21 May 2015
Week in Brief: INTERNATIONAL NEWS
GREECE: Members of the Greek government called for the resignation of the governor of the central bank, Yannis Stournaras, for concealing from them the existence of an emergency holding account of 650 million euros (a reserve asset created by the IMF in 1969). Such funds are intended for the use of central banks in liquidity or currency-exchange emergencies, not for paying government debts, but Mr Stournaras emptied the account last week to repay government debt to the IMF.
ITALY: The EU is preparing a combat HQ in Italy for the direction of military action against people traffickers at sea and on land around the Mediterranean. The Royal Navy is expected to play a major role in such operations. This EU initiative will need a UN security council resolution, ideally supported by Libyan authorities (of which there is, problematically, more than one). Jean-Claude Junker’s plan for the redistribution of migrants throughout the EU seems to have collapsed following a French refusal.
SERBIA: A man shot dead his son’s bride, her parents, his ex-wife and her parents on the day after his son’s wedding, before being killed himself.
UKRAINE: Ukrainian forces claim to have captured two Russian special forces soldiers fighting for pro-Moscow separatists in the country. The Kremlin continues to deny that there are any Russian troops in Ukraine.
TURKEY: A 19 year old girl has been shot in the head after singing on a TV show. Mutlu Kaya, from Diyarbakir in Kurdish Turkey, had received death threats after entering the talent competition.
EGYPT: Three judges were murdered by suspected Islamic terrorists in north Sinai.
SYRIA: Isis forces have advanced to within small-arms range of the remains of the ancient city of Palmyra, a UNESCO world heritage site, sparking fears that it is in danger of systematic destruction like that inflicted by Isis on ancient sites in Iraq.
US special forces raided an Isis compound in the Omar oilfields. Abu Sayyaf, Isis’s head of oil, was killed.
The US and the Russian Secretaries of State John Kerry and Segei Lavrov met to discuss the future of Syria should the regime of President Bashar al-Assad be defeated. Assad’s forces have been seriously depleted recently. They are increasingly reliant on the support of the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah and on arms supplies from Russia.
IRAQ: The Iraqi government claims that the deputy leader of ISIS, Abdel Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduki, has been killed in a coalition airstrike. Also known as Abu Alaa al-Afari, he is thought to have taken command of ISIS after its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was wounded three months ago. The US announced a seven million dollar bounty on him last week.
Islamic state forces have captured the city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province and only seventy five miles from Baghdad, following the collapse of government forces there. Shia militias are poised to counter-attack on behalf of the Iraqi government, even though this may increase sectarian tensions and Iranian influence (the militias are trained and armed by Iran) in the country. In a bid for national unity, the predominantly Shia government has agreed to arm Sunni tribes to help in the fight against Isis.
AFGHANISTAN: Fourteen people were killed when a Taliban gunman attacked a guesthouse. The dead included a British national and a US citizen.
A British security officer and two Afghan women were killed, and 18 injured, when a Taliban suicide bomber drove a vehicle loaded with bombs into a Eupol convoy. Eupol is the EU’s mission to train and support the Afghan police force.
PAKISTAN: Six terrorists shot forty-three people dead and wounded thirteen others on a bus in Karachi. They left Islamic State leaflets behind, but Jundallah, a group associated with Pakistani Taliban, has claimed responsibility. Most of the victims were Ismailis and the bus was taking them to a Shia place of worship.
NEPAL: A US military helicopter went missing while delivering aid supplies. Six American and two Nepalese soldiers were on board. Its crashed wreckage, and three bodies, was later found in a remote area close to the Chinese border.
BURMA: Abandoned by people-smugglers, up to seven thousand migrants from Burma and Bangladesh are adrift in the sea off Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Most of them are Rhohingya Muslims, escaping ethnic conflict in Burma. No neighbouring country is willing to take them in.
NORTH KOREA: North Korea’s defence minister, General Hyon Yong Chol, has been executed, claims South Korea’s National Intelligence Service. General Hyon was the fifth defence minister since Kim Yong Un came to power in 2011. The report says he was shot with an anti-aircraft gun for falling asleep in his leader’s presence.
JAPAN: The deputy commander of the Royal Marines, Brigadier Richard Spencer, has been advising the Japanese SDF (Self-Defence Forces) on the creation of a marine commando. Japan fears it may have to defend the remote and uninhabited Senkaku islands which it controls but which are being claimed by China.
The town of Chiran has applied for its archive of World War II documents relating to kamikaze pilots to be included in the UN index of historically important documents, the Memory of the World Register. China opposes this application for UN heritage status, claiming that it would glorify military aggression.
BURUNDI: Following weeks of violent protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to stand for a third term, Major General Godefroid Niyombare announced a military coup when Nkurunziza left the country for a regional summit in Tanzania (General Niyombare was sacked as the director of national intelligence by the president three months ago). However, fighting for control of the state TV and radio complex broke out as many soldiers and the police force remain loyal to Nkurunziza. On Saturday the president returned, the army rebels were defeated, and the police used live ammunition against protesters (one was shot dead). Genral Niyombare has disappeared.
USA: The US defence secretary, Ash Carter, intends to send a naval presence to the South China Seas to express US disapproval of China’s recent land reclamation and island-building projects in disputed waters. The US defence department assistant secretary for Asian and Pacific security affairs, David Shear, told the Senate foreign relations committee that long-range B-1 bombers and surveillance aircraft will also be sent, and will be stationed in Australia. However, the Australian prime minister Tony Abbott denied that there were any plans to station such aircraft in Australia. China is one of Australia’s most important trading partners.
A Boston jury passed the death sentence on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, found guilty of the Boston marathon bombing which killed three people and injured more than 260. The state of Massachusetts abolished the death penalty in 1984, but Tsarnaev was tried in a federal court.
At least seven people were killed and many injured when a speeding train left the rails in Philadelphia.
A gunfight between rival motorcycle gangs left nine dead and 18 wounded in Waco, Texas. The police made 170 arrests.
CUBA: The Centre of Molecular Immunity in Havana has agreed to share a lung cancer vaccine – ClimaVax – with the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, New York State. It is hoped that Cuba’s highly advanced biotechnology industry will have much to offer the USA now that friendly relationships between the two countries are being established.
MEXICO: A six year old boy was murdered by five other youngsters, three of whom cannot be jailed under Mexican law as they are under 15 years of age.
COLOMBIA: A massive landslide triggered by days of heavy rain killed at least 48 people and injured 37 in Salgar, north-west Colombia.
ARGENTINA: A judge has ruled that an orang-utan in a Buenos Aires zoo holds basic human rights and should be set free.
