by Jessica Dorsey
- Anti-government protests (which forced the cancellation of last year’s event) occurred at the start of the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix.
- The US Congress has communicated its intent to repatriate Canadian Guantanamo detainee, Omar Khadr, according to the NY Times.
- Abu Qatada has appealed the European Court of Human Rights’ decision to allow his deportation to Yemen, but the UK Government claims that the appeal was filed past the deadline. Prime Minister David Cameron added that he would like to put him on a plane himself were it not for the law…
- Emerging countries are ready to increase their funding to the IMF, but want to see progress on voting reforms.
- Mali’s former leader, ousted in the recent military coup, has fled to Senegal.
- China responds calmly to India’s missile launch arguing that both states are partners, not rivals, while also pointing out that its own nuclear capability is much stronger than India’s.
- Guinea-Bissau’s ousted leader asks for a UN-backed stabilization force.
- EU pressure has led to the release of two prominent political prisoners in Belarus.
- US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is calling on the UNSC for tougher sanctions against Syria, even though such sanctions are expected to be vetoed.
- The EU Parliament has approved a deal with the US on air passenger data sharing that includes tighter restrictions to ensure privacy.
- EU foreign ministers are set to suspend sanctions against Myanmar for one year.
- Colombia’s FARC denies any plans to surrender, despite proposing negotiations with government.
- Tensions further escalate between Sudan and South Sudan as the current Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir has promised to teach its neighbor to the south a “final lesson by force.”
- A British lawyer has brought the UK-based News of the World phone hacking scandal a step closer to the United States, stating he is seeking evidence to file suit in the US.
- Foreign Policy discusses how Argentina is becoming the new “Wild West” of narco-trafficking, as a result of Mexico’s drug war.
- Another round of Tunisian protests, this time between thousands of protestors challenging the ban on protests and the police, forced the city of Tunis to shut down.
- The EU may review its ban on Iranian crude oil in the coming months, according to an official.
April 20th, 2012 - 8:00 AM EDT |
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by An Hertogen
April 19th, 2012 - 8:00 AM EDT |
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by Jessica Dorsey
- An Italian kidnapped by al-Qaeda insurgents in Algeria and held for 14 months has been freed in northern Mali.
- Denmark has established a Commission of Inquiry into its role in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. EJIL has an in-depth post about it here.
- The Arab League has urged Syria to implement the ceasefire plan after being briefed by Kofi Annan.
- The definition of piracy is in dispute ahead of a piracy trial in Virginia.
- The African Union has suspended Guinea-Bissau from all activities after its recent military coup until the restoration of constitutional order.
- Spain is threatening retaliation against Argentina for the forced nationalization of the oil firm YPF, forcing current majority owner, Spain’s Repsol, to lower its participation from 57.4% to 6.4%. The European Commission President also expressed his disappointment and Repsol is planning to take its case to investment tribunals.
- Foreign Policy outlines five ways Jim Yong Kim can save the World Bank during his presidency.
- India will test an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 5000 km today.
- In an alleged attempt to curb the number of females in school, 150 Afghan schoolgirls were poisoned through drinking water at their high school in the north of the country.
- North Korea claims it is no longer bound by the nuclear test moratorium it agreed to with the United States.
- Secret British colonial files, previously confidential, were released this week including information about the Kenyan MauMau uprising, the Maylayan Emergency and the evacuation of the Chagos islands, among other things.
- The former UK Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, is facing a lawsuit by a Libyan dissident claiming to have been taken to Gaddafi’s Libya under a rendition operation facilitated by MI6.
- Aung San Suu Kyi will visit Norway and Britain in June this year, in her first foreign trip since 1988.
- French President Nicholas Sarkozy denies allegations of having sold a nuclear reactor to Muammar Gadaffi’s regime in 2010.
April 18th, 2012 - 8:00 AM EDT |
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by Jessica Dorsey
- The US-backed Korean-American Jim Yong Kim was named the next president of the World Bank, in a move that drew criticism about the purported dominance of the post by the United States.
- The Philippines will take its dispute with China in the South China Sea to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).
- Meanwhile, Tokyo’s governor wants to use public fund to purchase islands in the East China Sea, which are the subject of a territorial dispute with China.
- Following the coup in Guinea-Bissau, military chiefs have closed its air and sea space.
- Another day, another (alleged) drone attack in Yemen: three suspected al-Qaeda militants are said to have been killed by a US UAV strike.
- Amnesty International has criticized Bahrain for inadequate rights reforms following allegations of a failure to serve justice to protestors in its report about human rights abuses coming ahead of this weekend’s Formula 1 Grand Prix race taking place in the gulf nation.
- Sudan’s parliament has branded South Sudan the “enemy” and demanded a quick recapture of Heglig, the oil-rich region subject to recent aerial bombings and military attacks.
- The European Court of Human Rights has decided that it cannot rule on whether Russia properly investigated the Katyn Massacre because Russia refused to share documents.
- Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, highlights an insufficiency in Afghan intelligence mostly due to a NATO failure in 18-hour attacks in Kabul. Karzai attributes the attacks to the Taliban, while Washington asserts that they were Haqqani-led.
- In further Afghanistan news, Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard said that her country will end its Afghan mission in 2013, a year earlier than the international deadline for withdrawal.
- The US has said it is looking at “all options” in order to discourage North Korea’s planned third nuclear test, following a UN Security Council condemnation Monday of North Korea’s recent rocket launch attempt. China has also voiced its criticism.
- WTO Dispute Settlement Body has agreed to set up a Panel to examine the US request to examine the EU’s compliance with the Airbus decision.
- The former Secretary General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), gives an interview in the wake of recent attacks on the organization.
- Japan has vowed $60 billion in loans to boost the IMF’s coffers to help it contain spillovers from the Eurozone crisis.
April 17th, 2012 - 8:00 AM EDT |
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by Jessica Dorsey
- Former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla has admitted for the first time that the country’s brutal 1976-1983 dictatorship “disappeared” leftist opponents and said babies were kidnapped from their parents.
- A team of six UN observers has gone to Syria, where despite both sides agreeing to a truce, violence is still raging.
- South Sudan has accused Sudan of indiscriminate bombing in a dispute over who controls Heglig, an oil-rich town on the disputed border between the two countries. Sudan denies any involvement. Egypt is pushing for an end to the confrontation.
- Israel has moved to block a “fly in” by detaining four Welcome to Palestine protesters at the Tel Aviv airport after their flight from Paris. Some 1,200 names are on the list of those barred from entry into Israel.
- Gulf States plan to meet next week on a dispute between Iran and the United Arab Emirates regarding Abu Musa and two other islands near the Strait of Hormuz, which both countries claim to own.
- Four men accused of plotting an attack against the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten for publishing a cartoon drawing of the Prophet Mohammed have gone on trial in Denmark.
- U.S. officials have stated their plans to continue CIA drone strikes in Pakistan, setting up potential diplomatic tensions between the two countries as Pakistan has demanded an end to the covert operations.
- UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has called for a restoration of order in Guinea-Bissau after a military coup was staged last week.
- Embarrassed by last week’s rocket crash, North Korea may proceed with a nuclear test. The US is watching closely to see what the next move may be.
- Bolivian President Evo Morales has bowed to pressure and cancelled his plans to build a highway that would have cut through the Amazon, linking Brazilian ports with those in Chile and Peru.
- A major offensive by the Taliban, which included attacks against various Western embassies in Kabul, was quelled by the Afghan security forces. The EU’s High Representative on foreign affairs and security policy has condemned the attacks.
- On Friday, the Dutch Supreme Court upheld earlier rulings granting the United Nations immunity from prosecution in a case lodged by Mothers of Srebrenica.
- The US and the Philippines have started their annual military exercises, involving 7000 troops, close to the disputes South China Sea waters.
- Australia has decided to lift financial sanctions and travel bans against more than 200 officials in Myanmar.
- Hearings in the tobacco giants’ High Court case challenging the legality of Australia’s plain packaging legislation will start tomorrow.
- In a move welcomed by the US and the IMF, China widened the trading band of the Yuan. On the first day of trading in this broader band, the Yuan however closed lower.
- An important talking point behind the scenes at the Summit of the Americas were the Argentinian and Brazilian responses to the economic crisis and the question whether these amount to increasing protectionism.
April 16th, 2012 - 8:00 AM EDT |
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