Morning Brief, Tuesday, March 20

LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP Middle East  Russia to Iran: no nuclear fuel for you. My worry? That Iranian hardliners will use this to say, “See? I told you we need to build our own enrichment capacity.” Meanwhile, South Africa is causing headaches for diplomats trying to shepherd the Iran sanctions resolution through the U.N. Security Council. Saddam ...

By , a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.
603189_070320_putin_05.jpg
603189_070320_putin_05.jpg

LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP

LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP

Middle East 

Russia to Iran: no nuclear fuel for you. My worry? That Iranian hardliners will use this to say, “See? I told you we need to build our own enrichment capacity.” Meanwhile, South Africa is causing headaches for diplomats trying to shepherd the Iran sanctions resolution through the U.N. Security Council.

Saddam Hussein’s former veep gets the rope.

Shooting an Israeli civilian? Not the best way to secure recognition for your struggling unity government.

United States 

The U.S. Department of Justice released hundreds of pages of emails requested by Congress over the burgeoning fired U.S. attorneys scandal. McClatchy and the Politico say Gonzales is out, and the White House is looking for alternatives.

A top al Qaeda planner confessed to organizing the attack on the U.S.S. Cole in October 2000.

Europe

English schools will be able to choose whether to ban the full-faced veil, a controversial sign of Muslim piety.

Euroskepticism is all the rage in Europe these days, a new poll finds.

Holocaust survivors are seeking compensation in Poland. 

Beset by domestic unhappiness over its troop presence in Afghanistan, Germany is withdrawing from … Bosnia

Asia

North Korea sure is making a ruckus over that $25 million in frozen funds. 

Pakistan opens Gwadar, its new port on the Arabia Sea that was partially funded by China.

In China, selling fraudulent ant farms could get you killed

Elsewhere 

Angola, Saudi Arabia of west Africa

Robert Mugabe’s crackdown on the political opposition proceeds apace in Zimbabwe.

Rivers run into the sea … but not for long, says a new report by the World Wildlife Foundation. 

Cyber attacks are “more aggressive then ever,” according to a new Internet security report.

Blake Hounshell is a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.

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