March 4:
Although itself a secular separatist group, Sri Lanka's notorious Tamil Tigers have developed both financial and operational links to an array of Islamist radicals in recent years, according to a new research paper published by the Israel's International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism. The study, reprinted in the Asian Tribune, cites connections between the Tamil Tigers and al-Qaeda, as well as a number of Asian terror groups such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Abu Sayyaf. The reasons for these synergies, according to the report, is less about ideology than it is about arms and money: "The links between the Islamist terrorist groups and the LTTE are not driven by ideological compatibility, but by the need to influence factors of pricing and convenience in the informal arms market. In most cases the LTTE has developed links with Islamist groups to organize consolidated purchasing opportunities."
The New York Philharmonic's recent "peace mission" to Pyongyang has restarted international speculation about the prospects for a normalization of relations between the U.S. and North Korea. "The success of last week's concert in Pyongyang by the New York Philharmonic raises the prospect that the United States might start normalizing relations with North Korea, possibly taking the first formal steps before the end of the Bush presidency," writes the Los Angeles Times. And such a normalization is indeed possible, says Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill. But America's top Asian negotiator warns that it must be preceded by the DPRK's disarmament: "We've told them we are not prepared to do that until they give up their nuclear materials... We can begin the process of discussing what we are going to do, whether we are going to open embassies, that sort of thing... But we will not have diplomatic relations with a nuclear North Korea."
March 7:
A daring raid by U.S. and Thai officials in Bangkok has apprehended Viktor Bout, by some estimates the world’s most infamous international arms dealer. Defense News reports that Bout - who is accused of helping to arm Liberia's Charles Taylor and transporting weaponry to numerous conflict zones in the Middle East and Asia - was nabbed on March 6th as part of an elaborate sting operation. He is charged with conspiring to sell advanced weaponry, including surface-to-air missiles and rocket launchers, to Columbia's FARC terrorist group.
The Bush administration has designated a prominent Bangladeshi Islamist group as a foreign terrorist organization under U.S. law, Reuters reports. Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami, whose leader signed Osama bin Laden's 1998 fatwa, has been accused by the Bangladeshi government of involvement in a 2004 attack that killed 23 people. "Since then, HUJI-B has been implicated in a number of terrorist attacks in Bangladesh and abroad," the State Department has confirmed in an official statement posted on its website.
March 12:
As part of its efforts to expand domestic energy production, the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta has launched an ambitious new nuclear initiative. The Jakarta Post reports that the new plan entails construction of four nuclear power plants over the seventeen years in an effort to generate additional electricity. "If one nuclear power plant can produce 1,200 megawatts of electricity, we need four plants by 2025 to meet our demand," Kusmayanto Kadiman, Indonesia's State Minister for Research and Technology, has confirmed to reporters. The first such plant, to be located in Jepara, Central Java, is currently projected to come online in the year 2016.
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