dc_subsection_news_in_brief_October_2009

October 2009

Trial No-Show for Former Bosnian Serb Leader
October 29, 2009—The Hague, The Netherlands: Radovan Karadzic has still not appeared in court at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), where his genocide trial was to start on Monday. Karadzic—who will be representing himself—faces a range of war crimes charges, stemming from his role in the Siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s and 1995's Srebrenica Massacre. He maintains that he has not had enough time to ready his defense, and has so far declined to leave his jail cell. The ICTY, apparently unimpressed, ordered that the trial start in his absence. [DC]

UN Spooked By Attack on Staffers in Kabul
October 29, 2009—Kabul, Afghanistan: Following a daring Taliban attack yesterday morning at a guest house where UN staffers had been staying, the UN is said to be taking a long, hard look at its mission in the country. The surprise assault resulted in the deaths of three Afghans and five foreign-born UN staff, and shook the city as it prepares for presidential run-off elections on November 7th. Today, all UN staffers in Kabul have been ordered to stay at home, while some staffers who survived Wednesday's attack are being evacuated to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. An internal UN memo states that the organization may remove non-essential staffers from the country in the weeks and months ahead due to security concerns. [DC]

Rio Struggles to Bring Crime Under Control
October 26, 2009—Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Having been awarded both the 2016 Summer Olympic Games and the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Brazil has been basking in the international limelight. But the worldwide attention has also heightened scrutiny of Rio de Janeiro's police, who have long had difficulty controlling drug-fueled crime in the city's slums, or favelas. In the last week alone, more than 40 were killed in drug-related violence across the city, and a police helicopter was shot down near Maracana Stadium, a key venue for both the Olympics and the World Cup. Rio police have pledged to gain the upper-hand in the coming years, but they certainly have their work cut out for them. [DC]

Iceland Bids Farewell to the Golden Arches
October 26, 2009—Reykjavik, Iceland: As a result of the country's ongoing fiscal crisis and the near-total collapse of its currency, Iceland's three McDonald's restaurants will be closed down in the coming days. The restaurants had become too expensive to operate because McDonald's had banned the Iceland franchises from using local supplies, requiring that they import more costly meat and produce from Germany instead. As a result, Iceland's Big Mac had become one of the more expensive in the world, at US $5.29. Today's announcement means Iceland becomes the ninth country to lose all its McDonald's franchises during the past 15 years. [DC]

UN to Members: Pay Up
October 22, 2009—New York: The United Nations has reported this week that just 22 of its member states (or about 11 percent) have fully paid their dues to the organization for its 2008-09 budget. UN members are expected to cover expenses for the body's central operating budget, as well as peacekeeping operations, international tribunals, and structural improvements to the UN's New York headquarters. But so far, 170 of the 192 UN member states haven't forked over the money they owe, which collectively amounts to $3.1 billion. [DC]

IAEA: Progress on Iran Negotiations
October 21, 2009—Vienna, Austria: Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, says Iran may be open to a deal under which most of its enriched uranium would be shipped to Russia. Negotiators from Iran, France, the U.S. and Russia drew up a draft proposal outlining the plan earlier this week. Sources say the deal calls for three-quarters of Iran's enriched uranium be shipped abroad before December 31st, with the remaining uranium used in Tehran to fuel a reactor that creates medical isotopes. If all four countries ratify the deal, it could go a long way toward relieving international concerns about Iran's nuclear program. [DC]

Moscow to Snow: Stay Away
October 19, 2009—Moscow, Russia: Moscow’s Mayor Yury Luzhkov has unveiled a highly controversial plan for saving his city some cash this winter. The city will pay the Russian Air Force an estimated six million dollars during the coming months to drop chemicals into approaching snowstorms. If all goes according to plan, the chemical spray will cause the storms to dump snow on Moscow's suburbs, instead of the city center—drastically cutting down on Moscow's annual snow clean-up expenses, which have soared to 12 million dollars in recent years. Luzhkov touts his plan as another example of his visionary leadership. But environmentalists and residents of Moscow's suburbs have not been so quick to agree. [DC]

Maldivian Officials Head Underwater
October 19, 2009—Malé, Maldives: With their eyes on the UN’s Copenhagen climate summit this December, Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed and his Cabinet donned scuba equipment and conducted a meeting on global warming over the weekend—under more than 15 feet of water. The government officials who participated in the publicity stunt signed a document calling for reduced carbon emissions and plan on presenting the document at the Copenhagen meeting. If sea levels continue to rise during the 21st century, the low-lying Maldives would likely be the first country to go underwater. [DC]

Death Sentences Handed Down After Summer Rioting in China’s Far West
October 15, 2009—Beijing, China: Three more people have been sentenced to die for their role in ethnic riots that shook the western Chinese city of Urumqi in July. This brings the total number condemned to death to nine. Almost two hundred people were killed during the summer unrest, which pitted the area’s Muslim Uighur population against Han Chinese immigrants. Eight of the nine people who have been given the death penalty so far have been Uighur. Others have been handed lengthy prison sentences ranging from five years to life behind bars for participating in the violence. [DC]

Top UN Official Backs Report on Israeli-Palestinian War Crimes
October 15, 2009—Geneva, Switzerland: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, today announced her endorsement of a controversial report that accuses both Israeli defense forces and Palestinian militants of committing war crimes during the war in Gaza last winter. During the conflict, an estimated 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis lost their lives. Pillay says that both Hamas and Israel must now look into the war crime allegations, and prosecute those deemed responsible for the abuses. Israel and the U.S. have both opposed such a move, saying it will undermine broader Middle East peace negotiations. [DC]

Report: Days Numbered for Summer Arctic Ice Cap
October 14, 2009—London, UK: A team of British researchers have announced that sea ice covering the Arctic during the summer months will likely disappear within two to three decades. If their prediction holds true, an ice-free Arctic could open up potentially lucrative shipping routes north of Canada and Russia, including the fabled “Northwest Passage.” However, those routes would be viable for only part of the year; the British team projects that the Arctic’s winter ice will remain for centuries. [DC]

Turkey Cancels International Military Exercise Due to Israeli Participation
October 12, 2009—Ankara, Turkey: The Turkish government sent a ripple through the international community over the weekend when it announced the surprise cancellation of a joint air force drill with NATO, the U.S., Israel and other countries. The exercise was supposed to have run through October 23rd, but was called off at the last minute "due to a technical matter," according to a Turkish official. However, both Israel and NATO have confirmed that Israel's participation was the main reason for the cancellation. Relations between Turkey and Israel have remained tense since Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip earlier this year. [DC]

Afghan Member of Vote Recount Commission Resigns in Protest
October 12, 2009—Kabul, Afghanistan: One of two Afghan members of the U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission has left the group to protest what he describes as foreign meddling in the ongoing vote recount from the August presidential election. In announcing his departure from the ECC earlier today, Maulavi Mustafa Barakzai claimed that American, Canadian and Dutch members of the commission have been "making all decisions on their own" without consulting the ECC's local members. A spokesperson for the ECC has denied the allegations. [DC]

North Korea Tests Missiles Off Its East Coast
October 12, 2009—Seoul, South Korea: Reports out of South Korea allege that North Korea fired five short-range missiles today from a base near its east coast. Such a test had been expected in the region, after the North Korean government announced the closure of its coastal waters from October 10th through the 20th. Still, relations between the South and nuclear-armed North have been generally warming over the past several months, and a series of low-level talks between the two countries remain scheduled for later in the week. [DC]

Uneasy Calm Restored in Jerusalem
October 7, 2009—Jerusalem, Israel: Jerusalem's famed Old City is relatively quiet once again, after days of intense clashes between Palestinians and Israelis. Earlier this week, mounting tensions between the two sides erupted into widespread street protests after Israeli police blocked Palestinians from visiting the Temple Mount—home to Al-Aqsa Mosque—while thousands of Jewish pilgrims prayed at the nearby Western Wall. Since then, a massive deployment of police across Jerusalem has brought protests under control for the moment, and Israeli leaders have been busy appealing for calm. The unrest has reminded many of the Israeli-Palestinian frictions in late 2000 that sparked the second intifada. [DC]

Norway Tops UN List of Most Desirable Places to Live
October 7, 2009—Paris, France: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has released its annual report ranking more than 180 countries based on human development—a broad descriptor that includes literacy rates, per capita GDP, life expectancy, and a number of other quality-of-life factors. Norway came out on top, followed by Australia and Iceland, while the central African country of Niger finished last on the UNDP list, just behind Afghanistan. The U.S. remained relatively steady, dropping from 12th to 13th, while China made one of the biggest gains worldwide, moving up the rankings from 99th to 92nd. [DC]

Billions in U.S. Military Aid to Pakistan Nowhere to Be Found
October 5, 2009—Islamabad, Pakistan: Internal reports coming out of Pakistan suggest that massive amounts of U.S. military aid doled out to that country since 2002 never reached the Pakistani armed forces. Several top active and retired Pakistani military officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, have alleged that under the rule of President Pervez Musharraf, billions in aid dollars were siphoned away from Pakistan's campaign against al Qaeda, and used instead to fund subsidies to shore up the domestic economy, among other uses. A Pentagon spokesperson says the U.S. has not had a means of tracking the aid money after it has been sent to Pakistan. [DC]

Reconstituted Taliban Deals Heavy Blow to U.S. Troops Over Weekend
October 5, 2009—Kabul, Afghanistan: A reinvigorated Taliban launched a surprise attack over the weekend against a pair of remote U.S. military outposts in eastern Afghanistan. Hundreds of Taliban fighters overran the two bases in Nuristan province on Saturday, killing eight U.S. troops. The U.S. death toll is the highest of any single Afghan battle in over a year, meaning the attack will likely pack an emotional punch as policy makers in Washington continue to deliberate the future of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. [DC]

Honduran Interim Government Reinstating Some Civil Rights
October 5, 2009—Tegucigalpa, Honduras: After widespread international condemnation of the interim Honduran government's recent suspension of key civil rights, interim President Roberto Micheletti has announced that the government will be relaxing the bans within 24 hours. Last weekend, the mlitary-led interim government banned large public gatherings and shut down certain media outlets, in an effort to clamp down on protests in support of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Micheletti claims public order has been restored and the emergency measures are no longer needed. The interim president will also be meeting with a U.S. congressional delegation today to discuss the situation in the country. [DC]

Greek Voters Bring Socialists to Power
October 5, 2009—Athens, Greece: Greece's Socialist party assumed control of the government over the weekend, after a landslide election victory over the scandal-tainted New Democracy party. The newly elected prime minister, Socialist party leader George Papandreou, is expected to make cabinet appointments during the coming week. At the top of the new government's agenda? Stabilizing the shaky Greek economy and addressing environmental problems in a country still reeling from a series of major wildfires. [DC]

Iran: Gestures of Cooperation
October 4, 2009—Tehran, Iran: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made two significant concessions to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA): He agreed to enter into talks earlier regarding exporting Iran’s uranium to be converted into an innocuous nuclear fuel. And he granted IAEA inspectors access to the recently-divulged nuclear enrichment on October 24th. ElBaradei announced that while his agency still harbors some skepticism over Iran’s nuclear intentions, he deemed the recent negotiations, “a shifting from confrontation into transparency and cooperation.” U.S. officials are less optimistic. They argue that by shifting the inspection date a full 10 days back from what was proposed last week Iran will be able to relocate incriminating evidence. [DC]

Lisbon Accord Secures Ireland’s Support
October 2, 2009—Dublin, Ireland: Ireland has approved the EU accord it rejected 16 months earlier. The Lisbon Treaty calls for an EU president, a foreign policy chief, and decisions dictated by majority rather than unanimity; it is intended to increase the efficiency and clout of the European Union. Ireland initially voted against the treaty out of fear that it would leave the EU too empowered. Ironically, last week’s vote was also pricked by fear—fear of economic collapse without the EU’s assistance. The Lisbon Treaty’s ratification now only awaits Poland and Turkey’s signatures. [DC]

U.S. Diplomat Meets with Cuban Dissidents
October 1, 2009: A top U.S. official spent six days in Cuba in September, meeting with government officials and political dissidents during a rare diplomatic trip. Several key details of the visit by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Bisa Williams were not released until this week. The agenda centered on somewhat low-level issues—such as the resumption of postal service between the two countries—but the meetings represented the highest-level bilateral talks in 30 years. The State Department confirmed Wednesday that during the trip, Williams met with formerly imprisoned critics of the Cuban government. [DC]

Top U.S. Official Fired from Post at Afghanistan’s UN Mission
October 1, 2009: Peter Galbraith—an American who had been serving as UN deputy special representative to Afghanistan in recent months—is out of job. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon fired him Wednesday after Galbraith publicly criticized the agency's handling of Afghanistan's disputed August presidential elections. Details about the dispute have not been released. But Galbraith speculates he was let go because he had called for "vigorous investigations into fraud," which he says the head of the UN mission there has not been proactive enough in pursuing. The UN has defended the legitimacy of the ongoing vote recount. [DC]

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