07 July 2016
Week In Brief: INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Europe
AUSTRIA: Judges in the constitutional court upheld the appeal by the far-right Freedom Party that last month’s presidential election should be re-run because of counting irregularities. The election was won by Alexander van der Bellen, an independent candidate and former leader of the Green party, who narrowly beat the Freedom Party’s Norbert Hoffer by only 30,863 votes out of 4.5 million. The election will be re-run on October 2.
FRANCE: The government used an executive decree to pass labour reforms which were opposed by their own back-benchers in the National Assembly. Executive decree may again prove necessary when both houses vote on the reforms later this month.
ITALY: A migrant ship which sank while crossing the Mediterranean, drowning hundreds on board, has been raised. It is thought that there may be between 500 and 700 bodies to be identified.
RUSSIA: President Putin lifted the restrictions on travel to Turkey which were imposed last year after Turkish war planes shot down the Russian war plane.
SPAIN: Tax officials raided Google’s Madrid office.
A judge in Palma de Mallorca has indicted 15 police officers, after a three year investigation into allegations that corrupt police in Majorca operated protection rackets among the island’s nightclubs, took cuts from pick-pocket gangs and bribed politicians.
Middle East and Africa
EGYPT: French and Egyptian investigators are examining the EgyptAir Airbus Flight MS804’s flight data recorder and flight deck sound recorder. The evidence suggests that a fire – possibly accidental – broke out on board.
An Eritrean people-trafficker turned informant has alleged that African migrants who cannot pay for their passage are sold to Egyptians who kill them to harvest their organs for sale in the Arab world.
IRAQ: The Iraqi airforce claimed to have destroyed an Isis convoy of over 400 vehicles and 2000 militants fleeing the city of Fallujah.
More than 120 people were killed and more than 200 injured when a lorry loaded with explosives and driven by a suicide bomber blew up in a busy street in a largely Shia area of central Baghdad. Isis has claimed responsibility.
ISRAEL: A Palestinian teenager knifed a sleeping Israeli teenager to death after breaking into her house in a settlement in the occupied west bank. He was shot dead after shooting and injuring a security guard. A gunman attacked an Israeli family’s car, killing the father and wounding three others. The Israeli army sealed off the west bank city of Hebron.
LIBYA: Forces loyal to the UN-backed government of national accord have recaptured most of Sirte’s residential districts from Isis, which is now surrounded in one area of the city.
SAUDI ARABIA: Attacks by suicide bombers hit three cities across Saudi Arabia on Monday, as Ramadan came to an end and Eid began. An attack outside the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, one of Islam’s holiest places, killed four security guards and wounded five others. An attack on a Shia mosque in Qatif killed at least three worshippers. An explosion outside the US consulate in Jeddah wounded two security guards
SOUTH AFRICA: Riots are spreading from Pretoria to Cape Town. The violent protests were triggered by the omission of certain nominees’ names from a list of candidates for election as councillors.
TURKEY: A known terrorist from Chechnya is thought to be behind last week’s terror attack on Ataturk Airport, in which 43 people were killed and 239 wounded. 22 arrests have been made across Turkey.
President Erdogan said that Syrian refugees in Turkey could become Turkish citizens. There are 2.7 million Syrian refugees in Turkey.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: The foreign ministry advised UAE citizens not to wear traditional dress when travelling in the West, after an Emirati man wearing a Gulf head-dress and traditional clothes was detained by armed police officers in a hotel in Avon, Colorado, on suspicion of being a militant. He was taken to hospital in an ambulance after his release.
Far East, Asia and Pacific
AUSTRALIA: Preliminary results from the general elections suggest that Malcolm Turnbull’s governing Liberal National coalition has sustained heavy losses and will lose its majority. It has secured 68 seats so far; the Labour opposition has secured 67. 76 seats are needed for a majority. Counting continues.
BANGLADESH: Seven terrorists armed with guns and machetes attacked a restaurant in Dhaka, killing twenty diners and taking others hostage. Police stormed the restaurant after a ten hour siege, rescuing thirteen people, killing six of the terrorists and wounding and capturing the seventh. Two policemen were killed. The terrorists had spared Muslim hostages, and their victims included nine Italians and seven Japanese. The police say the militants were from a Bangladeshi terror group. It is thought they had links with Isis.
A Hindu temple worker was hacked to death in Jhinaidah.
CHINA: The world’s biggest radio telescope has been built in a remote area of Guizhou province. The Aperture Spherical Telescope took five years to construct and is 500m wide. It will come into operation in September, and Chinese astronomers hope it will help to answer questions about the origin of the universe and the possible existence of extra-terrestrial life.
China began military exercises in the South China Seas near the Paracel Islands. Vietnam protested; a number of countries in the area dispute China’s claims to the waters. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague is due to rule next week in a case brought by the Philippines about other islands in the South China Seas.
INDIA: The head of the governing BJP party in the state of Jharkhand, Tala Marandi, has denied allegations that his son has married an 11 year old girl.
America
BRAZIL: Rio city council has been granted an emergency federal loan of £670 million to keep the city going during the Olympics. As unpaid policemen go on strike, the mayor of Rio warned that security will be inadequate during the games. Mutilated human body parts were washed up on the Copacabana beach, near the Olympic volleyball arena and the triathlon’s swimming course. New annual crime figures showed that robberies were up by 42% in Rio state.
USA: The director of the FBI announced that the bureau’s twelve-month investigation into Hilary Clinton’s use of a personal e-mail server while she was secretary of state has found no grounds for criminal charges, although he said that she had been “extremely careless” with classified information. Earlier in the week Ms Clinton was questioned by the FBI for three hours.
Florida has declared a state of emergency as a thick layer of toxic algae is spreading along the coast and across waterways.
VENEZUELA: The foreign ministry said that it is willing to restore diplomatic relations with the USA. The anti-US socialist government broke off diplomatic ties in 2010.
Outer Space
JUPITER: NASA’s spacecraft Juno is due to begin orbiting the planet Jupiter, having travelled 1.74 billion miles since it left Earth five years ago. It should be able to gather valuable information about the origin and nature of the planet and of the universe, and transmit it back to Earth.
SPACE RUBBISH: British scientists have started a mission called RemoveDebris to test three different ideas for removing debris which 60 years of space travel have left orbiting the earth. A test craft will be launched next year.
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