Brown in Iraq
In his first to visit to Iraq since becoming prime minister, Gordon Brown met with his Iraqi counterpart Nuri al-Maliki about handing further responsibility for control of the south of the country over to the Iraqi government. Brown hopes that Iraqis will assume total control of Basra province in two months, and to cut UK troop levels in Iraq from 5,500 to 4,500.
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Sign up to receive toD's daily security briefings via email by clicking hereKey Shia and Sunni officials in Iraq are meeting with South African and Irish leaders who were involved in the negotiations that brought peace to both Northern Ireland and South Africa. The meetings, mediated by Finnish envoys, are hoping to generate concrete proposals on how to resolve the intractable violence in the war-torn country.
Abu Osama al-Tunisi, one of the key leaders in the militant group Islamic State in Iraq - al-Qaida's front organisation in the country - has been killed in a US air strike.
Talabani to intervene for Tehran
Iraqi president Jalal Talabani will deliver a letter to US president George W Bush asking for the release of Mahmoud Farhadi, the Iranian businessmen recently detained by American forces in the north of Iraq. Farhadi's detention is having a detrimental effect on business ties between Iraqi Kurdistan and the neighbouring Kermanshah region in Iran.
Obama to call for full disarmament
In an anticipated speech today, US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will call for setting the goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons in the world. He will emphasise the US' responsibility to greatly reduce its own stockpile of nuclear weapons in order to reduce the threat posed by nuclear terrorism.
Support Musharraf?
The Council on Foreign Relations hosts a debate on whether the United States should support Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf. While some suggest that rocking the boat will cause only more damage, others argue that US foreign policy will always be mistrusted in the Muslim world as long as Washington insists on backing military dictators.
Musharraf's main rival, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, has suggested that she would be willing to allow US forces into the rugged northwest of her country in order to flush out the alleged warrens of al-Qaida fighters in the region. Bhutto is clearly pandering to the position of certain US presidential hopefuls, namely Barack Obama, who called for sending US troops into the frontier regions of Pakistan.
US embassy plot
A 42-year old man of Bosnian origin was arrested in Vienna after he attempted to enter the US embassy compound with a bag carrying explosives.
Palestinians capture militant commander
Palestinian security forces operating in northern Lebanon have seized Nasser Ismail, the military commander of the militant Fatah al-Islam group that was involved in clashes over the summer with the Lebanese army in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp.
US top arms dealer list
The United States has once again topped the list of global arms dealers, accounting for 42% of the market. The country concluded nearly $17 billion of arms deals last year. Pakistan was the developing nation to buy the most arms from the United States, accounting for $5 billion alone.
Bombs on the Turkish coast
Two separate blasts killed one person and injured four in Turkey's second largest city Izmir, on the western coast of Anatolia. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
In the wake of a US Senate proposal to devolve power in Iraq to ethnically-defined regions, Turkish commentators fear that Ankara's position in dealings with Iraqi Kurdistan will be markedly weakened.
Malaysia threaten pull out
Kuala Lumpur has said that it will withdraw its peace monitors from the restive south of the Philippines where they have been watching a tenuous truce between the Filipino army and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Delays in negotiations and ongoing fighting (which claimed over a dozen lives just today) have deeply frustrated Malaysian officials.
Assam blasts
Three serial bomb blasts in the restive northeastern Indian state of Assam killed six people and injured forty. Police have linked the attacks to the separatist group the United Liberation Front of Asom.
