24 March 2016
Week in Brief: International
Europe
BELGIUM: Three suicide bombers launched an attack on Brussels airport which killed at least 14 people and injured many others. It is believed that one of the attackers fled and is still at large. Just over an hour later, a bomb attack on the Brussels underground Metro, killed at least 20 people and injured 130 others. Isis has claimed responsibility.
The attacks came four days after Salah Abdeslam, a fugitive in the four months since the Paris terrorist attacks, was wounded and captured during a police raid on a property in Molenbeek, Brussels. Four other arrests were made (one other suspect was injured) and weapons and ammunition were found. Another suspect, a known terrorist thought to be the Paris bomb-maker, escaped and is on the run.
EU: EU leaders agreed the proposed deal with Turkey. Migrants crossing the Aegean will be now be held in Greece prior to being returned to Turkey (after being registered and processed, which Greece has so far largely failed to do before they moved on to other countries). Deportation to Turkey will start in 4 April, pending changes to Greek law and the arrival of massive EU help to Greece for administration of the new system (including soldiers, policemen, judges, border guards and asylum officials). EU coastguard, Turkish navy and Nato ships have started patrolling the Aegean to intercept migrants.
An internal audit claims that up to two thirds of funds spent on migrant projects between 2007 and 2013 were wasted.
FRANCE: Four suspected Islamist terrorists were arrested in Paris. Intelligence sources claim that a serious and imminent attack has been averted.
NETHERLANDS: The International Criminal Court at The Hague has found the former vice-president of Congo guilty of the murder, rape and pillage committed by his militia in the Central African Republic in 2002/3.
RUSSIA: A Boeing 737-800, operated by Flydubai, crashed while attempting to land in strong winds at Rostov-on-Don airport. All 62 people on board were killed.
Nadezhda Savchenko, a Ukrainian soldier and MP who volunteered to fight pro-Moscow separatists and was captured by them, has been sentenced by a court in Donetsk to 22 years in a penal colony for allegedly coordinating an artillery attack which killed two Russian journalists. She insists that she had already been captured when the attack occurred.
SPAIN: Thirteen students were killed and thirty injured when the coach in which they were travelling crashed on a motorway in Catalonia.
Middle East and Africa
CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE: President Nguesso is expected to win another 7 year term in this week’s elections. He is 72 years old and has been president since 1997 (he was also president between 1979 and 1992). Last year he had the constitution changed, removing the limits on the number of terms and on the age of the president, so that he could stand again. The EU has refused to send observers.
IRAQ: Mosul dam is in imminent danger of collapse, according to some reports. The dam is 371 feet high and 2.1 miles long; if it breaks, the 11.1 billion tonnes of water in its reservoir will inundate the Tigris river valley, submerging Mosul and Baghdad in a matter of hours. It has needed constant maintenance since it was built in 1984, but most of its engineering staff have not returned since fleeing Isis who briefly held the dam in 2014.
A US Marine was killed by an Isis rocket attack on the first US military base to be established in Iraq since the 2011 withdrawal. The Pentagon said that about 200 Marines are stationed at Firebase Bell at Makhmur, northern Iraq. It is thought they are preparing to help Iraqi forces retake Mosul. A Shia militia in Iraq has threatened to attack the base.
NIGER: President Issoufou is expected to win his second five year term in this week’s elections. His rival Hama Amadou is in prison.
NIGERIA: Starving Boko Haram fighters in Borno state are surrendering by the score because they have devastated the region so much that they themselves cannot survive in it.
SOUTH AFRICA: President Zuma is facing fresh calls to resign after a number of politicians have claimed that government appointments are dictated by members of the wealthy Gupta family who run a number of South Africa’s biggest businesses.
The Helen Suzman Foundation, an anti-corruption group, challenged the appointment of Major-General Berning Ntlemeza as head of a special police investigation unit. A few days later, the Foundation’s headquarters was raided by an anonymous but well-organised gang and documents and computers taken away.
SYRIA: Syrian Kurds announced an independent federation. Turkey has excluded them from peace-talks.
Regime forces with Russian airforce backing are poised to take Palmyra from Isis, and are bombing Raqqa.
The Russian withdrawal military withdrawal began, but it remains to be seen how complete it will be.
John Kerry accused Isis of genocide. This is only second time the US has accused anyone of genocide; the accusation has serious implications with regards to the UN’s obligations.
Peace-talks continue in Geneva, with rumours that regime negotiators are temporizing until parliamentary elections announced by Assad for April 11.
TURKEY: A suicide bomber killed 4 people and injured 36 in an attack on Istanbul’s main shopping street . Most of the victims were foreign tourists. It is thought the bomber targeted a group of Israeli tourists; 3 of the dead and 11 of the injured were from Israel.
YEMEN: Saudi Arabia announced that it is to reduce its involvement in the war against Shia Houthi rebels. An airstrike by Saudi-led coalition of Sunni gulf states on a market in a Houthi controlled area killed 119 people, including 22 children according to the UN. See comment article ‘Exit from Syria, Exit from Yemen’.
Far East, Asia and Pacific
BANGLADESH: An international hacking attack on the central bank attempted to steal $951 million from accounts. $81 million has disappeared into the Philippines financial system.
CHINA: Chinese scientists who are combating dengue fever by breeding sterile mosquitoes in a ‘mosquito factory’ have offered to set up a similar project in South America to combat the zika virus.
INDIA: More than 90,000 Tibetans in 13 countries voted for a new political leader for their government in exile. The Dalai Lama, who has lived in India for over 50 years, resigned in 2011 to make way for a new leader.
NORTH KOREA: An American student has been sentenced to 15 years hard labour for trying to steal a propaganda banner from a hotel in Pyongyang while on a five day visit to North Korea as a tourist.
PAKISTAN: The government passed the Women’s Protection Act, new laws to protect women from domestic violence. Religious conservatives objected, and are threatening to launch protests and demonstrations to bring country to a halt.
America
BRAZIL: Anti-corruption judge Sergio Moro claimed that President Rousseff is trying to block investigations into the bribery scandal at Petrobas, the state oil company, by giving ex-President Lula da Silva the position of cabinet chief which would give him immunity from prosecution by all but Supreme Court judges. Judge Moro released transcripts of tapped phone calls as evidence; at his request, a federal court has issued an injunction to stop Lula da Silva’s appointment. Protestors across the country continue to demand the President’s resignation; police used water-cannon and tear gas against demonstrators in Sao Paulo.
USA: The party leadership results in Missouri were very close; Trump only just beat Cruz, Clinton only just beat Sanders.
President Obama nominated a moderate judge, Merrick Garland, to the Supreme Court; the nomination will be opposed by Republicans in the Senate.
Obama visited Cuba, the US president to do so since Calvin Coolidge 88 years ago. The US severed relations with Cuba in 1961 when the communist Fidel Castro seized power. Obama met president Raul Castro, who demanded the return of the Guantanamo Bay base and an end to US sanctions. Dissidents and activists were banned from meeting Obama; dozens of pro-democracy demonstrators were arrested days before arrival. Obama made a televised speech promoting freedom and democracy.
The FBI asked for a delay in the court hearing against Apple because it believes it has found a way to unlock the iphone of Syed Rizwan Farook, the suspected terrorist, without Apple’s help.
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