IRAN
Who Is Killing Iran’s Nuclear Scientists?
Matthew Cole and Mark Schone, ABC News – July 26, 2011
Regardless of who is killing Iran’s nuclear scientists — the Israelis, the Americans or the Iranians themselves — there’s no question that researchers and officials linked to Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program keep turning up dead. Since 2007, four different scientists allegedly associated with the nation’s nuclear weapons program have died via bomb, gunshot or poisoning, while a fifth barely survived a car bombing.
Iran Redistributes Wealth in Bid to Fight Sanctions
Jay Solomon and Farnaz Fassihi, Wall Street Journal – July 27, 2011
TEHRAN—Iran’s Islamist government may be public enemy No. 1 at the White House. But in the halls of the International Monetary Fund a few blocks away, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is being hailed as an economic reformer. In the face of mounting international sanctions, his government has embraced over the past seven months what the IMF calls one of the boldest economic makeovers ever attempted in the oil-rich Middle East.
US military nominee warns Iran
AFP – July 26, 2011
WASHINGTON — The nominee to be the next chief of the US military on Tuesday warned Iran not to pursue nuclear weapons or sponsor proxies in Iraq, saying it would be making a “serious miscalculation.” At his Senate confirmation hearing, General Martin Dempsey called Iran a “destabilizing force” in the region. He pointed to its contested uranium program and said Iran was sponsoring forces against US forces in Iraq.
Iran nominates Guards commander for oil ministry
Mohammad Davari, AFP – July 27, 2011
TEHRAN — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday nominated a Revolutionary Guards commander targeted by international sanctions, Rostam Qasemi, to head the strategic oil ministry, reports said. Brigadier General Qasemi runs the sanctions-hit industrial wing of the elite Guards, Khatam al-Anbiya, which is massively active in the Islamic republic’s oil sector. Iran is the second largest producer of oil cartel OPEC and currently holds its rotating presidency.
NORTH KOREA
S. Korea, China hold first strategic military talks
AFP – July 27, 2011
SEOUL — South Korea and China held their first strategic military talks Wednesday, covering defence exchanges and regional security issues including North Korea, officials said. The meeting followed talks between the two countries’ defence ministers on July 15 in Beijing, amid chilly relations between China’s ally North Korea and its southern neighbour. Vice defence minister Lee Yong-Gul led the South’s delegation while China was headed by Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of general staff.
Off the Dictated Path in North Korea
Jean H. Lee, New York Times – July 26, 2011
Everywhere I look, Communist North Korea is a world both foreign and familiar to my Korean-American eyes, a place where the men wear Mao suits and children tote Mickey Mouse backpacks, where they call one another “comrade” and love their spicy kimchi.Since becoming the Seoul bureau chief for The Associated Press in 2008, I have made five eye-opening visits to North Korea. The chief Asia photographer, David Guttenfelder, has traveled to the country numerous times over the past 12 years.
LIBYA
In Shift, Britain Says Qaddafi Could Remain in Libya
Alan Cowell, New York Times – July 26, 2011
PARIS — France appeared on Tuesday to have persuaded Britain to support a shift in attitude toward Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, suggesting that he could be allowed to remain in Libya in return for giving up power in a broader deal including a cease-fire. In talks in London late Monday, the British foreign secretary, William Hague, met his French counterpart, Alain Juppé, who said last week that “one of the scenarios” to resolve the conflict in Libya “is that he stays in Libya on one condition, which I repeat: that he very clearly steps aside from Libyan political life.”
Lockerbie Convict Appears at Rally in Libya
J. David Goodman and Robert Mackey, New York Times – July 27, 2011
Video broadcast on Libyan state television on Tuesday appeared to show Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people, at a rally in support of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s government. The public appearance in Libya comes nearly two years after Mr. Megrahi, who has prostate cancer, was released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds and said to have just three months to live.
PAKISTAN
Just talking is progress in India, Pakistan ties
Paul de Bendern, Reuters- July 26, 2011
Expectations of a breakthrough in peace talks between India and Pakistan on Wednesday remain low, but the fact the nuclear armed rivals keep talking is a sign that neither side wants to slide back toward conflict in the world’s most dangerous region.
