Venezuela
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad received a warm reception Wednesday from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, wrapping up a three-nation visit to Latin America to shore up support against the United States. Ahmadinejad arrived Tuesday night on a flight from Bolivia, where he spent a few hours meeting with President Evo Morales. The Iranian leader met Monday with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

US: Guantanamo
The official in charge of closing the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center has resigned, the Pentagon said Wednesday. Phillip Carter submitted his resignation letter Friday after just under seven months in the post, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said. Carter’s move was prompted by personal and family reasons, Morrell said.

Russia and Canada
The Central Bank of the Russian Federation is going to invest a part of the funds of Russia’s international reserves into the tools nominated in the Canadian dollar, RIA Novosti reports with reference to Sergey Shvetsov, the director of the CB’s department for operations on financial markets. “We are currently conducting technical preparations for operations with the Canadian dollar. There can be one or two currencies added afterwards, and that would be it,” Shvetsov said at the State Duma during a session of the council for credit policy. The official reminded that the Central Bank was investing the funds of Russia’s international reserves in four currencies: the US dollar, the euro, the British pound sterling and the Japanese yen. In addition, the reserves consist of gold and IMF’s special drawing right. The Canadian dollar is included in the top ten of world’s most popular currencies. The current value of the Canadian dollar is very close to the USD – about $0.95 per 1 CAD. The Canadian dollar reached the peak of its cost two years ago, in November 2007, when it cost more than 1.07 USD.

Pakistan
The Pakistani Premier Yousaf Raza Gillani says that the US decision to send additional troops to the neighboring Afghanistan can destabilize his country. Gillani told a press conference in Islamabad on Thursday that the troop surge could force Taliban militants to infiltrate into Pakistani southwestern province of Balochistan that borders Helmand. “Our only concern is that when US sends more troops to Afghanistan’s Helmand area, if there will be influx of militants they will be moving to Baluchistan.” Hundreds of militants fled into the country after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan began eight years ago. Gillani’s remarks come as the US President Barack Obama is widely expected to send more than 30,000 extra American troops in the war-torn Afghanistan.

Honduras
The Honduran deposed President Manuel Zelaya cannot return to power, the country’s Supreme Court has claimed in a non-binding ruling aimed at blocking his reinstatement. While the court failed on Wednesday to publish the full text of its ruling, sources and lawyers familiar with the proceedings said the court has not altered its earlier decisions and supports Zelaya’s removal for his efforts to amend the constitution on presidential terms limits, Reuters reported. Following the Court’s ruling, which will be submitted to legislators, it will be up to the Honduran Congress to decide on Zelaya’s reinstatement. Zelaya has slammed the US for supporting Sunday’s presidential elections, saying that the US is supporting a coup-perpetrating regime.

Russia: Arctic Sea
The Arctic Sea cargo vessel is unloading its cargo of timber in the Algerian port of Bejaia under close scrutiny by the country’s national security officials, a local newspaper said on Thursday. According to El Khabar newspaper, the Algerian authorities have initially refused to allow the vessel at the center of a mysterious hijacking case this summer to enter an Algerian port, but later agreed on condition that the ship would be thoroughly inspected by security officers before unloading. The unloading of 4,000 tons of timber started as soon as the vessel docked in Bejaia, and is expected to be completed on Thursday, the paper said.

Russia and Nicaragua
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has signed a directive on the opening of a Russian trade mission in Nicaragua. The announcement was posted on the government website on Wednesday. Bilateral ties between the countries got a boost last year when Nicaragua became the first country to join Russia in recognizing the independence of the former Georgian republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In July this year Russia and Nicaragua signed a deal to introduce visa-free travel regime for their citizens as well as a memorandum of understanding between Nicaragua’s Petronic and a consortium of Russian oil companies on cooperation on oil and energy projects.

US: Minot AFB
Col. Joel Westa, the former 5th Bomb Wing commander fired Oct. 30, retired Monday rather than accept an assignment to Global Strike Command. Westa was chosen to turn around the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., after airmen from the wing mistakenly loaded six nuclear warheads aboard a B-52 two years ago.

US: White House Security
Crashing a state dinner at the White House apparently takes a security breakdown as well as some kind of nerve. The Secret Service is looking into its own security procedures after determining that a Virginia couple, Michaele and Tareq Salahi, managed to slip into Tuesday night’s state dinner at the White House even though they were not on the guest list, agency spokesman Ed Donovan said. President Barack Obama was never in any danger because the party crashers went through the same security screening for weapons as the 300-plus people actually invited to the dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Donovan said. An initial finding indicated that a checkpoint did not follow proper procedures to ensure the two were on the guest list, Donovan said. “It’s important to note that they went through all the security screenings — the magnetometer screening — just like all the other guests did,” Donovan said. And, he added, Obama and others under Secret Service protection had their usual security details with them at the dinner.

Pakistan
Pakistan charged seven men on Wednesday in connection with the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India, in a case that is being closely watched internationally. Prosecutor Malik Rab Nawaz said the men are charged with planning and carrying out the attack. He said all seven accused pleaded not guilty. The court proceedings are being held behind closed doors in a maximum-security prison outside of the capital, Islamabad. The men, who are alleged to belong to a militant group named Lashkar-e-Taiba, could face the death penalty if they are convicted.

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan
Uzbekistan on Wednesday denied reports it had unilaterally sealed its border with Kazakhstan, saying it had only imposed a heightened safety regime to combat the spread of seasonal flu. The border was not closed, but simply operating under “temporary quarantine measures,” Uzbekistan’s official Jahon news agency reported. On Monday a Kazakh foreign ministry spokesman said that Uzbekistan had unilaterally closed their shared border and that Astana had received no information on the motives for the decision.

Canada
New legislation introduced in the House of Commons Thursday would give Canadians tortured abroad a chance to sue the perpetrators — including foreign states and officials — in Canadian civil court. In the past, attempts by torture victims such as Maher Arar and Houshang Bouzari have failed because Canadian courts have ruled they did not have the right to sue foreign states under the State Immunity Act. “Our present legislation criminalizes torture, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide — the most heinous acts known to humankind,” said Montreal Liberal MP Irwin Cotler, who tabled the private member’s bill. “But Canadian law does not allow a civil remedy for the victims of such horrific acts.”

Canada
The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is to meet with senior government and military officials in Ottawa next month, connected to next Tuesday’s announcement by President Barack Obama on how many additional U.S. forces are going to be sent to Afghanistan. It was not known if the Obama administration has asked Canada to reconsider or amend Parliament’s decision to pull its troops out of combat operations in July, 2011. However, recent U.S. media reports suggest Washington is putting increasing pressure on a number of friendly nations to stay the course in Afghanistan. McChrystal met earlier this month in Kabul with Lt.-Gen. Marc Lessard, commander of all Canadian troops overseas. He also made a surprise visit to Kandahar on Remembrance Day to console several Canadian families whose sons, husbands and brothers had been killed fighting the Taliban. During that visit McChrystal held talks with Vance, Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, Canada’s top army commander.