Morning Brief, Wednesday, August 15

Middle East

ATTA KENARE/AFP

The Bush administration is considering labeling Iran's Revolutionary Guards a foreign terrorist organization. 

Gen. David Petraeus will recommend a pullback of U.S. troops in some areas, Bush administration sources tell the LA Times. 

Coordinated truck bombs targeting members of an obscure religious sect killed around 200 people in a Kurdish area of Iraq.

Asia

Asian markets tumbled today, and so did those in Europe, as the subprime fallout continues to shake investor confidence. Indonesia was hit particularly hard.

Outsourcing ad declining Western consumer demand could threaten Asia's economic growth, Citigroup says in a new research memo.

There may now be over 150,000 people in China with a net worth of at least $5 million. 

Europe

The global boom in commodity metals like nickel and palladium is great news for Russia.

Germany's Social Democrats, excluded from Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition, are seeing their popularity hit new lows. 

German police can't explain why six Italian men showed up dead in the town of Duisburg.

Elsewhere

Hugo Chávez wants to be Venezuela's president for life.

The government of Somalia is planning its own "Green Zone" in Mogadishu.  

The U.S. dollar is getting a boost from the credit crunch.

Today's Agenda

• India celebrates the 60th anniversary of partition.
• President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine visits Moscow for what is likely to be a tough discussion of energy issues with Vladimir Putin.
• Today marks 62 years since Japan's surrender in WWII.

Yesterday on Passport 

• Blame the Humvee for U.S. failures in Iraq?
• Quotable: "Chocolate Santa Clauses will be the first hit"
• Italian town pays people to lose weight