Global News Journal

from Africa News blog:

Somalia’s mean sealanes

It's the stuff for a Hollywood blockbuster to rival Ridley Scott's 2001 thriller "Black Hawk Down": A bunch of 50 Somali pirates in speedboats and heavily armed with grenade launchers clamber aboard a Ukranian ship in the Gulf of Aden. They overwhelm the 20-man crew and take control of the ship and its dubious cargo of 33 battle tanks, supposedly destined for the Kenyan military. Six days later and with US navy ships stalking, a shootout breaks out on board among the pirates, killing three.

The hijacking of the MV Faina is only the most high-profile of what is turning into the biggest scourge of sea piracy in modern times. According to the International Maritime Bureau, presumed Somali pirates have attacked more than 60 ships in the area this year. It's piracy alert website reported on Sept. 26 that four ships had been attacked in the Gulf of Aden within a 48-hour period.

"Intelligence sources revealed that there are now three suspicious vessels in the Gulf of Aden believed to be pirate mother vessels looking to attack ships with the intent to hijack," it said.

Somali pirates taking advantage of chaos onshore, where an Islamist insurgency has raged for nearly two years, have intensified attacks this year on vessels plying the main water route linking Asia and the Middle East to Europe. Somalia has been a dysfunctional state since 1991. The upsurge in piracy has sent shipping insurance costs soaring tenfold, according to Lloyds List, and prompting shipowners to call for tougher international action. The alternative would be rerouting sea trade through the Cape of Good Hope, adding thousands of miles to the journey.

An international coalition of 19 states has been scrambling to keep the waterways in the region safe, but its own warships run the risk of deadly attack. France has been championing international action against Somali pirates. It sent its commandos twice this year to rescue its yachts seized in the region and is now spearheading United Nations action to deal with piracy.

What should be the correct international response to the problem? Should the world's big powers increase their military presence in the Gulf of Aden to protect vital sea lanes? How should the international community address the fundamental issue of chaos in Somalia itself? Can piracy in the region be contained without a solution to the Somali crisis?

from Pakistan: Now or Never?:

Pakistan names new spy chief: at U.S. behest or own move?

Pakistan has replaced the head of its powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, following months of questions from the United States about its reliability in the battle against the Taliban and al Qaeda.  Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, formerly head of military operations, will replace Lieutenant-General Nadeem Taj.

The change was part of a major overhaul of the military leadership by Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, who also replaced the head of the 10 Corps in Rawalpindi, the most powerful corps in the army.

So to what extent was the United States responsible for the move? Or how far was it Pakistan's own attempt to shore up its security operations as it cracks down on Islamist militants, who according to U.S. military commander David Petraeus threaten Pakistan's "very existence"?

Washington has long suspected elements within the ISI of passing sensitive information to the Taliban --with whom the spy agency worked closely before the 9/11 attacks on the United States -- undermining its campaign in Afghanistan. India and Afghanistan also accused the ISI of involvement in the July bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul. Pakistan has denied the allegations.

The New York Times reported at the weekend that President Asif Ali Zardari had held an unpublicised meeting with Michael Hayden, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, during his visit to the United States last week, amid ongoing U.S. pressure about what it called "the double game played by Pakistan's spy agency".

But it also quoted Zardari as saying that: "The ISI will be handled, that is our problem." He added that "We don't hunt with the hound and run with the hare, which is what (former president Pervez) Musharraf was doing," and said that "Anyone not conforming with my government's policy will be thrown out."

Besides asking how much the change of leadership at the ISI was dictated by Washington, the other question is how much the army and the government worked together on it.  

Long list of enemies in Syria blast

One of the problems with countries like Syria – secretive and authoritarian – is that whenever a bomb goes off or someone is assassinated, the list of possible suspects is extensive.

One can draw up a long list of enemies who could have plotted and carried out Saturday’s rare car bomb attack on a major road near a Syrian state security complex and an intersection leading to a famous Shi’ite Muslim shrine. The blast, which killed 17 people including a brigadier general and his son, poses another test to Syria’s reputation for keeping a tight grip on dissent and maintaining stability in a troubled area. 

High on any list of possible perpetrators are Sunni Salafi jihadis active in Syria now, and who for years were able to cross through the Syrian borders into Iraq to fight U.S. troops. This stopped recently when Damascus tightened its borders following pressure from Iraq and the United States and opted for a policy of detente and moderation starting with indirect peace talks with Israel through Turkish mediation and a diplomatic drive to end its international isolation.

The jihadis, angry at Syria cutting off their routes, relaunching peace talks with the Jewish state and detaining their militants, could have turned their guns against Damascus. And this could have involved a mix of personnel — foreign expertise helping local Islamists.

Another motive for the latest attack could be Sunni-Alawite tensions in Lebanon. Sunni militant groups based in northern Lebanon have been fighting a sectarian war with Lebanon’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam which has close links to Syria, whose ruling elite has been dominated by minority Alawites for over four decades.

Syria said an Islamist suicide bomber was responsible for the attack and that the vehicle had entered Syria from a neighbouring Arab country on Sept 26. It did not name the country but Syria’s Arab neighbours are Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan.

Assad, whose country has dominated Lebanon for three decades and was forced to withdraw its troops after the assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, warned this month of a danger from what he called foreign-backed Sunni extremists in the predominantly Sunni city of Tripoli. He called for a solution to “the rising threat” of Islamist militants in the city.

The Party’s Over For Merkel

Suddenly, the outlook has darkened for Chancellor Angela Merkel, thanks to Bavaria’s conservatives who suffered their worst result in half a century in a state vote on Sunday.

Merkel is used to riding high in polls and had looked to be cruising to re-election in a year’s time.

But the disaster in Bavaria, plus a clouded economic outlook due to financial crisis around the globe leave Merkel looking vulnerable and open to attack from within her conservative camp.

The prospect of a reinvigorated Social Democrat (SPD) party, with whom she shares power in a loveless coalition, under its new leadership is yet another headache.

Merkel’s enviable status as Germany’s most popular post-war chancellor isn’t helping her party which is languishing at around 37 percent in polls while the SPD, although weaker, is starting to make gains.

And the 17 percent slump in support for Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU), sister party of Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU),  is part of a trend.

This year, conservatives have endured heavy losses in all four states that have held elections and lost their absolute majority in Hamburg as well as Bavaria. Within weeks, the CDU could also lose power in Hesse where the SPD is expected to clinch a deal to oust CDU state premier Roland Koch after a knife-edge result in a Janaury vote.

from Pakistan: Now or Never?:

Pakistan’s Zardari wins mixed reviews with U.S. trip

Depending on who you read, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari was either an embarrassment for trying to flirt with Sarah Palin during his trip to New York last week, or a street-smart wheeler-dealer bravely standing up to Islamist militancy after the assassination of his wife Benazir Bhutto.

Time revisits the encounter between Zardari and Palin -- in which he told the vice-presidential candidate she was gorgeous and threatened to hug her in a scene now frequently being replayed on YouTube -- writing that it led to Zardari being "pilloried at home as a source of national embarrassment and accused of sexism and impropriety".

In contrast, New York Times columnist Roger Cohen  was fulsome in his praise of a man filling what he calls 'the most dangerous job on earth'. This is one of the most positive, if not the most positive, reviews I have ever read about Zardari.

"My impression?" writes Cohen. "This guy's very smart, street smart, a wheeler-dealer in an area full of them, secular, pro-American, committed to democracy, and brave. I never heard (former president Pervez) Musharraf frame Pakistan's fight against terrorism with such candor. I believe he wants genuine conciliation with India and Afghanistan, essential to the region's stability. (Positive meetings were held here with the Indian and Afghan leaders.). I care much less right now about his checkered past than about getting behind him for civilization's sake."

The Los Angeles Times says the jury is still out on whether Zardari, "an accidental president" thrust into the limelight by his wife's assassination last year, can reinvent himself as a truly inspirational leader able to rally the country while also keeping the Pakistan Army on side. 

"In a country that has spent half its existence under military rule, Zardari, as a civilian leader, still maintains only tenuous control of the army," it says.  The newspaper quotes Stephen Cohen, an expert on Pakistan at the Brookings Institution in Washington, as saying that "If the military doesn't do what he wants it to do, he doesn't have sovereignty." Cohen adds: "He's been elected president, but that's meaningless."

As for Pakistan's neighbours, Zardari seems to have won over Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who told CNN he sees a new opportunity to work with Pakistan to uproot militant sanctuaries on their shared border. This was in sharp contrast to Karzai's  relationship with Musharraf, which was marked by both countries blaming the other for failing to crack down on the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Newlook Royal facing oldstyle defeat

French Socialist Segolene Royal has unveiled a chic, dishevelled new look, but the surprise makeover is unlikely to prevent her from suffering a fresh election defeat.

Royal came second in last year’s presidential ballot behind Nicolas Sarkozy. Having lost the chance to run the country, she has now fixed her sights on running her party, with Socialist party members due to elect their new leader in November.

Looking to promote her cause, Royal staged a rally in Paris on Saturday night that was more like a rock concert than a political meeting.

She stunned the audience when she took the stage, with her laid back appearance. Gone were the neat hair-do and well-tailored suits of the presidential campaign. Instead there was a wavy, youthful hairstyle and flowing blue dress.

Gone also were the notes and slightly rigid manner that marked her performances on the 2007 campaign trail. Instead she spoke off the cuff, sashaying around the stage like an energised yoga teacher and cracking Woody Allen jokes.

It wasn’t to everyone’s taste. One disgruntled Socialist party heavyweight, Henri Emmanuelli, said the meeting was a cross between “show business and the gathering of a sect”.

And it almost certainly won’t be enough to put her in contention to grab control of her party, which is still traumatised by its failure to win power in 2007.

A foreign policy tell-all from Rice?

NEW YORK -  When her eight years in the Bush administration end on Jan. 20, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to write a book about U.S. foreign policy.

Asked in a Reuters interview on Friday if it would be a tell-all memoir and reveal secret meetings in the build-up to the Iraq war, Rice replied: “Tell-all? What’s a tell-all?”

The former Stanford University academic said it would look at America post-Sept. 11, 2001, and how those attacks shaped security issues worldwide.

Rice plans to sprint to the finish in her last months as secretary of state, tackling North Korea and Iran’s nuclear programs and trying to get an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

“There are still quite a few accounts out there that deserve my attention and need my attention and I have to go worry about a couple of them now,” she said, ending the interview.

from FaithWorld:

Should religious groups talk to Iranian president?

A rabbi, a Mennonite and a Zoroastrian priest were having dinner with the president of Iran -- sounds like the start of a joke, but it happened in New York this week.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had dinner with around 200 people of various faiths including Mennonites, Quakers, United Methodists, Jews and Zoroastrians who said they wanted to promote peace by meeting such a prominent foe of the United States.  You can read our story about the meeting here.

Those who attended the Iftar meal in a Manhattan hotel ballroom had to brave a line of protesters outside who accused them of sitting down with a man little better than Hitler. Major Jewish groups had urged the cancellation of the event.

It was billed as a panel discussion titled: "What does my faith tradition bring to the struggle to eliminate poverty, injustice, global warming and war?"

Speakers included U.N. General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, who is a Catholic priest, and former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell-Magne Bondevik, who is a Lutheran, as well as Ahmadinejad.

"I stand here today, even when many of my co-religionists are dismissing, demeaning or boycotting this important conversation," Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb said in her speech, arguing that it was her obligation to engage in dialogue in order to seek peace.

Arli Klassen, executive director of the Mennonite Central Committee, said she welcomed the presence of the protesters outside. "I respect their right to have their opinion. It's especially important where we're talking to a country where these rights (to protest) are not met in the same way," she told Reuters.

Poland to Russia: Please keep the nuke threats to a minimum

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski would appreciate it if Russia would stop threatening his country with nuclear annihilation — or at least limit its threats to once a month.

“It is not a friendly thing to do, and we have asked them to do it no more than once a month. But as the Atlantic alliance we have nukes too,” Sikorski told an audience at Columbia University this week.

He said there is a great need for NATO to get back to basics so that it can provide a bigger check against a resurgent Russia. NATO should hold more war games and make its “traditional security guarantees credible again. NATO needs to recover its role, not just as an alliance but as a military organization,” Sikorski said.

It was also just pure coincidence, Sikorski assured the audience, that very soon after Russia invaded Georgia, Warsaw and Washington signed an agreement to allow the United States to place parts of its controversial missile shield inside Poland. The missile shield drew  a salvo of furious threats from Moscow.  Poland, Sikorski said, does not want a confrontation with Russia, and asked Moscow to tone it down a bit.

Click here [Play] to listen to Sikorski’s comments.

Photo: Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski (R) shakes hands with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov at the Foreign Ministry in Warsaw September 11, 2008.

from Africa News blog:

Motlanthe greeted with relief, but South Africa’s problems are not over

South Africans have widely greeted new President Kgalema Motlanthe, many of them with a sense of relief after the bitter and divisive power struggle between his ousted predecessor Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, leader of the ruling African National Congress.

Motlanthe, quiet spoken and dignified, struck exactly the note the public were looking for when he took office, sober but smiling gently - a huge contrast to the theatrical ebullience of Zuma and the aloof, intellectual style of Mbeki, who was seen as arrogant and out of touch with his people.

The sense of relief was palpable on Friday.

"Motlanthe restores order" said the front page headline of Johannesburg's Star newspaper, over a picture of the new president swearing the oath of office. "New leader steers SA to calm," said the Pretoria News. "For now the country has at its head a nice and largely untainted man with not much ego who doesn't think he knows everything and who listens to people. You can almost feel the relief in the republic," Business Day said in an editorial.

But Motlanthe's honeymoon may not last.

He must try to end an unprecedented battle inside the ANC while his country, Africa's biggest economy, faces serious stresses including record inflation, slowing growth and a power supply crisis that has hit vital platinum and gold mines. Yet, he has little room for manoeuvre. Although fully accepted as the third president since the end of apartheid, he is seen only as an interim leader, holding the fort until Zuma takes over after elections expected around April next year.

This will make it difficult even to make a mark, without arousing suspicions that he wants the permanent job himself--something that many South Africans would welcome.