10 September 2015
Week in Brief:INTERNATIONAL NEWS
AFGHANISTAN: Thirteen Shia Muslims were murdered in Balkh province. The Taliban have condemned the attack and have blamed it on Isis.
In-fighting among the Taliban has broken out as break-away factions challenge the power of its new leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, and some defect to Isis.
The Taliban have been driven out of Musa Qala (which they took last week) by Afghan forces.
AUSTRIA: 3,650 migrants arrived in Vienna in one period of 24 hours, the highest number recorded in a day.
BRAZIL: A senior member of the governing party has been charged with corruption in relation to the Petrobas scandal. It has been reported that 26% of Congress – including the heads of both chambers and half the ethics committee – are being investigated for crimes.
CHINA: A military parade and a fly-past above Tiananmen Square, Beijing, marked the 70th anniversary of the surrender of Japan. President Putin of Russia, President Park of South Korea and the UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon were present, but President Obama and David Cameron were not. Ken Clarke represented the UK government. The parade unveiled new long-range missiles capable of challenging the global reach of the US military.
EL SALVADOR: A British man, Richard Cushworth, and his Salvadoran wife accused a hospital of stealing their baby at birth last May; DNA tests have shown that the baby they were given the day after the birth is not their child. Police managed to trace and return the right baby.
EU: The interior ministers of the EU are to convene an emergency meeting this month to try to agree a policy to deal with large scale immigration into Europe. Some countries want a programme for sharing or allocating migrants so that each country has to accept a quota. It appears that agreement will be difficult to reach because of differences between East and West EU countries: Germany and France want the quota system implemented, whereas countries such as Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic do not. Spain has also said that quotas should not be imposed upon countries against their will. Poland and the Czech Republic have indicated that, in any event, they will only take Christians.
FRANCE: The French prime minister Manuel Valls added three billion euros to his country’s public debt of over two hundred billion euros when he gave way to the demands of French farmers, whose protests have ground Paris and the whole country to a halt this summer.
Judges declared that there was no evidence to suggest that the PLO leader Yassir Arafat was poisoned.
Eurostar passengers were trapped in a train after migrants lay on the track to stop the train and then tried to force the doors open. The delay affected other Eurostar trains.
GERMANY: Chancellor Merkel has warned David Cameron that she may not support the UK’s attempts to reform the EU if the UK does not take in more refugees. Germany is expected to receive about 800,000 migrants this year. 3,500 new migrants arrived in Germany across the Southern border in one day. The announcement by Germany that it will be more lenient towards immigrants coming from Syria has apparently led to an increase in the number of faked Syrian passports and the rise of criminal gangs and forgers. A further 17,000 refugees arrived in Germany last weekend, after Hungary allowed migrants to board trains and leave the country.
GUATAMALA: President Pérez Molina resigned three days before and election, when he was accused of receiving millions of dollars in bribes. Parliament stripped him of immunity. Vice president Roxana Baldetti has already been arrested on corruption charges.
Jimmy Morales, an actor and comedian, won the first round of elections for president.
HUNGARY: Hundreds of migrants were removed from trains in one of Budpest’s main stations despite the fact that thousands had previously been allowed to travel to Germany. There is a surge of immigrants into Hungary before the border fence is erected, with razor wire. Hungary is ignoring EU rules which state that immigrants are to be registered in the first EU country of entry.
IRAQ: 18 Turkish construction workers were kidnapped in Sadr City, Baghdad.
Turkish soldiers entered Iraq to attack Kurdish militants, in retaliation for a bomb which killed 16 Turkish soldiers near the Iraq border in south east Turkey.
ITALY: Italy’s supreme court has acquitted Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito of the murder of Meredith Kercher. The court criticised the police investigation as inept.
LEBANON: Thousands of Syrian refugees are leaving Libya each day by ship and plane for Europe. There are 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
LIBYA: The anti-Isis uprising at Sirte has failed.
NIGERIA: President Buhari has published his bank account, investments and property ownerships, to fulfil an election promise and strike a blow against corruption.
ROMANIA: The mayor of Bucharest, Sorin Oprescu, was arrested on charges of bribery and corruption.
SOMALIA: Al-Shabaab, affiliated to al-Quaeda, has taken control of the town of Buqda, following the withdrawal of African Union forces.
SPAIN: Six spectators were killed and at least sixteen others injured when car competing in the La Coruna Rally crashed into the crowd.
SYRIA: Government TV showed footage of a Russian-issue armoured car, apparently crewed by Russian-speaking troops, fighting against rebels. Russia has always supported the Assad government, but this is the first sign that it may be contributing direct military assistance.
The US has said they have detected signs of impending Russian military involvement, and the secretary of state John Kerry has officially expressed his concern to the Russian secretary of state Sergei Lavrov.
President Putin announced that Assad is prepared to hold elections and negotiate with non-extremist opposition groups.
A new US-led mission, which includes British intelligence personnel and special forces troops, has been launched against the Isis high command. Two men who joined Isis from Britain were killed in an RAF drone attack last month.
Isis has destroyed several 2000 year old ‘tower tombs’ in Palmyra.
THAILAND: A suspect in the Bangkok bombing is from China’s Xinjiang province, where Muslin Uighur separatists are violently campaigning for independence. Thailand deported 109 Uighur men to China two months ago. Police have also arrested a man from Narathiwat in Southern Thailand, where Muslims have been fighting for independence for over ten years.
A draft constitution that would have scheduled elections has been rejected by a council chosen by the country’s military ruler.
UKRAINE: In-fighting has broken out in President Poroshenko’s team: Ikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president who was recently appointed governor of Odessa by Poroshenko, has accused the Ukrainian prime minister Arseniy Yatseniuk of abusing his position by furthering the business interests of Ihor Kolomoisky, the billionaire ex-governor of Dnipropetrovsk region.
The rebel Donetsk and Luhansk regions have dropped Ukraine’s currency – the hryvnia – and have adopted the Russian rouble.
USA: President Obama has secured enough votes in Congress to enable him to pass the Iran nuclear deal by presidential veto if the deal is blocked by Republicans.
Donald Trump declared that he would not stand as an independent if he did not become the Republican party candidate for president, but would remain loyal to the party. Republicans had feared that Trump as an independent candidate would steal Republican votes.
Hilary Clinton admitted that she employed a State Department technician to set up and maintain the private e-mail server at her home. The website ‘Politico’ alleges that she also employed a State Department lawyer to separate out personal e-mails from e-mails to be kept on official records after her run as secretary of state. The CIA reported that at least two emails sent to her contained top secret material. Her rival for the Democrat party nomination, Bernie Sanders, is ahead in the polls.
Kim Davis, a Kentucky clerk who opposes gay marriage, was jailed for five days for refusing to issue marriage licences.
YEMEN: Qatar has sent troops to join the forces from other Gulf states which have been massing for the last month in the Yemen in support of the exiled President Hadi. These Sunni troops are poised to launch an offensive to take the capital, Sanaa, back from the Houthis, Shia rebels fighting for ex-president Saleh.
