Turkey-Iraq anti-terrorism deal
Long-brewing tensions between Ankara and Baghdad seem to have cooled with the signing of a joint anti-terrorism pact targeted against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq. Militants of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) maintain hideouts and strongholds in the rugged north of Iraq, crossing into Turkey to launch against Turkish forces before slipping back across the border. Turkish officials have long threatened intervention in northern Iraq should local authorities fail to clamp down on PKK activities. Iraqi Kurdish officials are unhappy about the deal, fearing that it may pave the way for Turkish troops to enter into their territory. Iranian forces have also skirmished with Kurdish rebels along the perforated border.Keep up to date with the latest developments and sharpest perspectives in a world of strife and struggle.
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US officials admit that an oil contract signed between an American company and the Kurdish Regional Government in northern Iraq is at odds with Washington's plan of strengthening the central government. Once Baghdad passes a hotly-debated national oil law, deals struck independently with Kurdish authorities will likely be ruled illegal. Washington is struggling to reconcile its traditional support for the Kurds alongside its desire for a stronger Iraqi government.
Gains lost in Afghanistan
NATO military commander General Dan McNeill fears that gains made in Helmand province over the summer will have to be recovered next year after the Taliban regroup over the winter. Afghan forces may not be able to hold back the reinforced and reorganised militants.
Ahmadinejad tears into US at UN
In a blistering speech delivered before the UN General Assembly, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the United States of violating human rights, even as Washington "pretends to be their exclusive advocates". He also expressed his satisfaction with the recent pro-active role of the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose willingness to negotiate directly with Tehran had made Iran's nuclear program an "ordinary agency matter". Neither the Israeli nor the American delegation were in attendance during Ahmadinejad's speech.
20 years for Serbian war criminal
A former Serbian colonel, Mile Mrksic, has been handed a twenty year prison sentence by a UN war-crimes tribunal for his role in the massacre of 250 Croatian fighters and patients who were taken from a hospital in the town of Vukovar in 1991 before being executed and buried in a mass grave.
Giuliani's neocon counsel
Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani has surrounded himself with three of the most virulent defenders of the "military-forward" neoconservative doctrine. Daniel Pipes, Martin Kramer, and Norman Podhoretz are also convinced of the threat posed by Muslim immigrants in the United States and of the alleged failure of the academy in teaching western Asian history, politics and society. It may have eluded Giuliani that all the recent policy recommendations of his new foreign policy advisers have proved catastrophic.
Protecting the wiretappers
openDemocracy author Aziz Huq rails against the system that grants immunity from prosecution to communications companies involved in homeland security wiretapping.
Peacekeepers to Chad
The UN Security Council has authorised the dispatch of an EU peacekeeping force along with UN police to a corner of Chad where they will protect civilians and prevent violence from neighbouring Darfur from spreading into Chad and the Central African Republic.
Thailand ambushes
Muslim separatist rebels in the restive south of Thailand ambushed security patrols today, killing three and wounding five. Over 2,500 people have been killed in the south during the ongoing three-year insurgency.
