by the Democratic Republic of Congo to continue operations there against the Lord’s Resistance Army. The mandate of the Ugandan army in the DRC had been due to expire this week, but a Ugandan army spokesman said this had now been extended.
- BBC – Zimbabwe authorities drop a treason charge against politician Roy Bennett, replacing it with lesser charges, his party says
- VOA – China has signed agreements to give Tanzania nearly $22 million in aid for agriculture and communications technology. President Hu Jintao witnessed the signing Sunday in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the third stop on his four-nation tour of Africa.
- Javno – Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao’s delegation has signed loan and aid deals worth $90 million with Senegal, state media in the West African country reported on Saturday. The deals included a 11.8 billion CFA ($23.25 million) loan to renovate Senegal’s public buses, financing for a 25 billion CFA ($49.26 million) secure government communications system and a 9 billion CFA francs $17.73 million gift, government daily Le Soleil reported after a signing ceremony late on Friday.
A B-52 Stratofortress leads a formation of Japanese Air Self Defense Force F-2s, U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons, and a U.S. Navy EA-6B Prowler over Guam, Feb. 10, 2009. The event is Cope North 09-1, a bilateral exercise to enhance air operations in defense of Japan. (photo by Master Sgt. Kevin J. Gruenwald)
The Global War
- Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence – Annual Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
- Geoff Morrell, Pentagon spokesman – Well, I mean, this is fundamentally – this is the Obama administration’s review. I mean, we talk about other reviews. I mean, other – there have been other reviews which have preceded it, namely the Bush administration review at the end of its tenure, General Petraeus’s review. The joint staff has had something they’ve been working on as well. But ultimately, the only review that counts is the one that’s conducted at the behest of the president. And so earlier this week, I think on Tuesday, they named Bruce Riedel as the chairman of this administration review. I think it’s co-chaired by our new undersecretary of Defense for policy, Michele Flournoy, as well as Ambassador Holbrooke. And so they are on a tight timeline. I think they were given 60 days to work this.
- ABC (AU) – Afghanistan may be at the forefront of Australian military minds, with more than a thousand personnel based there, but this weekend in Russia, thousands of veterans will be remembering another campaign from another time in the central Asian country. Sunday is the 20th anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan, marking the end of a decade-long war that some have referred to as Russia’s Vietnam. Our Moscow correspondent Scott Bevan reports that historians and veterans believe this part of Russian history could hold valuable lessons for those Western countries whose forces are now in Afghanistan.
Sights & Sounds
Read more »
Sphere: Related Content
Comments: -
8 January, 2009 (01:11) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 8 January 2009.
United States & the Americas
- GovExec – The State Department’s top counterterrorism official on Tuesday predicted that President-elect Barack Obama’s incoming team would in some ways be more aggressive in fighting terrorism around the world than the Bush administration. Dailey said he believes that Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida leadership “has been beaten back into a smaller hole” and were incapable of planning a major attack on the United States because of disruption to their communications and funding.
- America.gov – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and members of the Arab League in welcoming a new cease-fire proposal to defuse the crisis in the Gaza Strip.
- IHT - The first woman soldier to flee the U.S. military for Canada to avoid the Iraq war has been ordered deported along with her husband and children. Kimberly Rivera said Wednesday her requests to stay on humanitarian and compassionate grounds were rejected. Rivera is likely to be court-martialed when she returns to the United States and could face up to five years in prison.
- Canada National Defence – One Canadian soldier was killed and three others were injured when their armoured vehicle struck an improvised explosive device approximately 35 kilometres north of Kandahar City in the Shah Wali Kowt District. The incident occurred at approximately 8:00 a.m., Kandahar time
- Press TV – Ecuadorian lawmakers say Israeli policies in Gaza amount to “crimes against humanity” and must be stopped by an international probe.
- Mexico Foreign Ministry – Mexico condemns the excessive use of force associated with the operation of the Israeli army in Gaza. Mexico also condemned the continued firing of rockets into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, which has also caused civilian casualties.
- LAHT – Two municipal police officers were murdered early Tuesday in Tijuana, officials said. The officers were killed near the Tijuana River, a short distance from the spot where two other officers were ambushed on New Year’s Day in an attack that left one dead and a district commander seriously wounded.
- Middle East Times – The head of Interpol is on a three-country tour of Latin America to discuss national and regional policing initiatives with top security authorities. Interpol Secretary-General Ronald Noble is meeting with leaders in Panama, Costa Rica and Argentina.
- Newsweek – The arrest of a beauty queen shows how narcoculture infiltrates all of Mexican society.
- NPR – In Juarez, this violence-filled Mexican city, “drug cartel” has many meanings. Residents say it includes the government, the military, big business, small business, the upper, middle, and lower classes, the justice system and the media. How can this be?
- Reuters – The United States released another $99 million on Wednesday for equipment to fight warring Mexican drug cartels, bringing available funds for Mexico’s anti-narcotics aid to almost $300 million.
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- Russia Today – Chronology of Russia-Ukraine gas war
- Gazprom – Ukraine has defiantly rejected international law and with no respect to the existing transit contract began to siphon off Russian gas illicitly and then entirely stopped gas deliveries to Europe through its territory. In such an unprecedented situation, when our consumers in Europe do not receive Russian gas in any way we have nothing to do but to stop gas deliveries to the entry point of the Ukrainian gas transmission system until the moment when Ukraine has provided guarantees of gas transit in full volume.
- Government of Russia – AB Miller (Gazprom): At a time when the transit of Russian gas through Ukrainian territory is fully stopped, if carried out by stealing Russian gas in Ukraine, I suggest we stop the supply of Russian gas to the border of Russia and Ukraine. Vladimir Putin: I agree with your proposal to suspend the supply, but you need to do this is to publicly and in the presence of international observers.
- Kremlin – A telephone conversation was held between Dmitry Medvedev and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. During the conversation, the President of Russia highlighted the following to the President of Ukraine…
- EurasiaNet – The ongoing dispute between Russia and Ukraine over natural gas exports is likely to end up spurring efforts to establish alternate, more reliable export routes to serve the European Union, experts and officials predict.
- RIA Novosti – A sailor was killed in a fire on board the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier anchored off Turkey late on Tuesday, the Russian Navy commander said on Wednesday.
- Georgian Times – Russian occupants ‘settled down’ in the building of public school in the village of Gentsvisi, Upper Abkhazia. Russian occupants took up their residences in other buildings of the village as well. As Abkhaz media centre was reported from Upper Abkhazia Russian occupants earn their keep by marauding.
- Axis – It has become known that in the morning on January 4, agents of the Federal Security Service of Russia Tatarstan directorate arrived with search to the apartment of the known public figure of Republic of Tatarstan and human rights activist, writer and historian, chairperson of the Milli Madzhlis of Tatar People, Fauziya Bayramova, online paper Rupor.info reports
Middle East
- MSNBC – The top American commander in the former insurgent stronghold of Anbar said Wednesday the Shiite-led government should have poured reconstruction money into the Sunni region after Sunni fighters joined forces with U.S. troops to chase al-Qaida out of the western province.
- Pentagon – Staff Sgt. Anthony D. Davis, 29, of Daytona Beach, Fla., died Jan. 6 in Northern Iraq, of wounds suffered when he was shot by enemy forces. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia.
- Stars and Stripes – Iraqi border guards — using training and equipment provided by U.S. forces — seized around 50 kilos of heroin that traffickers were trying to smuggle into the country from Syria, the U.S. military said late Tuesday.
- Al Arabiya – The Israeli military dropped leaflets warning residents around the southern Gaza town of Rafah to leave the area Wednesday ahead of planned bombings of tunnels leading into Egypt.
- Haaretz – Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday fired 25 rockets into Israel’s southern communities, including Be’er Sheva and Ashkelon.
- TIME – Turkey Could Be Key Player in Gaza Peace; There’s a historic echo in the fact that Turkey is being tapped to provide the troops to keep the peace between Israel and the Palestinians in the latest Gaza cease-fire proposals…
- ynet – Ali Larijani, speaker of parliament and one of the major figures in the Islamic Republic, met Mashaal and several high level officials from Hamas at the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital, witnesses said.
- Al Jazeera – Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, has warned that “all possibilities” are open against Israel as he gave a fiery speech in which he blasted Israel’s offensive in Gaza and voiced support for Hamas.
- Hizballah – At the beginning of his speech, Sayyed Nasrallah criticized the suicide bombers who blow themselves up in the wrong place, hoping to be among the martyrs. “It’s so deplorable, painful and saddening that, in the middle of the battle taking place against the Zionist enemy in Gaza, some people come to blow themselves up in the wrong place,” his eminence noted. Sayyed Nasrallah cited the example of the suicide bomber who targeted in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul a protest condemning the ‘Israeli’ offensive on the Gaza Strip. “What a crime! What atheism! What disgust!” Sayyed Nasrallah said, adding that this phenomenon was very dangerous and wondering about the aims of such crimes. “If those people blow themselves up in the right place against the ‘Israeli’ enemy, the situation in the region would have been very different,” Sayyed Nasrallah concluded.
- MEI – To understand the acute discomfort inflicted on the governments of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Arab countries by the war in Gaza, it is only necessary to look at advertisements that ran in the New York Times and Washington Post less than a month ago.
- ITIC – Operation Cast Lead – Update No. 8
- Hurriyet - With the Ergenekon trial progressing, detentions are continuing across Turkeyy as 37 more suspects are taken into custody. This round of high-profile detainees includes retired generals, former top academic and former head of the police’s anti-terror squad. Thirty-seven people were detained yesterday as part of the ongoing investigation into a gang accused of plotting a coup.
Iran
- Mehr – On Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki telephoned his Japanese counterpart Hirofumi Nakasone asking him that it is necessary that Tokyo play a greater role in helping end the Israeli relentless attacks on the Gaza Strip.
- Tehran Times – Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi has announced that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sent 22 members of his cabinet as special envoys to different countries to seek an “immediate halt” to the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip and ending the “siege” on the coastal strip.
- Fars – Iranian Ambassador to Tanzania Abbas Vaezi urged President Jakaya Kikwete, who currently chairs the African Union, to do something to end Israel attacks on the Palestinian people.
- IRNA – Iranian Presidential Advisor and Special Envoy Mojtaba Rahmandoost in Khartoum on Wednesday called on Sudan to join efforts to check massacre of innocent people in Gaza immediately.
- Payvand – Iran has reportedly bought three million barrels of gas oil from a Singapore trader to compensate for a loss of supplies from India.
- NCRI – On January 4, the mullahs’ regime hanged four people in Bandar Abbas (south) prison, and in accordance with the sentencing of a criminal Sharia judge, the regime also amputated a prisoner’s hand and leg using a guillotine.
- Fars – Tens of millions took part in massive processions across Iran on Wednesday, marking the anniversary of the 7th century martyrdom of one of Shiite Islam’s most beloved leaders.
British Royal Marine Commandos take part in Operation Sond Chara, the clearance of Nad-e Ali District of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan by Afghan National Security Forces and troops deployed with the International Security Assistance Force 42-Commando, Dec. 29 (photo by Cpl. John Rafoss)
South Asia
- AFPS – Coalition forces and Afghan commandos killed 38 militants and seized multiple weapons caches today and yesterday during operations to disrupt bomb networks in Afghanistan’s Farah and Laghman provinces.
- The News – Three persons were killed and eight others, including five security forces personnel, injured in the ongoing military operation in the restive Swat valley on Wednesday. Militants attacked a check-post of security forces in Koza Bandai area of Kabal Tehsil, which triggered a fierce gunfight between the two sides.
- NY Times – Pakistan’s national security adviser, Mahmud Ali Durrani, confirmed Wednesday that the lone surviving gunman from the Mumbai terrorist attacks, Muhammad Ajmal Kasab, is a Pakistani citizen. Hours later Mr. Durrani, a respected retired army general and former ambassador to the United States, was fired by the Pakistani prime minister for “irresponsible behavior.”
- Khaleej Times – Militants who attacked Mumbai were urged to kill their hostages in cold blood and fight to the death in the name of Islam, according to transcripts of intercepted telephone calls made public on Wednesday.
- Dawn – A gunbattle between Indian troops and a group of militants raged for a seventh day on Wednesday, making it one of the longest battles in occupied Kashmir in years, officials said.
- Sri Lanka MoD – Troops of 53 and 55 Divisions who have gained total control over the LTTE forward defence line in Muhamalai last Tuesday (6 Jan) have accelerated the offensive further southwards for capturing remaining strategically vital LTTE bases on their mission to reopen the A-9 main road.
- The Post – Sri Lanka’s cabinet reinstituted on Wednesday a ban on the Tamil Tiger rebels which designates them as a terrorist group, Sri Lanka’s defense spokesman said. “The cabinet has decided to ban the LTTE as they are not allowing civilians to leave the war zone,” defense spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella, also a minister, told a press conference.
Far East & Pacific
- Asia Times – Signs are emerging that Japanese foreign policy is due for an overhaul in 2009, with Tokyo scrambling to tackle societal concerns and a sagging economy while searching out a spot in the new world order. Single-track diplomacy with the United States has become an albatross, and the answer to Japan’s – and East Asia’s – woes may be a unified regional bloc.
- TIME – Why the Yen Is Killing Japan Inc.
- Phnom Penh Post – RIME Minister Hun Sen lashed out Tuesday against those who did not recognise today’s Victory over Genocide holiday, calling them “animals”. Hun Sen acknowledged that not all areas were liberated on the same day that the Vietnamese-backed forces toppled the Khmer Rouge in Phnom Penh 30 years ago, but he said that the day represented the end of the regime.
- Straits Times – Muslim separatists torched the homes of 30 Christian families in an attack on a southern Philippines village, the military said on Thursday.
- Yonhap – South Korea’s foreign minister said Wednesday that his country is seeking various ways to expand its role in Afghanistan, hinting military contributions may be considered in the future, but not now.
- Irrawaddy – The Karen Women’s Organization (KWO), which is based in Mae Sot on the Thai-Burmese border, reported on Monday that a seven-year-old Karen girl was raped and murdered by a Burmese soldier in Pegu Division on December 27
Europe
- German Chancellor – The Federal Government supports the commitment of the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
- Press TV – Denmark has summoned the Israeli ambassador in Copenhagen in protest at recent attacks on clinics run by a Danish charity in Gaza.
- Xinhua – Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis proceeded with an expected government reshuffle Wednesday, announcing a change in the economy and finance portfolio as well as in the transport and education ministries.
- RFERL – The gas crisis between Russia and Ukraine is hitting Southeastern Europe hard. Many are already losing heating in their homes as governments say they possess only limited energy reserves, or none at all. Everyone feels helpless.
- Spiegel – The Pipeline Power Play
- Javno – Six al Qaeda suspects arrested in Belgium last month will remain in custody as an investigation into their case continues, a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday. A Belgian court ordered five of the detained suspects to appear in court again in a month’s time, the spokeswoman said.
Africa
- Press TV – Somali al-Shabab fighters have defeated Ethiopian troops and recaptured the town of Dinsor in the Bay region.
- Garowe – At least six soldiers were killed Wednesday in Somalia’s war-torn capital Mogadishu after suspected insurgents threw hand grenades, Radio Garowe reports. The soldiers died in two separate explosions in Mogadishu’s Yaaqshiid district, as they were passing through a key intersection at Towfiq.
- Daily Nation – Uranium seized by police in Nairobi is to be flown out of the country after tests showed that its radioactivity exceeded limits which could be handled locally.
- IRIN – The discovery of two brothels where underage girls worked for just food in a township in central Swaziland has triggered both shock and sympathy in a country struggling with chronic poverty and food insecurity.
- Bua – The Angolan government has ordered the suspension of migratory movements at its northeastern border due to an outbreak of the deadly Ebola haemorrhagic fever hitting Kassi province in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
- New Vision – In just two days, reclusive rebel leader Joseph Kony and his fighters raped over 80 Congolese women in the towns of Faradje and Tadu in the Orientale province in the north- eastern DR Congo. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) team and other UN officials who visited the area on Tuesday said the residents were shocked and traumatised by the brutality of the attacks.
- AFRICOM – U.S. Africa Command is laying plans to airlift heavy equipment to Sudan to support African Union and U.N. peacekeepers involved in the country’s Darfur region, a decision that was announced January 5, 2009 by President George W. Bush following a meeting with Sudanese Vice President Salva Kiir, a former south Sudanese rebel leader.
- BBC – The new military leadership in Guinea has made a series of arrests, including some senior military officers, in the past few days, military sources say.
- Magharebia – Algerian security officers who killed two terrorists on Tuesday (January 6th) in Tadmait, Tizi Ouzou province, learned from the one survivor that the trio had planned a suicide attack on Wednesday. In related news, security services foiled a twin terrorist attack planned by al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb to coincide with New Year celebrations in Algiers, El Khabar reported on Wednesday (January 7th). Eleven suspected terrorists were charged with planning an attack on government buildings during New Year celebrations. Their alleged plot included a plan to abduct foreigners working on the Algiers metro.
High-speed vessel Swift arrives in Port Antonio with Southern Partnership Station to begin training with the Jamaican Defense Force in a variety of topics. Southern Partnership Station is a training mission working with Central American, South American and Caribbean nations (photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Daniel Ball)
The Global War
- CSIS – Increased militancy and violence in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan has brought FATA into sharper focus, as U.S., Afghan, and Pakistani leaders attempt to find solutions to the problems underlying the situation there. This most dangerous spot on the map may well be the source of another 9/11 type of attack on the Western world or its surrogates in the region. Should such an attack occur, it likely will be spawned in the militancy that grips FATA and contiguous areas in Afghanistan and Pakistan today. Failure to bring peace and to restore a modicum of stability to FATA will have widespread repercussions for the region and perhaps the world. (video and audio available)
- US Army – The U.S. Army is apologizing and correcting a printing error that resulted in approximately 7,000 letters being sent to family members who lost a Soldier in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The letter did not contain a specific by-name salutation and address, but merely a placeholder greeting, “Dear John Doe.”
- Miami Herald – Turkey was holding a suspicious shipment bound for Venezuela from Iran because it contained lab equipment capable of producing explosives, a customs official said Tuesday.
- White House – Remarks by National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley at the Center for Strategic and International Studies
Sights & Sounds
Read more »
Sphere: Related Content
Comments: -
10 December, 2008 (00:02) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 10 December 2008.
United States & the Americas
- White House – As my Administration has made clear, it is time for Robert Mugabe to go. Across the continent, African voices are bravely speaking out to say now is the time for him to step down. These leaders share the desire of ordinary Zimbabweans for a return to peace, democracy, and prosperity. We urge others from the region to step up and join the growing chorus of voices calling for an end to Mugabe’s tyranny.
- CNN – Three of five Guantanamo Bay detainees who said they wanted to confess to charges relating to the September 11 terrorist attacks rescinded the offer after a judge required two to undergo competency hearings, according to a military spokesman.
- canada.com – Toronto MP Michael Ignatieff is set to be acclaimed as federal Liberal leader Wednesday, after his chief rival and longtime friend Bob Rae abruptly halted his own campaign to replace Stephane Dion.
- Blake Lambert – Canada arguably exists as a luxury parking garage for human souls. Nonetheless, seriousness and functionality are prized here. Unfortunately, national politics this century renders that mantra as myth. While the country is not approaching the dictatorial depths of Equatorial Guinea, it is now one of the least stable members of the G-8.
- LAHT – Suspected leftist FARC rebels on Monday dynamited a bridge in the southern Colombian province of Guaviare, cutting off road access to a vast region, authorities said.
- IRNA – Visiting Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Maria Isabel Salvador said on Monday that Iran’s nuclear program is of peaceful nature and the pressures exerted by big powers as well as sanctions imposed on the country have left no impacts on Iran’s development program.
- Miami Herald – Raul Castro’s first official trip abroad since assuming Cuba’s presidency will be to attend a summit in Venezuela. Venezuelan Information Minister Jesse Chacon says Castro will be in Venezuela’s capital on Dec. 14 for a meeting of the regional trade bloc known as the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, or ALBA.
- The Latin Americanist – Ex-hostage Betancourt thanks Hugo Chavez; Former hostage Ingrid Betancourt met with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez as she came to the tail end of her tour of Latin America.
- RIA Novosti – Mexico has welcomed Russia’s return to Latin America following the Russian leader’s week-long tour of the southern continent in late November, the Mexican deputy foreign minister said on Tuesday.
- AP – A senior Mexico City police commander who oversaw raids in the capital’s gang-filled Tepito neighborhood was slain in a drive-by shooting outside his home, officials said Tuesday. Victor Hugo Moneda, who led the city’s investigative police, was killed as he was getting out of his car Monday night, the Mexico City prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- Press TV – Moscow’s bid to equip Tehran with advanced air defense systems does not violate international regulations, says a former Russian official. In a Tuesday nuclear conference, former Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov dismissed any concern over Russia’s defense agreements with the Islamic Republic.
- Russia MoD – Russian Minister of Defence Anatoly Serdyukov sets off on a trip to China between 9 and 11 December. While in Beijing Anatoly Serdyukov is to take part in a meeting of Russia-China Joint Iintergovernmental Commission on Military-technical Cooperation and Security.
- RIA Novosti – Russia’s Finance Ministry has denied a report that the country had agreed to write off most of Cambodia’s debt, a Finance Ministry official said on Tuesday.
- Nikolai Petrov, Carnegie – The severe economic crisis in Russia is currently spilling over into the political and administrative spheres. However, the government is not responding properly. Instead of improving administration effectiveness, the Russian government is simply reshuffling regional heads. In economics, the Kremlin is putting unneeded burden on businesses and regional governments.
- Kyiv Post – Activists from the youth wing of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s ruling party held demonstrations against immigrant workers on Monday, demanding they return home and blaming them for Russia’s recent economic woes.
- RIA Novosti – A Tajik national was decapitated near Moscow in what is believed to have been a race-hate murder, Russia media reported on Tuesday. Police are currently searching for those involved in the attack on the two men.
- Kyiv Post – Ukrainian lawmakers have forged a three-party governing coalition, a top legislative leader said Tuesday, ending months of deadlock that paralyzed the country amid its worst financial crisis in a decade. The new coalition puts back together the fractured alliance of President Viktor Yushchenko and his rival Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko along with another smaller party.
- Kavkaz Center – Police checkpoint was attacked by sniper fire in Zyazikov-Yurt (Malgobek district). The checkpoint was attacked around 1:50 PM, nobody was hurt, a security official told RIA Novosti. One policeman was wounded in Ordzhonikidzevskaya. The policeman was wounded on Zavodskaya street around 12:10 PM in a gunfire attack, a security official told Interfax. One Russian soldier was wounded Tuesday in Troitskaya. The soldier was wounded in an attack on a checkpoint near the entrance to the army barracks around 11:30 AM, a security official told Interfax. One policeman was wounded in Tuesday morning in Nazran.
- Ahto Lobjakas – A regular meeting of the three South Caucasus ministers with EU foreign-policy chiefs in Brussels brought no breakthroughs, and instead served to strengthen the impression, gaining ground in Brussels recently, that the EU has reached a high-water mark in its relations with the region. The foreign ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia were in Brussels for their annual working lunch with EU counterparts, which was focused mainly on the details of the EU’s new ‘Eastern Partnership’ initiative.
Japanese Air Self-Defense Force aircrew members wave a final farewell to their American counterparts, Dec. 8, as they depart Iraq on their last mission in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. (photo by Master Sgt. Brian Davidson)
Middle East
- NPR – Security companies are the most visible symbol of the booming private contractor industry that has accompanied America’s five-year occupation of Iraq. But the new Iraqi-American security pact going into effect in January will end the immunity from prosecution in Iraq the companies have enjoyed.
- Reuters – Violence in Iraq has in the past few weeks fallen to its lowest level since summer 2003 and security gains, while still at risk of reversal, are less fragile than before, General David Petraeus said on Tuesday.
- Independent – Britain will begin withdrawing its 4,100-strong force from Iraq by the beginning of March, with almost all troops leaving within a few months, a senior defence source revealed yesterday. The Prime Minister is expected to announce the pullout that, in effect, ends the UK’s engagement in one of the most controversial wars in recent times, in the Commons next January.
- Joshua Hammer, The Atlantic – Getting Away With Murder? Why Rafiq al-Hariri’s assassins may never be caught
- Al Jazeera – Jimmy Carter, the former US president, has said he is ready to meet with Hezbollah officials if they agree to see him. Carter made his comments upon arrival in Lebanon on Tuesday where he will assess whether his Atlanta-based Carter Centre would take part in monitoring next year’s parliamentary elections.
- NOW Lebanon – US Ambassador Michele Sison and Major General Charles T. Cleveland, who leads the Special Operations Command of the United States Central Command, attended a closing ceremony held by the Lebanese Armed Forces for the latest session of the Joint Combined Exercise Training programs with U.S. Military Personnel on Monday.
- SANA – French President Nicolas Sarkozy stressed that he was confident of Syria, highlighting importance of the dialogue he opened with it. Speaking in a speech in Paris on Monday on the 60th anniversary of the Human Rights Declaration, President Sarkozy praised Syria’s positive role over Lebanon as it led to the election of a Lebanese President, formation of a national unity government and preparations for the next general elections.
- MSNBC – The leader of an al-Qaida-linked Lebanese group has probably been killed in Syria, according to a statement purportedly posted by the faction on an Islamic militant Web site Tuesday. Shaker al-Absi went on the run last year after his group, Fatah Islam, battled the Lebanese army for weeks inside a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
- BBC – Israel’s right-of-centre Likud party has elected a list of candidates dominated by hardliners for next February’s general election. Polls show that if a vote were held now, Likud would defeat the governing Kadima Party.
- Spiegel – Amid corruption scandals and stagnating reform, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, praised in Europe as a modernizer, is seeking refuge in nationalist rhetoric, adopting a tougher stance on the Kurds and moving closer to the country’s military leaders.
- The National – A series of reported human rights abuses by Turkish policemen and accusations of a “culture of impunity” that shields wrongdoers in the force from being punished have shaken public trust in the institution so deeply that many citizens are afraid of the officers that are supposed to protect them, critics say.
Iran
- Press TV – Chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani says that the Islamic Republic does not intend to engage in a war with the US. “We have no intention to involve in a conflict with the US. Iran only intends to stand on its two feet and set a role model for regional countries to uphold their independence and freedom,” Rafsanjani said Tuesday addressing prayers of Eid Al-Adha in Tehran.
- Iran Press Service – Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i was again compelled to come down personally in the political arena, acting not as the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic who stands above political lines, but as the champion of a political party fighting for survival. On 7th December, Mr. Khameneh’i once again expressed his full support of Mr. Ahmadi Nezhad during a meeting with Mr. Raphael Correa, the leftist President of Ecuador by the Iranian President as “a young man who works relentlessly day and night with plenty of energy”.
- Fars – Davoud Zareian, a spokesman for the Iranian state-owned telecoms operator, said that investors from China, Russia and Indonesia have already voiced interest in acquiring a stake in the Telecommunications Company of Iran (TCI). This is while Iran’s telecoms regulator is expected to announce the winning technical bid for the third domestic mobile phone carrier at the end of the month.
- Eritrea Daily – (Nov 29) An Eritrean website in Tigrigna, asena-online.com, reported that Iran has stationed its troops in Eritrea. Citing sources from inside Eritrea, same website said that using submarine ships heavily armed units of the Iranian army have landed in the Eritrean sea port of Assab. The Iranian troops are slated to be stationed in the city of Assab reportedly under the pretext of protecting the Russian-built Eritrean Assab Oil Refinary.
- Payvand – Two days after national Students Day, several hundred students at Iran’s Shiraz University marked the day with a demonstration against government policies, despite attempts to shut it down. One participant at the gathering told Radio Farda that as soon as the event began, security agents from the university “tried to disperse the students by taking away loudspeakers, which eventually led to some physical clashes.”
- Press TV – Security forces say they have arrested some elements of a terrorist group in eastern Iran who had a hand in the execution of 16 police officers.
- IMINT and Analysis – Below is a link to a video, showing a presentation given by Dr. Frank Pabian at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. The concept behind Dr. Pabian’s presentation was to depict the effect of open source imagery as an analysis tool in nonproliferation and the response of potentially hostile nations in the form of improved denial and deception. Dr. Pabian uses the ongoing nuclear issue with Iran to illustrate this issue.
- Adventure Journey – Anthon Jackson details his exploits in the land of ancient Persia; Jackson is among first Americans issued diplomatic visa to Iran in almost thirty years
South Asia
- CJTF-A – Afghan National Security Forces and Coalition forces killed seven insurgents in the Nad Ali district, located approximately 515 km southwest of Kabul, Helmand province, Tuesday. The combined forces were conducting a combat reconnaissance patrol when they were engaged by militants from multiple fighting positions using small-arms, indirect and rocket fire.
- AFPS – Afghan and coalition forces killed two militants yesterday in the Nar Surkh district of Afghanistan’s Helmand province, military officials reported. Militants using an illegal checkpoint attacked the combined forces with small-arms fire. Also yesterday, Afghan National Police and coalition forces detained nine suspected militants during a combined operation to disrupt the Haqqani terrorist network southeast of Kabul in Khowst province, officials said.
- Dawn – NATO and Afghan forces killed a Taliban commander during a targeted operation just south of Kabul in a province militant fighters have poured into this year, the NATO-led force said Tuesday.
- NATO – The Minister of Interior of Afghanistan, Mr. Atmar Mohamad Hanif Atmar, will visit NATO Headquarters on Wednesday 10th December 2008. He will meet with the Secretary General, Mr. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and address a meeting of the North Atlantic Council with non-NATO ISAF contributors.
- Pat Lang – The long standing vulnerability of coalition forces in Iraq to “line of communication” (LOC) interdiction on the roads from Kuwait to central Iraq was never exploited to its potential by the inhabitants of the Shia south of Iraq. Conflicted Shia politics, and Iranian unwillingness to bring on that great a crisis were largely responsible for the avoidance of what might have been a catastrophic situation. There do not seem to be similar inhibitions with regard to LOCs leading to Afghanistan. Political and business relationships in Pakistan are entwined in complex patterns that are exacerbating the threat to land based LOCs that extend from Karachi to Kabul through the FATA and from Karachi to Kandahar through Baluchistan.
- Geo – A 10-year-old boy was killed and four children were wounded in a suicide attack in Dagar, an area of Buner on Tuesday. The attacker struck during the celebrations of Eid-ul-Azha on a busy street in the town of Buner in NWFP. According to police, the suicide bomber wanted to target a government installation but suddenly his jacket was torn and the bomb exploded.
- Geo – Jaish-e-Mohammed founder Maulana Masood Azhar has been placed under house arrest as international pressure mounted on Pakistan to act against such “non-state actors” in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks in which Pakistani elements were reportedly found to be involved. Restrictions were imposed yesterday on Azhar”s movements and he was confined to his Bahawalpur home.
- Mr. Ahamed, India Minister of State for External Affairs, to UN Security Council – We have requested the Security Council to proscribe Pakistani group Jammat-ud-Dawa since it is a terrorist outfit and should be proscribed under Security Council Resolution 1267.
- Mark Silverberg – Pakistan may well be the single largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world, possibly beyond even Iran, yet it has never been listed by the U.S. State Department as such, even in the wake of the 9/11 Commission Report and the recommendation of the State Department’s counter-terrorism director. That is because the prevailing attitude within past U.S. administrations has been that such a designation would destroy U.S. influence in Islamabad. That attitude, however, seems to be changing.
- Times of India – Pakistan has arrested two key terror suspects India wants and could permit New Delhi to interrogate them if this is done jointly, a senior Pakistan minister said on Tuesday.
- Al Jazeera – Indian police have released the names or aliases of nine suspected gunmen killed during last month’s deadly attacks in the city of Mumbai.
- World Focus – Q&A: Kashmiri people, history and human rights; Professor Haley Duschinski answers your questions about Kashmir.
- Howrah – Five militants of the banned People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) have been killed in an encounter with police commandos in interior Thoubal district of Manipur, official sources said on Tuesday.
Far East & Pacific
- Jakarta Post – China on Tuesday distributed a draft proposal on how to verify North Korea’s account of its past atomic activities, the latest attempt to resolve a deadlock that has held up the implementation of a disarmament-for-aid accord reached last year. Verification is the focus of the international talks, which opened Monday in Beijing with North Korea refusing to let outside inspectors take samples – a key method of ensuring that the communist regime is being truthful – from its main nuclear complex at Yongbyon.
- Xinhua – Chiefs of the general staffs of the Chinese and Hungarian armed forces held talks in Beijing Tuesday on further enhancing military exchanges and cooperation.
- Leslie Hook – Over the next few days the Democrat Party and the Puea Thai Party will be jostling for control of a new government. The fact that this battle is being fought in parliament, rather than in occupied airports, is a positive step, and will result in a more stable Thailand in the short term. But in the long term, regardless of which political party comes out on top, Thailand’s democracy will be the loser.
- Reuters – Thailand’s parliament could vote next week for a new prime minister, a parliamentary official said on Tuesday, as both the main party in the outgoing government and the main opposition party claimed they had enough votes to win.
- Asia Times – Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, giving up power only once since 1955 for just 10 months, is in danger of losing the next election. Prime Minister Taro Aso’s numerous gaffes have led to dramatic plunges in public support, exacerbated by the government’s inaction on an ailing economy. Internal party criticism, meanwhile, is steadily growing.
- Japan Times – The economy shrank much faster in the third quarter than the government initially estimated, after businesses cut spending and slashed inventories in anticipation of a prolonged recession, Cabinet Office data showed Tuesday. Gross domestic product contracted at an annual 1.8 percent pace in the three months ended Sept. 30, the Cabinet Office said, more than the 0.4 percent reported last month.
- tvnz – Nepal’s Maoist Prime Minister Prachanda has threatened to walk out of a coalition government, less than four months after his election amid a deadlock with the main opposition party over the future of ex-fighters. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who still goes by his nom de guerre that means fierce, told a meeting in west Nepal this week that his party would take to the streets if the centrist opposition Nepali Congress party did not cooperate with him.
- Canberra Times – Australia will provide $1 billion to Indonesia as a stand-by loan to help tackle the global financial crisis if it’s needed, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says. Rudd has held bilateral talks with his Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Bali, on the sidelines of a democracy forum the two men are co-charing.
- stuff.co.nz – A 7.0-magnitude earthquake has struck the Kermadec islands north of New Zealand, the fourth significant quake in the area in the past three months.
Europe
- Guardian – Britain will fall behind eurozone laggard Italy in the global economic league table next year as a deep recession and the weakness of the pound affect the value of national output, a London-based consultancy said. After ranking fourth behind the United States, Japan and Germany in terms of the size of the economy earlier this decade, the UK is set to end 2009 in seventh place, the Centre for Economics and Business Research said. Britain has already ceded fourth place to China and will be overtaken this year by France, the CEBR said.
- Ioannis Michaletos – The riots (in Greece) were orchestrated since late summer 2008. There were reports within the Greek police that the riots would commence by the Christmas period at the latest; the location and the justification was not known, but any event could have caused them. This is a copycat case of what happened in France in Octomber 2005. The culprits in the higher level are Islamic netowrks in the Middle East, hand-in-hand with corrupted Western officials that are selling their services for the highest bidder.
- EU Observer – Macedonia is ready to start accession talks with the EU and the fact that a 17-year-old dispute with Greece over its name is hindering the process harms not just Skopje, but the EU’s credibility as well, Macedonian foreign minister Antonio Milososki has said.
- France24 – Czech lawmakers have put off a debate on whether to ratify the EU Lisbon Treaty by two months just weeks before the country takes on the EU presidency. The Czech Republic is the last to decide on the controversial reform charter.
- Telegraph – The European Commission has given its strongest sign yet that Ireland will hold a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty next autumn.
- AFP – A Lebanese man was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for a failed plot to blow up German passenger trains which the court said could have triggered “a bloodbath of monstrous proportions.” The regional superior court in this western city convicted Yusef Mohammed al-Hajj Dib, 24, of multiple counts of attempted murder for his part in an attempt to attack two regional trains packed with travellers in July 2006. (see related article in German from Die Welt)
- Washington Times – Spain’s government is investigating links between the Basque separatist group ETA and Colombian FARC rebels, following reports by Colombian officials that the groups have trained together and jointly planned assassinations and bombings.
- Earth Times – More than a month after it triumphed in a general election, a new government coalition took charge of the Baltic country of Lithuania Tuesday evening, following a swearing-in ceremony at the national parliament, the Seimas. Now the new Lithuanian government can begin to tackle a worsening economic situation in the largest of the Baltic states, under the leadership of 52-year-old Andrius Kubilius.
Africa
- Russia Today – Pirates operating off the Somali coast are about to receive another $3.5 million ransom for the release of the Ukrainian freighter Faina. That will bring their total haul to some $40 million so far this year. But does the money stay in their pockets? Some industry experts say pirates are tools in the hands of global players, faced with the collapse of shipping rates.
- UK MoD – The Royal Navy’s Rear Admiral Phil Jones took charge of the EU led counter-piracy naval operation, which is to operate off the coast of Somalia. The operation, called Op ATALANTA, is the European Union’s first naval task force, and it has been assembled to ensure the protection of vessels of the World Food Programme delivering food aid to displaced persons in Somalia as well as protection to other vulnerable shipping off Somalia.
- Asharq Al Awsat – Hundreds of passengers on a round-the-world cruise will disembark before reaching waters off Somalia and fly to Dubai to avoid pirates, German cruise operator Hapag-Lloyd said Tuesday. The company said the 150-meter (490-foot) MS Columbus and its crew will continue on through the Gulf of Aden.
- Garowe – Ethiopian troops have reportedly amassed near the Somali-Ethiopian border, rising military tensions in Hiran and Galgadud regions, Radio Garowe reported Tuesday. An Ethiopian army convoy of 20 military trucks has reportedly reached a village 30km northwest of Beletwein, the capital of Hiran region.
- CTB – The transcript of our panel on the Mumbai attacks, held December 4 in Washington, is available here as an Acrobat document. The panel consisted of Contributing Experts Dr. Walid Phares and Farhana Ali, and Dr. David Kilcullen.
- VOA – Delegations from the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the rebel National Congress for Defense of the People, or CNDP, gathered for a second day of talks at the U.N. compound in Nairobi.
- BBC – More than 200,000 jobs have been lost in the Democratic Republic of Congo amid a collapse in mineral prices as a result of the global economic downturn. There are fears the job losses could reach 300,000 by the end of this month.
- Javno – What Next For Uganda’s Rebels? Following Kony`s latest no-show, countries in the region may opt to attack the rebels, currently holed up in eastern Congo.
- ICG – Since the coup d’etat that brought President François Bozizé to power on 15 March 2003, the risk of renewed wider violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) has never been greater than today. The opening of an inclusive political dialogue on 8 December – initially planned for June 2008 – has continued to be negotiated inch by inch, but both the regime and the main opposition forces see armed conflict as the ultimate way out of the crisis and are making preparations to return to it.
- IRIN – Marrying off Mauritanian girls as young as six years old to men in Gulf states is turning into a profitable trafficking enterprise as a typically rural marriage practice migrates to the city, according to urban families.
Soldiers of El Salvador's Battalion Cuscatlan stand in formation during a ceremony welcoming Gen. Jorge Alberto Molina, El Salvador's minister of defense to Forward Operating Base Delta Dec. 5 (photo by Sgt. Daniel West)
The Global War
- UN Security Council – Expressing deep concern over “continuous terrorist attacks around the world”, the Security Council this afternoon called on Member States to renew the degree of international solidarity against the scourge that was manifested immediately after the tragic 11 September 2001 attacks, following a day-long meeting during which some speakers warned that the Mumbai carnage of 26 to 29 November could mark a new stage in the violence.
- Virginia Lunsford, Proceedings – A piracy expert surveys the history of the phenomenon and highlights the five factors that are still keeping piracy alive.
- Al Arabiya – A trial version of the world’s first Muslim-friendly virtual world was launched Tuesday, catering primarily to Muslims living in western countries who long to reconnect with other Muslims. The site is called Muxlim Pal and allows users to create an online persona, design their own rooms, buy virtual items and interact with others.
- DoD IG – Specifically, MCCDC officials did not develop a course of action for the UUNS, attempt to obtain funding for it, or present it to the Marine Corps Requirements Oversight Council for a decision on acquiring an MRAP-type vehicle capability.
- AFRICOM – During the Southern European Task Force (SETAF) Transformation Ceremony today, SETAF cased its old colors, ending the airborne chapter of its history, and uncased its new colors, signifying acceptance of a new mission. serving as the Army component in support of U.S. Africa Command.
- UN FAO – Another 40 million people have been pushed into hunger this year primarily due to higher food prices, according to preliminary estimates published by FAO today. This brings the overall number of undernourished people in the world to 963 million, compared to 923 million in 2007 and the ongoing financial and economic crisis could tip even more people into hunger and poverty, FAO warned.
- Michael Yon – Here is a rare and curious thing: an antique British WB-57 bomber flying over Afghan skies. These planes flew in the 1950s and 60s, performing top of the atmosphere reconnaissance. The U.S. Air Force retired the WB-57 decades ago. But NASA owns two, which it uses for an odd group of missions, including collecting cosmic dust from extremely high altitudes. It seems doubtful that NASA came all the way to Afghanistan to collect cosmic dust, but this would be an interesting region in which to search for traces of nuclear debris, drifting upwards from Iran, Pakistan, various Central Asian states, China, or India.
Sights & Sounds
Read more »
Sphere: Related Content
Comments: -
9 December, 2008 (01:04) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 9 December 2008.
United States & the Americas
- NY Times – The five Guantánamo detainees charged with coordinating the Sept. 11 attacks told a military judge on Monday that they wanted to confess in full, a move that seemed to challenge the government to put them to death. But the military judge, Col. Stephen R. Henley of the Army, said a number of legal questions about how the commissions are to deal with capital cases had to be resolved before guilty pleas could be accepted.
- US DOJ – A 35-count indictment was unsealed today in the District of Columbia charging five Blackwater security guards with voluntary manslaughter, attempt to commit manslaughter, and weapons violations for their alleged roles in the Sept.16, 2007, shooting at Nisur Square in Baghdad, Iraq. The defendants are charged with killing 14 unarmed civilians and wounding 20 other individuals.
- Treasury Dept – Joint U.S.—China Fact Sheet: The Fifth U.S.—China Strategic Economic Dialogue
- Toronto Star – Despite a concerted effort in Ottawa to make Michael Ignatieff the interim Liberal leader, rival Bob Rae signalled today that he’ll hang in as a candidate for the party’s top job and push for a selection process that consults the broader party membership. Political jostling began today after Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said he’ll resign as soon as a new leader is chosen.
- Canada Public Safety Ministry – (Nov 28) The Minister of Public Safety, the Honourable Peter Van Loan today announced that the Government has completed the two-year review of the Criminal Code list of terrorist entities, and that the Governor in Council has accepted his recommendation that the forty-one entities currently listed should remain on the list. [me: The MEK is still on the list]
- AP – China wants to loan Brazil’s state oil company $10 billion to help develop massive new oil fields in deep water off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s top energy official said in comments published Monday.
- Douglas Farah – While Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador have formed a new anti-U.S. and pro-Iranian axis, perhaps the most dangerous developments are taking place directly on our southern border. It is to the point where the Mexican government, despite commendable efforts by the Calderon administration, is barely hanging on.
- Reuters – The number of people killed in Mexico by drug violence has more than doubled this year to nearly 5,400 people and 2009 could be even worse, Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said on Monday. The official death toll of 5,376 for the year so far is higher than media estimates and more than twice the 2,477 people killed in the whole of 2007.
- Miami Herald – President Cristina Fernandez and more than 100 Argentine business leaders are on their way to Russia for a two-day state visit aimed at bolstering trade and signing energy and mining agreements.
- SOUTHCOM – While on patrol in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, units assigned to the U.S. Navy’s Fourth Fleet and the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a fishing vessel carrying over four metric tons of cocaine Dec. 5. The combined team of USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG 60), with embarked Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light (HSL-43) Det 2, and U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) 106, intercepted the fishing vessel in an early morning interdiction, capturing nine suspected narcotics smugglers and the large cargo of cocaine with an estimated import value of $90 million.
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- Russia Foreign Ministry – According to the final communique of the NATO foreign ministers [after a December 2-3 meeting in Brussels], any version of the NATO missile defense network in Europe will include the elements of the U.S. global missile defense placed in Poland and the Czech Republic. This statement allows us to conclude that the so-called ‘integrated’ European missile defense network will be aimed against Russia.
- RIA Novosti – One naval officer died in a fire on Russia’s Baltic Fleet frigate the Neukrotimy (Indomitable) on Monday, a senior Navy official said.
- Russia Today – Ukraine’s special parliamentary commission investigating illegal arms trading announced that Kiev’s weapons supplies to Georgia harmed the country’s own military efficiency. According to the commission, President Viktor Yushchenko was directly linked to arms sales, though the country’s authorities deny that. ”Actually, it was money laundering,” Konovalyuk said.
- Civil Georgia – Grigol Vashadze, the Georgia’s new foreign minister, said Georgia’s “strategic vector” of foreign policy, involving Euro-Atlantic integration would not change. In an interview with the Russian daily, Kommersant, published on December 8, Vashadze, who has double Russian-Georgian citizenship, said that Tbilisi’s key priorities towards Russia also remained unchanged.
- Kommersant – Russia has terminated a number of armament projects with Ukraine in the wake of supplies of Ukrainian weapons to Georgia, said Valery Konovalyuk, who heads the Ukrainian parliament’s commission for investigating illegal weapon supplies. According to Konovalyuk, the matter at stake is upgraded BUK-M1 surface-to-air missile systems.
- Forbes – The first section of Central Asia Pipeline is due to start operations before the end of 2009, delivering gas to China, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the pipeline’s builder and operator, China National Petroleum Corp.
- SRI – ConocoPhillips, a U.S. oil major, Mubadala Development Company, a UAE-based investment group, and KazMunaiGas (KMG), the Kazakh national oil company, signed an agreement in Almaty on Friday on cooperation on the Block N shelf project. As part of the agreement, Conoco and Mubadala agreed to pay Kazakhstan a USD 100 million signing bonus for buying a stake in a Kazakh offshore oil block.
- Kavkaz Center – JamaatShariat.com published a statement issued in the name of Dagestani Mujahideen. The Mujahideen swear allegiance to the newly appointed amir of Dagestan Front: “Military units of the Dagestan Front (Jamaat Shariat) and Muslims of Wilayah Dagestan of the Emirate of Caucasus swear allegiance to amir Mu’adh (‘Umar Sheykhullayev).”
- Kavkaz Center – Address of the Amir of the Emirate of Caucasus Dokka Abu ‘Uthman on the Occasion of Eid al-Adha Festival; “The Islamic Ummah needs Jihad to get rid of humiliation and grief, to restore greatness of Islam, to punish oppressors and tyrants, and give back to people their legitimate right for the Shari’ah of Allah”
An Iraqi air force Mi-17 helicopter takes off from Landing Zone Washington, in Baghdad's International Zone, during the first night flight outside the air base at Taji since the new Iraqi air force was formed. (photo by William Lovelady)
Middle East
- AFPS – Coalition forces apprehended three alleged Kataib Hezbollah terrorists in two operations early today in Baghdad’s Rusafa district, military officials reported. kataib Hezbollah is believed to be a surrogate group operating in Iraq on behalf of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, coalition officials said.
- Voices of Iraq – A wife of an al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) leader, along with two of her sisters, was killed in an explosion that tore through a house in Diala’s Balad Rouz district, according to a local security source. “An improvised explosive device (IED) detonated inside a house of an al-Qaeda leader in Balad Rouz district (45 km east of Diala), killing his wife and two of her sisters,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.
- Maj. Gen. Hertling, Commander 1st Armored Division - I believe the changes in northern Iraq over the last 15 months have been monumental, partly due to the heroic and courageous actions of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines and civilians, but just as much due to the actions of the Iraqi security forces, Iraqi patriotic leaders and citizens who have decided on what they wanted to do in their future. When we arrived, there were nearly 1,800 attacks per month. Last week we had our lowest number of attacks in the north, with 108. When we arrived, there were four Iraqi army divisions in the north struggling to conduct operations above the company level, and there were about 55,000 Iraqi police. Nearly 75 percent of those were untrained. Today there are five Iraqi army divisions. And there are 76,000 Iraqi policemen, and 70 percent of them are trained. And there’s about a hundred women as well.
- Naharnet – Militants from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction and rival Islamist movement Hamas fought gunbattles in the southern refugee camp of Mieh Mieh on Monday, killing a youth and wounding two more people.
- Haaretz – Some 100,000 Likud members went to the polls Monday, with leader Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to maintain the party’s center-right leaning in its selection of candidates for the February Knesset elections.
Iran
- Press TV – A report reveals Saudi Arabian intelligence agencies were behind the abduction of a group of Iranian police officers by Jundullah. Sixteen Iranian police officers were abducted by Jundullah (Soldiers of God) terrorists at a checkpoint in the southeastern city of Saravan in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan Province on June 12. According to information obtained from sources in Peshawar, Saudi Arabia has been directly supporting Jundullah to carry out the hostage taking of Iranian police officers.
- Al Bawaba – Iran on Monday rejected a proposal by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama that a combination of economic incentives and tighter sanctions might persuade the Iranian government to change its behavior.
- MEMRI – In Iran, it is reported that following the Ahmadinejad government’s decision to trade in euros, the Iranian economy has lost $4.6 million due to the dollar’s strengthening against the euro.
- Fars – Iran has inked a contract to build a refinery-petrochemical complex in Malaysia. The contract was signed last Tuesday in Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur between Iran’s Hampa Engineering Corporation and a Malaysian firm.
- Xinhua – An Iranian official said that Iran was constructing seven refineries across the country, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Monday. The country was planning to invest 27 billion U.S. dollars on the refineries, Head of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company Seyed Noureddin Shahnazizad said in a press conference on Sunday.
- Haaretz – Reports on Monday suggesting Iran has recently tripled its missile arsenal have exacerbated concerns that the Islamic Republic remains tireless in its efforts to step up defensive capabilities against Israel. The number of Shihab-3 missiles in Iran’s possession has gone from roughly 30 at the start of 2008 to more than 100.
- Payvand – Photos: Snow in Abyaneh Village
South Asia
- AFPS – Afghan and coalition forces killed six militants during a security patrol yesterday in the Sangin district of Afghanistan’s Helmand province, military officials reported.
- UK MoD – Supplying Helmand’s front line; From water and washers to bullets and boots, fuel and now festive food, the Commando Logistic Regiment Royal Marines are currently in Afghanistan working 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, to keep 3 Commando Brigade supplied with everything they need.
- Senlis Council – The Taliban now holds a permanent presence in 72% of Afghanistan, up from 54% a year ago. Taliban forces have advanced from their southern heartlands, where they are now the de facto governing power in a number of towns and villages, to Afghanistan’s western and north-western provinces, as well as provinces north of Kabul. Within a year, the Taliban’s permanent presence in the country has increased by a startling 18%.
- canada.com – Canada’s ambassador to Afghanistan says a foreign-policy think-tank founded by a Vancouver lawyer is giving a boost to the Taliban. Ambassador Ron Hoffmann called a finding by the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) that the Taliban have a permanent presence across 72 per cent of Afghanistan “puzzling” and “off the mark.”
- USA Today – The top commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan said Sunday that 2009 will be a “tough fight” in Afghanistan and the United States will need nearly twice as many troops for up to four years to stabilize the country. In an interview with USA TODAY at the ISAF headquarters, Gen. David McKiernan said increasing U.S. troop levels from about 32,000 to 55,000 or 60,000 is “needed until we get to this tipping point where the Afghan army and the Afghan police have both the capacity and capability to provide security for their people.”
- CentCom – Afghan Commandos prevent assassination of Nangarhar Provincial Governor
- Michael Yon – The hard work is especially difficult when our troops are spread perilously thin. Over the last nearly two weeks I’ve spent time with teams whose nearest ground support is too far away, and too small anyway, to help them when they get into serious trouble, which happens all the time. Some of these groups are too far out for helicopters to reach within any reasonable amount of time, and so their only choice often is “CAS,” or Close Air Support: Jets with bombs.
- Dawn – Security forces have launched a ‘quiet’ crackdown on activists belonging to the banned jihadi outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba in different parts of the country and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. In Muzaffarabad, a major army operation was under way in the city suburbs on Sunday against a site being used by the Jamaatud Dawa, which is headed by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed. Sources said that more than 20 members of the banned organisation and Lashkar-e-Taiba’s ‘commander’ Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi had been arrested. There are reports that similar actions are planned in some cities and towns of Punjab.
- The News – Forty more military vehicles were set on fire on Monday in yet another attack on Nato forces’ logistics inside a transport terminal at Hazarkhwani, only a day after around 171 trucks of the allied troops fighting against the Taliban in Afghanistan were torched in Pishtakhara.
- Geo – According to sources, three beheaded bodies of a father and two sons were found in Takhta Band area. All three were barber by profession.They were belonged to Bilogram area. The bodies were handed over to relatives after postmortem. Meanwhile, land link between Mingora and Matta and Kabal remained suspended after destruction of Ayub Bridge. On the other hand, TV channels transmission have been restored in Swat.
- Daily Times – Government Elementary College, Jamrud, Principal Razi Hussain Shah was found dead in Regi Lalma village on Saturday eight days after his kidnapping by unidentified people.
- Intellibriefs – Feeling threatened in Bangladesh, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) is exploring the possibility of establishing bases in the Yunan province of China, said the Director General of Assam Police, GM Srivastava. He also expressed the view that in order to tackle the militants, police and security forces would have to be more innovative in the days to come.
- Times of India – Even as Pakistan launched operations to close down Lashkar-e-Taiba camps, Islamabad formally refused to hand over three of India’s most wanted criminals, Dawood Ibrahim, Tiger Memon (wanted for the 1993 Mumbai blasts) and Maulana Masood Azhar (chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed).
- Pak Tribune – Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee while commenting on news items published in the media about a threatening call made by him to President Asif Ali Zardari on November 28, said he had not made such a call to him. However, Pakistan rejected the statement of Indian foreign minister by declaring it ridiculous. Presidential Spokesman Farhatullah Babar said President Asif Ali Zardari was phoned up from the Indian foreign ministry’s authentic number and evidences in this respect have been imparted to India.
Far East & Pacific
- Jakarta Post – Japan’s coast guard urged Chinese survey ships to leave waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea on Monday, and the government lodged a protest with Beijing, officials said. The two maritime survey ships entered waters surrounding the Japan-held islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, earlier in the day, the coast guard said.
- Xinhua – China’s Defense Minister Liang Guanglie Monday urged the United States to immediately cancel its planned weapons sale to Taiwan, and cease all military ties with Taiwan. U.S. Arms sale to Taiwan has poisoned the sound atmosphere of bilateral military relations and endangered China’s national security, Liang told Richard Myers, former chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is in Beijing for a visit.
- Yonhap – The United States said Monday it will support Japan raising the issue of North Korean abductions in the multilateral forum on ending Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.
- Air Force – Japan-based Airmen and Marines came together for Exercise Beverly High 09-01 the first week of December at Kadena Air Base. Airmen of the 18th Wing integrated with Marines from Marine Corps Station Iawkuni as they executed their missions under simulated combat conditions.
Europe
- IHT – The violence in Greece by youths angry over the killing of a teenager by the police raged for a third day on Monday as thousands of police officers failed to contain some of the worst rioting in recent years. A major street march through the center of central Athens quickly turned violent Monday night, as demonstrators threw concrete slabs, rocks and flaming gasoline bombs at police officers.
- France24 – French anti-terrorism police on Monday arrested the suspected military chief of the Basque separatist group ETA, just weeks after capturing his alleged predecessor “Txeroki”, the interior ministry said.
- France24 – Hundreds of tombstones marking the graves of Muslim soldiers who died for France during the bloody battles of World War One have been daubed with fascist symbols. The attack comes on the biggest feast day in the Muslim calendar.
- Irish Times – Nearly 1,400 workers at meat processing plants around the country have been put on protective notice following the recall of Irish pork products at the weekend. Singapore and South Korea today became the latest to suspend the import and sale of all Irish pork and pork products with immediate effect. In all, 25 countries import Irish pork products.
- Xinhua – Veterinary inspectors from the Bulgarian National Veterinary Services found in Bulgarian storage facilities 60 tons of pork imported from Ireland, and issued a ban on its sale on fears that it may contain a high level of dioxin, the Bulgarian Agriculture and Foods Ministry announced on Monday.
- China Daily – China has banned imports of all pork products from Ireland after dioxin, a carcinogenic chemical, was found in some of them, the country’s quality control watchdog said on Monday. About 2,047 tons of Irish pork products, imported since Sept 1, will be recalled from the market and returned to Ireland.
Africa
- Press TV – Ethiopia takes control of the Balanba in northern Somalia while al-Shabaab fighters have also taken over towns in central and northern Somalia. Locals said on Monday that 10 truckloads of Ethiopian troops moved into the town of Balanbal. The soldiers shut down businesses and cut communications in Balanbal after they took control of the town.
- HRW – All parties in the escalating conflict in Somalia have regularly committed war crimes and other serious abuses during the past year that have contributed to the country’s humanitarian catastrophe, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 104-page report, “So Much to Fear: War Crimes and the Devastation of Somalia,” describes how the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), the Ethiopian forces that intervened in Somalia to support it and insurgent forces have committed widespread and serious violations of the laws of war.
- Asharq Al Awsat – The European Union agreed on Monday to launch an anti-piracy naval operation off the coast of Somalia involving warships and aircraft from several nations. The mission, the first naval crisis-management operation ever mounted by the 27-member EU, will initially involve three warships from Greece, Britain and France, and two maritime surveillance aircraft from France and Spain.
- Derek Kilner – Talks aimed at finding a solution to fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have begun in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The meeting is expected to provide the first direct talks between the government and rebels loyal to Laurent Nkunda, but neither Nkunda nor Congolese president Joseph Kabila are in attendance. At the opening of the conference, the UN’s special envoy, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, described the need for a ceasefire and agreement to allow access for humanitarian aid in eastern Congo. Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula pledged the support of the international community, but said the parties to the conflict would need to take responsibility.
- Elizabeth Dickinson - There is one reason, above the many other good ones, that I am unfortunately a skeptic: the UN appointed moderator, Olusegun Obasanjo.
- RIA Novosti – A Russian An-124 Condor heavy transport plane has delivered four helicopters along with personnel to Chad to take part in an EU-led mission to support UN peacekeeping efforts in the country, an Air Force spokesman said on Monday.
- Afrique en ligne – Police in Malawi’s northern border district of Karonga Monday arrested veteran opposition leader Gwanda Chakuamba for allegedly inciting violence against the people of President Bingu Bingu wa Mutharika’s Lhomwe tribe, police and his lawyer confirmed to PANA.
- AP – Ghanaians held radios to their ears and congregated around TV sets Monday as election results showed the ruling party taking a slim lead in one of Africa’s few stable democracies. With just over half the precincts counted, the ruling party’s presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo led the main opposition candidate by just over 2 percentage points.
- Electoral Commission of Ghana – 2008 results summary
- African Elections Project – The Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) and Civic Forum Initiative (CFI) has expressed concern about competing pronouncements and claims being made by some political parties even before election results were released.In a joint statement in Accra, IDEG and CFI described the language being used by some of those political parties as threatening and incendiary, noting that they were raising unnecessary tension.
Italian army Chief Warrant Officer 3rd Class Alberto Poddi of Oristano, performs maintenance on a Mangusta Attack Helicopter at Camp Arena, Dec. 7. The Mangusta squadron is part of the International Security Assistance Force stationed at the Regional Command West headquarters and is deployed from the Italian army 5th Aviation Element (photo by Tech. Sgt. Laura Smith)
The Global War
- Waliullah Rahmani – Has al-Qaeda Picked a Leader for Operations in China?
- Adam Fosson – Confluence of Evil: The Smuggling-Terrorism Nexus
- David Axe – The commando-style terror attack in Mumbai, India, that claimed nearly 200 lives in late November highlights the ongoing danger Islamic extremists pose to even the most developed democracy in South Asia. The attack, and the diplomatic maneuvering in its wake, also casts light on the increasingly important network of relationships between India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States. These four countries, three of them nuclear states, will likely decide the future of South Asia in an era of terrorism, coalition warfare and national rapprochement.
Sights & Sounds
Read more »
Sphere: Related Content
Comments: -
