08 June 2017

Week In Brief: INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Europe

BOSNIA:  President Dodik of the Serb Republic in Bosnia banned textbooks teaching the siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica genocide.

EU:  The president of the European Council has asked the president of the European Commission to block Gazprom’s Nord Stream 2, the proposed Russian gas pipeline to Germany.  Donald Tusk, supported by nine eastern European countries, fears that it will make Europe too dependent on energy supplies from Russia.

FRANCE:  Parliamentary elections began in the 11 external constituencies, a week earlier than in France itself.  President Macron’s new centrist party La République En Marche won over 50% of the vote in most of them, but run-offs will take place as turn-out was too low to secure first-round victories.

Prosecutors have opened a preliminary enquiry into the business activities of minister for territorial cohesion Richard Ferrand, following allegations of corruption.  The government postponed the presentation of its new law against sleaze in public life by a week.

A hammer-wielding Algerian man attacked a police officer outside Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.  He was also carrying kitchen knives.  He was shot by the police and is now in hospital.

France is applying to join the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA), a military pact of the five Commonwealth nations Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, in order to maintain a post-Brexit defence partnership with Britain and to strengthen its influence in South Asia.

GERMANY:  Germany is planning to pull its troops out of Incirlik airbase in Turkey, after German MPs were barred from visiting them.  Visits by MPs are essential as the Germany army is under the control of parliament.

IRELAND:  Leo Varadkar has become the new leader of the governing Fine Gael party, following Enda Kelly’s recent resignation.  He is likely to be elected prime minister later this month.

ITALY:  1500 people were injured (3 seriously) when a crowd of 30,000 Juventus fans watching the Champions League final in Turin’s Piazza San Carlo panicked and stampeded, mistaking a fire-cracker for a terrorist attack.

MONTENEGRO:  Montegro officially joined NATO, becoming its 29th member.

RUSSIA:  A gunman murdered nine people after an argument at a dacha near the town of Redkino.

Security services raided the St Petersburg headquarters of the Church of Scientology and the homes of members of the US-based sect.

Middle East and Africa

BAHRAIN:  The daily newspaper Al-Wasat has been closed down for reporting on unrest in Morocco.

IRAQ:  In the battle for Mosul, Isis continues to be squeezed out of the city, with many of its fighters withdrawing to Raqqa in Syria.   The US and Iraq were accused of using white phosphorous incendiary weapons – they claim they’re not using them illegally (i.e. on civilians) but to provide cover for fleeing civilians.  There are reports of Isis shooting fleeing civilians and using children as human shields.

QATAR:  Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt and the Gulf-backed government of Yemen have imposed diplomatic, trade and travel embargos on Qatar for embracing “various terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at destabilising the region”.  Qatar’s neighbours have often criticised it for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas in Palestine, for its friendly relations with Iran, and for funding and hosting al-Jazeera.  See Article, Meltdown in Qatar.

SOUTH AFRICA:  The anti-corruption group AmaBhungane claims that 100,000 leaked emails and documents contain damning evidence that members of the Gupta family control the government via corrupt relationships with President Zuma.

SYRIA: US  led coalition airstrikes on Deir Ezzor have killed Isis’s propaganda chief and its top religious leader.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition led by the Kurdish YPG and supported by US and UK Special Forces, has begun the attack on Raqqa, Isis’s capital.  Street fighting has broken out in the eastern and northern outskirts.  Thousands of refugees are leaving the city for refugee camps outside.  The offensive is expected to last for months.

Far East, Asia and Pacific

AFGHANISTAN:  At least 90 people were killed and 450 wounded by a massive truck bomb which exploded in the diplomatic quarter in the centre of Kabul.  No one has claimed responsibility, though the Afghan National Directorate of Security believes the Haqqani network (a Pashtun tribal group with links to al Qaeda and Taliban and Pakistan) was behind it, and claims that Pakistan’s spy agency the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) were involved, a claim which Pakistan denies.  11 jihadists being held in Afghan jails are to be executed in retaliation.

Four protesters were killed when troops opened fire on an anti-government demonstration demanding the resignation of the president after the bombing.

At least eighteen people were killed when three suicide bombers attacked the crowd of more than 1000 mourners at the funeral of one of the four protesters.

AUSTRALIA:  Police shot dead a gunman who had taken a woman hostage in a block of flats in Melbourne.  Three police officers were wounded, and a body was found outside the flat.  The gunman claimed to be acting for al-Qaeda and Isis.  Isis claimed responsibility.

CHINA:  Two high ranking officials were found guilty of corruption in separate cases.  The head of the government’s statistics agency was sentenced to life imprisonment, and the police chief of Tianjin was sentenced to death (sentence suspended for two years, which is then usually commuted to life imprisonment).

INDIA:  Clashes between police and protesting farmers in the drought-stricken Madhya state left three people dead.  A curfew was imposed and web services closed down.

KOREA, NORTH:  The UN imposed a global travel ban and froze the assets of 14 Pyongyang officials (including a suspected spy chief), a bank and one other entity.  The sanctions were in response to the country’s recent weapons tests.

PHILIPPINES:  A gunman attacked a casino and hotel in Manila.  He was shot dead by police.  Isis claimed responsibility, though the authorities believe that the motive was theft rather than terror.

Armed forces are still trying to drive Isis-affiliated Maute extremist militants from the city of Marawi.

America

BRAZIL:  Six people, including a former tourism minister, were detained as part of investigations into alleged corruption over the building of a stadium for the 2014 World Cup.  A former parliamentary speaker is already a subject of the inquiry.

USA:  President Trump announced the withdrawal of the USA from the Paris agreement on measures to combat global warming.  This prompted the EU and China to pledge a united front against global warming, their first joint statement.  A number of states (including Washington, California and New York) and businesses formed an alliance to honour the Paris agreement.

The actor Bill Cosby has gone on trial in Norristown, Pennsylvania, for charges of sexual assault.

A leaked National Security Agency report claims that Russian military intelligence attempted to hack into a US company that makes electoral rolls software, and into the computers of a hundred local election officials, in an attempt to meddle with the presidential election.  An employee of a defence and intelligence contractor has been arrested and charged with espionage over the leak.

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