Weekly News Wrap: Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Africa

• African leaders meeting in Tanzania on Sunday to discuss a political crisis in Burundi triggered by the president’s plan to run for a third term called for the postponement of elections by at least a month and a half.
• The United Nations human rights chief on Saturday urged several countries to intensify their investigations of alleged sexual abuse of young children in the Central African Republic by French and African soldiers posted in the conflict-torn nation.
• A suspected suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in Nigeria’s Maiduguri city on Saturday afternoon killing at least 18 people, a hospital source said, after a night-time attack by Boko Haram insurgents on the outskirts.
• South Sudan has decided to expel the world body’s top humanitarian official based in the conflict-torn nation, according to the UN, which called on the government to immediately reverse its decision.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has seized territory from both Syrian government forces and rival rebels over the weekend, further expanding the area it has proclaimed straddling Iraq and Syria.
• Aircraft from a Saudi-led coalition bombed Yemen’s Houthi outposts throughout the country on Sunday, residents said, while Yemen’s government in exile said the militia was in talks with the United States in Oman.
• Russia said on Monday any U.N. Security Council resolution allowing for the use of force in the Mediterranean to stop gangs smuggling migrants must define the powers of an EU naval mission precisely to win Moscow’s backing.
• Qatar has agreed to extend monitoring and travel restrictions on five Taliban detainees who were freed from the Guantanamo Bay US detention camp last year in exchange for a US soldier, a senior US state department official said.
• At least four people were killed when dozens of tents at a Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley caught fire on Monday, witnesses said.

Asia

• The ongoing dispute between the Philippines and China over territories in the South China Sea will be on President Benigno Aquino’s agenda in his state visit to Japan, a spokesman of the Filipino leader has announced.
• U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter discussed his call for an end to island-building in the South China Sea in talks on Monday with his Vietnamese counterpart, who said Vietnam had not expanded its islands but had done work to prevent wave erosion.

Europe

• Greece’s cash-strapped government has failed to deliver on a promise to reach an agreement with rescue lenders over the weekend.
• An ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday it would be unrealistic for British Prime Minister David Cameron to expect to achieve changes to European Union treaties before the country holds a referendum on its membership of the bloc.
• A separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine is revealing increasing evidence, but not yet conclusive legal proof, of Russian state involvement, senior United Nations human rights officials said on Monday.
• More than 5,000 migrants on their way to Europe have been saved from boats in distress in the Mediterranean since Friday, according to EU authorities, as the corpses of 17 migrants have been brought ashore in Sicily aboard an Italian naval vessel.
• Russia has imposed an entry ban on 89 European politicians and military leaders, according to a list seen by Reuters, a move that has angered Europe and worsened its standoff with the West over Moscow’s role in the Ukraine conflict.

Americas

• US President Barack Obama has said that Myanmar needed to take seriously the issue of how it treats the Rohingya people, if it wanted to be successful in its transition to a democracy.
• U.S.-led forces targeted Islamic State militants in Syria with 13 air strikes from Sunday morning through Monday morning and conducted another 10 strikes against the group in Iraq, the U.S. military said on Monday.

Oceania

• The leader of Australia’s opposition Labor Party introduced a bill to legalize same-sex marriage on Monday, adding the backing of a major party to growing public support for the issue after last month’s landmark ‘yes’ vote in Ireland.

UN/World

• The United Nations said it would be forced to slash or shut down almost half its aid operations in Iraq without an immediate injection of new funds, at a time when a humanitarian crisis triggered by Islamic State insurgents is intensifying.
• Governments must address human trafficking and slavery in a global development pact later this year, Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi said on Monday, warning that the credibility of humanity was at stake if countries failed to deliver.