Weekday News Wrap: Monday, April 23, 2012

23 Apr Weekday News Wrap: Monday, April 23, 2012

• Our own Peter Spiro has penned an op-ed in the NY Times about the upcoming arguments at the Supreme Court about Arizona’s controversial immigration bill, SB-1070. Peter has posted on OJ about it here.
• Territorial disputes between China and Taiwan, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei may escalate based on Chinese development firms jockeying for position in the disputed islands.
• Despite tensions, China has lauded its friendship with North Korea. The US has criticized this friendship, and accused a Chinese firm of selling components of a missile transporter to North Korea.
• Sudan has been accused of launching attacks within South Sudan, in escalating violence surrounding border disputes. Thousands have been displaced as a result of these clashes. Human Rights Watch covers some of the alleged abuses in its recent report about the violence in the Blue Nile State.
• Afghanistan and the U.S. have reached an agreement regarding the scope and nature of a ten-year Strategic Partnership, outlining American presence in Afghanistan after most NATO troop withdrawal in 2014.
• On Thursday, the Special Court for Sierra Leone will render its verdict in the Charles Taylor case, the first judgment to come against a former head-of-state charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes since Nuremburg.
• Amid a large-scale financial crisis, the IMF has put pressure on the European Union to reform. ECB President Draghi resists the call from the IMF and Geithner.
• Effects of EU member states having to financially reform were also felt over the weekend: the Dutch coalition government failed to reach an agreement on a budget, paving the way to new elections in the fall and casting a cloud over the Euro zone. In the Czech Republic, 100,000 protestors demonstrated in Prague against corruption and austerity measures.
• The UN Special Rapporteur on Rights of Indigenous Peoples will visit the US in order to perform the first ever investigation into the rights situation of Native Americans.
• With respect to the the French presidential elections over the weekend, the BBC has profiles of Sarkozy and Hollande.
• The EU is imposing new sanctions on Syria. The UN’s extra monitors are expected today.
• The EU is expected to ease sanctions on Myanmar today, but UK Foreign Secretary William Hague argues against this move, preferring a suspension instead. Aung San Suu Kyi and her party members have skipped the opening of Parliament over the dispute on the wording of the oath.
• Iran is allegedly building a copy of a US drone it captured after the drone crashed into Iranian territory last December.
• In an offensive praised by the US Ambassador, Yemen’s military has killed 18 al-Qaeda militants.
• Egypt’s state-owned gas company has terminated a controversial deal to deliver gas to Israel.

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