24 September 2015
Week In Brief: INTERNATIONAL NEWS
BURKINO FASO: Soldiers loyal to the ousted president Blaise Compaore took members of the government hostage during a cabinet meeting in Ouagadougou. General Gilbert Diendere, a former aide to Compaore, has taken power following the coup. Presidential elections were due on 11 October.
CHILE: A three-minute earthquake with a magnitude of 8.3 off the coast of Chile flooded coastal towns, killed ten people and drove a million from their homes.
CROATIA: Border towns have been overwhelmed by thousands of migrants trying to enter the EU from Serbia. Now that the border into Hungary is closed, they have moved west to the border into Croatia. Rioting has broken out between migrants. There is growing friction between Croatia and Hungary about what to do with them.
CUBA: Pope Francis, the third pope to visit Cuba in 17 years, addressed crowds in Havana and met Raoul Castro and Fidel Castro.
EU: Germany and France used a majority vote to impose immigrant quotas on the other EU countries. Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are opposed to compulsory quotas, but were over-ruled.
FRANCE: Emmanuel Macron, the economy minister, is facing demands for his resignation after suggesting deregulating reforms of the type already undertaken by Britain, Germany, Spain and other European countries.
Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Front, faces trial next month for inciting racial hatred.
GERMANY: Manfred Schmidt, the immigration chief, resigned following criticism of his decision to allow all Syrians to enter Germany, a decision which was reversed last week.
Volkswagen is in crisis following reports by the US Environmental Protection Agency that the car company has been cheating in tests for toxic emissions by its diesel cars.
GREECE: Syriza won 35.5% of the votes in Sunday’s elections, ahead of New Democracy with 28.2% and Golden Dawn with 7.2%. Alexis Tsipras intends to form a coalition government with the right wing Independent Greeks party (3.7%). The turn-out was low, with over 40% of voters not voting.
HUNGARY: Riot police used tear gas and water cannons on migrants trying to break through the sealed border into the EU from Serbia.
INDIA: Raza Academy, a Sunni Moslem group in Mumbai, has issued a fatwa (religious edict) against the director and score-composer of ‘Muhammad: the Messenger of God’, an Iranian film dramatising the childhood of the prophet Muhammad.
Majed Hassan Ashoor, the first secretary at the Saudi Arabian embassy, has fled Delhi, claiming diplomatic immunity, following accusations that he imprisoned and raped two Nepalese maids in his apartment over several months.
JAPAN: Parliament voted to allow the troops of Japan’s Self-Defence Force to deploy abroad. Violence broke out as pacifist MPs punched and wrestled with MPs supporting the government.
NIGERIA: Three bomb attacks in the city of Maiduguri – one on worshippers in a mosque and two on football spectators – killed 54 people and injured another 90, according to police, who believe Boko Haram is to blame.
PAKISTAN: Taliban militants attacked an airbase near Peshawar, killing 29 people and injuring another 29. The army said that 13 Taliban were killed.
The execution of a convicted murderer has been delayed because the hangman cannot calculate the appropriate length of rope for the weight of the condemned man plus his wheelchair. The man has been wheelchair-bound since contracting an illness in prison.
SAUDI ARABIA: A youth arrested at the age of 17 in 2012 during an anti-government protest has been sentenced to death by beheading followed by crucifixion.
SRI LANKA: The UN has urged Sri Lanka to set up a court with international judges and lawyers to prosecute war crimes committed during the country’s civil war.
SUDAN: Almost 200 people were killed when an oil-tanker exploded in South Sudan.
SWITZERLAND: The United States Attorney-General, speaking in Zurich, announced that the investigation into corruption in FIFA was being expanded and that more officials will be arrested. In another development, Sep Blatter, the President of FIFA, will be questioned by the Swiss authorities over the sale to Jack Warner (a disgraced FIFA official) of the Caribbean TV rights to World Cup coverage in 2010 and 2014. It is said that they were undervalued, thereby enabling Mr. Warner to re-sell them for a substantial profit.
SYRIA: The Pentagon’s $500 million program launched in May to train 5,400 Syrians a year for three years to fight against Isis has so far produced only 54 soldiers; they returned to Syria in July but only four or five remain, after attacks by the Nusra front, an off-shoot of al-Qaeda. There are only about 100 recruits in training for this force, the 30th Division. Another contingent entered Syria this week, but all seventy troops have since disappeared; it is thought they have defected to the Nusra Front. The commander of the 30th Division, Colonel Mohammad al-Daher, has resigned.
The Russian foreign minister said that the Russian military build-up is intended to prevent total catastrophe in the region by preserving the Syrian state and fighting against Isis. He invited the USA to help them. Washington opened talks with Moscow about the suggestion.
Leaders of rebel groups fighting against Assad have warned Russia that it faces a conflict which could be worse than its 1980s campaign in Afghanistan.
Isis has manufactured mustard gas and is using it in attacks, according to Peshmerga forces in north east Syria.
The Assad regime is closing down travel agents to prevent army recruits fleeing the country.
Lebanese media has reported that Hezbollah, the Shia militant group backed by Iran and fighting for Assad, is scaling back its activity in Syria due to battlefield losses and to concentrate resources against Israel.
UKRAINE: Teams of civilians expert in combating contamination from chemical and nuclear weapons have been sent by NATO to take part in exercises with Ukrainian special forces.
UNITED NATIONS: The UN Human Rights Council is to be chaired by Faisal bin Hassan Trad, Saudi Arabia’s envoy to the UN. It is not known if Saudi Arabia’s attitudes towards the death penalty, political dissenters, women, minority groups and migrant workers was taken into consideration when this appointment was made.
USA: Carly Fiorina came out top in CNN’s televised second primary debate, between the Republican candidates. CNN said that the three hour debate averaged 23 million viewers, making it the channel’s most watched program ever.
President Xi Jinping of China began a state visit. It is believed that he and President Obama will discuss computer-hacking. Cyber attacks on US companies and institutions have decreased in advance of President Xi’s visit, according to security companies.
Pope Francis has begun a visit to the USA.
YEMEN: President Hadi has returned after six months in exile. He flew to Aden, which was recaptured from rebels two months ago.
Unesco has reported that the Saudi-led coalition’s campaign of aerial bombing is destroying important archaeological sites, monuments and museums.
Three Americans, two Saudi Arabians and a British citizen have been released by Houthi rebels who have been holding them captive for almost six months.
