Iran
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran stoked the anger of Little Satan, the United States, Syrian insurgents and gay rights advocates on Monday, using the first full day of his final visit to the United Nations as Iran’s leader to assert that he has no fear of an Israeli attack on his country’s nuclear facilities, regards the Israelis as fleeting aberrations in Middle East history, is neutral in the Syria conflict and considers homosexuality an ugly crime. – New York Times
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday played down the prospects of an Israeli military strike on his country’s nuclear installations, but made clear that Tehran would hold the U.S. responsible if such an attack occurred. – Wall Street Journal
Iran has shut off access to Google and Gmail inside the country, a step eyed by Web activists with concern as the nation’s leaders seek to wall off a corner of cyberspace separate from the global Internet. – LA Times’ World Now
Intelligence from a downed U.S. drone could have helped Iranian engineers produce a newly unveiled unmanned aircraft reportedly capable of shooting targets from 31 miles away and reaching an altitude of 15,000 feet, according to a U.S. Army analysis. – Washington Free Beacon
Lawmakers on intelligence panels with classified information have declined to verify or contradict Israel’s claims that Iran is close to developing a nuclear bomb. – DEFCON Hill
The U.S. government officially linked Iran’s state oil company to the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Monday, a determination that enables Washington to apply new sanctions on foreign banks dealing with the company. – Reuters
Iran successfully tested a domestically made anti-aircraft system, its English-language Press TV said on Monday, the latest in a series of military exercises Tehran has trumpeted in the face of hints that its nuclear sites could be attacked. – Reuters
Syria
Prospects for any settlement in the Syria conflict remain dismal, but not impossible, the new Syria peace envoy said Monday, telling Security Council diplomats that the government of President Bashar al-Assad still clung to the notion that pre-revolution Syria could be resurrected. – New York Times
Children have been killed and tortured in war-torn Syria, a leading charity said on Tuesday, calling for greater UN monitoring of a situation that is traumatising the youths. – Financial Times
North Africa
In many ways, Mr. Obama’s remarks at the State Department two weeks ago — and the ones he will make before the General Assembly on Tuesday morning, when he addresses the anti-American protests — reflected hard lessons the president had learned over almost two years of political turmoil in the Arab world: bold words and support for democratic aspirations are not enough to engender good will in this region, especially not when hampered by America’s own national security interests. – New York Times
President Obama will use his appearance before the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday to reaffirm America’s intention to stay involved in the Middle East despite the recent outbreak of anti-American violence, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday. – DEFCON Hill
The recent wave of violent, anti-American protests that a movie trailer has inspired in the Muslim world is not aimed solely at the United States but the entirety of the civilized world, President Barack Obama plans to say Tuesday morning in a speech at the United Nations. – Politico
Editorial: In Egypt, the Obama administration has been working on a $1 billion debt-forgiveness deal that could help revive the Egyptian economy, but the oft-postponed pact was put on hold again after the Sept. 11 demonstration. Mr. Obama may wish to deflect election-eve Republican claims that he is showing weakness in the face of attacks on Americans. But such demagoguery ought not to derail the effort to help stabilize Egypt’s economy and reinforce free-market policies. – Washington Post
Libya
The commander of a powerful Libyan militia said Monday that looters had stolen “a large number” of shoulder-fired, heat-seeking missiles from the militia’s base when protesters who called for dismantling the country’s militias overran the compound. – Washington Post
The U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, was operating under a lower security standard than a typical consulate when it was attacked this month, according to State Department officials. – CNN’s Security Clearance
Just three months ago, the four-star chief of the U.S. Africa Command warned of a growing threat from al Qaeda and other militant groups in Libya. – CNN’s Security Clearance
One of Libya’s most powerful political figures has called for an all-embracing dialogue that would include even radical Islamists with ties to al-Qaeda as a way of dismantling the militias that have plagued the country since the ousting of Colonel Muammer Gaddafi last year. – Financial Times
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered Libya more help on Monday as it seeks to rein in militias, stressing that Washington will remain a firm partner despite this month’s deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. – Reuters
Libya’s government, seeking to assert its authority over private militias following the killing of U.S. diplomats in Benghazi, placed two powerful freelance units in the city under the command of full-time army officers on Monday. – Reuters
Josh Rogin reports: The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee said Monday that the Obama administration has not found any evidence that a former Guantánamo Bay inmate was involved in the Sept. 11 attack on the Benghazi consulate that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. – The Cable
Egypt
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reassured Egypt’s new Islamist president on Monday that the United States would forge ahead with plans to expand economic assistance despite anti-American protests that cast new shadows over U.S. engagement with the region. – Reuters
An Egyptian Copt arrested on suspicion of posting an anti-Islam video online that ignited Muslim protests around the world will stand trial next Wednesday on charges of insulting religions, the state news agency MENA said on Monday. – Reuters
An Egyptian court on Monday sentenced 14 Islamists to death for attacks on security forces in the Sinai Peninsula, showing Egypt’s determination to put down militancy in a region critical to relations with neighboring Israel. – Reuters
Yemen
Masked gunmen shot dead a senior intelligence official in Sanaa on Monday, a security source said, the latest in a series of assassinations in Yemen as the U.S.-allied government battles al Qaeda militants. – Reuters
Kuwait
Thousands of Kuwaitis held a protest rally late on Monday ahead of a court decision on an electoral law they fear could weaken the chances of opposition candidates in the next parliamentary vote in the major oil-producing state. – Reuters
Iraq
The civil war in Syria is testing Iraq’s fragile society and fledgling democracy, worsening sectarian tensions, pushing Iraq closer to Iran and highlighting security shortcomings just nine months after American forces ended their long and costly occupation here. – New York Times
Israel
Abbas is scheduled to speak at the General Assembly on Thursday, a year after he addressed that body in a high-profile bid to win U.N. membership for a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. That effort fizzled in the Security Council when the Palestinians were unable to muster enough votes in the face of strong opposition from Washington. So the scaled-down bid this year has the feeling of an anti-climax – Washington Post
With the Palestinians planning to make their case this week to upgrade from organizational status to nonmember status at the United Nations General Assembly, one senior Israeli minister condemned the move as “the easy and wrong way out” on Monday, while another said the time had come for Israel to consider its own unilateral move toward a separate state: annexing parts of the West Bank and withdrawing from others. – New York Times
Ehud Olmert, a former prime minister of Israel, was sentenced by a Jerusalem court on Monday to a one-year suspended prison term and a maximum fine of about $19,000 for breach of trust. The relatively light sentence ended a long-running prosecution that forced Mr. Olmert from office. It also opened the way for a possible political comeback. – New York Times
The Hamas government has barred much of Gaza’s fruit imports from Israel, citing a need to cultivate local Palestinian agriculture and for “resistance” against the Jewish state. – Reuters
Afghanistan
A judicial panel here ruled in favor of Afghanistan’s national security chief on Monday in an unusual case of a senior government official turning to the courts and the public to prove that allegations of corruption against him were untrue. – New York Times
For the first time, coalition forces were able to thwart a planned suicide attack against a U.S.-NATO base in Eastern Afghanistan coordinated by a pair of Afghan militants looking to infiltrate the country’s security forces, command officials said Monday. – DEFCON Hill
Two Marines will face an official court martial to answer for a bevy of charges tied to a “desecration incident” in which both men were videotaped urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters after a firefight in Afghanistan last July. – DEFCON Hill
Some women who are accused or found guilty of having a relationship with a man outside marriage or an extramarital affair are publicly flogged. Meanwhile, others, particularly in Taliban-controlled areas, are tried by shadow religious courts and publicly executed or stoned to death. But many Afghans consider these extrajudicial executions and floggings un-Islamic and unlawful. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The Taliban published a video Monday they say shows insurgents preparing for the brazen attack on a major NATO base earlier this month, just as NATO forces released data showing that insurgent attacks decreased in August. – Associated Press
South Asia
Far more civilians have been killed by U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas than U.S. counter-terrorism officials have acknowledged, a new study by human rights researchers at Stanford University and New York University contends. – Los Angeles Times
A Pakistani judge transferred the case of a Christian teenage girl accused of blasphemy to a juvenile court on Monday, removing the threat of a death sentence and signaling that the case was slowly winding down. – New York Times
India’s air force has agreed to purchase 22 Apache AH-64D multirole combat helicopters from Boeing in a deal worth an estimated $1.4 billion. – Aviation Week
A pair of missiles fired from an unmanned American spy aircraft slammed into a militant hideout in northwestern Pakistan on Monday evening, killing five militants, said Pakistani intelligence officials. – Associated Press
China
The sister of a former police chief who played a central role in a seismic political scandal criticized his sentence of 15 years in prison in an interview on Monday, saying it was unfair and symptomatic of the lack of justice in China. – New York Times
His wife is in jail on a murder conviction with a suspended death sentence. His former right-hand man was just sentenced to 15 years in prison for covering up the crime and then trying to defect to the United States. Somewhere, Bo Xilai awaits his fate. – Washington Post
A spokesman for Foxconn said the company was investigating the cause of the incident. But analysts say worker unrest in China has grown more common because workers are more aware of their rights, and yet have few outlets to challenge or negotiate with their employers. – New York Times
Sensing a crack in Beijing’s shell, Defense Department officials are sounding positive about the chances China will join in the next RIMPAC, the world’s largest multinational joint military maritime exercise, led by U.S. forces across the Pacific. – The E-Ring
After the Communist party in March acknowledged the scandal – which involved the murder of a British businessman by Mr Bo’s wife Gu Kailai – many Chinese legal reformers and political activists saw the case as an opportunity for the government to launch legal reforms and showcase a new respect for the rule of law. But following the tightly scripted trials of Wang and Gu, those hopes have been dashed. – Financial Times
A close look at Wang’s record – he’s a serious contender for promotion to the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee – illustrates the dilemma facing reformist leaders inside China’s political system. – Reuters
China sent its first aircraft carrier into formal service on Tuesday amid a tense maritime dispute with Japan in a show of force that could worry its neighbors. – Reuters
Andrew Erickson and Gabe Collins report: China’s first aircraft carrier, now referred to as the “Liaoning ” by China’s Ministry of National Defense, has been officially “delivered and commissioned” to China’s navy, according official Chinese media. The handover ceremony, with top Chinese leaders presiding, took place on the morning of September 25 at a naval base in Dalian, a port city in northeast China’s Liaoning province. – WSJ’s China Real Time Report
Editorial: That a civil servant supposedly dedicated to serving the law would seek the same refuge with American diplomats as dissident Chen Guangcheng two months later is telling in itself. Now a trial has failed to find him accountable for his true crimes on behalf of Mr. Bo. This tells us something about the true state of the law in China. – Wall Street Journal Asia (subscription required)
East Asia
Japan’s military is sharpening its skills at defending remote islands with the help of U.S. troops, as Tokyo faces an increasingly contentious dispute with China. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Political scientists have compared the islands so vociferously contested between China and Japan to the Falklands, which sparked the 1982 war between Argentina and Britain. But in fact they are much, much less. The Senkaku (to the Japanese) and Diaoyu (to the Chinese) consist of eight islands, the largest all of 2 miles long and the smallest a mere rock jutting out of the East China Sea. In their entirety, the islands cover less than 3 square miles. – Los Angeles Times
After months of high-level negotiations, numerous assurances from the Pentagon and one Marine Corps investigation, the V-22 Osprey is now set to begin operations in Japan. – DEFCON Hill
A recent series of cyber attacks on Japanese Internet sites originated in China and were viewed as a possible prelude to military action, according to defense officials familiar with details of the attacks. – Washington Free Beacon
The leader of Army forces in Asia and the Pacific says his soldiers will be able to conduct more exercises with other nations in the region, as the U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan and the military refocuses its attention. – Associated Press
Japanese Coast Guard vessels fired water cannon to turn away about 40 Taiwan fishing boats and eight Taiwan Coast Guard vessels from waters Japan considers its own on Tuesday in the latest twist to a row between Tokyo and Beijing. – Reuters
Editorial: So far China has not sought to overturn the international status quo as the Soviet Union did, but a rising, undemocratic power has often destabilized the world order, especially when nationalism is in the saddle. The U.S. needs to take a firm line against Chinese aggression toward its neighbors, lest Beijing’s rulers think they can indulge their nationalist furies without cost. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Michael Auslin writes: Leaving Japan to face China alone would destroy America’s global alliance system, while allowing China to redraw boundaries in Asia would simply hasten the decline of American influence. This is the dilemma posed by China’s increasingly aggressive rising power and is a foretaste of more tension to come. The long-term solution here is for the U.S. to lead its allies in maintaining a credible military presence in Asia’s waters to oppose any attempts at unilaterally changing boundaries. That starts with drawing some inviolable red lines in the waters off the Senkakus to keep the peace. – Wall Street Journal Asia (subscription required)
Daniel Blumenthal writes: The supposed grand master stroke of Obama’s foreign policy, the Asia “pivot,” is burning to death on the streets of the Middle East. The idea that the sole superpower can pivot away from any critical region was always strategically unsound. But even the Asia part of the pivot is not doing as well as the very self-satisfied Obamanians imagine…Herewith a few questions from a pivot skeptic. – Shadow Government
Larry Diamond, Francis Fukuyama, and Stephen Krasner writes: Mongolia should vigorously prosecute grave acts of corruption by leaders from all political parties, while strengthening guarantees for due process. Given the current controversy about judicial independence, now would also be a good time for constitutional reforms that would increase the independence of the courts. In addition, civil society should launch a more comprehensive audit of the state of democracy in Mongolia. International friends of Mongolia can best help by aiding this process of critical reflection and institutional reform. – Wall Street Journal Asia (subscription required)
North Korea
North Korean farmers who have long been required to turn most of their crops over to the state now may be allowed to keep their surplus food to sell or barter in what could be the most significant economic change enacted by young leader Kim Jong-un since he came to power nine months ago. – Associated Press
North Korea held a rare second session of parliament on Tuesday but skipped any mention of economic reforms the impoverished state is widely thought to be planning under young leader Kim Jong-un. – Reuters
Member states of the U.N. atomic agency passed a resolution by consensus on Friday that “strongly urged” North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, underlining Pyongyang’s international isolation. – Reuters
Burma
Anger over plans to expand a Chinese-backed mine near here is emerging as a test case of Myanmar’s recent political reforms. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Russia
A high-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Monday said President Obama’s attempt to “reset” relations with Russia hasn’t succeeded. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
Europe
Georgian officials tried Monday to take control of a week-old prison abuse scandal, arresting three activists from an opposition party, Georgian Dream, and releasing video clips that purported to show them offering the police money to stage scenes of horrific abuse. – New York Times
Russia criticized Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s government a week before a parliamentary election in the former Soviet state, saying that a prison abuse scandal raised questions about its ability to protect its citizens’ rights. – Reuters
International monitors and the European Union on Monday dismissed Belarus’s parliamentary election as a sham exercise, increasing the isolation of President Alexander Lukashenko. – Reuters
United States of America
Foreign policy is taking on new urgency in the presidential campaign as President Barack Obama prepares to address the United Nations amid a resurgence of unrest in the Muslim world and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, intensifies his criticism of the White House’s approach to the region. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Monday accused President Obama of demonstrating a lack of seriousness and leadership over the recent turmoil in the Middle East. – The Hill
GOP suggestions that President Obama had qualified the deaths of four Americans as a “bump in the road” were “desperate and offensive,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
Top Jewish Democrats are standing squarely behind President Obama’s decision not to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and warning Israel to butt out of the U.S. presidential race. – DEFCON Hill
Latin America
Mr Chávez has been in power for more than 13 years and the opposition sees this year’s poll – due to take place on October 7 – as its best chance yet of ousting one of Latin America’s most controversial leaders…Now allegations of government electoral abuses have raised fears about how far will Mr Chávez go to ensure his victory. – Financial Times
Venezuelan opposition candidate Henrique Capriles edged closer to President Hugo Chavez in an opinion poll but remained 10 percentage points behind the socialist leader in the run-up to the Oct. 7 election, according to two sources who have seen the poll. – Reuters
A peace accord with Marxist FARC rebels would not likely end all bloodshed in Colombia because breakaway renegade fighters and other drug-funded crime gangs would continue to battle government troops, an influential think-tank said on Tuesday. – Reuters
West Africa
Mali has asked the United Nations to approve an “immediate” mandate for an international force to help it recover northern parts of the country controlled by Islamist militants and drug traffickers, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Monday. – Reuters
Nigeria’s military said on Monday it killed 35 members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram and arrested several during an overnight gunbattle in Damaturu, capital of northeastern Yobe state. – Reuters
East Africa
Sudan and South Sudan leaders will try again on Tuesday to seal a border security deal after failing to achieve a breakthrough in the previous two days, officials said on Monday as both sides disagreed over whether progress had been made. – Reuters
South Africa
ANC rebel Julius Malema, South African President Jacob Zuma’s most prominent critic and an advocate of mining nationalization, appears in court on Wednesday on corruption charges that his supporters say are politically motivated. – Reuters
