24 December 2015
Week in Brief: INTERNATIONAL
AFGHANISTAN: Isis-affiliated groups continue to fight the Taliban for ground and influence along the border with Pakistan.
The town of Sangin, in Helmand province, is under siege by the Taliban. British and US special forces are helping efforts to break through to the reportedly poorly-supplied Afghan army defending it. The deputy governor of Helmand has accused the Kabul government of abandoning the province.
A suicide bomber killed six US soldiers in an attack on an Afghan army patrol near Baghram airbase.
BURUNDI: The government has rejected the African Union’s offer to send peacekeeping troops into conflict-stricken Burundi.
CHINA: President Xi addressed world leaders at the World Internet Conference at Wuzhen, calling for state censorship of the internet in the name of ‘internet sovereignty’.
A landslide of dumped construction waste in Shenzhen destroyed buildings and killed at least 85 people.
Pu Zhiqiang, the human rights lawyer on trial last week for ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’ and other charges, has been found guilty and given a suspended three-year prison sentence. He has already been held for 19 months.
DENMARK: Valuables carried by refugees are to be impounded and put towards the cost of feeding and housing them.
EU: A report informed EU leaders that there is as yet no sign that immigration via Turkey is being stopped, in spite of the EU’s €3 million deal agreed with Turkey last month.
Ukrainians, Georgians and Kosovans will no longer require visas for short visits to the EU.
The International Organisation for Migration said that more than one million refugees and migrants entered Europe this year, the largest migration since World War II. Half were from Syria, a fifth from Afghanistan, 7% from Iraq and the rest from the Yemen and Africa, according to the UN. The figure does not include the Balkan migrants which bring Germany’s immigration figures up to one million this year for just that one country.
FIFA: Fifa’s ethics committee banned Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini from the sport for eight years, and fined them £34,000 and £54,000 respectively.
FINLAND: Finland is seeking an opt-out from gun-control laws to be introduced by the EU in the wake of the Paris killings. Finland insists that it depends on its citizen reservist army, armed with semi-automatic weapons, to counter potential Russian aggression.
FRANCE: The head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, will stand trial on charges of negligence relating to a €403 million compensation payment made by the French state to businessman Bernard Tapie in 2008, when she was the French finance minister.
A fake bomb was found on an Air France plane flying from Mauritius to Paris. The plane was diverted to Kenya and landed at Moi International airport, Mombassa, where the device was removed.
Jean-Guy Talamoni outraged the government and mainland France by speaking Corsican and brandishing a revolutionary volume when he was sworn in as president of the regional parliament of Corsica. His coalition of Corsican independents won the recent regional elections.
HOLLAND: A crowd of 2000 people protested violently against a hostel for asylum-seekers planned in Geldermalsen. Police fire warning shots.
IRAQ: A group of hunters from Qatar, including several members of the royal family, have been kidnapped by gunmen (suspected Shia militia) while on a hunting trip in Iraq.
The prime minister Haider al-Abadi rejected Washington’s offer of US Apache helicopter gunships to help recapture Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, from Isis. The Iraqi air force and ten thousand troops are poised to attack. Reports suggest that the several hundred Isis fighters left in the city are preventing the residents from fleeing.
ISRAEL: The Likud party’s interior minister Silvan Shalom has resigned, following complaints of sexual harassment made against him by eleven women. Last month, Yinon Magal of the Jewish Home party (coalition partners of Likud) resigned after four women complained of inappropriate behaviour.
ITALY: Gianni Alemanno, mayor of Rome from 2008 to 2013, will be tried on charges of corruption and illegal political financing.
LIBYA: UN-brokered peace talks in Morocco between officials from the Libyan government and from Libya Dawn (an Islamist group which established an independent state in east Libya) agreed to end the civil war and form a Libyan national unity government. However, these representatives might not be recognised by leaders of the two governments, and many other tribal militias are also involved in the chaos.
A unit of US special forces troops were ordered out of Libya by Libyan authorities, who said it did not have permission for its mission.
NORTH KOREA: A Canadian pastor of the Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Toronto has been given a life-sentence of hard labour for ‘conspiring against the state’.
RUSSIA: State-employed emergency workers such as firemen are going unpaid this month due to shortage of funds, according to reports leaked to Russian media.
RWANDA: Voters in a referendum agreed to change the constitution to allow President Kagame another term in office. President Kigame has been praised internationally for reforming his country, but criticised for his treatment of opponents.
SOUTH AFRICA: Protests throughout country demanded the resignation of President Zuma.
SPAIN: In a closely-fought election, prime minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative Popular Party failed to win a majority of parliament’s 350 seats. His party won 123 seats, ahead of the Socialists (90 seats), with new parties Podemos (‘We can’ – left-wing, anti-austerity – 69 seats) third and Cuidadanos (‘Citizens’ – centre liberal – 40 seats) fourth. The Popular Party lost ground because of austerity measures and high unemployment; the two new parties offered fresh options to voters tired of the two-party establishment and corruption scandals. Mr Rajoy has until next month to form a coalition, but his position as head of the party is already being questioned.
SYRIA: Assad forces retook ground in Latakia in the north west. They took the last rebel-held section of Homs last week.
The commander of the Free Syrian Army claims that Russian helicopters are delivering weapons and ammunition to Kurdish YPG forces who are fighting anti-Assad forces in the province of Aleppo.
An air attack on the city of Idlib which hit civilian targets including a girls’ school and the courthouse and killed dozens of people has been blamed on Russian planes. A report by Amnesty International claims that Russian airstrikes hit non-military targets such as hospitals, mosques and schools and killed hundreds of civilians between September and November. It also claims that Russia has published falsified evidence to deny such claims.
Samir Kantar, a Hezbollah leader who spent 30 years in an Israeli prison for murder, was killed near Damascus by what is thought to be an Israeli airstrike.
In New York, the United Nations unanimously approved the Syrian peace resolution drafted by the USA and approved by Russia. The resolution accepted the agreements achieved by the International Syrian Support Group this autumn in Vienna; it calls for the UN to convene negotiations between the participants in Syria’s civil next month, for a ceasefire, for a new constitution to be drafted within 6 months, and for elections to be held within 18 months.
The International Syrian Support Group, a conference of 17 nations, also met in New York to continue the Viennese discussions about a cease-fire and who should participate in the peace process.
USA: The trial of the first of six policemen taken to court for involvement in the death of Freddie Gray, who died of a broken neck in police custody last April, has collapsed with the judge ruling a mistrial as the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. The case will be retried.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX company launched a Falcon 9 rocket which offloaded a unit into orbit and then made history by landing back on Earth. A reusable rocket will make space travel much cheaper and accelerate the development of space exploration technology.
Enrique Marquez, the neighbour of the couple behind the San Bernadino massacre, has been charged with ‘conspiring to provide material support for terrorists’; a Muslim convert, he bought two rifles used in the shooting. Police suspect that the three of them had planned a pipe bomb and shooting attack on rush-hour traffic on the Route 91 motorway.
New Orleans city council voted to take down four statues of Civil War Confederate leaders (including Robert E Lee).
YEMEN: UN-brokered peace talks in Switzerland broke down, after breaches of the week-long temporary cease-fire eroded trust between the negotiating parties (the government and the Houthi rebels).
ZIMBABWE: A Pentecostal pastor, Patrick Mugadza, has been arrested and imprisoned for publicly holding up a placard referring to the Bible to remind President Mugabe that “the people are suffering”.
