11 June 2015
Week in Brief: INTERNATIONAL NEWS
GERMANY: The leaders of the G7 nations – Britain, USA, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and Japan – met at Schloss Elmau in Bavaria. They discussed topics such as Russian aggression in Ukraine, the Greek crisis, sustainable energy, world poverty and the dangers of epidemic diseases.
GREECE: The Syriza government declined to pay the 301 million euro debt owed to the IMF on Friday, saying it will bundle this payment up with three others due this month and pay the total sum – 1.6 billion euros – at the end of the month. The government will have to pay salaries and pensions this month as well, and 3.6 billion euros to the European Central Bank in July. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras rejected a package of economic reforms which the EU and IMF had proposed as conditions for the release of a final 7.2 billion euros of its 240 billion euro bailout.
Mr Tsipras talked to President Putin of Russia by phone in preparation for their meeting on June 18. Greece is interested in becoming a hub of the planned Russia to Europe gas pipe-line; Russia is interested in Greece voting against anti-Russian sanctions when the EU tries to renew them.
Thousands of refugees from the Middle East came ashore on the island of Kos, having made the three-mile sea-crossing from Turkey. The problem is spreading to other Aegean islands and threatening the area’s economically-vital tourist industry.
ITALY: Police arrested 44 people accused of taking part in an organised crime network which exploited public contracts to run migrant centres.
In advance of his meeting with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in Milan this week, President Putin of Russia gave an interview to the Corriere della Serra in which he emphasised the two countries’ economic ties (which of course are threatened by EU sanctions against Russia for its involvement in Ukraine). In the G7 summit, the Italian Prime Minister was conspicuous by his failure to join the other leaders in their criticism of Russia’s actions in the Ukraine.
SPAIN: Air traffic controllers have begun four days of strikes.
UKRAINE: Intense fighting broke out around the town of Marinka, ten miles west of the separatist stronghold of Donetsk. Ukrainian forces reported an attack on the town by up to one thousand rebel troops, a dozen tanks and heavy artillery. At least 28 people have been killed. This is the most serious breach of the Minsk cease-fire since it was negotiated last February.
Twenty-five people were arrested when a gay pride march in Kiev was attacked by about thirty balaclava-masked men throwing stones, flares, smoke and teargas grenades.
A fuel container exploded at an oil depot 12 miles south of Kiev and only 100 metres away from a large military warehouse containing ammunition. The depot is on fire, throwing clouds of toxic smoke into the air. Fire-fighters are struggling to control the blaze. One fireman has been killed, three are missing and fourteen people are suffering from burns and poisoning. The area has been evacuated. A criminal investigation has been opened. Last month a forest fire threatened Kiev and was extinguished only miles from the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Ukraine is no longer supplying Russia with essential components for the construction of naval vessels. Russia will need to find an alternative supplier if it is to continue with plans to increase its naval power.
RUSSIA: Zhanna Nemtsova, the oldest daughter of the murdered former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, has left Russia after receiving threats and warnings through social media. She has criticised the investigation into the death of her father, who was an opposition leader critical of Putin, and claims that he was murdered for political reasons. She also suspects that Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was a friend and colleague of her father and who collapsed mysteriously last week, was poisoned.
The only Duma deputy who voted against the annexation of Crimea, Ilya Ponomarev, faces allegations of embezzlement in a criminal case opened by the government this week.
Alexai Navalny, the anti-corruption campaigner and former candidate for mayor of Moscow, began campaigning for a new opposition coalition aiming to win seats in regional elections in September. He has just completed a year under house arrest and is still subject to two suspended jail sentences. His brother is in prison.
TURKEY: The governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its parliamentary majority in last weekend’s elections, taking 41 percent of the vote and 258 seats which left it 18 seats short of a majority. The AKP has governed Turkey for twelve years and was backing President Erdogan’s plans to increase the power of the president. It has 45 days to form a coalition government. The People’s Democratic Party (HDP) attracted liberal protest votes from outside its main Kurdish constituency to win thirteen percent of the vote and 79 seats, giving a pro-Kurdish party a place in parliament for the first time. The three opposition parties all ran an anti-AKP, anti-Erdogan campaign, but with little else to unite them it seems unlikely that they will be able to form a coalition government to exclude the AKP.
ISRAEL: A militant group linked to Isis fired three rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip. No one was injured. Israel retaliated by bombing three empty Palestinian training camps. Infighting between Hamas, the militant group which governs Gaza, and rival Islamic extremists has escalated in recent months.
SAUDI ARABIA: Following two recent suicide bombings which killed 25 people, Riyadh has offered rewards of more than one million pounds to anyone who prevents a terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia.
The supreme court upheld the blogger Raif Badawi’s sentence of ten years in jail and 1000 lashes for ‘insulting Islam’.
SYRIA: The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and other rebel Syrian groups are fighting to drive Isis from Tel Abyad, a town on the border of Turkey and Syria. It is on the main road to Raqqa, Isis’s stronghold in Syria, and has been used by many foreign jihadists to enter Syria and join Isis. Thousands of refugees have been displaced from the area.
The Iranian general and intelligence chief, Qassem Soleimani, has been rallying demoralised Syrian government forces with plans to reinforce them with fresh supplies of equipment, weapons, militia forces and regular troops from Iran. Government forces have been making tactical withdrawals to consolidate the territory they hold, in what many see as a partitioning of the country.
IRAN: A journalist for the Washington Post, Jason Rezaian, has gone on trial in Tehran accused of spying.
AFGHANISTAN: The Kabul government is increasingly reliant on warlord-controlled militias as regular troops suffer under renewed Taliban attacks.
LIBYA: UN-brokered peace talks between Libya’s two warring authorities broke down when the internationally-recognised Libyan government rejected the UN special envoy’s draft peace proposal.
Five people, among hundreds of migrants rescued from the Mediterranean by HMS Bulwark, were arrested as suspected Libyan people-traffickers.
GHANA: An explosion and a fire killed at least 150 people at a petrol station in Accra, where crowds were sheltering from heavy rain and floods.
NIGERIA: 31 people were killed and 38 wounded when a bomb exploded at a market in the north eastern city of Yola. Boko Haram are thought to be responsible.
ERITREA: A report by the UN Human Rights Council has condemned the Eritrean state for systematic violation of human rights. It claims that up to ten percent of the population has fled the country, even though soldiers are ordered to kill anyone caught trying to leave.
INDIA: An Australian member of Greenpeace was stopped at Delhi airport, denied entry to India and deported to Malaysia without explanation in spite of having valid documents for travelling in India, according to Greenpeace India’s programme director. The Indian government recently withdrew Greenpeace’s foreign funding licence and began a legal case to remove its charitable status. Greenpeace is campaigning against plans to clear forests and build coal mines in the central province of Mahan. An Indian employee of Greenpeace was banned from flying to London to address MPs about the project in January.
SOUTH KOREA: Ninety-five cases of the deadly viral infection Mers (Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, also known as camel flu) have been confirmed since a businessman was diagnosed three weeks ago after returning from Saudi Arabia. Over two thousand schools and universities have been closed and almost three thousand people have been quarantined.
USA: President Obama, talking to Israel’s Channel 2 TV station at the UN, warned that Israel was in danger of losing credibility and support because of the Netanyahu government’s hard-line attitude towards Israeli/Palestinian relationships.
A bill is being introduced to the Senate for the release of a secret chapter of an official report apparently linking Saudi Arabia to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
NASA launched a test flight for landing astronauts on Mars. A craft was carried by balloon 34 miles above the Earth; then it was released and rocket engines powered it to supersonic speed before a parachute opened to bring it down in the Pacific.
The computers of the Office of Personnel Management, which keeps records of government employees, were hacked in a cyber attack which officials suspect originated in China. China called the accusations hypothetical and irresponsible.
Two convicted murderers escaped from New York state’s biggest maximum security prison by using power tools to cut through the steel walls of their cells, brick walls and steel service tunnels.
ARGENTINA: A video released by a TV news programme shows that police investigating the mysterious death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman did not wear latex gloves when examining his apartment, and wiped the gun with toilet paper. Nisman was found dead in his apartment hours before he was due to testify to Congress that President Kirchner had colluded with Iran to cover up alleged Iranian involvement in the bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires (which killed 85 people and injured 300 in 1994). He claimed that Iran promised to supply Argentina with cheap oil in return. It is thought that he was also about to name suspects.
Following several recent murders of women by their male partners, hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through the streets of towns and cities across the country to condemn violence against women.
MEXICO: The country’s first independent governor has been elected for the state of Nuevo Leon. Jaime Rodriguez made extensive use of social media in his campaign. In the past he has campaigned against corruption and survived two assassination attempts by drugs gangs. His son died in a car accident while being pursued by gangsters and his daughter was the victim of a kidnapping when she was two years old.
