7 May 2015
Week in brief: INTERNATIONAL
GREECE: A delay in pension payments saw pensioners queuing at banks, emptying their accounts and breaking into a board meeting of the state pension fund to demand that it stops transferring its cash reserves to the government (an emergency decree to keep the country solvent has recently forced hospitals, schools, local authorities and pension funds to transfer any spare cash to the central bank.) More than 28 billion euros were withdrawn from banks as savers emptied their accounts. A tax on ATM withdrawals has been proposed (a one euro fee on every 1000 euros withdrawn) and a ceiling on transfers of one million is also being considered. Yannis Varoufakis was confronted and threatened by a gang of forty masked anarchists, who forced him and his wife from a restaurant in Athens. Negotiations between Greece and the IMF, the EC and the ECB continue, with no sign of agreement about the kind of economic reforms on which the release of 7.2 billion euros in loans is dependent. 200 million euros are due to be paid back to the IMF today, with another 770 million due next week. Growth forecasts for the country have been cut, and debt levels are rising. Jean-Claude Junker insisted in a speech at the University of Leuven, Belgium, that a Greek Exit is not an option, but others are already preparing for it; the municipal port fund of Rethymno in Crete has included a clause in a contract to refer to ‘payment in Euros or any national Greek currency at the time.’
NEPAL: Three days of heavy rain, landslides and after-shocks hampered the relief effort this week. There was growing public anger about the chaotic official response to the disaster. The airport at Kathmandu was closed to heavy cargo traffic; cracks have appeared in the runway. An RAF C-17 aircraft and three helicopters have arrived, with a team of Gurkha engineers and aid supplies. The death toll has reached 6250. Up to 1000 Europeans are still missing. A British national, Ramesh Rai, the son of former Gurkha, has been confirmed dead. Matthew Carapiet, 23, an architect from Kent, is missing.
SAUDI ARABIA: King Salman bin Abdulaziz issued royal decrees changing the line of succession. The interior minister and counter-terrorism tsar, Muhammad Bin Nayef, replaces crown prince Muqurin bin Abdulaziz as the king’s heir and next in line to the throne. The king named his son and defence minister, Muhammad Bin Salman, as deputy crown prince. The ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, replaces Prince Saud al-Faisal as foreign minister.
President Hollande of France was a guest of honour at the Gulf Co-operation Council.
IRAN: British intelligence claims that Iran is trying to obtain prohibited nuclear equipment on the black market, in contravention of international sanctions and in spite of the tentative agreement last month on its nuclear program.
PAKISTAN: Ten Taliban militants were jailed for life for planning the attempted murder of schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai.
IRAQ: Operational control of ISIS has passed to Abu Alaa al-Afri (also known as Haji Imam, and formerly a physics professor) from Abu Bakir al-Baghdadi, who was badly wounded in a US air-strike in March.
Isis said to have murdered hundreds of Yazidis (200-700) at a camp west of Mosul.
YEMEN: Yemeni officials reported the presence of special forces troops from the Saudi-led coalition in the city of Aden, the first deployment of foreign troops in the country. The report was denied by Saudi Arabia.
Senegal is to send 2100 troops to the Yemen, as ally of Saudi Arabia.
SYRIA: Amnesty International claim that the Assad regime has been dropping barrel bombs (oil barrels packed with explosives, metal fragments and fuel and dropped from helicopters) on civilian targets such as markets, schools, mosques and hospitals in and around Aleppo, with 11,000 casualties since 2012.
A suspected chlorine gas attack by Syrian government helicopters has killed a child and injured about forty others in the town of Saraqeb, in Idlib province.
ITALY: Fine weather and calm seas this weekend saw the arrival in Italy of 7000 migrants (and at least ten deaths) from North Africa in 34 boats. HMS Bulwark was cleared to help in the crisis after a three day wait while its role was agreed between London and Rome.
Anti-austerity and anti-globalisation demonstrators, students and green activists clashed with police at the opening of the Milan Expo of culture and technology.
USA: The officer who drove Freddie Gray in the police van after his arrest has been charged with murder. Three other officers have been charged with involuntary manslaughter for failing to secure Mr Gray in the van or to give him medical assistance. The two arresting officers have been charged with assault for pinning him to the pavement. Prosecutors have declared that his arrest was unjustified. The curfew in Baltimore has been lifted.
Two Islamist gunmen shot and injured a security guard and were shot and killed by a policeman in an attack on a cartoon contest in Garland, near Dallas, Texas. The contest to draw a cartoon of the prophet Mohamed was organised by the controversial American Freedom Defence Initiative. Isis has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Three more Republicans have joined Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz in the race to lead their party in the 2016 Presidential elections: Carly Fiorina (former chief executive of Hewlett Packard), Ben Carlson (a pioneering neuro-surgeon), and Mike Huckabee (an ordained minister).
GERMANY: A professional cycling race in Frankfurt was cancelled amid fears of an Islamist terror attack following the arrest of two German citizens of Turkish origin.
A week of strikes on German railways has begun, following disputes over pay, hours and representation between the GDL union and Deutsche Bahn, the state rail company.
SPAIN: The Spanish ambassador to Britain, Federico Trillo, faces allegations of corruption (from his time as an MP) and a parliamentary debate on his fitness for office.
Princess Cristina, the sister of King Felipe IV, has failed to pay a 2.7 million euro surety to court and so risks having her assets seized. She is facing trial with her husband for tax-evasion.
FRANCE: Marine le Pen, the leader of the National Front, is seeking to remove her father Jean-Marie le Pen, the founder of the party, as its honorary president. He has been suspended from the party and a congress will decide his removal within three months. He has said that he may form a new party if he is removed.
NORTH KOREA: Kim Jong Un has cancelled his trip to Moscow for the celebration of the 70th anniversary of Russia’s defeat of Nazi Germany on May 9. Western leaders have already pulled out of the celebrations in protest at Russia’s involvement in the Ukraine. Fifteen people, including musicians in the state orchestra, were purged in North Korea last week.
NIGERIA: Nigerian troops have over-run Boko Haram camps near the border with Cameroon and freed 700 female captives.
BURUNDI: After eleven people were killed in clashes between the police and protestors demonstrating against President Nkurunziza’s plans to run for a third term, judges in the constitutional court have ruled that the president can run for another term.
BAHAMAS: A British diving instructor, Gary Vanhoeck, was murdered during an armed robbery on his yacht.
