A brief world news roundup for 12 March 2008.

United States & the Americas

• Washington Post – Admiral Fallon, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, whose views on strategy in the region have put him at odds with the Bush administration, abruptly announced his resignation yesterday, calling reports of such disagreements an untenable “distraction.” (Reaction from Max Boot, Commentary, and Information Dissemination.)
• Sweetness and Light – Greg Craig Mocks Hillary’s Foreign Policy Experience Claims. (See also Sister Toldjah.)
• AP – The cost of buying and operating a new fleet of jet fighters for the U.S. military is nearing $1 trillion, according to a congressional audit that found the program dogged by delays, manufacturing inefficiencies and price increases.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• Jamestown Foundation – The U.S. State Department has released its annual report on human rights practices worldwide, “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2007.” While State’s annual human rights reports of recent years have generally been critical of the Russian government, this latest report is perhaps the most critical yet.
• Caucasian Knot – Congress of Ingush Nation demands from Putin and Medvedev to set up order in Ingushetia.
• PanArmenian – Armenian President Robert Kocharian stated he does not see reasons to prolong the effect of the emergency rule. Mr Kocharian informed that today or tomorrow he will sign a decree on mitigating the limitations on freedom of media.
• RFE/RL – Tbilisi officials have decried as “immoral and dangerous” Russia’s decision to withdraw from a CIS treaty imposing sanctions on Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia.
• EurasiaNet – Kazakhstan: The emerging middle class thinks money, not democracy.

Middle East

• DoD – The latest quarterly report on the situation in Iraq notes continued security improvements and limited but important political, economic and diplomatic progress that must expand to preserve fragile security gains. The report notes that violence is down throughout much of Iraq. Deaths from ethno-sectarian violence are down 90 percent, and civilian and coalition deaths by more than 70 percent since the June report.
• Asharq Alawsat – Violence reportedly killed at least 42 people Tuesday in Iraq after the deadliest day for U.S. troops in precisely six months. The U.S. military, however, disputed claims that 16 passengers on a bus hit by a roadside bomb in southern Iraq were killed, saying no one died in the attack.
• Haaretz – Israel has decided officially to boycott the Qatari-based al-Jazeera news station, because of what it perceives as biased coverage, a government official said Wednesday.
• Daily Star – Sfeir says Lebanon near ‘abyss,’ and Fadlallah blames pressure from outside.

Iran

• Fars News – Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei on Tuesday said that “unity and cooperation will develop the Islamic world into a major global power”.
• Carnegie Endowment – There is perhaps no leader in the world more important to current world affairs but less known and understood than Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran. In a unique and timely new study, Carnegie’s Karim Sadjadpour presents an in-depth political profile of Khamenei based on a careful reading of three decades’ worth of his writings and speeches.
• MEMRI – Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Ali Kordan said that U.N. Security Council Resolution 1803, on further sanctions on Iran, was having no effect on Iran’s gas deals with China.

Southeast Asia

• Afgha.com – Registered cases of physical violence against women and girls in Afghanistan have increased by about 40 percent since March 2007.
• Daily Times – Afghan security forces have killed 19 Taliban militants in separate operations, while a soldier and policeman died in ambushes, officials said on Tuesday.
• Dawn – Eight people including a child died when mortars fired by security forces hit a house in northwest Pakistan, while four people were killed by bomb blasts, officials said Wednesday. The mortar incident happened in Bajaur tribal agency overnight after a paramilitary vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb.
• Colombo Page – Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake says that Sri Lankan diplomats engaged in foreign missions are not strong enough to deal with the propaganda network of the LTTE.
• AFP – At least another 28 Tamil Tiger rebels have been killed by security forces in fresh fighting across Sri Lanka’s embattled north, the defence ministry said Wednesday. The overnight clashes were in the districts of Jaffna, Vavuniya and Mannar.
• Times of India – Two persons were killed when a powerful bomb exploded in Imphal West district of Manipur late Tuesday night.

Far East & Pacific

• Asia Times – Be it South Korean pop stars or the New York Philharmonic Orchestra playing in North Korea, such feel-good events are just that; they don’t change the dynamics of politics.
• news.com.au – The US military has set dates for the court martials of four Marines accused of gang-raping a woman in Japan.
• Australia DoD – Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence, Dr Mike Kelly AM MP, today launched the 2008 Australian Defence Force Parliamentary Program (ADFPP), an initiative that gives Senators and Members of Parliament a taste of what it is like to serve in the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

Europe

• Russia Today – Three Chechens have reportedly been detained in Sweden after arms were found in their car. Customs officials at Trelleborg port found explosives and Kalashnikov assault rifles in the vehicle, which was travelling from Germany.
• ynet – Leftist activists call Peres ‘criminal’ in France. Some far left activists held a demonstration at the museum where they dubbed Peres and Israel “criminal,” called for Israel “to be erased,” and said “the resistance in Gaza is legitimate.” The incident led to a brief scuffle when French police arrived on the scene and attempted to use force to evacuate the protestors.
• MEMRI – Pro-Hamas, Pro-Hizbullah Demonstrations In Turkey Get Bigger, More Frequent.

Africa

• Khaleej Times – The UN Security Council expressed ‘profound concern’ Tuesday at the upsurge in violence and worsening humanitarian situation in Darfur and Russia called on members to consider sanctions against rebel groups challenging peace efforts.
• United Nations – The pre-trial chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has ruled that it will join the cases of two rebel leaders facing charges for crimes allegedly committed by their militia groups in the far east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2003.
• IRIN – One year after the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) deployed its first peacekeepers to Mogadishu, the Somali capital, assessments of its performance and relevance remain mixed.

The Global War

• Kommersant – Brookings Institution has released its Index of State Weakness in the Developing World that covers 141 countries and is based on assessment of their economic and political situation, security and social condition. Russia’s state structure is weaker than in Iran, Serbia and Turkey, the report says. The top 10 list of the weakest states sets forth Somali, Afghanistan, Congo, Iraq, Burundi, Sudan, Central African Republic, Zimbabwe, Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire.
• CSIS – (panel) The House Armed Services Committee has undertaken its first comprehensive review of the U.S. military services’ roles and missions in fifteen years. The initial results of this assessment emphasize the necessity of undertaking a whole-of-government approach to future operations – one that is as much interagency as it is interservice.
• Heritage Foundation – VP Cheney commemorated the 25th anniversary of President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative in a speech to The Heritage Foundation (video).
• Washington Institute – Weapon of Terror: Development and Impact of the Qassam Rocket.
• Intellibriefs – What constitutes military power is really the combination of technology and human skill at arms; forgetting the human element leads to military power that is potential rather than actual in nature.
• Captain’s Journal – Al Qaeda finds it difficult to emplace IEDs because of the population (which points them out to U.S. forces) and UAVs operating discretely above.  Further, in both Iraq and Afghanistan, direct kinetic engagements are being avoided.

Sights & Sounds

The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) and the Schieffer School of Journalism at TCU hosted a discussion February 27 on the current and future status of Afghanistan. Here is audio of the event.

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