FPI Overnight Brief: September 8, 2010

Central Asia

Even as the Tajik government maintains tight control on religion, the majority Muslim population is increasingly turning to Shari'a law -- the sacred law of Islam, which is not sanctioned by the state -- to resolve disputes, family affairs, and personal matters. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Tajikistan’s security services are in the spotlight following two recent explosions and an audacious jailbreak in the Central Asian nation. The violence may be an indicator of faulty government personnel policies, some experts suggest. - EurasiaNet

Egypt

Calling the government of President Hosni Mubarak an “oppressive and despotic” regime, Mohamed ElBaradei has renewed his call for a boycott of parliamentary elections and threatened street protests. – The National

One of Egypt’s most prominent opposition leaders, the Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, has issued the strongest call so far for a blanket opposition boycott of parliamentary elections this fall. – New York Times

Africa

Approximately 500 women were raped in eastern Congo in July and August, demonstrating that both rebel militias and government troops used sexual violence as a weapon, two senior United Nations officials said Tuesday. – New York Times

Nigeria will hold presidential polls on January 22, the electoral commission said on Tuesday, putting pressure on President Goodluck Jonathan to say whether he will stand and leaving little time for badly-needed reforms. - Reuters

Afghanistan

Fears over the future of ailing Kabul Bank grew violent Wednesday as state police beat back crowds of frustrated Afghan government workers attempting to withdraw their salaries on the final day before a four-day national holiday. – Washington Post

The brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai made nearly $1 million on a Dubai property deal financed with money from Kabul Bank, according to a person familiar with the transaction and a property sales registry. – Washington Post

A district governor from Baghlan Province was assassinated by Taliban insurgents on Monday night along the Kunduz-Baghlan highway in the north of Afghanistan, officials said – New York Times

British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, commander of ISAF Forces in southern Afghanistan, said here in a video news conference September 7 that he expected the NATO coalition in Afghanistan to be involved with enablers in particular "for some time to come." By enablers, he was referring to activities such as clearing IEDs, medical evacuation and logistics support – Defense News

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Sept. 7 said he hoped U.S.-led troops would begin handing over responsibility to Afghan security forces sometime next year. - AFP

Western powers must change strategy in Afghanistan, focusing on al-Qaida militants and cutting troop numbers instead of pursuing failed attempts at nation-building, a top think-tank said Sept. 7. - AFP

Afghan and NATO forces are planning an offensive to clear Taliban insurgents from areas around the city of Kandahar by late November, the NATO commander for southern Afghanistan said Tuesday. - Reuters

The United States does not plan to contribute to a NATO request for 2,000 troops for the Afghan war, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, even as the head of the alliance held out the possibility of U.S. participation - Reuters

Gen. David Petraeus, anticipating sustained violence in Afghanistan in the coming months, said in an interview that he wants to overhaul how the U.S. measures progress here leading to a crucial Obama administration war-strategy review in December. – Wall Street Journal

About 15 percent of planned polling stations for this month's Afghan parliamentary election will not open because of poor security, officials said on Tuesday, with fears of attacks rising in insurgency strongholds in the east. - Reuters

Reports about endemic corruption in Afghanistan are undermining public support for the war among NATO allies, the military alliance's leader warned Tuesday – Washington Post

For female candidates, this campaign presents a paradox. More than 430 women — a record number, up nearly one-quarter from the last election — are seeking seats in the 249-member lower house of parliament, in voting to be held Sept. 18. But not since the five-year reign of the Taliban, which ended in 2001, have female candidates faced such intense political intimidation, the women say. – Los Angeles Times

Pakistan

The influx of foreign aid after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake significantly increased survivors' trust in the West, according to new research that also suggests hard-line Islamist charities did little to help despite the publicity they generated. – Associated Press

The toll from Pakistan’s worst floods keeps getting worse, as Pakistani authorities yesterday increased their estimate of the number of people affected by the floods to 21 million, up from 18 million. – The National

A powerful blast ripped through a residential compound for police officials and their families in Pakistan’s restive northwest on Tuesday evening, killing at least 18 people, including women and children, officials said – New York Times

Iran

South Korea targeted 126 Iranian companies and individuals for economic sanctions on Wednesday, despite Tehran’s warnings that the penalties would endanger South Korea’s growing trade and energy ties with Iran. – New York Times

South Korea will move to temporarily close the local branch of an Iranian bank that has been blacklisted by the U.S. as the main measure in its effort to join United Nations sanctions over Iran's nuclear program, according to people familiar with the matter. These people say a two-month suspension of the South Korean branch of Iran's Bank Mellat will be the centerpiece of the penalties, which indicates that Seoul doesn't plan to cut oil imports or curtail business activities by South Korean firms. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

China is poised to sign a $2bn deal to build a railway line in Iran in the first step of a wider plan to tie the Middle East and Central Asia to Beijing. - Telegraph

Iran is under mounting international pressure to spare the life of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an illiterate widow and mother of two sentenced to death by stoning on an adultery charge that she denies. – The National

Iran has raised its gasoline output to attain self-sufficiency in the strategic product and foil sanctions targeting its energy needs, the state television's website reported its oil minister as saying. - Reuters

The U.S. Treasury added Iranian-owned, German-based European-Iranian Trade Bank AG to its key blacklist Tuesday, saying the bank has provided a financial lifeline to Iranian companies involved in weapons proliferation. The move bans the Hamburg-based bank— known as EIH Bank for its German initials—from the U.S. financial system. The Wall Street Journal reported in July that Tehran was increasingly reliant on EIH to conduct business on behalf of the regime's blacklisted companies. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Israel

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he has asked the United States to settle a dispute with Israel over settlement expansion that is threatening to derail Mideast peace talks – Associated Press

Anticipating fresh bids by pro-Palestinian activists to sail against its Gaza Strip blockade, and hoping to avoid a repeat of its bloody boarding of a Turkish aid ship in May, Israel has turned to maritime law. Israeli officials say vessels will be warned in advance that they face costly impoundment and the possible detainment of crews -- a strategy first floated in July when the threat of such action helped turn a Libyan-chartered ship away from Gaza. - Reuters

Laura Rozen reports: President Barack Obama told Jewish religious leaders Tuesday that he was "pleasantly surprised" and "stunned" at how cordial and constructive were discussions last week between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. - Politico

Elliott Abrams writes: These negotiations will be long and hard. If the United States commits these three mistakes, as we seem poised to do, we will make the difficult impossible. – Washington Post

Mexico

Mexico, Latin America's second-largest economy, has become one of the world's most dangerous places for reporters, [a] report [from the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists] said, and authorities are little better than peers in conflict-wracked Somalia and Afghanistan at solving crimes against the media - Reuters

Korean Peninsula

This film, obtained by South Korean media and shot undercover in North Korea's border town of Shinuiju, shows residents have been forced to live on the streets after severe flooding in the area - Telegraph

Destitute North Korea has asked its wealthy neighbor for rice aid following severe flooding this year, the South's Unification Ministry said on Tuesday, a sign of easing tensions on the peninsula - Reuters

A U.S. government team will travel to Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing next week to discuss North Korea but has no plans to visit the poor, isolated state or meet its officials, the State Department said Tuesday. - Reuters

Russia

For more than two years, the mayor of a Siberian village was held in a pretrial detention center after she filed complaints against the successor agency to the Soviet-era K.G.B. Finally freed on bail this summer after her case began attracting attention, she was unexpectedly given a further reprieve on Tuesday – New York Times

Colombia

Thousands of Colombian peasants have crossed into this Ecuadorean jungle for years to escape what the U.S. State Department describes as a low-intensity guerrilla war involving mostly political combatants. But these days, Colombian refugees are contending with a new and equally deadly breed of armed conflict — among ruthless gangs vying for control of the region's lucrative cocaine and arms trade. – Associated Press

United Kingdom

The British government will have to double its research and technology (R&T) spending or risk losing a substantial part of its world-class defense industrial capability, the chairman of the sector's leading trade organization here said Sept. 7. – Defense News

Cuba

Cuba will soon turn some small-scale manufacturing and retail services into cooperatives as the state retreats from minor businesses in an effort to boost the island's troubled economy, government and Communist Party sources said. - Reuters

France

France remains "confident" it will win a deal to supply helicopter carriers to Russia, Nicolas Sarkozy's office said Sept. 7 after the French president met with Russia's foreign and defense ministers. - AFP

Venezuela

Unable to access enough dollars, local importers are feeling the pinch across a wide range of goods, from Scotch whisky, the nation’s favourite drink, to luxury foods and swanky cars. Although Mr Chávez deems these unnecessary to his socialist revolution, other companies importing more ordinary items are experiencing problems too – Financial Times

China

Chinese leaders called for enhanced dialogue and cooperation with the U.S. in meetings with visiting White House officials, signaling Beijing's concern that tensions over currency and other issues are again threatening ties between the world's two key economies – Wall Street Journal

As China pushes beyond its borders in search of markets, jobs and a bigger voice in world affairs, a nation that once boasted of "having friends everywhere" increasingly confronts a problem long faced by the United States: Its wealth and clout might inspire awe and wary respect, but they also generate envy and, at times, violent hostility. – Washington Post

In China, the Dalai Lama is officially a dangerous separatist and a "criminal," and his supporters are prohibited from discussing him or even displaying his picture. But here in the ethnic Tibetan areas of Qinghai province, nominally autonomous while under strict Chinese control, the exiled spiritual leader remains a ubiquitous presence, despite his long physical absence. – Washington Post

The man expected to become the next leader of China’s ruling Communist party has responded to a growing wave of complaints from foreign investors by assuring them the country will remain an open and fair place for them to do business. Xi Jinping, a vice-president and the heir apparent to Hu Jintao, told an investment forum on Tuesday his government was taking “vigorous steps” to ensure China “remains the most appealing destination for investment in the world”. – Financial Times

Spain

Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Tuesday ETA had to lay down its arms forever, after the Basque separatist group declared a ceasefire - Reuters

Syria

The first ever mission to Syria by a UN special investigator on human rights was completed yesterday, resulting in a preliminary report that criticised the international community and the Syrian authorities. – The National

Australia

Australia's fragile Labor government suggested on Wednesday it could adjust a planned profits-based tax on mining companies to bend to demands of the independent MPs giving it a slender grip on power. - Reuters

Iraq

Iraq announced on Tuesday the return of hundreds of looted antiquities that had ended up in the United States, even as a senior official disclosed that 632 pieces repatriated last year and turned over to the office of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki were now unaccounted for. – New York Times

Two American soldiers were killed and nine were wounded on Tuesday when a firefight erupted inside an Iraqi Army base north of Baghdad, American and Iraqi officials said. They were the first American casualties since President Obama declared an official end to the United States combat mission in Iraq a week ago – New York Times

Officials in U.S. President Barack Obama's administration see signs that Iraqi leaders' actions increasingly are driven by nationalism - not sectarian interests, said Antony Blinken, national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden. – Defense News

Six months after Iraq held an election many hoped would usher in greater stability and peace, voters…are running out of patience with politicians, and also out of faith in democracy. – Reuters

Western Europe

Three right-leaning Dutch parties which broke off talks to form a new government last week said Tuesday they were ready to resume negotiations, after a dissident from one of the parties quit parliament. - Reuters

José Manuel Barroso has used his inaugural "state of the union" speech to demand new powers to raise money to fund the growing EU budget at a time of austerity and national spending cuts. - Telegraph

Middle East

Official campaigning for October’s parliamentary elections starts next week against a background of unusual political turmoil and with an important segment of Bahrain’s population determined to make significant electoral progress: women – The National

United States of America

The Pentagon is eyeing cuts in a war office thought to be untouchable: the organization that devises ways to foil the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. – Washington Times

Josh Rogin reports: The initial draft resolution to ratify the new START nuclear reductions treaty circulated by Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry is already facing widespread Republican criticism. Sen. Richard Lugar, the committee's ranking Republican, is moving quickly to address complaints about the resolution and suggest compromise language that could win some Republican support for the treaty. – The Cable

John Bolton writes:  The Pentagon today is increasing planning for smaller-scale conflicts in which the need for global, conventional warhead launchers will be particularly acute. But New Start, with its myopic focus on Russian arms levels, will severely limit our small-war capabilities. Since launchers can be used for either conventional or nuclear purposes, limiting their number to 700 forces war-planners to consider that any launcher used for conventional purposes is in effect one less launcher in the nuclear arsenal. Both conventional and nuclear capabilities are needed, and yet New Start forces a damaging trade-off.  – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Defense

NATO plans to keep its Allied Command Transformation (ACT) in Norfolk, Va., despite Pentagon plans to shutter U.S. Joint Forces Command, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Sept. 7. In other news, he told reporters in Washington the alliance will expand plans for a theater missile defense system into a "territorial" system to which he hopes Russia will contribute.- Defense News

Tomas Valasek writes: NATO will emerge from the economic crisis diminished. Coordination cannot fully offset the impact of the drastic cuts that many allies are contemplating. But NATO countries still have a responsibility to make sure that, post-crisis, the different component parts of NATO fit together – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will tell the Council on Foreign Relations Wednesday that the Obama administration’s diplomatic engagement and international leadership are advancing U.S. national security and achieving concrete results, from tough international sanctions on Iran to strengthening the nonproliferation regime to relaunched Middle East peace talks, officials tell POLITICO. - Politico

Saudi Arabia

When a survey by HSBC bank revealed that expatriates working in Saudi Arabia were among the world’s wealthiest, with disposable incomes allowing them to buy luxuries such as yachts, many citizens of the kingdom were furious. Newspaper columnists, readers and social media users lamented the money that they believed foreigners were skimming off Saudis, portraying expatriates as wallowing in luxury while the country struggles with unemployment – Financial Times

Japan

Japanese ruling party powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, who is challenging Prime Minister Naoto Kan, said on Wednesday the government may need to issue more debt to fund economic steps if conditions worsen. - Reuters

India

Almost one in three Indians are "utterly corrupt," the outgoing head of the country's anti-corruption watchdog has said in a damning indictment of governance in the world's second fastest-growing economy. - Telegraph