Morning Brief, Friday, October 12

Nobel Peace Prize

TORSTEN BLACKWOOD/AFP/Getty Images

In case you hadn’t heard, Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on reinventing government. (Just kidding, it was for his advocacy related to climate change.) Gore shares the award with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the U.N. body that has been monitoring climate change since 1988. Its head, Rajendra Pachauri, is shown at right. As the New York Times reports, it’s been a heckuva year for the former vice president.

Middle East

Turkey is recalling its ambassador to the United States in protest of the Armenian Genocide Resolution, which passed a House committee Wednesday. And today, Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan said his country is ready to weather a storm of international criticism if it invades Iraqi Kurdistan.

Iraqi Shiites are reportedly turning away from the Mahdi Army, the militia of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Gaza’s banks are running out of cash, according to a Hamas economic advisor. 

Europe 

Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to Moscow by threatening to pull out of a key missile treaty.

The Harry Winston jewelry store in Paris got robbed to the tune of $28.4 million in “one of the largest jewelry thefts ever,” according to the International Herald Tribune.

For a mere $8,333, you can buy a copy of the secret Vatican minutes from the heresy trials of the Knights Templars.

Asia

In a surprise move, China backed a U.N. Security Council statement criticizing the Burmese military regime and calling for dialogue with jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. But the Chinese later spun the statement as a message to the junta to handle its own problems wisely.

U.S. retailer J.C. Penney is recalling thousands of Winnie-the-Pooh doll sets made in China because they contain lead. 

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is suing a group in Calcutta, India, that is building a model of Hogwarts for a Hindu festival.

Elsewhere

Bad news for Sudan: Former rebels from the south suddenly pulled out of the so-called “unity government”.

The spoon-billed sandpiper is nearly extinct, a British conservation group says.

The U.S. crackdown on illegal immigrants is “having major effects on workers and employers alike,” the New York Times reports.

Today’s Agenda

• It’s the 5th anniversary of the Bali bombings.
• Eid, the festival marking the end of Ramadan, begins tonight (or Saturday in some Muslim countries).
• U.S. Secretary of State Condi Rice arrives in Moscow.

Yesterday on Passport

• Bush takes the Dalai Lama for a walk
• African conflict costs $300 billion
• Subprime fallout arrives in the suburbs