PS–Never use your iPad as a desktop replacement.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta ordered the Air Force Tuesday to curtail flights of its F-22 Raptor fighter jet and accelerate the installation of backup oxygen generators in response to pilot complaints of wooziness and fainting spells in the cockpit. – Washington Post

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said seven more airmen who work with the F-22 have come forward to report cases of hypoxia-like symptoms — a couple of them flight surgeons who provide medical treatment to aviators and ground crews. – Military Times

The Obama administration threatened Tuesday to veto the House version of the Defense authorization bill that’s headed to the floor this week over restrictions on implementing the New START treaty, reducing the U.S. nuclear arsenal and limiting the transfer of Guantanamo detainees. – DEFCON Hill

A powerful U.S. House defense spending panel has recommended adding more than $5.3 billion to the Pentagon’s procurement accounts in 2013 to buy more aircraft, ships, vehicles and weapons, according to a report. – Defense News

The Pentagon could draw the short straw after Election Day, when Congress returns for a lame-duck session ripe for compromises with the White House on a number of spending and tax measures. – DOTMIL

The Pentagon should brace for another $250 billion or more in cuts even if sequestration does not occur and must revolutionize how and what it buys, warned Hoss Cartwright, former vice-chairman of the Joint Staff, in a speech that savaged sacred cows from the Joint Strike Fighter to cybersecurity to the AirSea Battle concept. – AOL Defense

According to an official story from the weekend, Lt. Gen. Jim Kowalski, the head of Global Strike Command, says the B-52 is set to receive a round of upgrades that will help both the airmen inside each one and also the top-level commanders moving them around on their maps – DoD Buzz

The Senate Armed Services Committee voted Tuesday to confirm the nominations of three undersecretaries of defense — for acquisition, policy and personnel — and four other top civilian posts. – Military Times

Josh Rogin reports: The Defense Department and Congress are playing chicken over $600 billion of mandatory defense cuts identified by a process known as “sequestration,” but a compromise probably won’t surface until after the November elections, according to former top Obama defense official Michèle Flournoy. – The Cable

Nuclear Weapons

Gen. James E. Cartwright, the retired vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a former commander of the United States’ nuclear forces, is adding his voice to those who are calling for a drastic reduction in the number of nuclear warheads below the levels set by agreements with Russia. – New York Times

Missile Defense

House appropriators are taking a far less aggressive stance on national missile defense programs than their colleagues in the House Armed Services Committee, either matching the Pentagon’s funding requests or providing smaller spending increases. – Defense News

The War

Two lawmakers — a Democrat and a Republican — are pushing a bill to update a Cold War-era law on propaganda efforts by federal agencies that critics say hinders the U.S. war of ideas against Muslim extremists. – Washington Times

This month’s revival of terrorism trials at Guantanamo Bay underscores President Obama’s reliance on counterterrorism tools he inherited from George W. Bush. – Washington Times

The heads of the House Armed Services Committee are squaring off ahead of ranking member Adam Smith’s (D-Wash.) plan to introduce an amendment on the House floor this week that would roll back indefinite-detention laws. – DEFCON Hill

House and Senate Democrats are clashing over whether to bar the military from detaining terrorism suspects on U.S. soil. – DEFCON Hill

A week after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged New Delhi to reduce its engagement with Tehran, India said it would cut Iranian oil imports by 11 percent in the coming year. – Washington Post

Iranian rapper Shahin Najafi expected his song calling on a Shiite saint to save Iran from its current rulers to stir up controversy, but he never imagined it might cost him his life. – Wall Street Journal

The State Department’s former top weapons proliferation official said recently that the Obama administration’s failure to threaten military force against Iran had helped advance the covert nuclear arms program there. – Washington Free Beacon

The House on Tuesday evening debated two bills aimed at reinforcing U.S. policy to deny Iran nuclear weapons capability, and bolstering human rights in in North Korea. – The Hill’s Global Affairs

An Iranian orbital instrument is to be sent into space next week just as representatives from Tehran and six major governments are scheduled to begin a new meeting aimed at defusing a long-running standoff over the nation’s atomic activities, Agence France-Presse reported on Monday – Global Security Newswire

Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog ended two days of talks on Tuesday by agreeing to meet again next week, just two days before Tehran resumes negotiations with world powers concerned it may be seeking to develop atomic bomb capability. – Reuters

Facing an imminent toughening of sanctions, Iran is hinting at a readiness to give some ground in its long nuclear stand-off with world powers, but any flexibility could split their ranks and lead to protracted uncertainty about how to respond. – Reuters

Communications from the 1990s suggest Iran’s current foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, had knowledge of a program to procure goods for an alleged clandestine nuclear program when he was head of a university, a U.S. nuclear expert said on Tuesday. – Reuters

Ray Takeyh writes:  It is entirely possible that the Supreme Leader will opt to preside over a country with a nuclear programme and a permanently degraded economy. Still, the aim of allied diplomacy should be to force him to make a choice. – Financial Times

Syria

Syrian rebels battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have begun receiving significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, an effort paid for by Persian Gulf nations and coordinated in part by the United States, according to opposition activists and U.S. and foreign officials. – Washington Post

A small but increasingly vocal number of Lebanon’s Sunni Muslims are backing Islamist leaders’ calls for regime change in neighboring Syria and voicing their fierce discontent with their own government, a sign that the sectarianism splitting Syria may be deepening Lebanon’s longstanding divides. – Washington Post

An umbrella group of the Syrian government’s fractious opponents on Tuesday re-elected its president for another three-month term, in a contentious vote that could deepen divisions and set back efforts to gain international backing for its uprising against the Assad regime. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

A convoy of unarmed United Nations monitors got caught up in a violent confrontation between protesters and Syrian government forces on Tuesday, with activist organizations putting the casualty toll at around 20 killed and dozens wounded. – New York Times

Clashes between Syrian government forces and the rebel Free Syrian Army erupted across the country Tuesday, despite the peace plan that calls on both sides to lay down their arms. – LA Times’ World Now

Plans for an Arab League-sponsored conference to unite Syria’s opposition collapsed on Tuesday as international envoys found themselves the only participants in a meeting that the main opposition parties decided to boycott. – Financial Times

Re-elected, somewhat grudgingly, as leader of Syria’s opposition coalition, Burhan Ghalioun says he is determined to break with a year of failure and to rally fellow exiles and their allies behind a new strategy of arming the rebels inside the country – Reuters

Syrian forces are targeting medical workers and patients who were wounded in the 14-month-old conflict, forcing doctors to scramble to help the injured in makeshift clinics, an international aid agency warned Tuesday. – Associated Press

The United Nations aims to collect a monitoring team from the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun on Wednesday, the head of the monitoring mission said, after they spent the night in the hands of rebels following an attack near their convoy. – Reuters

U.N.-Arab League mediator Kofi Annan is urging Syria’s government to accept U.N. conditions for expanding the distribution of humanitarian aid to roughly 1 million Syrians in need of assistance, the United Nations said on Tuesday. – Reuters

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday the violence in Syria should not be viewed as a sectarian or ethnic conflict, and those who did so risked setting the whole region on fire. – Reuters

North Africa

The face of Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister beams down from huge billboards on major highways promising “Egypt for everyone”, but Ahmed Shafiq is polarizing voters ahead of next week’s presidential poll. – Reuters

Egypt’s Coptic Christians complained of discrimination under Hosni Mubarak but fear it may get worse if an Islamist takes his place in next week’s presidential election. – Reuters

An Egyptian rights group released Tuesday the most comprehensive list to date of the more than 800 civilians killed by security forces in last year’s uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak last year. – Associated Press

One of Libya’s most powerful militia leaders said on Tuesday he had registered his newly founded party for June’s election for a transitional national assembly, swapping his post for a run at public office. – Reuters

Gulf States

Iran criticized on Tuesday plans by Gulf Arab leaders to form a closer political, economic and military union to counter Shi’ite Muslim discontent in Bahrain, warning such move would “deepen the wounds” in the island state. – Reuters

Yemen

President Obama plans to issue an executive order Wednesday giving the Treasury Department new authority to freeze the U.S.-based assets of anyone who “obstructs” implementation of the administration-backed political transition in Yemen. – Washington Post

The Yemeni government on Monday and Tuesday stepped up a campaign to recapture southern towns from Islamist insurgents, unleashing airstrikes and ground assaults that left dozens of people dead, including some civilians, according to officials and witnesses on the ground. – New York Times

Iraq

Former bodyguards for Iraq’s fugitive vice president testified Tuesday that they were ordered to kill security officials and plant roadside bombs as a politically charged terror trial against the Sunni leader got under way. – Associated Press

Levant

An Israeli-Palestinian peace deal that divides Jerusalem would be “worse than no deal,” the city’s mayor says. – Washington Times

U.S. House lawmakers are recommending Congress provide an additional $849 million for Israeli weapon programs in the Pentagon’s 2013 budget. This includes $680 million for Iron Dome, a weapon system built by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to protect against rocket attacks. – Defense News

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak flew to Washington on May 15 for the third time in as many months, as world powers prepared for fresh talks with Iran about its nuclear program. – AFP

The United States and its allies have started in Jordan what was described as the largest military exercises in the Middle East in 10 years, focusing on “irregular warfare,” top officers said on May 15. – AFP

Turkey

The strike in late December was meant to knock out Kurdish separatist fighters. Instead it killed civilians smuggling gasoline, a tragic blunder in Turkey’s nearly three-decade campaign against the guerrillas. The killings ignited protests across the country and prompted wide-ranging official inquiries. The civilian toll also set off alarms at the Pentagon: It was a U.S. Predator drone that spotted the men and pack animals, officials said, and American officers alerted Turkey. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Afghanistan

Sworn in Tuesday as president of France, Francois Hollande has already been forced by the unforgiving calculus of military logistics to backtrack on his campaign promise to pull all French forces out of Afghanistan by the end of this year. – Washington Post

The attacks, and the personal animosity that officials believe have driven most of them, are threatening the joint-training model that is one of the remaining imperatives of the Western mission in Afghanistan. The future of that mission will be a main topic at a NATO summit meeting this weekend, as American and European leaders discuss whether to accelerate their drawdown. – New York Times

A dozen anti-war House members are holding a press conference Wednesday morning to call for expedited withdrawal from Afghanistan, pushing back against President Obama’s speech earlier this month where he said the war was nearing its end. – DEFCON Hill

About 23,000 U.S. troops will leave Afghanistan by late September regardless of whether the Pakistan government reopens critical border crossings that were shut down more than six months ago. – Military Times

Afghanistan’s landlocked and mountainous landscape has forced the U.S. Army to forge a network of perilous ground and air routes, lifelines to about 65,000 soldiers at more than 15 bases and 300 outposts, according to the Government Accountability Office. – Defense News

The Taliban has turned to targeting coalition forces and Afghan government targets with suicide and other mobile bombs, putting U.S. troops on guard against a threat that can appear virtually anywhere. – Military Times

[E]ven while welcoming the much-needed assistance, Kabul has always warily eyed Tehran’s advances. Now that caution has given way to tension, leading observers to warn that Tehran is poised to make Afghanistan an ideological battleground should Kabul not see things its way. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Pakistan

American and Pakistani officials said Tuesday that a deal appeared imminent to reopen Afghan supply lines through Pakistan, after NATO extended an invitation for Pakistan to attend the summit meeting in Chicago this weekend. – New York Times

U.S. commanders in Afghanistan want to get war supplies rolling across Pakistan’s borders again. So do Pakistanis in places both high and low — from officials trying to balance the nation’s budget to black marketeers who stand ready to plunder the NATO-contracted trucks and oil tankers expected to shortly resume passage into Afghanistan after nearly six months of closed border crossings. – Washington Post

From his prison cell, a senior Pakistani officer accused of plotting with a shadowy Islamist group to take over the military released his political manifesto: His call was for the army to sever its anti-terror alliance with the United States, which he contends is forcing Pakistan to fight its own people. – Associated Press

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will attend a summit of NATO leaders in Chicago this weekend, the Pakistan Embassy in Washington said on Tuesday, ending speculation Islamabad might be excluded from the high-level talks on Afghanistan’s future. – Reuters

China

Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng said he has made some progress in his effort to leave China to study in the U.S., but he continued to question the treatment of a family member by Chinese officials. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Republican and Democratic lawmakers clashed Tuesday over the effects of a United Nations program for women’s health on China’s repressive single-child policy. – The Hill’s Global Affairs

China’s Vice Foreign Minister Song Tao summoned the British ambassador in Beijing on Tuesday to protest British Prime Minister David Cameron’s meeting with the Dalai Lama, saying the meeting “seriously interfered” with China’s internal affairs. – Reuters

Josh Rogin reports: Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng called into a U.S. congressional hearing Tuesday — for the second time this month — and asked the international community not to forget about his extended family members and friends suffering government harassment in China. – The Cable

East Asia

Signs of tension are returning to relations between Japan and China, casting shadows over accelerating efforts between the two East Asian powers to strengthen their economic ties. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

North Korea’s purported arms transfers to Iran and Syria prompted the U.S. State Department on Monday to voice alarm over such dealings by Pyongyang, the Yonhap News Agency reported – Global Security Newswire

Taiwan is to build 12 new “stealth” warships in reaction to China’s naval build-up, the island’s navy announced May 15. – AFP

Southeast Asia

South Korea has received assurances from Myanmar that it will no longer buy weapons from North Korea, an aide to President Lee Myung-bak said Tuesday. – New York Times

Are China and the Philippines both looking to claim the moral high ground in their maritime standoff by playing the environmental card? – WSJ’s China Real Time Report

The State Department’s top human rights official was forced to go off script and meet with the wife of an American citizen imprisoned in Vietnam during a contentious human rights hearing Tuesday. – The Hill’s Global Affairs

A suspension of U.S. sanctions against Myanmar, rather than a full removal of the penalties, would keep pressure on the government to stay on track with political reforms, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Tuesday. – Reuters

Analysis: In a month-long standoff between China and the Philippines over a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, Beijing has so far refrained from sending warships from its increasingly powerful and modern navy to enforce its territorial claims. – Reuters

Russia

Police cleared a campsite occupied by political protesters in the Russian capital early Wednesday morning, despite assurances that they would wait until noon. Within hours, another gathering had begun in a small park near the Barrikadnaya metro station, named for the barricades of Russia’s 1905 revolution. – Washington Post

Opposition figure and anticorruption blogger Aleksei Navalny says he has teamed up with an unidentified Russian bank to issue a new debit card that will raise funds to fight graft. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Anders Aslund writes: Benefiting from trade with Russia is in America’s interests. But it’s also very much in U.S. interests to put Russia’s leader in his place. In fact, Obama may undermine both congressional support for expanded trade relations with Moscow and sound U.S.-Russia relations through his strange, harmful subservience to Putin. – Foreign Policy

Ukraine

Ukraine’s prime minister said the country is trying to shake off Russia’s influence but also bristled at criticism from the European Union, reflecting in an interview Ukraine’s challenges in navigating between its two powerful neighbors. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Ukraine, threatened with a political boycott of the European soccer championship it co-hosts next month over the jailing of opposition politician Yulia Tymoshenko, on Tuesday put off a ruling on her appeal until the tournament is under way. – Reuters

Balkans

Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander, went on trial here on Wednesday for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity stemming from some of the bloodiest events of the Bosnian war in the 1990s, including the Srebrenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo. – New York Times

NATO

Despite ample hype about the coming NATO summit in Chicago, the powwow is unlikely to produce specific policy pacts that will make clear the alliance’s plans for Afghanistan and Syria. – DOTMIL

Defense spending cuts are putting an increasing strain on relations between the United States and its European allies in NATO, sharpening transatlantic battles over issues ranging from financing Afghan security forces to missile defense – Reuters

Radoslaw Sikorski and Jonas Gahr Store write: The Chicago summit should send a strong signal of NATO’s resolve to engage with Russia on nuclear issues. Our aim is to strengthen the partnership between NATO and Russia, and to contribute to Euro-Atlantic security. – New York Times

United States of America

Sens. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) on Monday introduced legislation that would require the executive branch to secure congressional approval before committing troops overseas for humanitarian missions, and clarify when the president has the authority to act without approval from Congress. – The Hill’s Floor Action Blog

Latin America

A free-trade agreement between the U.S. and Colombia took effect Tuesday after years of negotiations and despite strong opposition from U.S. labor organizations, which are worried about jobs being sent abroad and union-busting violence in Colombia. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

At least two people were killed and dozens injured in a bomb attack on Tuesday in Bogotá, the Colombian capital, that officials said was an assassination attempt aimed at a former government minister. – New York Times

Cuba’s reform plans to attract more overseas investment are off to a slow start as the government focuses more on regulating existing foreign joint ventures than encouraging new ones, businessmen and diplomats say. – Reuters

West Africa

The west African nation of Mali is facing its worst human rights crisis in half a century as a result of fighting between Tuareg and Islamist rebels and the government, Amnesty International said in a report released Tuesday. – The Hill’s Global Affairs

The Malian Islamist rebel group Ansar Dine said on Tuesday it would allow an aid convoy it had blocked outside the northern city of Timbuktu to deliver its food and medical supplies on Wednesday, after reaching a deal with local authorities. – Reuters

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor will on Wednesday tell judges he bears no responsibility for atrocities during Sierra Leone’s 11-year civil war, rejecting the prosecution’s demand for an 80-year sentence in a maximum-security British jail. – Reuters

East Africa

The European Union, which had vowed to take a tougher stand against the scourge of Somali piracy, took the fight to the pirates’ home base for the first time on Tuesday, destroying several of their signature fiberglass skiffs as they lay on the beach in a notorious pirate den. – New York Times

South Sudan has yet to secure financing to make up for lost oil revenues, according to officials and diplomats, who say that only a fraction of a reported “$8bn loan” from China has been agreed. – Financial Times

Sudan will not allow South Sudan to export any oil through its territory unless the two states settle all disputes over border security, President Omar al-Bashir said on Tuesday. – Reuters

Gunmen detonated grenades outside a night club in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa on Tuesday, killing one person and wounding several others in the latest attack since Kenya sent troops into Somalia to crush Islamist militants. – Reuters

On Monday, the Pentagon opened for female troops about 14,000 support positions that previously had been withheld from them, allowing women to fill jobs below the brigade level. – Washington Times

A House Armed Services Committee member is taking the obscure concept of “sequestration” to the streets, kicking off a nationwide tour Monday to discuss the potential $1 trillion in automatic cuts threatening the defense budget. – CNN’s Security Clearance

A House GOP plan to cut social welfare programs to stave off automatic defense spending reductions is yet another example of the political “games being played with defense and national security” by Republicans, a top House Democrat said Monday. – DEFCON Hill

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta opted for a familiar ally to pilot the Air Force through its latest period of turbulence and transition, as it searches for a niche with an aging fleet in the post-9/11 era. – DOTMIL

To squeeze the most it can out of every training dollar in an era of shrinking budgets, the Army Reserve will rely more on simulators and long-distance learning to replace traditional drill weekends, outgoing Chief of Army Reserve Lt. Gen. Jack Stulz said – AOL Defense

The Marine Corps is keeping tabs on the Army’s plan to test face shields, some of which can stop 7.62mm rifle rounds. Deployed Marines already see the benefit, some paying out of pocket to wear them in Afghanistan, according to industry sources. – Military Times

Will the U.S. Army soon start blasting incoming rockets and mortars with laser beams to protect its forward operating bases? Not quite, but according to people involved in industry and the Army, that day might not be that far off. – Defense News

Missile Defense

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) writes: 44 has a responsibility to defend America against all threats. Assuring any nation that our missile-defense systems will be ineffective against their nuclear ballistic missiles is clearly at odds with that responsibility. Mr. Putin must be made to understand that a desire to cooperate is not the same thing as a willingness to trade away our fundamental right to self-defense, and that America will always retain the right to defend itself. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

As Iran starts a critical round of talks over its nuclear program, its negotiating team may be less interested in reaching a comprehensive settlement than in buying time and establishing the legitimacy of its enrichment program, Iranian officials and analysts said. – New York Times

The Obama administration is moving to remove an Iranian opposition group from the State Department’s terrorism list, say officials briefed on the talks, in an action that could further poison Washington’s relations with Tehran at a time of renewed diplomatic efforts to curtail Iran’s nuclear program. – Wall Street Journal

Iran said on Tuesday it had executed a man accused of being an Israeli intelligence agent responsible for the assassination of one of its nuclear scientists, Iranian state media reported. – New York Times

Opponents of Mr. Najafi are using a recent fatwa by a leading cleric, Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi-Golpayegani, which labels all those insulting the 10th Shiite imam, Ali al-Hadi al-Naqi, also known as Imam Naghi, as apostates. An Islamist Web site then offered a $100,000 bounty to anyone who kills Mr. Najafi, who was born in Iran, raps in Persian but lives in Germany. – New York Times

The United States must team up with Israel to draft a new set of “red lines” on Iran’s growing nuclear program as a way to pressure Tehran into opening up those efforts to the international community. – DEFCON Hill

A U.S. or Israeli military strike on Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons facilities is unlikely this year, but could happen as soon as 2013, say several former senior American officials. – DOTMIL

A close ally of Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad has criticised the Islamic regime’s nuclear talks with world powers in a sign of the president’s rising frustration at being sidelined in the negotiations. – Financial Times

A drawing based on information from inside an Iranian military site shows an explosives containment chamber of the type needed for nuclear arms-related tests that U.N. inspectors suspect Tehran has conducted there. Iran denies such testing and has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of such a chamber. – Associated Press

A senior U.N. nuclear agency official urged Iran on Monday to allow access to sites, people and documents it seeks in its probe of suspicions that Tehran conducted secret research into nuclear weapons development. – Associated Press

Iran’s talks with the U.N. nuclear watchdog about Tehran’s atomic activities are going well, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday, the second day of discussions. – Reuters

The United States is not impressed with India’s efforts to cut its oil imports from Iran, a top U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday, throwing into doubt whether New Delhi would be given a waiver from U.S. financial sanctions before a June deadline. – Reuters

Syria

European Union foreign ministers imposed new sanctions on Syria on Monday, citing continued violence there, while some officials expressed frustration with the time it was taking United Nations mission leader Kofi Annan to establish a cease-fire. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Nearly two dozen Syrian government soldiers were killed in intense clashes with the opposition over control of the central, rebel-held city of Rastan, opposition groups said Monday, deepening questions about the viability of a cease-fire engineered under United Nations auspices. – New York Times

As the violence across Syria reaches a treacherous new phase and the numbers of displaced and injured swell, such individual and ad hoc efforts have grown into an increasingly organized underground network of volunteers willing to brave injury and arrest to deliver relief supplies to those trapped, wounded or displaced by the fighting. – New York Times

Syria’s conflict is increasing instability in Lebanon, which already is grappling with sectarian tensions, a crumbling economy and a weak, divided government, even as it has so far avoided the popular uprisings of its Middle East neighbors. – Washington Times

International efforts to unite Syria’s opposition suffered a fresh blow on Monday when the Syrian National Council, the main umbrella group, said it would boycott a planned Arab League unity conference in Cairo. – Financial Times

When it comes to influencing Syria’s bloody struggle between President Bashar al-Assad and rebels trying to unseat him, the exile opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) seems as helpless an onlooker as world powers groping for a strategy. – Reuters

Firing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, Lebanese gunmen clashed in street battles Monday as sectarian tensions linked to the 14-month-old uprising in Syria bled across the border for a third day. – Associated Press

Damascus wants to manage the delivery of all humanitarian aid to a million people in need of assistance as a result of the 14-month-old conflict in Syria, but the United Nations insists on having some control, envoys say. – Reuters

Kosovo’s Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj voiced strong support on Monday for Syria’s opposition, saying his government had already established diplomatic contacts with Syrians fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad. – Reuters

Foreign Islamist fighters appear to be a fringe element only in the conflict between assorted Syrian rebel groups and Assad’s armed forces. But the fate of this one band of Tunisian friends offers some of the hardest evidence yet that Syria could become a magnet for the kind of young Muslim men from around the world who once sought jihad and martyrdom in Iraq or Afghanistan. – Reuters

Josh Rogin reports: Syrian government forces continue to attack opposition forces, civilians, and aid volunteers, preventing the international community from getting emergency aid to the Syrian people, USAID has detailed in a series of internal reports obtained by The Cable. – The Cable

Egypt

Candidates for Egypt’s highest office have sharpened their anti-Israel rhetoric with barely a week left until voters cast their ballots in the first presidential election since last year’s revolution. – Washington Times

Near the rock-strewn scene of a bloody anti-army protest, Islamist, liberal and other politicians sat with ruling generals this month to haggle over Egypt’s future after its first presidential vote since Hosni Mubarak’s fall. – Reuters

Libya

Diplomats and other observers in Libya say that with elections one month away, the National Transitional Council is struggling to exert control over various militia prominent in the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi. The situation is further complicated by tribal rivalries and a growing presence of Islamist militants in some areas. – CNN’s Security Clearance

At least 72 civilians, a third of them under the age of 18, were killed by NATO airstrikes, according to a report released Monday by Human Rights Watch — one of the most extensive investigations into the issue. – Associated Press

Abdel Hakim Belhadj, one of Libya’s most powerful militia leaders, is quitting to devote himself full-time to politics, an aide said on Monday, in a vote of confidence for the fragile transition from rebellion to democracy. – Reuters

A candidate for Libya’s national elections was killed in the desert south shortly after submitting his registration, security sources said, highlighting the North African country’s volatility a month before the polls. – Reuters

Spat at in public by a fellow Libyan who called him a thief, watching his back on long walks through Vienna, eating poorly; Muammar Gaddafi’s fugitive oil supremo was a troubled man in the months before he was found drowned in the Danube two weeks ago. – Reuters

Gulf States

Saudi Arabia pushed ahead Monday with efforts to forge a single federation with its five Persian Gulf neighbors as the conservative monarchy seeks to build a new bulwark against the waves of change sweeping the Middle East. – New York Times

Gulf leaders balked at Saudi Arabia’s call to confederate their nations in a broad security and economic union, telling the country—the region’s economic and military power—that they needed to hear more specifics first about what such a union would entail, the Saudi foreign minister said on Monday. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Yemen

Obama administration officials were tight-lipped about the weekend visit of counterterrorism advisor John Brennan to Yemen this past weekend. – CNN’s Security Clearance

At least 32 people, including 23 al Qaeda-linked militants were killed in Yemen, officials and residents said on Tuesday, as the government pressed ahead with a new U.S.-backed offensive against insurgents in the south of the country. – Reuters

Suspected Islamist militants blew up a gas pipeline in eastern Yemen on Monday for the third time in recent months and a bomb in Sanaa killed one person, as the government ratcheted up its campaign against al Qaeda linked insurgents in the south. – Reuters

Iraq

A clandestine jail and alleged torture site under the control of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki continues to operate more than a year after the government ordered it shut down, Human Rights Watch claims in a report being released Tuesday. – LA Times’ World Now

Israel

Israeli and Palestinian officials announced Monday that more than 1,600 Palestinian prisoners had agreed to end a nearly month-long hunger strike in exchange for concessions by Israel, including a modification to its practice of detention without charge or trial. – Washington Post

Amb. Michael Oren writes: Israel must confront the acute dangers of delegitimization as it did armies and bombers in the past. Along with celebrating our technology, pioneering science and medicine, we need to stand by the facts of our past. “The Spirit of Israel” has not diminished since 1973—on the contrary, it has flourished. The state that Life once lionized lives even more vibrantly today. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Afghanistan

Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, the top commander in Afghanistan, is expected to leave his post early next year and take over the U.S. European Command, officials said. – Washington Post

A U.S.-backed program to recruit police in rural Afghanistan has failed to significantly stem the insurgency, with some units becoming deeply entangled in criminal activity, including bribe-taking and extortion, according to a Pentagon-funded study. – Los Angeles Times

One of the most powerful men on the Taliban council, Agha Jan Motasim, nearly lost his life in a hail of bullets for advocating a negotiated settlement that would bring a broad-based government to his beleaguered homeland of Afghanistan. – Associated Press

Intensifying violence as NATO combat troops prepare to leave by end-2014 and a poor economic outlook in the face of shrinking aid could spell a humanitarian disaster for Afghanistan, where a third already live beneath the poverty line. – Reuters

David Meyers writes: As commander in chief, President Obama needs to engage the country in a serious discussion of the issue. And he needs to explain what he would do if faced with a choice between these two unappealing options. The American people should demand no less. – The Daily Caller

Pakistan

Two cases filed last week raise an uncomfortable point for the Pakistani government: Despite three resolutions by Parliament calling for a halt to the drone attacks, they have not only continued but escalated. – Washington Post

Pakistan’s foreign minister suggested Monday that the country should open its Afghan border to NATO troop supplies, saying the government has made its point by closing the route for nearly six months in retaliation for deadly U.S. airstrikes on its troops. – Associated Press

China

[A] visit to this municipality in eastern China, where Mr. Chen and his family most recently spent 20 months as prisoners in their own home, offers no hint of a change in the way China deals with its dissidents. – New York Times

[S]o far, like a four-year-old air-quality monitoring program in Beijing and one in Guangzhou, the U.S.’s Shanghai reading of the situation is worse than what is reported by local authorities. – WSJ’s China Real Time

The United States must ensure that China cannot “do as they please” while smaller Asian countries suffer, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Monday in a Washington speech. – DEFCON Hill

China’s top military newspaper warned officers on Tuesday to remain the ruling Communist Party’s “most loyal” defenders in the face of what it called Western plotting, describing recent cases of ill-discipline and corruption as a “profound warning”. – Reuters

China is beset by a moral crisis, widespread corruption and lawlessness, leading millions of Chinese to seek solace in Buddhism, Tibet’s exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, said on Monday. – Reuters

Analysis: Despite a spectacular political scandal and swirling rumors of high-level infighting, signs are that China’s once-in-a-decade leadership change is still on track for this autumn, according to party insiders and observers. – New York Times

Bob Fu writes: In the Bible, the book of Romans says, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil and cling to what is good and always serve each other in love.” With this kind of message, Christianity will blossom. This is the only way freedom — both individually and nationally — will spread in China. – Foreign Policy

Koreas

Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee are calling for bolstering nuclear and conventional forces in Asia in response to China’s nuclear buildup and missile proliferation to North Korea. – Washington Free Beacon

The Obama administration has no intention of deploying tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea in response to North Korean provocations, the State Department reaffirmed on Monday – The Hill’s Global Affairs

The South Korean armed forces oppose the refielding of U.S. nonstrategic nuclear weapons in their country, a move that was recently hinted at by a key U.S. House of Representatives committee, the Yonhap News Agency reported on Sunday – Global Security Newswire

South Korea, Japan, and China are in agreement that a third North Korean nuclear test or other hostile act would be unacceptable, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said on Sunday – Global Security Newswire

East Asia

The United States should demand that Mongolia, the only functioning democracy in Central Asia and a close U.S. ally, respect its citizens’ legal rights amid a crackdown on political opponents, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said on the House floor Monday. – The Hill’s Global Affairs

The former Mongolian president jailed pending charges of corruption, has been released on bail after a 10-day dry hunger strike, temporarily soothing a dangerous stand-off that has roiled Mongolia’s democratic politics ahead of elections next month. – Financial Times

Taiwan is arming more of its fleet with its new “carrier killer” anti-ship missiles as China conducts further sea trials of its first aircraft carrier, local media said May 14. – AFP

Southeast Asia

Prosecutors in the impeachment trial of Renato C. Corona, the chief justice of the Philippines, presented evidence on Monday that he had deposited $28.7 million into various bank accounts. – New York Times

The news coming out of Myanmar these days is of hope and reconciliation as the country moves from military dictatorship to fledgling democracy. But what is actually coming across Myanmar’s border here is a surge of illicit drugs. – New York Times

Josh Rogin reports: Senators from both parties are now urging the Obama administration to drastically scale back U.S. sanctions on Burma in light of that country’s moves toward reform and democratization. – The Cable

Australia

Funding for Australian land and air programs and naval operations will be reduced under a plan that cuts 971 million Australian dollars ($980.5 million) from Australia’s defense budget to help reverse a growing national deficit and return the budget to surplus. – Defense News

Russia

President Obama won’t attend this year’s Asia-Pacific economic summit in Russia because of his reelection bid, White House spokesman Jay Carney confirmed Monday. – The Hill’s Global Affairs

United Kingdom

Britain’s defense budget is in balance for the first time in decades following a two-year effort by the government to eliminate a 38 billion pound ($61.1 billion) black hole in funding, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond told Parliament here. – Defense News

Britain’s Ministry of Defence is considering changes to the way the construction of the Royal Navy’s 65,000-ton aircraft carriers is run, according to defense sources. – Defense News

Ukraine

The European Union has decided against calling for a blocwide boycott of European soccer championship games scheduled to be held next month in Ukraine. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

A Ukrainian court delayed hearings on Tuesday into former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s appeal against last year’s abuse-of-office conviction, a verdict seen by many Western nations as politically motivated. – Reuters

Editorial: During two decades of independence, Ukraine has wavered between the authoritarian model to its east and the democratic model to the west. The United States, its allies and, above all, the Ukrainian people will be best served if Ukraine can escape the temptations of Putinism. – Washington Post

Latin America

The North American Free Trade Agreement, which went into effect in 1994, has been the key driver of Mexico’s economic and social transformation of the past 20 years, analysts say. – Washington Times

With the July 1 presidential vote only weeks away, Peña Nieto holds a solid double-digit lead in the polls, and yet Mexican voters and U.S. observers confess that they do not really know what the candidate stands for. – Washington Post

The International Committee of the Red Cross was mobilizing vehicles and personnel in southern Colombia on Monday to help facilitate the expected release of a French journalist captured in the jungle more than two weeks ago by Marxist rebels. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Mr. Chavez has been praying for divine intervention during increasingly infrequent appearances on television, holding up a crucifix while vowing to overcome his illness. He says living with cancer has made him “more Christian,” talk that has spurred speculation that cancer might cut short his bid for re-election in October. – Associated Press

West Africa

West Africa’s 15-nation Ecowas bloc threatened on Monday to impose new sanctions on Mali’s coup leaders and their allies, accusing them of blocking a return to civilian rule and further destabilising the divided nation. – Reuters

West Africa’s regional bloc ECOWAS will deploy troops to Guinea Bissau by Friday to oversee reform of the local army and a gradual one-year transition to civilian rule after an April 12 coup, Nigeria said on Monday. – Reuters

East Africa

American military advisers in Uganda are drawing on lessons learned from Iraq and Afghanistan to help train African Union soldiers to fight Somalia’s most powerful insurgent group, al-Shabab. – Associated Press

Armin Rosen writes: Ten months into South Sudan’s independence, the hazards of building a Western-leaning country in a region that’s being shaped by conflict, mass migration, and war criminals like Omar al-Bashir are clear. In ten years, South Sudan could be stable and prosperous. It could just as easily become a dysfunctional failed state. – The Weekly Standard

Congo

Seven United Nations peacekeepers in Congo were wounded when gunmen opened fire at a protest in the East of the country on Monday, drawing condemnation from the U.N. Security Council. – Reuters

The Hague war crimes prosecutor announced new charges on Monday against a Democratic Republic of Congo general accused of conscripting child fighters and an arrest warrant for a militia leader. – Reuters

South Africa

Peter Godwin writes: Likewise, all nations that care about countering crimes against humanity should pressure South Africa to accept the court’s decision. By letting this judgment stand, Mr. Zuma’s government has a historic opportunity to show its critics that it has a genuine commitment to human rights. If, however, South Africa seeks to reverse the ruling, it will be a tragedy for Zimbabwe’s many torture victims, past and future. – New York Times

Debate has broken out over the nearly $4 billion in increased defense spending that the Republican-led House Armed Services Committee added to the Obama administration request in the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill, pitting the panel’s chairman, Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.), against Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta. – Washington Post

In response to growing concern about problems with its F-22 Raptor fighter jet, the Air Force revealed it has slapped on new safety restrictions to protect its pilots. – Los Angeles Times

The Air Sea Battle (ASB) concept initiated by the U.S. Navy and Air Force is an effort to make the most of the combined military capabilities of the U.S. The objectives are to carry out the strategies of U.S. commanders and defeat those of an enemy — traditional goals to be sure, but the ASB concept brings together a much wider matrix intended to match capabilities and threats in more efficient ways. – Defense News

U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) wants to establish a worldwide network linking special operations forces (SOF) of allied and partner nations to combat terrorism. – Defense News

The Budget Control Act was a piece of national-security folly, for which congressional Republicans deserve a good share of the blame. But the relish with which Democrats, including Panetta, are playing a game of political chicken with the U.S. military is inexcusable. – The Weekly Standard

The War

Top U.S. lawmakers called for criminal charges against the person who leaked classified information about a recent foiled Yemeni bomb plot, warning that the intelligence breach posed a danger to national security and ratcheting up scrutiny of its source. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

A former military commander with Al Shabab, the Somali terrorist group with ties to Al Qaeda, has become a cooperating witness and is expected to testify for the United States government in a trial this summer in Manhattan, prosecutors have disclosed in a court filing – New York Times

NATO

François Hollande may have pledged on the campaign stump to pull France’s combat troops out of Afghanistan by the end of this year, but analysts expect the president-elect to do his utmost to reassure NATO allies that France is a solid partner when the alliance chiefs meet in Chicago later this month. – Defense News

Despite claims by Turkish officials about vetoing Israel’s participation in major NATO summit, a senior U.S. official says the alliance never intended to invite Israeli leaders. – DOTMIL

Missile Defense

Anders Fogh Rasmussen writes: NATO missile defense is based on solidarity and cooperation among 28 nations, on both sides of the Atlantic—nations that face a common threat, share common values, and are committed to defending our common security. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Cybersecurity

The Pentagon is expanding and making permanent a trial program that teams the government with Internet service providers to protect defense firms’ computer networks against data theft by foreign adversaries. – Washington Post

Spy Wars

CIA Director David Petraeus has largely gone dark—and, like most things with the decorated war commander, that is very much a calculated change – DOTMIL

Foreign Peace Mongers

Davos is an annual European conference where the well-to-do meet to do good. The Oslo Freedom Forum, on the other hand, is a European conference of do-gooders conspiring to stir up trouble. – The Daily Beast

Increasingly hard-pressed to find buyers for its petroleum, Iran has been routinely switching off satellite tracking systems on its sea-bound oil tankers for more than a month, in what U.S. officials and industry analysts describe as a cat-and-mouse game with Western governments seeking to enforce sanctions on Iranian exports. – Washington Post

The lead negotiator for the six-nation group bargaining with Iran over its contentious uranium enrichment program said Friday that she hoped to achieve “the beginnings of the end” of the dispute at the next meeting, to be held in Baghdad on May 23. – New York Times

Iranian crude oil exports fell sharply again in April and could be down by as much as one million barrels a day this quarter as many countries reduce imports ahead of sanctions that come into effect on July 1, the International Energy Agency said Friday. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Henry Sokolski writes: Obama’s 5 percent solution will cease to be dangerous only if it’s rejected by Iran and everyone else. Once that is accomplished, we need to move in a very different direction. – National Review Online

Yuval Porat writes: Our findings demonstrate that Iranian society as a whole is characterized by a pro-liberal value structure that is deeply at odds with the fundamentalist regime. This presents considerable potential for regime change in Iran and for the development of liberal democracy. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Syria

After three decades of persecution that virtually eradicated its presence, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood has resurrected itself to become the dominant group in the fragmented opposition movement pursuing a 14-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. – Washington Post

The organizations, which include groups that teach methods of nonviolent resistance, share a goal of finding a bloodless way out of Syria’s crisis—an aim that has so far eluded protesters on the ground, the political opposition in exile, and world leaders alike. Their founders and members say they are seeking a “third way” that isn’t asking for foreign help or seeking to bring down President Assad in fighting. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

As rallies against the Syrian government broke out across the country after Friday prayers, some marchers turned their anger against the United Nations as well, lamenting that violence has continued despite the presence of blue-helmeted interntational observers. – LA Times’ World Now

North Africa

As Mr. Moussa runs for president in an election that starts this month, he is trying to turn his greatest liability — a long career in government — into a strength. In a race that seems to have come down to a few leading candidates, including Mr. Moussa and two Islamists, the former foreign minister has positioned himself as the experienced, tolerant choice. – New York Times

As Egyptians prepare for what many hope will be their country’s first free presidential elections next week, an impasse between liberal politicians and Islamists over a new constitution means candidates are vying for an ill-defined role. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Coptic Christians, whose forefathers lived in Egypt before the arrival of Islam, had hoped that the 2011 uprising that ousted authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak would give them equal rights. Instead, things have worsened. Egypt’s Christians have been the victims of threats and dramatic violence, and they fear the ascendance of political Islam. – Washington Post

Some [militias] have simply replicated the worst tortures that were carried out under the old regime. More have exercised restraint. Almost all of them have offered victims a chance to confront their former torturers face to face, to test their instincts, to balance the desire for revenge against the will to make Libya into something more than a madman’s playground. – New York Times

Other countries have dealt with the aftermath of large-scale state property seizures — notably after the collapse of the Soviet bloc. But Libya’s challenges are magnified by weak transitional authorities, the absence of a working court system and a flood of weapons in civilian hands. – New York Times

Algeria’s governing party strengthened its rule in parliamentary elections this week, officials announced Friday, dampening hopes that the vote might bolster the standing of opposition voices and eliciting audible gasps of skepticism from many of those who heard the results at a hilltop hotel here. – New York Times

European Union observers on Saturday gave a qualified endorsement to Algerian parliamentary elections that were dominated by the governing party, bucking the trend of the Arab Spring revolts. – Reuters

Gulf States

Saudi Arabia and the tiny, troubled kingdom of Bahrain are expected to push toward a broad security and economic union on Monday, an agreement that regional power Saudi Arabia hopes will spur a similar tightening of ties with other Gulf countries. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Josh Rogin reports: Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa came to Washington this week to attend his son’s college graduation, but he left with hands full of gifts from the U.S. State Department, which announced new arms sales to Bahrain [Friday] – The Cable

Yemen

President Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, met with Yemen’s president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, on Sunday, a day after a stepped-up campaign of American airstrikes reportedly killed 11 militants allied with Al Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate. – New York Times

Iraq

In the face of spiraling costs and Iraqi officials who say they never wanted it in the first place, the State Department has slashed — and may jettison entirely by the end of the year — a multibillion-dollar police training program that was to have been the centerpiece of a hugely expanded civilian mission here. – New York Times

[T]he jockeying to succeed [Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani] has quietly begun, and Iran is positioning its own candidate for the post, a hard-line cleric who would give Tehran a direct line of influence over the Iraqi people, heightening fears that Iran’s long-term goal is to transplant its Islamic Revolution to Iraq. – New York Times

Bomb blasts aimed largely at security forces in western and central Iraq killed six people and wounded several more on Sunday, a relatively violent day after a few weeks of calm across the country. – New York Times

Israel

When Netanyahu and the leader of the centrist opposition party Kadima joined forces, they said their first priority would be a law ending widespread military exemptions for full-time religious students. Long-neglected, the issue has spiraled into a public policy nightmare – Washington Post

President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority said Saturday that his security forces were struggling because Israel had refused to allow them to import a shipment of weapons, and that he was “very, very, very afraid” of what might happen if one of the Palestinian prisoners on a long-term hunger strike died. – New York Times

Palestinian Authority officials said Saturday that they had arrested the man they believed was responsible for the May 1 shooting at the house of the governor of Jenin, who died hours later after suffering two heart attacks. – New York Times

Interview: Capt. Sassi Hodeda, 47, the senior naval officer in charge of developing electronic combat systems, explained to The Times why Israel’s military is looking increasingly to the seas. – Los Angeles Times

Editorial: If Mr. Abbas or a successor chooses to focus on peace talks rather than internal Palestinian politics, Mr. Netanyahu will have the strength to seriously bargain, if he chooses to. The Obama administration should be pressing Mr. Abbas to put the Israeli leader to the test. – Washington Post

Turkey

Mustafa Akyol writes: If Turkey succeeds in that liberal experiment, and drafts its new constitution-in-the-making accordingly, it can set a promising example for Islamist-led governments in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere. All of these countries desperately need not only procedural democracy, but also liberalism. And there is an Islamic rationale for it as well: Imposed religiosity leads to hypocrisy. Those who hope to nurture genuine religiosity should first establish liberty. – New York Times

Afghanistan

Faced with an order from President Obama to withdraw 23,000 troops by the end of the summer, and the prospect of further reductions next year, Allen is hastily transforming the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan. – Washington Post

A senior Afghan peace negotiator who once served in the Taliban government was shot dead in Kabul on Sunday, in yet another blow to attempts to find a negotiated end to the war. – Wall Street Journal

International donors called on Sunday for an inquiry into potential mismanagement of the United Nations-administered trust fund that helps pay for Afghanistan’s fledgling police force, even as the U.N. reiterated its support for the program and denied the accusations. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Shimmering more than 1,500 feet up in the daytime haze, or each visible as a single light blinking at night, the balloons, with infrared and color video cameras, are central players in the American military’s shift toward using technology for surveillance and intelligence. – New York Times

As the U.S. military embarks on the task of extracting itself from America’s longest war, the phenomenon of members of the Afghan security forces turning their guns on Western troops is becoming, in the eyes of some commanders, a strategic threat. – Los Angeles Times

The Afghan government on Sunday said it is taking the lead from the U.S.-led coalition for providing security in areas that eventually will make up 75 percent of the country’s population. – Associated Press

David Feith interviews Gen. H.R. McMaster (USA): Gen. McMaster makes clear, in light of Clausewitz’s 200-year-old warning not “to turn war into something that’s alien to its nature—don’t try to define war as you would like it to be.” – Wall Street Journal

South Asia

India’s defense ministry has approved a proposal to buy 145 ultra-light howitzers from U.S.-based BAE Systems Inc. for about 30 billion rupees ($560 million), a senior defense ministry official said Saturday, as the South Asian country continues its efforts to modernize its armed forces. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

India’s intelligence agency sparked outrage in Pakistan and self-deprecatory jokes at home this week after it listed ordinary Pakistani shopkeepers as terrorists on a mission to attack some of India’s landmark institutions. – Washington Post

India’s industrial output unexpectedly slumped in March as high interest rates stifled expansion, deepening worries of an economic slowdown that would pressure the central bank to ease monetary policy further despite inflation risks. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Democratic and Republican leaders of the congressional oversight committees are urging the Obama administration to formally designate Pakistan’s Haqqani Network a terrorist organization, something the lawmakers said the State Department has been reluctant to do while it pursues negotiations with the Taliban. – LA Times’ World Now

China

Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng expressed concern for the safety of his extended family on Friday amid reports that his nephew had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, and said he hadn’t met with Chinese officials since Monday. – Wall Street Journal

Residents said that since Chen fled to Beijing, the reign of fear has expanded beyond Dongshigu to at least three other close-knit villages in the city of Linyi, in the eastern province of Shandong. – Washington Post

If the drama over Mr. Chen’s fate has placed a harsh spotlight on China’s capacity for repression and created a diplomatic migraine for the White House, it has also been something of a boon to Mr. Fu, 44. His organization, ChinaAid, is at the crossroads of a growing movement among American Christians agitating for religious freedom in China and the wider dissident network inside the United States, as well as members of the underground church in China trying to practice their faith in a hostile environment. – New York Times

China’s economy slowed sharply in April—from industrial output to bank lending to foreign trade—throwing cold water on expectations for a rapid recovery in the world’s main growth engine, and putting pressure on Beijing to shift policy decisively into stimulus mode. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

A decision by China’s central bank to loosen monetary policy is not an antidote by itself for emerging weakness in the Chinese economy and is likely to be just the start of a broader program of economic stimulus by the government, economists said on Sunday. – New York Times

China’s leaders started to reach into their economic-stimulus tool kit this weekend to boost flagging growth, but the measures don’t pack the wallop they once had. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Tibet’s spiritual leader told Britain’s Sunday Telegraph that sources inside China’s Tibetan regions had told his entourage that fake female devotees might be coming to try to kill him with poisoned scarves and poisoned hair. – WSJ’s India Real Time

Nicholas Bequelin writes: Rights activists and whistle-blowers like Chen have to endure various degrees of police harassment and suppression, and the government remains hostile to the precondition for any reasonably functional legal system: an independent judiciary. But the fact is that the rule of law has become a central demand of the Chinese citizenry, and grievances are increasingly framed in the language of rights. The law matters. – International Herald Tribune

East Asia

Lee’s moves were initially intended to pressure Pyongyang to liberalize its economy and give up its weapons program…Now, those measures have taken dramatic effect, with South Korean executives vowing never again to do business with the North, fearing vulnerability to Seoul’s policy changes. – Washington Post

With the health of Nambaryn Enkhbayar, the former president, deteriorating rapidly, the government is holding firm, throwing Mongolia’s young democracy into turmoil in a crisis freighted by dueling accusations of corruption and human rights abuses. – New York Times

The South Korean military is on a shopping spree this year. And the biggest deal of all – approximately 60 new fighter jets – is nearing the bidding deadline. – WSJ’s Korea Real Time

The three largest East Asian economies agreed Sunday to find ways to strengthen regional trading ties and to work together to ease political tensions in the area. – Associated Press

Southeast Asia

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak flew to Myanmar on Monday to meet its leaders and discuss greater economic cooperation, becoming the latest international leader to visit the Southeast Asian country after its recent embrace of political liberalization. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

China’s Defense Ministry, apparently responding to online rumors fueled by a standoff with the Philippines in the South China Sea, denied that it was making preparations for war. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

India’s Ministry of External Affairs urged China and the Philippines to “exercise restraint” and resolve their brewing row over ownership of a set of islands in the South China Sea through diplomacy. – WSJ’s India Real Time

Russia

In the great tradition of Russian authors as wielders of public authority, a group of prominent writers strolled along a Moscow boulevard Sunday, and thousands of white-ribbon-wearing fans joined in…But the peaceful stroll was all about rigged elections, political corruption and President Vladimir Putin. – Washington Post

As Vladimir V. Putin begins his third term as Russia’s president, it is clear, at least in Moscow, that something in the political atmosphere has changed. Russia’s protest movement appears to have entered a new and unpredictable stage, and Mr. Udaltsov, one of its most prominent leaders, is at the center of a debate about its future. – New York Times

Forget the youthful bloggers, pro-democracy crusaders and TV celebrities who launched Russia’s five-month-old movement of street protests against autocratic rule. The anti-Kremlin crowd has a new unifying symbol: Abai Kunanbayev. – Wall Street Journal

Jackson Diehl writes: As the [Magnitsky Act] moved toward a vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month, senior White House and State Department officials demanded that it be postponed until after Putin’s visit to Camp David. Now that Putin has canceled, maybe it’s time to put human rights in Russia back on the agenda. – Washington Post

Janusz Bugajski writes: The tug of war over the General Assembly presidency illustrates the escalating campaign a resurgent Russia is waging against former satellites that are now an integral part of the European Union and NATO and dependable allies of the United States. – Washington Post

Belarus

ARU TV is one of a number of media and education outlets created and operated by Belarusian dissidents abroad to confront the state-controlled media, promote free speech and challenge the Lukashenko regime’s oppressive hold over the country. – Washington Times

NATO

François Hollande may have pledged on the campaign stump to pull France’s combat troops out of Afghanistan by the end of this year, but analysts expect the president-elect to do his utmost to reassure NATO allies that France is a solid partner when the alliance chiefs meet in Chicago later this month. – Defense News

Despite claims by Turkish officials about vetoing Israel’s participation in major NATO summit, a senior U.S. official says the alliance never intended to invite Israeli leaders. – DOTMIL

United States of America

Mitt Romney’s recent declaration that Russia is America’s top geopolitical adversary drew raised eyebrows and worse from many Democrats, some Republicans and the Russians themselves, all of whom suggested that Mr. Romney was misguidedly stuck in a cold war mind-set. – New York Times

Analysis: Dozens of subtle position papers flow through the candidate’s policy shop and yet seem to have little influence on Mr. Romney’s hawkish-sounding pronouncements, on everything from war to nuclear proliferation to the trade-offs in dealing with China – New York Times

West Africa

Separate attacks in northeast Nigeria likely carried out by a radical Islamist sect killed at least seven police officers Sunday, witnesses said, the latest violence to shake the bloodied region. – Associated Press

East Africa

The current class of 3,500 Ugandan soldiers, the biggest since the camp opened five years ago, is preparing to deploy to Somalia to join a growing international force composed entirely of African troops but largely financed by Washington. – Washington Post

Ugandan troops captured a top Lords Resistance Army commander, Caesar Achellam, in the jungles of the Central African Republic as the hunt for fugitive rebel leader Joseph Kony enters a decisive stage, the Ugandan army said Sunday. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

South Sudan independence in July has cost Sudan three-quarters of its oil revenue, paralyzing the nation’s economy…Things aren’t any better in South Sudan, which has shut down oil production in a row with Sudan over transit fees. – Los Angeles Times

Andrew Natsios writes: Only redressing the imbalance of military might will convince Bashir and his generals that fighting won’t solve the two countries’ profound political crisis. The Obama administration must arm the South Sudanese with antiaircraft weapons to create a stalemate and get the North back to the negotiating table. – Washington Post

The Air Force late last month convened a summit in Ohio to address the most vexing problem of its premier jet fighter – pilots becoming dizzy from oxygen deprivation while flying the supersonic F-22 Raptor. – Washington Times

The White House has nominated Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, the commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and a former senior official at the CIA, to be the next Air Force chief of staff. – Washington Post

A senator from Alaska who has threatened to place a hold on all Air Force officer nominations is not budging, posing a potential roadblock to the confirmation of Gen. Mark A. Welsh III as next chief of staff. – Military Times

The House voted Thursday to override steep cuts to the Pentagon’s budget mandated by last summer’s debt deal and replace them with spending reductions to food stamps and other mandatory social programs. – The Hill’s On the Money Blog

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Thursday afternoon that the House would vote next week on a $643 billion defense authorization bill and a bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). – The Hill’s Floor Action Blog

The vice-chiefs of the Army and Marine Corps warned legislators today that sequestration would force the military and the nation to break enlistment contracts with up to 225,000 troops who would have to be precipitately discharged to save money. – AOL Defense

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney would spend $2 trillion more than the current Pentagon budget over the next decade, according to an analysis of his proposal to tie the Defense budget to the gross domestic product. – DEFCON Hill

Facing mounting debt and a slow-to-recover economy, 62 percent of Americans prefer defense cuts over other debt reduction options, a survey by the Program for Public Consultation found. – Defense News

Making the nation’s future bomber aircraft capable of flying by remote control could prove unaffordable, a senior U.S. Air Force general said on Thursday – Global Security Newswire

Thomas Donnelly writes: The Romney 4 percent Pentagon budget is no “spike”; it’s more like a return to normal, even very constrained military spending given the global mission of America’s armed forces. It’s Obama’s levels of spending that are abnormal, digging a deep hole that even now will take a decade of reinvestment to repair. That’s what is really “piling up.” – The Weekly Standard

Peter Feaver writes: [W]hile it is fine to remain rhetorically committed to Plan A (improving State capacity), the military should train and equip for Plan B (State and other civilian agencies  more and probably less capable than they were in 2008). – Shadow Government

NATO

The black clouds of the American and European economic crises will loom ominously over NATO leaders when they assemble next week in Chicago for three days of high-level talks. – DOTMIL

In an embarrassing policy change driven by pressure on its defense budget, Britain said Thursday that it was changing the type of fighter jet it intended to buy so it could avoid making expensive alterations to a new aircraft carrier. – New York Times

Missile Defense

One day after the House Armed Services Committee voted to back a third U.S. missile interceptor site for the East Coast, the Pentagon’s top military general said there was no need for the new site. – DEFCON Hill

The Pentagon has made the Aegis ballistic interceptors a cornerstone of its missile defense system, and this week it successfully tested the second generation of the launchers. – CNN’s Security Clearance

The War

The double-agent sent by Saudi Arabia to disrupt an al Qaeda suicide-bomb plot held a European Union passport, and grew up in the West, a security expert said, providing new insight into the unusual infiltration of the tight-knit terrorist group. – Wall Street Journal

The Yemeni branch of al Qaeda now has “a whole outfit designated to target the U.S. homeland,” according to a source closely working with U.S. intelligence agencies and the military. – CNN’s Security Clearance

President Obama said it shouldn’t “be any surprise” that al Qaeda is continuing efforts to attack the United States, but said of the recently foiled plot to bomb an America-bound airliner that he was “on top of this the entire time.” – DEFCON Hill

British intelligence played a central role in the undercover operation to foil an underwear bomb plot involving al Qaeda’s Yemeni offshoot, counterterrorism sources told Reuters. – Reuters

Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens and Peter Neumann write: For the foreseeable future, AQAP will remain the group’s most ambitious affiliate—and the one that is most determined to strike against the West. – Wall Street Journal Europe (subscription required)

Law of the Sea Treaty

Josh Rogin reports: The Obama administration and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) are beginning a new push to seek ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, known around Washington simply as the Law of the Sea Treaty. – The Cable

Britain said Thursday that it was in talks with other European Union members about possibly easing a provision of their Iran oil embargo, set to begin in less than two months, that could cause harmful and unintended side effects because it bans Europe-based insurers from covering any ships that carry Iranian oil anywhere in the world. – New York Times

An Indian police team will visit Tehran this month as part of an investigation into the role of three Iranians suspected of carrying out a bomb attack on an Israeli diplomat’s car in New Delhi in February, a police official said Thursday. – Washington Post

Plans for a United Nations-backed conference aimed at ridding the Middle East of nuclear weapons are unraveling because of political upheaval in the region and diplomatic sparring over suspected nuclear-weapons programs in Iran and Israel, said officials involved in the event’s preparations. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

An unprecedented lashing sentence against Iranian cartoonist Mahmud Shokraye has been condemned by Iranian news sites and cartoonists. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

A top U.S. Treasury official said on Thursday that he was skeptical that Iran could find an alternative payment system to its central bank, which is the target of U.S. sanctions aimed at depriving Tehran of funds needed to develop its nuclear program. – Reuters

The Islamist movement Hamas will not let itself be dragged into a war against Israel if it attacks the nuclear facilities of Hamas ally Iran, Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Thursday. – Reuters

William Tobey writes: Despite sanctions, Iran’s nuclear program is expanding and accelerating. Iran is to blame for that, not the United States, but whatever can be said for the administration’s policy on Iran, it is not halting the nuclear program. – Shadow Government

Marc Thiessen writes: So with all respect to Joe Biden, this administration’s record on Iran is not one he should be touting on the campaign trail. President Obama’s bold declarations notwithstanding, the oceans are still rising, the Earth has not healed, and Iran is closer than ever to building a nuclear bomb. – Washington Post

Elliott Abrams writes: Dancing around the issue, Obama has never been willing to rise even to his vice president’s level of clarity, or say, paraphrasing President Carter, “Iran will not get a nuclear weapon while I am president; I will prevent it by any means necessary including military force.” Thus we are left longing for the comparative clarity and toughness of Carter foreign policy. The only people comforted by this probably live in Tehran. – National Review Online

Syria

Agreement on additional international action in Syria appeared more remote than ever following a massive suicide bombing on Thursday in Damascus, as foreign leaders pointed fingers of responsibility for the violence in opposite directions. – Washington Post

It is too early to write off as a failure U.N.-Arab League mediator Kofi Annan’s efforts to bring an end to 14-months of violence in Syria, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said on Thursday. – Reuters

The Syrian army checkpoints around the northern town of Ariha are in such a dangerous spot that even food for the soldiers is brought in by tank. The soldiers at one position outside Ariha say they have not ventured inside the town for months, fearing for their safety in an area where hostility to President Bashar al-Assad has reached boiling point. – Reuters

Editorial: Administration spokesmen now publicly recognize that the United Nations diplomatic initiative it has backed for the past seven weeks has been a failure. They acknowledge — as they should have long ago — that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has no intention of ending violence against his opposition, or meeting any other condition of the “Annan plan.” Yet President Obama refuses to embrace other options. His administration’s strategy is one of militant passivity – Washington Post

Jonathan Spyer writes: The insurgents believe that the international community as a whole is unconcerned with their fate. “The world has no eyes” was the way one activist put it to me. The crucial issue now is whether a rival international effort to counterbalance Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah’s outreach to Assad will come into being. – World Affairs Journal

North Africa

The two top-rated Egyptian presidential candidates battled Thursday over the role of Islam in the Arab world’s most populous country as they took part in the first televised presidential debate in the nation’s history. – Washington Post

Saudi Arabia has deposited $1bn at the Egyptian central bank to help ease pressures on the country’s foreign currency reserves, which have been severely depleted during the long-running political turmoil. – Financial Times

Islamist militants in Algeria, thwarted by the government’s antiterrorism measures, are taking refuge in lawless areas in the Sahel to the south, contributing to the growing unrest there, say western officials and security experts. – Financial Times

Egypt’s military rulers replaced four cabinet ministers on Thursday to try to placate demands from the Islamist-dominated parliament for an overhaul of the army-appointed government that is set to remain in office until the end of June. – Reuters

Results of an Algerian parliamentary election to be announced on Friday were likely to hand an unprecedented share of seats to moderate Islamists, easing pressure for change in a country left behind by last year’s “Arab Spring.” – Reuters

Libya’s interim finance minister said on Thursday he would resign soon because of “wastage of public funds”, citing a now-halted scheme to compensate former fighters and pressure from them for payment. – Reuters

Several prisoners likely were tortured to death at a detention center in Libya under government control, the United Nations said on Thursday as it urged the country to make stamping out such practices a top priority. – Reuters

Sudan’s loss of billions of dollars of oil revenues will bring down the government as inflation soars, the economy buckles and people grow hungrier, opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi said in an interview. – Reuters

Bahrain

Bahraini opposition activists said they blocked roads with burning tires on Thursday to demand the release of women prisoners, many of them locked up during more than a year of protests against the island kingdom’s rulers. – Reuters

Courtney Radsch writes: The Bahraini authorities’ claim that they are making progress on improving human rights rings hollow amid the continuing harassment of activists, including the unfair imprisonment of well-known Bahraini human rights defender Abdulhadi al-Khawaja…Preventing international rights organizations from monitoring the situation on the ground further belies the platitudes of the government. – Freedom House’s Freedom at Issue

Yemen

The United States launched airstrikes in Yemen on Thursday that killed as many as seven militants, the second American missile attack in the country since the CIA and other spy agencies disrupted an al-Qaeda airline bomb plot, U.S. officials said. – Washington Post

As the war on al Qaeda’s Yemen terror cell heats up, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday rules out any possibility of sending American troops to the Middle Eastern country. – DEFCON Hill

Iraq

The trial of Iraq’s fugitive vice president Tareq al-Hashemi, accused of running death squads, was postponed for a second time on Thursday with the politician still in Turkey after his case sparked a crisis in Iraq’s cross-sectarian government. – Reuters

Josh Rogin reports: So what is the administration doing about [Daqduq]? The Cable obtained the internal talking points prepared by the National Security Council and approved by Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough just yesterday. – The Cable

Israel

Charles Krauthammer writes: Netanyahu forfeited September elections that would have given him four more years in power. He chose instead to form a national coalition that guarantees 18 months of stability — 18 months during which, if the world does not act (whether by diplomacy or otherwise) to stop Iran, Israel will. And it will not be the work of one man, one party or one ideological faction. As in 1967, it will be the work of a nation. – Washington Post

China

Police officers here are being investigated over whether they used torture and other questionable methods to obtain evidence during a so-called anticrime campaign overseen by Bo Xilai, the deposed Chinese leader who for four years ran the party machinery in this fog-shrouded western metropolis. – New York Times

Family members and lawyers representing Chen Guangcheng are facing increased harassment despite an international deal brokered to help Mr. Chen, a legal activist who escaped house arrest last month and sought refuge in the American Embassy here. – New York Times

Some immigration lawyers have seen a new increase in the number of Chinese seeking foreign citizenship, a trend they suggest is tied to worries about political turmoil and economic slowdown in China, especially among businesspeople and politicians seeking to protect their families and wealth. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Chinese authorities have confiscated a lawyer’s license and threatened to do the same to another after they volunteered to defend the nephew of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng. – Reuters

Bill Gertz reports: Aggressive Chinese cyberespionage and digital warfare capabilities were major topics this week during talks between senior U.S. and Chinese defense officials. – Washington Times’ Inside the Ring

Analysis: Chinese leaders are grappling with a range of uncertainties, from the once-a-decade leadership transition this year that has been marred by a seismic political scandal, to a slowdown of growth in an economy in which deeply entrenched state-owned enterprises and their political patrons have hobbled market forces and private entrepreneurship. – New York Times

Analysis: A push by Chinese President Hu Jintao to shrink the size of the nation’s nine-member leadership body, as revealed by Reuters this week, could have far-reaching implications for his anointed successor and for future economic and political reform. – Reuters

Perry Link writes: China will eventually outgrow its current spasm [of ruthless tyranny] as well, perhaps without Chen Guangcheng’s help. On the other hand, maybe this artist of miracle escapes can pull off a second miracle: changing the way the U.S. government understands “China.” – Washington Post

Scott Kennedy writes: If China continues with a system in which the well-connected try to bake their cake and eat it, too, there eventually won’t be much of anything left except a few crumbs. – Wall Street Journal Asia (subscription required)

Afghanistan

The United States government is doing everything possible to locate Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who is being held captive by insurgents after being seized in Afghanistan in 2009, the Pentagon’s top civilian and military leaders said Thursday. – New York Times

Afghan commanders have refused more than a dozen times within the past two months to act on U.S. intelligence regarding high-level insurgents, arguing that night-time operations to target the men would result in civilian casualties, Afghan officials say. The defiance highlights the shift underway in Afghanistan as Afghan commanders make use of their newfound power to veto operations proposed by their NATO counterparts. – Washington Post

Allegations of corruption have long swirled around Afghan government and security institutions. Now, such allegations are set to fall on a United Nations body that channels billions of dollars into the country. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

An attack by six Taliban infiltrators in the eastern province of Paktika on Thursday killed three police officers but was put down before it reached the government offices that were its target, Afghan officials said. – New York Times

An attacker wearing an Afghan Army uniform opened fire on coalition soldiers in remote eastern Afghanistan on Friday, killing one NATO service member, NATO said in a statement. – New York Times

The U.S.-Afghan post-war agreement requires NATO to address three key challenges if it’s going to be successful, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said Thursday during a hearing ahead of the NATO summit in Chicago. – The Hill’s Global Affairs

Concerned France’s new president-elect will remove French troops from Afghanistan this year, senior Obama administration officials are headed to Paris for high-level talks. – DOTMIL

After five years of rising deaths, civilian casualties in Afghanistan dropped 20 percent in the first four months of the year, the United Nations said, a rare piece of good news as foreign combat forces prepare to pull out by the end of 2014. – Reuters

Afghanistan faces tougher security challenges in the next phase of a transition from foreign to Afghan forces as insurgents step up their attacks, Afghan officials said on Thursday. – Reuters

Sam Schulman writes: The bloody, self-sacrificial work of our soldiers and Marines in Afghanistan, and those of our allies, has enormously benefited the Afghan people and particularly Afghan women. But never mind. If their sacrifice harms our own self-image, it is a sacrifice too far. Bugging out therefore will be the biggest favor we can do the Afghans. Someday those who survive our desertion will thank us for it, our idealistic liberals flatter themselves, as they head for the exits. – The Weekly Standard

Pakistan

Husain Haqqani writes: Until their priorities shift, the empty pronouncements of our leaders against terrorism and the sacrifices of our soldiers in battle with militants will not suffice to change the nation’s course. – New York Times

Koreas

US and UK officials are seeking stronger action against North Korean arms sales in the Middle East and Africa, amid fears that the country could eventually look to sell nuclear technology in the region. – Financial Times

North Korea on Thursday vowed it would continue to advance its nuclear weapons program and other military projects in an apparent rebuttal to the U.N. Security Council’s demand that the nation refrain from carrying out new missile and nuclear tests – Global Security Newswire

The United States and South Korea have been unable yet to bridge their differences on allowing Seoul to develop ballistic missiles with longer ranges, the Yonhap News Agency quoted an informed insider as saying on Wednesday – Global Security Newswire

A South Korean presidential candidate from the governing political party on Thursday called for U.S. nonstrategic nuclear weapons to be sent back to his country as a deterrent to North Korea – Global Security Newswire

Josh Rogin reports: Frustration with North Korea’s ongoing nuclear weapons and missile programs has pushed Congress to reopen the debate in Washington over whether the United States should reintroduce tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea. – The Cable

Southeast Asia

China escalated its quarrel with the Philippines over an island in the South China Sea on Thursday, halting Philippine bananas at customs for longer inspections and starting an official media campaign that suggested that any claims on the island represented an infringement of Chinese sovereignty. – New York Times

Tensions between China and the Philippines remain high and U.S. officials say the likelihood Beijing will take some type of military action is growing. Meanwhile, the Obama administration has taken a hands-off approach to the dispute over a 10-mile square South China Sea lagoon called Scarborough Shoal and is not vocally supporting Manila in its dispute over fishing rights. – Washington Free Beacon

Filipino activists, carrying placards and banners and waving small Philippine flags, held a noisy but peaceful protest on Friday outside a Chinese consular office in Manila over islands in the South China Sea claimed by both nations. – Reuters

Laos on Thursday handed over the suspected leader of a drug gang accused of killing 13 members of Chinese boat crews on a lawless stretch of the Mekong River, an incident that caused Beijing to send gunboat patrols to the region downstream from its borders. – Reuters

Russia

[T]he announcement on Wednesday that Mr. Putin would skip the Group of 8 summit meeting of world leaders next week at Camp David — which Mr. Obama had promoted as an opportunity to “spend time” with Mr. Putin — bewildered foreign policy experts in both countries who have been waiting to see how the two leaders would get on. – New York Times

The Representative on Freedom of the Media from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has expressed concern over the “indiscriminate detention” of journalists reporting on street protests in Moscow and recent cyber attacks on Russian media websites. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Authorities might have hoped that Moscow’s tenacious protest movement would die down after hundreds of demonstrators were summarily arrested at a May 6 rally ahead of Vladimir Putin’s presidential inauguration. But rather than giving up, protesters are adapting their tactics. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

NATO members are worried that unprecedented billion-dollar arms sales to Russia by France, Germany and Italy could destabilize security, a U.S. congressional report said May 10, 10 days before the NATO summit. – AFP

Russian agents have foiled terror attack plans on the Black Sea resort of Sochi, host of the 2014 Winter Olympics, authorities said Thursday, blaming Chechen separatists and neighboring Georgia of jointly masterminding the plans. – Associated Press

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin will join the board of the state oil and gas holding company, a sign he is likely to keep a leading role in the world’s largest energy industry even if he quits the cabinet. – Reuters

David Satter writes: Russia needs a commission similar to the South African Commission on Truth and Reconciliation to review publicly not only the crimes of the Putin era but also crimes committed during the eight-year rule of his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin. Only this can provide a basis for democracy. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Eastern Europe

Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s speechwriter would be well-advised to start brushing up his resume — if, that is, he was behind the gaffe committed by Lukashenka during his annual address to the nation on May 8. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Lithuania’s president says she will attempt to visit former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in the hospital where she is currently being treated, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Ukraine a Belarus-like “dictatorship.” – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell are set to be awarded the rights to explore for unconventional gas in Ukraine, potentially catapulting it to the forefront of Europe’s fledgling shale gas industry as it seeks to reduce its dependence on neighbouring Russia. – Financial Times

United Kingdom

In an embarrassing policy change driven by pressure on its defense budget, Britain said Thursday that it was changing the type of fighter jet it intended to buy so it could avoid making expensive alterations to a new aircraft carrier. – New York Times

NATO

The black clouds of the American and European economic crises will loom ominously over NATO leaders when they assemble next week in Chicago for three days of high-level talks. – DOTMIL

Latin America

A brewing rebellion from ex-members of Haiti’s disbanded army is adding uncertainty to the poor country one year after President Michel Martelly began his term with a pledge of renewal in the wake of a devastating 2010 earthquake. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Peru’s defense and interior ministers resigned Thursday shortly after the Congress opened a debate to consider censuring them for their handling of an antinarcotics operation in a valley known for coca cultivation and the presence of the leftist rebel group Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path. – LA Times’ World Now

Politicians across the spectrum in Venezuela are trading dire predictions of impending violence in the vacuum left by uncertainty about the health of President Hugo Chávez. – Financial Times

Despite an exhausting “house-by-house” tour intended to galvanize the nation behind him, Capriles remains firmly stuck behind President Hugo Chavez in most polls. – Reuters

East Africa

South Sudan’s years of conflict were meant to be over when it won its independence from Sudan last July after generations of fighting with the people of the north. But the jubilation quickly faded, and now, not even a year later, after weeks of pointed barbs and border skirmishes, this vast and vastly underdeveloped country is once again mobilizing for war – New York Times

Just a month after South Sudan announced an austerity budget designed to fend off economic collapse, the struggling country had already failed to meet its targets, a source close to the South Sudanese government acknowledged. – LA Times’ World Now

South Sudan said on Thursday it was ready to reopen negotiations immediately with its northern neighbor Sudan to try to resolve oil, security and frontier disputes that ignited border fighting last month. – Reuters

Ethiopian troops and Somali government forces killed 17 al Shabaab rebels on Thursday after the Islamist militants blocked a road in southern Somalia and stole goods, a regional official said. – Reuters

Sub-Saharan Africa

Inequality in sub-Saharan Africa could threaten political stability and growth after a decade of rapid economic expansion, a report by activists, business executives and politicians has warned. – Financial Times

A group of Congolese soldiers who created a rebel group after defecting from the army have no intention of laying down their weapons, despite an ultimatum from the government and the expiration of a cease-fire with the military, one of their leaders said Thursday. – Associated Press

It’s because of my job that I will be unable to attend the 2012 Milblog Conference.  (And, if half of what I hear is true, it’s shaping up to be a sheer riot)

Fear not, because Wings Over Iraq will be well represented at the conference: I’m sending my top correspondant. 

My new apprentice, DaRtH cOuRtNeY