Morning Brief, Friday, January 12
Iraq and Middle East The Iraqi prime minister knows he’s living on “borrowed time,” says outgoing U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. Iraq’s foreign minister, a Kurd, says the Iranians seized in a U.S. raid yesterday were there with the permission of the Iraqi authorities. Israel’s appointment of its first Arab minister was called “a lethal ...
Iraq and Middle East
Iraq and Middle East
The Iraqi prime minister knows he’s living on “borrowed time,” says outgoing U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.
Iraq’s foreign minister, a Kurd, says the Iranians seized in a U.S. raid yesterday were there with the permission of the Iraqi authorities.
Israel’s appointment of its first Arab minister was called “a lethal blow to Zionism” by the chairman of a far-right party in the ruling coalition.
U.S. Politics
Senators Joe Biden and Chuck Hagel delivered a clear message to Condi Rice during their Senate Foreign Relations committee hearings yesterday: Don’t muck around in Iran. Steve Clemons has the transcript.
The Bush administration is planning to try top al Qaeda detainees, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Fourteen member’s of an advisory board to the Carter Center resigned in protest over passages in the former president’s book. And longtime top U.S. negotiator Dennis Ross slammed Carter in The New York Times earlier this week for misrepresenting his maps.
Europe
In a 70s throwback, leftist guerrillas may be the culprit behind an amateurish rocket attack on the U.S. embassy in Athens. Nobody was injured.
The Brits want 48 countries, including the United States, to test for polonium-210.
Will Britain keep fighting the war on terror after Tony Blair leaves? The outgoing PM hopes not.
Asia
China’s got a problem: its one-child policy will result in 30 million more young men than women. Meanwhile, syphilis rates are soaring.
Elsewhere
A U.S. search team went into Somalia, according to “U.S. sources,” to determine if Monday’s AC-130 strike got any al Qaeda targets. Newsweek wants to know: How deeply is the U.S. involved? The U.S. military has been working closely with the Ethiopians, who are now encountering some resistance from angry residents in the capital. Fighting broke out yesterday at the Somali president’s house in Mogadishu.
Pakistan denied knowledge that its territory had become a base for a strengthened al Qaeda leadership.
Bangladeshi troops imposed a state of emergency, but the disputed elections have been postponed.
Thousands of birds mysteriously fell from the sky over Australia.
Oil prices are back up after a big drop yesterday.
Blake Hounshell is a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.
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