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Leading Indicators: Off the Radar News Roundup

Judah Grunstein | Bio | 17 Dec 2009

- The People's Daily reports that North Korea's minister of public security is in Beijing until Dec. 19 for talks with his Chinese counterpart. Among the areas of cooperation for the two ministries is border security. No mention in the article of North Korea's plans to close its borders and bar foreigners from the country starting Dec. 20 and lasting until early February.

- The U.S.-UAE nuclear 123 agreement was expected to become official today with an exchange of diplomatic notes in Washington.

- The National has a line item breakdown of Abu Dhabi's development aid to impoverished Yemen. Lots of smart stuff in there for a country facing two insurgencies and an imminent lack of potable water.

- Kuwait's prime minister and interior minister both easily survived parliamentary votes of no confidence.

- The Turkish government is closely watching a Bulgarian drive to launch a referendum on whether to continue Turkish-language news broadcasts on Bulgarian TV. Keep in mind that the Turkish government just lifted the last restrictions on the media's use of minority languages, including Kurdish, in November.

- One concrete outcome of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's meeting with President Barack Obama seems to be the green light for Turkey to purchase 14 heavy-lift Chinook helicopters. It's hard to figure out how that deal got done, given Turkey's reluctance to add any combat troops to Afghanistan, where such helicopters would be very useful. Could there be a surprise Turkish announcement in the making?

- Russia is looking to increase its humanitarian and development aid, as well as military assistance, to Afghanistan. This is the kind of off-the-ball regional involvement the Obama administration needs to advance its Afghanistan strategy.

- Madagascar's president called for parliamentary elections in March, apparently turning his back on international efforts to negotiate a unity government with the opposition leaders he deposed in a military-backed coup to take office.

Researched by Kari Lipschutz.