Morning Brief, Thursday, October 25

Asia

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Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was moved from house arrest to a state guesthouse, where analysts expect she will meet with a representative of the ruling junta. Meanwhile, U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari is having trouble convincing Burma’s neighbors such as China and India to take a tougher line.

China’s economy expanded by 11.5 percent in the third quarter, according to Chinese government statistics.

Howard French of the New York Times finds Chinese pop music stale and homogeneous—and that’s the way the China’s rulers like it.

U.S. conservatives are growing increasingly hostile toward the North Korean disarmament deal.

Middle East

Turkey says its troops repelled an attack by Kurdish militants along the Iraqi border. An Iraqi delegation is in Ankara today to try to defuse the crisis.

The U.S. government plans to announce new sanctions today targeting Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and its elite Qods Force.

The International Atomic Energy Agency will have “full and total control” of nuclear fuel at Iran’s Bushehr power plant, a top Russian official claims.

The U.S. State Department cashiered its security chief, who was responsible for overseeing military contractors such as Blackwater.

Europe

NATO countries pledged more support for Afghanistan, but downgraded plans to build a “rapid reaction force”.

Russia is aiming to curtail the activities of Western election observers in the former Soviet Union.

Americas

The U.S. economy is “undoubtedly in recession,” according to influential investor Jim Rogers.

Shockingly, Latin American diplomats and Cuban exiles hold different views on U.S. President Bush’s new policy toward Cuba.

The Bush administration is using Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez as a foil to push trade deals in Latin America.

The U.S. terrorist watch list contains 755 thousand names?

Elsewhere 

Oil prices are still hovering perilously close to $90 per barrel.

Violence returns to Congo.

The tab for Iraq and Afghanistan could run to $2.4 trillion through 2010, the U.S. Congressional Budget Office estimates.