Peace Like A River

Cables, dispatches and memoranda

23 March, 2009 (00:52) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba

Cables, Dispatches and MemorandaA brief world news roundup for 23 March 2009.

United States & the Americas

  • HS Today – Cyber hackers believed to be based in China have tapped three times into the computer network in US Sen. Bill Nelson’s office, the Florida Democrat said Friday. Two attacks on the same day this month and another one last month targeted work stations used by three Nelson staffers — a key foreign-policy aide, the deputy legislative director and a former Nelson NASA advisor, according to Nelson’s staff.
  • canada.com – Canada is to nearly double the number of police mentors it sends to Afghanistan and intends to base a senior Mountie in Kabul to advise on policing issues, RCMP commissioner Bill Elliott said Sunday.
  • Khaleej Times – President Hugo Chavez said Saturday he will visit the Middle East, including Iran, and possibly Japan after he attends the summit of Arab and South American countries in Doha on March 31.
  • Al Jazeera – Venezuela’s military has taken control of all the country’s major airports and sea ports, a move that critics say is meant to limit the powers of mayors, governors and other potential rivals to Hugo Chavez, the president.
  • AP – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday called President Barack Obama “ignorant,” saying he has a lot to learn about Latin America.
  • LA Times – China’s copper mine project in Peru reflects its economic power; The Asian giant lacks the natural resources at home it needs to keep its economy expanding, but it has a lot of cash to acquire them.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

  • RIA Novosti – Russia and Japan could sign an agreement on civilian nuclear power in May, a Russian deputy prime minister said Saturday.
  • Fars -  Russian prime minister’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Iran, Russia and Turkey could jointly develop nuclear energy projects in different countries to help them reduce dependency on oil and gas imports.
  • Daily Star – Russian Ambassador to Bangladesh Gennady P Trotsenko submitted a formal proposal to State Minister for Science and ICT Yafez Osman for setting up a nuclear power plant to meet Bangladesh’s growing demand for energy.
  • afrol – Nigeria’s Federal government has signed an energy accord with a Russian company, Rosatom Corp, to work on mining uranium, building and testing atomic power plants and sharing knowledge. The memorandum of understanding signed in Moscow would pave the way for a bilateral cooperation on the development of nuclear energy infrastructure, including on nuclear power plants and research reactors in Nigeria.
  • Moscow Times – Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held a tense meeting with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov on Friday, trading thinly veiled barbs about whose responsibility it was to rebuild the impoverished republic.
  • NPR – When Serge Schmemann arrived in Moscow in 1980 as the bureau chief for The New York Times, the Russian Orthodox Church was in dismal shape. Since then, he says, the path of the church has followed the fate of the country.
  • Itar-Tass – During a special operation, which is going on to the south of the village of Kakashura in Dagestan’s Karabudakhkensky region for the third day already. Five law enforcers died in the operation. As ITAR-TASS learnt at the press service of the Interior Ministry for Dagestan, “as a result of an exchange of fire, a rifleman-radio operator and another four servicemen died. According to preliminary data, there are losses among the militants – - eight or ten people.”
  • Civil Georgia – The Kremlin aims at regime change in Georgia “through internal disorders and destabilization”, Gela Bezhuashvili, the chief of Georgian intelligence service, told lawmakers on March 20. Speaking at a hearing of the parliamentary committee for defense and security Bezhuashvili suggested that in a short-term period Russia would likely try to mount pressure on Georgia through inciting internal destabilization rather than through use of direct military force.

Middle East

  • Al Arabiya – Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul will arrive in Baghdad Monday on the first visit by a Turkish head of state in 33 years for talks on the thorny issue of Kurdish rebels, feared to step up action after U.S. pullout, officials said.
  • Asharq Al Awsat – Almost 90 percent of the tens of thousands of U.S.-backed fighters who helped purge much of Iraq of al Qaeda have been transferred to Iraqi control, the U.S. commander in charge of their programme said on Saturday.
  • Voices of Iraq – Security forces in Diala captured 10 members of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) network in different areas of Baaquba city on Saturday, the Diala police chief said.
  • Haaretz – A senior source in the Palestinian Authority told Haaretz Sunday that he suspects Hezbollah or another organization with links to Iran was behind the attempted bombing of the Lev Hamifratz shopping mall in Haifa on Saturday night.
  • Jerusalem Post – Shas became the second party to join Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu’s government Sunday night, signing a deal just after midnight. Shas chairman Eli Yishai will take the Interior Ministry portfolio as part of the agreement.
  • Al Bawaba – Israeli premier-designate Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to reassure Cairo over choosing a disputed politician who once told the Egyptian president to “go to hell” as his foreign minister, his office said on Sunday. In the past he also said Israel should destroy Aswan Dam.
  • JCPA – The Role of Radical Islamic Groups in Israel: Implications for Israeli-Arab Coexistence
  • Naharnet – Phalange Party Central Coordinator Sami Gemayel on Sunday slammed Hizbullah without naming it, saying: “There is a party in Lebanon that owns an army dissimilar to the Lebanese army, and enjoys foreign connections that contradict with the state.” “This takes the country to a different course,” Gemayel said in an interview with the Voice of Lebanon radio station.
  • SANA – The Syrian delegation, headed by Minister of Irrigation Nader al-Bunni, and the Iranian delegation, headed by Minister of Energy Parviz Fattah discussed Saturday means of joint cooperation between the two countries regarding water. During a meeting on the sidelines of the Fifth International Water Forum currently held in Istanbul, both sides called for enhancing relations through reciprocal visits of concerned delegations and exchanging information, as well as making use of each other’s technologies.

Iran

  • Rooz – Just a day after Majlis Speaker Larijani’s harsh reply to President Ahmadinejad, which had heightened the conflict between the two branches of government in the final days of the Iranian calendar year, pro-Ahmadinejad media launched an intense media campaign against the Speaker.
  • Khamenei – Ayatollah Khamenei touched on the issue of Iran and America and termed the quality of interaction with the American government as a big test for the Iranian nation and the Islamic Republic. The IR Leader pointed to the enmity of the American administration towards the Iranian nation and the Islamic Republic and said,” America provoked and helped the terror and separatist moves against the Islamic Republic and based on reliable information America cooperates with terrorists along the IRI-Pakistan borders.”
  • The News – Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmud Qureshi, commenting on the reported attack by Jundullah on an Iranian post, said on Sunday that some miscreants were involved in such activities which were creating misunderstandings. But, these miscreants were not from Pakistan as according to his information, after the attack on the Iranian post, the miscreants did not return towards Pakistan
  • IRNA – Thailand’s Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya stressed the importance of boosting ties with Iran.
  • Payvand – Photos: Imam Khomeini’s wife, Khadije Saghafi, laid to rest
shura council meeting on Forward Operating Base Morales Frasier, Nijrab district, in southern Kapisa

About 100 government, tribal, and religious leaders, mostly from Alasai district meet at a shura council meeting on Forward Operating Base Morales Frasier, Nijrab district, in southern Kapisa, Afghanistan, March 17, 2009. The shura was held to address operations in the Alasai district and the recent appointment of a new sub-governor there. (photo by Chief Master Sgt. John Zincone)

South Asia

  • AFPS – Afghan and coalition forces killed 36 enemy fighters and detained eight suspects in operations in Afghanistan, military officials reported Friday.
  • Maj. Gen. Mart de Kruif, DoD briefing – It’s clear to say that two years ago, the insurgents changed their overall strategy from attacking our strength, being ISAF, towards focusing on terrorizing the local nationals, the Afghan people. And one of the elements of that is the use of IEDs. For ISAF, that means that we have to deliver a 24/7 security in the focus areas where we are placed.
  • Frontier Post – Afghan Governor Gul Agha Shirzai, who is a semi-literate former warlord and a handful of other former warlords are again being seen as useful partners as US President Barack Obama undertakes a massive overhaul of the war in Afghanistan.
  • Geo – FC sources told that security forces today in their second day of operation against the extremists at Tehsil Bara of Khayber Agency destroyed two main centers of the extremists. Tanks and helicopter gun ships were used in the operation, but no loss of life thus far reported during the operation. While yesterday 31 extremists were taken into custody during operation, six extremists were wounded and two centers were destroyed.
  • Statesman – Swat Taliban, who recently made a peace deal with the government, has issued warning to NGOs in the valley. “They come and tell us how to make latrines. I’m sure we can do it ourselves. There is no need for foreigners to tell us this,” Muslim Khan, a spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), told IRIN on Sunday.
  • Gulf News – Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Pakistan Muslim League-N chief and former premier Nawaz Sharif agreed on reconciliation and cooperation between PML-N and the Pakistan Peoples Party during a crucial meeting on Sunday, their first after the historic restoration of the deposed judges.
  • Times of India – Investigations have been launched to trace the origin of an e-mail threat in the name of al-Qaida to a city hotel a couple of days ago, police said. The sources said a hotel near the railway station received an e-mail threatening that it would face ‘the similar fate of Taj Hotel in Mumbai and another hotel in Islamabad, if it did not act as per our desire, since we know your activities.’
  • The Age – Five Indian soldiers and six Muslim rebels were killed in separate gunbattles in Kashmir yesterday, police said, a day after Pakistani and Indian troops traded fire across the de facto border.
  • Sri Lanka MoD – Sri Lankan Army infantrymen of the 53 Division advancing eastwardly in Puthukkudiyirippu towards the remaining LTTE resistance positions at the Mullaittivu battlefront have reportedly gained total control over a 1.5km stretch of the Paranthan- Mullaittivu (A-35 ) main road this morning (March 21). According to military sources, troops are now consolidating defences in the area after neutralizing LTTE resistances. Terrorists put-on stiff resistances with heavy artillery shelling and mortar attacks launched from the declared No Fire Zone in the Eastern Mullaittivu coast, the sources further said.
  • Hindu – The Sri Lankan government on Sunday said China had opposed a motion in the United Nations Security Council for a discussion on the humanitarian crisis triggered by the war in the north. A report on the Information Ministry website said Beijing had opposed the proposal on the ground that it was an internal matter of the island nation and the military operations had no effect on international peace and security.

Far East & Pacific

  • VOA – China’s official Xinhua news agency says police have detained almost 100 ethnic Tibetan monks who attacked a police station in northwestern China. Xinhua says the monks were among hundreds of rioters who assaulted police and government workers at the police building Saturday.
  • China Daily – A Jian-10 (Fighter-10), China’s most advanced military jet, had made a successful forced landing during a training flight after an engine failure, China Central Television (CCTV) reported Sunday.
  • Times Online – A French arms company is at the centre of a deepening scandal involving the sale of three submarines, the murder of a beautiful Mongolian interpreter and the man most likely to become prime minister of Malaysia next month.
  • JoongAng – Two American warships, initially deployed for the U.S.?South Korea joint military exercise, will remain in the waters near the Korean Peninsula in preparation for the suspected long-range rocket launch by North Korea next month, a military source said yesterday.
  • ABC – Japanese Military Assumes More Global Role; From Sapporo to Somalia: Japan moving to redefine its military as a global force
  • Bangkok Post – A car bomb went off at a fresh market in the troubled southern province of Narathiwat on Monday morning, injuring seven people.
  • Irrawaddy – Three alleged members of the network operated by late drug kingpin Khun Sa have been arrested in Thailand and assets worth more than 117 million baht (US $3.3 million) seized.
  • Manila Times – THE joint RP-US military exercises scheduled in the Bicol region will start 15 days earlier than the original plan to make sure that projects will be completed before the closing of the annual undertaking a military officials disclosed Sunday. At the same time American troops are expected to arrive in the region by next week.
  • Air Force – Airmen aboard a B-2 Spirit tested their endurance in a 24-hour, 8,000-mile mission to Alaska and back to Guam March 12 in an exercise showcasing U.S. commitment to peace and stability throughout the Pacific region. Four B-2s and 270 Airmen from the 13th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron are deployed to Andersen Air Force Base from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., and this was the first bomber to complete the Polar Lightning Exercise since their arrival in late February.

Europe

  • Javno – Poland said on Sunday it hoped the new U.S. administration would not abandon plans to station a missile defence system on its territory. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said Poland had taken “something of a political risk” in signing an agreement with the Bush adminstration to host the system.
  • Czech News – The congress of the opposition Czech Social Democrats (CSSD) today agreed that the party should strive for the cancellation of the Czech-U.S. treaties based on which a U.S. radar be is to be stationed on Czech soil.
  • Interpol – Pakistan has been praised by INTERPOL for its benchmark move in sharing with the world police body and its 187 member countries the DNA profiles of suspected terrorists linked to last November’s Mumbai terrorist attacks. On 21 March, INTERPOL’s Command and Co-ordination Centre at its General Secretariat headquarters in Lyon received DNA profiles from Pakistan relating to the Mumbai terrorist attacks which were immediately checked against the organization’s global database by experts from INTERPOL’s DNA unit.
  • MSNBC – Hungary’s prime minister stunned the country Saturday by announcing his resignation because he had become an “obstacle” to the reforms needed to pull the country out of its worst financial crisis since the end of communism nearly 20 years ago.
  • euobserver – The Eastern Partnership is an EU attempt to expand its “sphere of influence” in the quest for hydrocarbons, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said, in Moscow’s first major broadside against the new policy.
  • Expatica – Spain’s government said Saturday it had cleared up a misunderstanding with Washington over the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Kosovo.
  • BBC – Macedonians have voted in presidential and local polls seen as critical to the country’s EU and Nato membership bids, amid stringent security.
  • euronews – Slovakia’s presidential election is to go to a second round. Amid a low turnout, no one candidate managed to win more than half the votes cast in Saturday’s ballot, as is required for outright victory. So a head to head battle between the two frontrunners will now take place next month.

Africa

  • Shabelle – The government officials in Elbarde town in Bakol region have disproved that some of their soldiers surrendered to the Islamic administration of al-Shabab in Bay and Bakol regions, official told Shabelle radio on Sunday. Mohamed Mo’allin, a district commissioner of Hudur town of the Somali government who is in parts of Bakol region disproved that some of their soldiers left and surrendered to the Islamic administration of al-Shabab who controls most of Bay and Bakol regions in southern Somalia.
  • Garowe – Somalia’s Contending Islamic Ideologies; Report Drafted By Dr. Michael A. Weinstein
  • Kavkaz Center – Struggle for Somalia: ”Al-Shabaab” movement welcomes bin Laden’s statement
  • Monitor – The Military Police Commander, Lt. Col. Tumusiime Katsigazi, has been appointed the Commanding Officer of the UPDF battalion set to reinforce the African Union mission in Somalia (Amisom).
  • Sudan Tribune – Some 34 people were killing as result of fighting tribal in between Fallata and Habaniya tribes in South Darfur State, tribal leader said. Jafar Ali Al-Gali, a representative of Al-Habaniya tribe told Al-Ray Amm daily newspaper that joint force from Al-Fallata and their ally Salamat attacked them at Afonna location killing 28 Habaniya and wounding 6 other. He further said they killed 6 members from the assailant force which was heavily armed.
  • New Vision – Mutinying Sudanese soldiers in Nimule have opened the Ugandan border after their leaders were addressed by President Salva Kiir of Southern Sudan. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) soldiers opened the border at 8:00am yesterday, allowing over 300 trucks trapped in Sudan since Thursday to cross into Uganda. But traders aboard 200 vehicles inside Uganda were still too scared to cross into Sudan.
  • CSM – Hutu rebels in Congo strike back against joint offensive; FDLR militia targets civilians, aid workers, and officials who supported the Congo-Rwanda effort.
  • The Standard – Major donors have voiced concern over the spate of farm invasions amid concerns some Zanu PF elements are stepping up their efforts to sabotage the inclusive government’s push for an emergency financial rescue package. The fresh farm invasions spearheaded by the Joseph Chinotimba-led Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions (ZFTU) and senior Zanu PF officials are reportedly causing headaches for MDC-T ministers charged with leading Zimbabwe’s desperate search for aid.
  • Magharebia – Algeria will sell liquid natural gas (LNG) directly to Portugal, following an agreement signed between Sonatrach subsidiary SGC and the Portuguese government, APS reported on Saturday (March 21st). Algeria already supplies 2.5b cubic metres of LNG per year to Portugal.
two U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 B Osprey

Two U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft take off from Camp Liberty Command Pad, Iraq, March 19, 2009. When it comes to how it flies, the Osprey combines the best of both worlds with the ability to take off and land like a helicopter and the added feature of flying through the air like a plane. (photo by Staff Sgt. Jon Cupp)

The Global War

  • LA Times – An intense, six-month campaign of Predator strikes in Pakistan has taken such a toll on Al Qaeda that militants have begun turning violently on one another out of confusion and distrust, U.S. intelligence and counter-terrorism officials say. The pace of the Predator attacks has accelerated dramatically since August, when the Bush administration made a previously undisclosed decision to abandon the practice of obtaining permission from the Pakistani government before launching missiles from the unmanned aircraft.
  • US Navy – The U.S. Navy submarine and U.S. amphibious ship that collided in the Strait of Hormuz March 20, arrived in port Bahrain March 21.

Sights & Sounds

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Cables, dispatches and memoranda

6 August, 2008 (00:10) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba

Cables, Dispatches and Memoranda
A brief world news roundup for 6 August 2008.

United States & the Americas

  • CNBC – The U.S. government charged 11 people on Tuesday with stealing tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers from major retailers in one of the largest reported identity-theft incidents on record.
  • Brazil Sun – At least 10 people have been killed and six injured in a shootout between the Brazilian police and drug traffickers on the outskirts of this city, the EFE news agency reported Tuesday.
  • VOA – A debate is under way in Brazil over the direction of the country’s foreign policy. Brazil is seeking out political and trade relationships with developing nations, especially China, not among its traditional allies. Meanwhile, government critics claim the country is weakening its position with long-time friends such as the U.S. and Europe.
  • IPS – On the last night of the 18-month period he was granted by Congress to legislate by decree, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez handed down 26 laws that, according to his critics, usher in many of the socialist-style reforms that voters rejected in a referendum on proposed constitutional amendments last December.
  • Defense News – President Hugo Chavez said on Aug. 3 that 24 missile-firing Russian Sukhoi fighter jets have been delivered to Venezuela, and he warned the recently reactivated U.S. 4th Fleet to steer clear of Venezuelan waters. “Any gringo ship that sails into brown waters (river waters) will itself turn brown and go to the bottom, because they’ll not get through,” Chavez said.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

  • BBC – Russia will intervene if conflict erupts in the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia, a senior Russian diplomat has warned. Special ambassador Yuri Popov said Russia would defend its citizens living in the conflict zone, Interfax reports.
  • Independent – By day, the tiny rebel capital of South Ossetia and the villages nearby are often quiet. But, by night, they crackle with gun and mortar fire. The old men who pause under shady trees in Tskhinvali look like pensioners anywhere, passing time and reminiscing. But here they talk of weapons, killing and the prospect of war.
  • Civil Georgia – Israel has decided to halt all sales of military equipment to Georgia because of Russia’s objections, Israeli daily Maariv reported on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.
  • Newsday – Russian arms sales are set to reach a new post-Soviet record this year, a top official said Tuesday. Russia’s weapons exports will exceed $8 billion this year, Russian news agencies quoted Mikhail Dmitriyev, head of the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation, as saying.
  • Kommersant – Russia to Set Up Missile Defense Sites in Caucasus, Middle Asia; It is necessary to create in the near term united regional systems of missile defense in the Caucasus and Middle Asia, Russia’s Air Force Commander-in-Chief General-Colonel Alexander Zelin announced August 5.
  • Moscow Times – More than 80,000 people have signed a petition in Ingushetia calling on authorities to sack Kremlin-backed President Murat Zyazikov and reappoint former Ingush President Ruslan Aushev.
  • AP – Kyrgyz police have uncovered a large weapons cache at an apartment rented by a U.S. citizen, officials said Tuesday, though American officials say the arms were meant to be used in counterterrorism training. Several U.S. Embassy personnel and 10 U.S. service personnel were present during the raid Monday evening, the Interior Ministry said.
  • EurasiaNet – Kazakhstan may have relinquished its arsenal of nuclear weapons after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but it is seeking to expand its role in a variety of atomic energy-related fields. The country hopes to outstrip rivals Canada and Australia next year to become the world’s biggest uranium producer.

Middle East

  • Voices of Iraq – Iraqi security forces on Monday arrested the leader of al-Qaeda in Diala during a security operation in the province, according to the state-run al-Iraqia satellite television.
  • AP – A member of a U.S.-allied Sunni group says that gunmen killed one of the group’s senior leaders and six of his guards in an ambush south of Baghdad. The official says the gunmen attacked the convoy of Sheik Ibrahim al-Karbouli in Youssifiyah on Monday. He was a senior leader of the so-called awakening council in the town.
  • Earth Times – Insurgents slit the throats of three tribal policemen in an attack on a checkpoint in the multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk, police sources said Tuesday. Iraqi tribal police, also known as “Awakening Councils,” are US- baked Sunni units formed to fight al-Qaeda militants in Iraq.
  • CNN – Iraq is raking in more money from oil exports than it is spending, amassing a projected four-year budget surplus of up to $80 billion, U.S. auditors reported Tuesday.
  • ABC – Al Lahim, a young attorney who has tackled some of Saudi Arabia’s most important human rights cases, is doing the unprecedented: he is suing the religious police, agents of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, who have long been considered off limits despite ongoing complaints of their abuse of power.
  • AKI – Arrests have been made in connection with the mysterious slaying last Friday of Brigadier General Mohammed Suleiman, a top military official considered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s right-hand man. A sniper shot Suleiman from a yacht offshore and Syrian security have detained a number of people in connection with the murder, Pan-Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat said on Tuesday. Suleiman’s assassination has not been reported by state media.

Iran

  • Jerusalem Post – Iran’s response to an incentives package aimed at defusing a dispute over its nuclear program is unacceptable, US officials said Tuesday, making the prospects of new sanctions against the country more likely. The officials told The Associated Press that a brief one-page document Iran presented to European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana was not, as had been sought, a definitive reply to the offer from major world powers to suspend uranium enrichment and reprocessing in exchange for economic and other benefits.
  • The Australian – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi today warned “arrogant” Iran that it faces military humiliation on the scale of Iraq for its refusal to respond to western powers over a nuclear impasse.
  • AKI – Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika will arrive in the Iranian capital Tehran on Saturday for an official visit. Bouteflika is due to meet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
  • Payvand – The Voice of America (VOA) is examining corruption in Iran in a series of stories based on an Iranian parliamentary report obtained exclusively by the Persian News Network (PNN).
  • TIME – When U.S. officials appeal to the Iranian people over the heads of its regime, they like to assume that Tehran’s defiance on the nuclear issue reflects only the extremist position of an unrepresentative revolutionary leadership. Plainly, they haven’t met Dr. Akbar Etemad, who ran the nuclear program of the Shah’s regime, which was overthrown in the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
  • Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell – I don’t think it’s in Iran’s interest to shut down the Straits of Hormuz or the Persian Gulf, or attempt to do so. They have a very weak economy at this point, which depends almost entirely on their oil revenue. So shutting down the straits and closing off the Persian Gulf would be sort of a self-defeating exercise. That says nothing of whether or not we would tolerate such a thing to happen.

Southeast Asia

  • Pentagon – The Defense Department has extended by one month the deployments of about 1,250 Marines working as trainers to Afghan security forces, a U.S. Marine Corps official said today. The extension will keep the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment in Afghanistan through late November, according to an Associated Press report that was confirmed by a Marine official.
  • Globe and Mail – Long-simmering tensions between the Afghan government and its Western supporters over the opium trade have broken out into angry confrontations behind closed doors recently, including a stormy recent meeting at the Canadian embassy.
  • Dawn – A series of clashes in southern Afghanistan killed 16 Taliban militants and wounded five police officers, officials said Tuesday. Afghan and foreign troops clashed with Taliban fighters in Uruzgan province on Monday, leaving 11 militants dead and five policemen wounded, provincial officials said. Also Monday, in neighboring Kandahar province, militants ambushed a police patrol in Panjwayi district and five attackers were killed in return fire.
  • Washington Post – Lt. Col. Abdul Hamid, a new police commander, was having trouble doing the math. When he took control of this district in Afghanistan’s north in early July, he had 54 officers. Since then, some had been transferred; others had disappeared.
  • AFP – France took command Tuesday of about 5,000 NATO-led soldiers deployed in Kabul and surrounding areas with the aim of handing over to Afghan forces within a year, a French general told AFP. France took over from Italy, which also routinely rotates with Turkey in commanding the troops.
  • Anthony Cordesman, CSIS – Analyzing the Afghan-Pakistan War
  • BBC – Suspected pro-Taleban militants have burnt down three more girls’ high schools in the Swat valley of north-west Pakistan, officials say. Ten schools have been destroyed in the district in the last four days.
  • Daily Times – Many foreign hands, including India, are to blame for the unrest in Balochistan, Dawn News quoted President Pervez Musharraf as saying on Monday.
  • The Interpreter – The CIA recently accused Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence of having ties to militant groups in Afghanistan, possibly including those responsible for the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul. The Pakistani spy agency, always at the center of any intrigue, has had a tumultuous relationship with the CIA, and the most recent accusations serve as a good illustration of one of Pakistan’s central problems: conflicted national identity.
  • The Standard – At least 26 Tamil rebels and a government soldier were killed in fresh fighting in Sri Lanka’s north, the defence ministry said. The clashes were in the Vavuniya, Mullaitivu and Weli Oya districts on Monday, the ministry said. There was no comment from the Tamil Tigers. The latest fighting raises the number of rebels who have died in combat since January to 5,557, while 506 soldiers have been killed in the same period.
  • Times of India – Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League-backed candidates on Tuesday overwhelmingly won the mayoral elections as Bangladesh witnessed its first polls under emergency rules ahead of the scheduled general elections set for December this year.

Far East & Pacific

  • Manila Times – It’s all over but the formal signing of a peace agreement between the government and Muslim insurgents. The separatist rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on Tuesday said the agreement was a done deal despite a Supreme Court order stopping the formal signing of the accord that gives them an ancestral domain. On the territory supposedly would rise their separate Islamic homeland in Mindanao in southern Philippines.
  • AP – President Bush was greeted in Asia with dueling demonstrations by prayerful, flag-waving supporters and raucous protesters doused by police water cannons Tuesday, reflecting sharp political divisions at the outset of his three-nation trip.
  • New Zealand Treasury – Domestic demand has weakened and private consumption is expected to have fallen in the June quarter.  As food and petrol prices increase, spending on more discretionary items has fallen… House sales remain weak and building consents fell further in June… Our view is that the economy contracted for the second consecutive quarter in June.
  • Guardian – Scenes from Kashgar, Xinjiang, China. Turkic-speaking Uighur Muslims make up about 8 million of the 19 million population in Xinjiang. Authorities claim Uighur separatists are targeting the Olympics, following yesterday’s terrorist attack that killed 16 police. Guardian photographer Dan Chung visits the area.
  • Jakarta Post – Two Japanese journalists were briefly detained and beaten by police in western China, their companies and one of the men said Tuesday, triggering a protest by the Japanese government. Chinese officials later apologized. They were working in Xinjiang at the scene of a deadly attack Monday on Chinese policemen when they were forcibly taken to a border police facility.
  • RUSI – China’s thirst for oil and other energy sources has placed strains on existing markets. This section contains RUSI analysis on the implications of this growing demand both internally and on the wider world.
  • Global Voices – After graduating from Brown University in 2004, the articulate, cunning Elena Lesley was awarded a Henry Luce Scholarship to Cambodia to write for The Phnom Penh Post. With a long-time interest in Asia, it seemed like a good match. But knee-deep in a society scourged by years of civil war and gut-wrenching poverty, the experience quickly proved eye-opening.

Europe

  • France24 – Rwanda has formally accused senior French officials of involvement in its 1994 genocide, including former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and late President François Mitterrand, calling for them to be put on trial.
  • Javno – The founder of a radical Islamist group, deemed a security risk to Norway, has complained to a European human rights court that Norwegian authorities are violating his rights, Norwegian media reported on Tuesday. Mullah Krekar, born Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad, is an Iraqi Kurd and founder of the radical Islamist group Ansar al-Islam.
  • EU Observer – A large segment of the Czech political elite makes no secret of its discontentment with EU membership. These politicians fiercely oppose further European integration, and consider the whole European project a major threat to Czech sovereignty.

Africa

  • The Citizen – Tanzania was on high alert after terror suspects were reported to have escaped a police a dragnet in Kenya last weekend. One of the suspects is Fazul Abdullah, an al-Qaeda associate and the mastermind of the simultaneous bombing of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi on August 7, 1998.
  • Daily Champion – Barely three days after a deadly clash between Nigeria’s Joint Task Force(JTF) and militants in Bomadi area of Delta Dtate, soldiers yesterday raided alleged hide-out of the militants in Agge, Ekeremor local government area of Bayelsa state. The invasion left 500 homeless and 600 indigenes of the area missing.
  • Wildlife Conservation Society – The world’s population of critically endangered western lowland gorillas has received a huge boost. Together with the government of Congo, WCS has tallied more than 125,000 western gorillas in two adjacent areas of the northern part of the country. The startling discovery brings new hope for the critically endangered western lowland gorilla, which had been previously thought to number fewer than 50,000.

The Global War

  • Indian Express – One of the more elusive and mysterious figures linked to al-Qaeda—a Pakistani mother of three who studied biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and who authorities say spent years in the United States as a sleeper agent— was flown to New York on Monday night to face charges of attempting to kill US military and FBI personnel in Afghanistan.
  • Reuters – In a video sold in Baghdad’s souks, a group of women draped in cartridge belts and clutching pistols and rifles explained why they had taken up arms against the U.S. military in Iraq. Even as overall violence in Iraq has fallen to levels unseen since early 2004, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of attacks by women, deployed by Sunni Arab militants as suicide bombers.
  • Spiegel – The idea was to create a unified trade regime for the entire globe. But with WTO talks failing last week, the future of trade looks much more fragmented. Myriad bilateral agreements are on the horizon — and bitter trade wars are likely.
  • IRIN – The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and humanitarian aid organisations, including UN agencies, have agreed on a set of rules to improve civil-military interactions and clarify roles amid mounting concerns over “shrinking humanitarian operating space”.
  • Pentagon – A panel looking at military compensation has recommended dramatic changes in the military retirement system. The recommendations are part of the second volume put out by the 10th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation.
  • SWJ Blog – Antonius Block has posted his first draft (revision underway) of High Value Targeting and Counterinsurgency at his blog Strategy and National Policy. Here is a bit from the intro and a bit from the conclusion. Lots of good stuff in between to include a conceptual framework, a Chechnya case study, a Peru case study and a Palestine case study.
  • ThreatsWatch – The Office of the Director of National Intelligence recently released their new vision (PDF) for the future of the community. While no one expects perfection from such works, it is a remarkably forward leaning effort that sparks a bit of optimism for those who think serious change is too long in coming.

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