IRAN: Ahmadinejad sworn in as president

Pro-Mousavi Iranians chant death to the dictator Malaysian National News Agency — Hundreds of supporters of Iranian opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi chanted "death to the dictator" in Tehran on Thursday, a witness said, a day after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in as president. The renewed protests come despite a heavy police presence and the mass trial of some 100 leading reformers accused of fomenting the unrest that has continued for eight weeks since disputed June 12 polls returned hardliner Ahmadinejad to office. click to read complete article

Cleric: Iranian nation is united and vigilant Tehran Times — Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani has said that the Iranian nation is “united and vigilant” and that is why all plots against the Islamic Republic have failed so far. He made the remarks in a sermon at Friday prayers in Tehran. Ayatollah Kashani also stated that the Supreme Leader’s approval of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency on Monday was an endorsement of the fact that “republicanism and Islamism” are inseparable in Iran. click to read complete article

Defiant Iran president takes oath Agencia AngolaPress — Iran- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been sworn in for a second term as Iran's president, after weeks of post-election unrest. In an address after the ceremony, he criticised foreign powers who have cast doubt on the validity of the election, saying Iran would resist them. Opposition supporters protesting outside parliament were met by hundreds of riot police. click to read complete article

Sri Lanka - Tamil Tiger Leader Arrested

Another hit for Tigers as new leader arrested Sydney Morning Herald — THE new head of the Tamil Tigers, Kumaran Pathmanathan, was being interrogated in Sri Lanka last night after being arrested outside the country and flown to the capital, authorities have said. The arrest is a fresh blow to the separatist group, which was routed on the battlefield in May after more than two decades of armed struggle. Pathmanathan's detention comes a little over a fortnight after he was announced as the group's new leader. click to read complete article

UPDATE 1-S.Lanka bourse at 14-mo high after Tamil Tiger arrest Reuters — Sri Lanka's share market .CSE rose to its highest in more than 14-months on Friday before retreating to close up marginally amid a lack of foreign buying, after the arrest of the new Tamil Tiger leader the night before. The new head of the Tamil Tigers, the separatist group defeated by the Sri Lankan military after 25 years of war, was being held in the capital Colombo, the military said on Friday. click to read complete article

Australian Sri Lankan Disapora needed back home Radio Australia — The Sri Lankan government has begun allowing people displaced by the civil war with the Tamil Tiger rebels, to return home, but a major de-mining operation is required before large-scale re-settlement can begin. THOMAS: Look the Government has a program on resettling people within 180 days. Which may be an oportunist approach because there's such a large number of people across a large area, it's a very slow process, the roads are very slow, so I applaud their enthusiasm but I think it's going to be an enormous task to resettle these people back to their homes. click to read complete article

Georgia - Russia One Year Later

Georgia Draws Gains, Not Lessons, From War Moscow Times — Exactly one year after the war over South Ossetia, Georgia’s chances of becoming a NATO member have been reduced to almost zero, but the South Caucasus nation might actually be safer and is putting greater hopes into political integration with the West. Despite the fact that key European powers continue to be skeptical because Tbilisi’s standoff with Moscow remains fundamentally unsolved, President Mikheil Saakashvili is promoting his country as a regional champion. click to read complete article

Did Russia pay high price for winning Georgia war? Christian Science Monitor — Though the dispute over who started the war between Russia and Georgia has yet to abate, most experts agree that it erupted during the night of Aug. 7 with an apparently well-planned and massive Georgian attack on Tskhinvali, capital of South Ossetia, which had won its de facto independence from Georgia in a brutal civil war nearly two decades earlier. About a dozen Russian peacekeeping troops died in that assault, prompting Moscow to send its North Ossetia-based 58th Army swarming through the Roki Tunnel the next day. Russian forces rapidly routed the Georgians and went on to briefly occupy a handful of Georgian towns such as Gori, where they destroyed Georgian weapons click to read complete article

Russia urges Georgia to ink non-violence agreement Xinhua — Russia insists that Georgia assume a legal obligation on the non-use of force with respect to its breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Thursday. "We insist that Georgia take on the legal obligation on the non-use of force. The obligation should be unconditional, not in relation to Russia, but in relation to the neighboring republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia," Andrei Nesterenko told a briefing. click to read complete article

NATO - Afghanistan

New NATO chief vows to strengthen Afghan efforts Agence France Presse — The new NATO chief vowed Wednesday to strengthen military efforts to counter an insurgency in Afghanistan but conceded peace talks with certain groups were an option to end mounting violence. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, making his first visit to Afghanistan as head of the 28-nation alliance, told a news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai that he was ready for "pragmatic steps" to improve security. click to read complete article

Rasmussen wants Afghans to take more responsibility Reuters — The new head of NATO said he wanted Afghan forces to assume lead responsibility for security within the next four years, but would not set a timeline for a complete pull out by alliance troops. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who took over as secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Saturday, faces many challenges but none more daunting than finding a winning strategy for the war in Afghanistan and improving relations with its former Cold War foe Russia. click to read complete article

New NATO chief open to talks with Taliban ABC Australia — The new head of NATO says the organisation's priority must be the war in Afghanistan and he says he is open to negotiations with moderate members of the Taliban. As the new Secretary General of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen inherits a daunting task with tens of thousands of troops battling a fierce Taliban insurgency ahead of the Afghanistan presidential election. click to read complete article

Bill Clinton goes to North Korea

Bill Clinton seeks to free S.F. journalists held in North Korea Sacramento Business Journal — Former President Bill Clinton flew to North Korea in hopes of freeing two San Francisco journalists held in that isolated country. In June North Korea sentenced the two — Laura Ling and Euna Lee, employees of Current TV — to 12 years of hard labor. They were convicted of “committing hostilities against the Korean nation and illegal entry,” charges U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called baseless. click to read complete article

White House mum on 'private' Clinton mission to NKorea Agence France Presse — The White House Tuesday declined to comment on former president Bill Clinton's trip to North Korea, saying it did not want to jeopardize his "solely private mission" to negotiate the release of two US journalists. "While this solely private mission to secure the release of two Americans is on the ground, we will have no comment," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a brief statement. click to read complete article

Bill Clinton rewarding NKorea for bad behavior: Bolton Agence France Presse — The Obama administration is rewarding North Korea for its bad behavior by sending ex-president Bill Clinton to Pyongyang to win the release of two US journalists, the former US ambassador to the UN said Tuesday. John Bolton, an outspoken hardliner in the previous administration of George W. Bush, told AFP that Clinton's mission to Pyongyang undermines a number of public stands held by his own wife, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. click to read complete article

The U.S. Role in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, U.S. May Shift Strategy The Washington Post — The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan is preparing a new strategy that calls for major changes in the way U.S. and other NATO troops there operate, a vast increase in the size of Afghan security forces and an intensified military effort to root out corruption among local government officials, according to several people familiar with the contents of an assessment report that outlines his approach to the war. click to read complete article

US general may ask for more troops for Afghan war Associated Press — The U.S. general in charge of turning around the war in Afghanistan is likely to recommend significant changes to U.S. and NATO operations, military officials and others familiar with his forthcoming report said. Those changes could include additional U.S. troops despite political headwind against further expansion of the war. As Gen. Stanley McChrystal readies his assessment of the war, due next month, numerous U.S. officials and outsiders apprised of his thinking suggest McChrystal will request that more American troops, probably including Marines, be added next year. click to read complete article

US forces fade into background for Afghan election Associated Press — An Afghan going to the polls in the Aug. 20 presidential election will not see an American or NATO soldier — if all goes according to plan. Although the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan has swelled to 62,000 — more than double this time last year — international forces plan to keep a low profile on election day to avoid any suspicion that foreigners are trying to influence the outcome. click to read complete article

Iran Election Trial

Iran tries 100 moderates over election unrest Reuters — The trials began on Saturday of 100 prominent moderates arrested shortly after Iran's disputed June presidential election and charged with trying to overthrow the clerical establishment, Iranian media reported. This is the first time since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution that dozens of senior officials, including former ministers, vice-presidents and lawmakers, have been put on trial. click to read complete article

In Iran court, Abtahi 'disputes' vote fraud claims Iran Press TV — Reformist figure Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, accused of provoking and taking part in deadly riots after the recent presidential election in Iran, has reportedly testified that the vote was "clean". The first court session for opposition activists and protesters convened on Saturday in the Iranian capital Tehran with charges of rioting, threatening national security and conspiring against the ruling system being read against those in the dock. click to read complete article

Iran reportedly frees 140 jailed election protesters CNN — The Iranian government has released 140 people arrested in the aftermath of the Islamic republic's disputed presidential election, a semi-official news agency reported Tuesday. Kazem Jalali, spokesman for the parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, said the detainees posted bail and were freed from northern Tehran's Evin Prison during an inspection of the prison by a task force made up of commission members, the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) reported. click to read complete article