-
Asia Sentinel
The current trade war focus may be on the US and China, most recently over tires. But hanging over trade relations between China and its immediate Asian neighbors Japan and Korea is what could be at least as divisive issue: shipbuilding.
-
The National
Yemen launched Operation Scorched Earth on August 11 in a bid to finally crush the uprising that has left thousands dead since it first broke out in 2004. The authorities accuse the rebels of seeking to restore the Zaidi Shiite imamate that was overthrown in a republican coup in 1962, triggering an eight-year civil war. The rebels deny the charge.
-
BY: Benjamin Joffe-Walt | The Media Line
The two day regional meeting of the International Commission on Nuclear Non Proliferation Disarmament concluded on Wednesday and was attended by Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency Ali Ashgar Soltanieh; Director of policy and arms control at the Israel Atomic Energy Commission Merav Zafary-Odiz; former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami; and Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa.
-
BY: Anthony Shadid | The Washington Post
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Thursday unveiled a coalition to compete in parliamentary elections in January that will decide whether he remains in power, as the focus of Iraqi politics moves from months of backroom negotiations over electoral alliances to a contest to sway a largely disenchanted public.
-
BY: Bill Roggio | The Long War Journal
Paramilitary police from the National Emergency Response Brigade detained Khalid Masur Isma’il, who is also known as Abu Mustafa, during a raid in the Shia slum of Sadr City recently, the US military said in a statement. The exact date of Isma'il's detention was not released.
-
BY: Scott Peterson | The Christian Science Monitor
Iran appeared to understand there was new urgency on the nuclear issue, agreeing at the Geneva talks to open its second enrichment facility to inspectors.
-
BY: Steven Erlanger and Mark Landler | The New York Times
Iran agreed on Thursday in talks with the United States and other major powers to open its newly revealed uranium enrichment plant near Qum to international inspection in the next two weeks and to send most of its openly declared enriched uranium outside Iran to be turned into fuel for a small reactor that produces medical isotopes, senior American and other Western officials said.
-
BY: Matthew C. Dupee | World Politics Review
U.S. drug enforcement agents raided a suspected drug weigh-station in southern Afghanistan resulting in a seizure of mind-blowing proportions: 262 metric tons of dried hashish, equivalent in size to 30 London-style double-decker buses. The raid was the world's largest drug seizure ever conducted by law enforcement authorities. But there is little reason to celebrate.
-
BY: Jon Boone | The Guardian
International efforts to rapidly enlarge Afghanistan's national police force are being undermined by "spiralling increases" in deaths and the growing use of "quick fix" training courses that give recruits as little as three weeks to prepare for fights with the Taliban, two highly critical reports have warned.
-
BY: Jeffrey Gettleman | The New York Times
American officials are concerned that United Nations contractors may be funneling American donations to the Shabab, a Somali terrorist group with growing ties to Al Qaeda. United Nations officials say the American government has been withholding millions of dollars in aid shipments while a new set of rules is worked out to better police the distribution of aid.
-
BY: Hamsa Omar | Bloomberg News
Somali Islamist militias battled each other for control of the southern port of Kismayo in an eruption of violence that killed at least two people and threatened to spread across the Horn of Africa nation.
-
BY: Walter Pincus | The Washington Post
Poland and the Czech Republic are being offered roles in the Obama administration's new plan to defend Europe against Iran's development and deployment of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, senior administration officials told Congress on Thursday.
-
BY: Renate Flottau | Der Spiegel
Indicted war criminal and former Serb general Ratko Mladic has brazenly eluded capture for 13 years, living the comfortable life of a pensioner in Belgrade. Politicians, the army and -- it now appears -- Western intelligence services have been helping him the whole time.
-
BY: Simon Taylor | European Voice
The Romanian government has collapsed after the Social Democrats, the junior partner in the ruling coalition, pulled out.
-
BY: Anes Alic | ISN Security Watch
As authorities in Bosnia arrest another terrorism suspect believed to be trafficking weapons for radical Muslim groups, sources close to the investigation tell ISN Security Watch’s Anes Alic that they are hoping, finally, to catch up with ‘known’ terrorists before it’s too late.
-
BY: Gayane Abrahamyan | Eurasianet
Parliamentary debate in Armenia on diplomatic normalization with Turkey opened on October 1 with an emotional opposition attack on the government for supposedly selling out Yerevan’s interests. Despite the political maneuvering, the Armenian legislature is widely expected to ratify protocols that open the way for a rapprochement.
-
BY: Tony Halpin | The London Times
The move is likely to alarm other Nato states after Russia indicated that it was seeking a bigger deal to upgrade its armed forces with advanced Western technology. It could also raise tensions in the Black Sea, where Russia has threatened to act against Georgian naval vessels if they block ships from travelling to the separatist region of Abkhazia.
-
BY: Ismail Khan | The New York Times
After fighting peripheral wars against militants for the last several years, the military is poised to open a campaign in coming days against the Taliban’s main stronghold in Pakistan’s tribal areas, South Waziristan, according to senior military and security officials.
-
BY: Kathy Gannon | Associated Press
The United States has long suspected that much of the billions of dollars it has sent Pakistan to battle militants has been diverted to the domestic economy and other causes, such as fighting India.
-
BY: John Otis | Global Post
The intelligence agency has been spying on Colombians — but most don't care if it means they're safer from guerrillas.