25 February 2016
Week in Brief: International
Europe
BELARUS: The EU has lifted sanctions against Belarus, imposed in 2004 after a number of political activists disappeared. The UN still describes the human rights situation as “dismal” and the opposition leader Andrei Sannikov condemned the EU’s decision.
BELGIUM: Belgium has reintroduced border controls on its frontier with France, in what it describes as a temporary withdrawal from Schengen. It is concerned that migrants displaced from Calais might try to reach the UK through its own territory.
EU: A summit on the refugee crisis ended without any resolution. Chancellor Merkel of Germany has called for another one on March 6.
FINLAND: 3100 Iraqi migrants have renounced asylum claims and are returning to Iraq, complaining of Finland’s cold and dark winters, difficult language and cultural differences.
FRANCE: The government rewarded protesting farmers, who brought parts of France to a halt, with the promise of a €500 million tax cut.
GREECE: Macedonia and Serbia have closed their borders with Greece to migrants from Afghanistan. Only some migrants from Syria and Iraq are being allowed through.
SPAIN: Claims that President Maduro of Venezuela paid for the leaders of the Podemos, Spain’s new left wing anti-austerity party, to visit Venezuela are being investigated by Venezuelan MPs. It is illegal for Spanish political parties to receive funding from foreign governments. An on-line newspaper has accused Podemos of receiving funds from an Iranian media outfit funded by Tehran.
UKRAINE: One thousand demonstrators rallied in Kiev to demand the resignation of the government, which narrowly survived a vote of no confidence last week.
Middle East and Africa
AFGHANISTAN: Afghan forces withdrew from the town of Musa Qala, in the centre of the opium growing district in north Helmand, leaving it to be occupied by the Taliban. This will make the government hold over Sangin and Gereshk (other towns in Helmand) even more tenuous.
Afghan troops backed by US aircraft have driven Isis-affiliated militants from one of its bases in the eastern province of Nangarhar.
EGYPT: The authorities have closed the Al Nadeem Centre, a charity which investigates state violence. Last week, the Al Nadeem Centre revealed that Khaled Shalaby, the senior police officer in charge of investigations into the murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni, has a criminal conviction for torturing a man to death and for forging police reports.
An Egyptian novelist has been jailed for two years for gross indecency after a chapter of his latest work, published in a state-owned literary journal, was judged to have violated public morals.
IRAN: The fatwa against Salman Rushdie has been renewed with a fresh bounty of $600,000 offered by various Iranian bodies including a number of media organisations.
IRAQ: Three Sunni Arab tribes have risen against Isis in Fallujah, according to the interior ministry of Iraq, but Isis has taken over 100 locals hostage in retaliation.
LIBYA: An Isis base in western Libya was destroyed by two US bomber jets. At least 40 militants were reported dead, 6 were injured and at least 10 escaped. Two Serbian hostages also died. Most of the militants were Tunisian, and the Pentagon said that its main target was Noureddine Chouchane, thought to be responsible for organising and ordering last year’s terrorist attacks on the Bardo National Museum in Tunis and on the Tunisian resort of Sousse.
The Libyan army made advances against Isis in the east of the country, driving them out of the oil town of Ajdabiya and western outskirts of the city of Benghazi.
The Libyan parliament in Tobruk postponed the vote on a government of national unity until next Monday, after fights broke out between opposing groups. A military alliance of the US, Britain, Italy and France is ready to help Libya combat Isis if the UN-sponsored government of national unity is approved by both the Tobruk parliament and its rival, the Islamist authority in Tripoli.
NIGER: There were presidential and parliamentary elections this week; President Issoufou is hoping for a second term.
SENEGAL: President Sall announced plans to reduce the presidential term of office from seven years to five, introduce a two term limit and expand the powers of parliament.
SYRIA: The opposition-held eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo are now under siege. Their last life-line to the north, the Castello Road, has been cut by Kurdish forces fighting alongside regime forces.
There were no signs of Russia/Assad honouring the ceasefire agreed to last week and supposed to have begun on Friday. John Kerry continued to negotiate for a cease-fire with Sergei Lavrov, and Moscow and Washington agreed a new ceasefire to start this Saturday (to exclude the fight against Isis, al-Qaeda and Nusra Front). Opposition groups will sign up for it if the regime lifts sieges, allows aid deliveries, releases prisoners and stops bombing civilians. The regime has allowed some aid agencies through to besieged rebel areas this week.
Isis forces are depleted, with fewer volunteers coming in from abroad, according to US military. Strikes on oilfields and cash stores have also weakened Isis economically.
Isis claimed responsibility for two car bomb attacks in Homs and four in Damascus which killed at least 119 people.
Isis is losing ground around their capital Raqqa; Kurdish YPG forces backed by US aircraft took Shadadi to the east, and Assad forces backed by Russian planes took territory from Isis to the west.
Turkey continued to shell Kurdish positions on the Syrian side of the border, and called on the USA to stop backing the Kurdish YPG which they say is helping the Kurdish PPK launch terrorist attacks within Turkey.
The USA has revealed the location of the group of fifty US special forces troops training opposition forces in Syria to the Russians, so that Russia will avoid bombing that area.
Assad announced that there will be elections in April.
TURKEY: A car bomb attack on a military convoy in the centre of Ankara killed at least 28 people and injured another 61. A Kurdish militant group Kurdistan Freedom Falcons has claimed responsibility, saying that the attack was in retaliation to Turkey’s military action against the PKK insurgency.
Prosecutors in Italy are investigating accusations of money laundering made against the son of President Erdogan. Bilal Erdogan is studying in Bologna.
UGANDA: President Museveni claimed victory in this week’s elections. International bodies including the USA and the EU criticise the election. There were reports of delayed ballot papers, missing ballot papers, pre-marked ballot papers and huge delays in voting. His main rival Kizza Besigye was arrested four times (he has been arrested 46 times since 2011), his party headquarters were raided, many staff members were arrested and police fired on protesters. Another rival, Amaba Mbabazi, was intimidated by armed police trucks parked outside his house. President Museveni blocked Twitter and Facebook.
ZIMBABWE: President Mugabe celebrated his 92 birthday as his Zanu (PF) began to show signs of fracturing, with in-fighting between his wife Grace Mugabe and his vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa.
See comment ‘Happy Birthday, Mr President’.
Asia, Far East and Pacific
BANGLADESH: A priest was killed in an attack on a Hindu temple in Deviganj. The attackers were armed with knives, bombs, stones and guns, according to police.
CHINA: China has deployed anti-aircraft missiles on Woody Island, one of the disputed islands in the South China Sea occupied by China but also claimed by neighbouring countries. The US claims that China has also sent fighter jets to Woody Island. China has also installed a radar system on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratly Islands.
INDIA: Twelve people were killed and 150 injured as protests against caste discrimination erupted into rioting in Haryana state.
India has built its first nuclear-armed submarine, INS Arihant.
FIJI: The prime minister has declared a state of natural disaster and announced a curfew after cyclone Winston, the most powerful storm ever to hit Fiji, destroyed thousands of homes and left at least 20 people dead.
America
BRAZIL: The director-general of the World Health Organisation , Margaret Chan, spent two days in Brazil investigating the spread of the Zika virus and attempts to contain it.
BOLIVIA: There was a referendum on allowing a fourth presidential term in office. President Morales has already changed the constitution to allow a third term – he has been in power since 2006. His popularity is threatened by a number of scandals, however, and the result of the referendum is likely to be very close.
USA: Apple has declined to help anti-terrorism investigators extract data from the iphone of Syed Farouk, who killed 14 people and wounded 22 when he and his wife attacked a party of public health workers last December.
Six people were shot dead and two people were injured in three random shooting incidents over six hours in Kalamazoo, Michigan. An Uber taxi driver has been arrested.
President Obama announced that he is to visit Cuba next month. US airlines plan to fly 110 flights to Cuba a day. The first US factory – manufacturing tractors – is to open in Cuba. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz protested that such concessions should not be made until there is more political freedom in Cuba.
In Nevada, Hilary Clinton beat Bernie Sanders for the Democrats, and Trump won for the Republicans. In South Carolina, Trump won in the Republican race; Marco Rubio was second. Jeb Bush has dropped out of the race. See comment ‘Bushed’.
VENEZUELA: The parliamentary opposition has passed an amnesty bill to free political prisoners. It is hoping to pass a bill to reverse the President Maduro’s nationalisation program. The president is threatening to veto both bills. He devalued the currency this week as the country faces economic collapse.
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