15 Aug Weekday News Wrap: Wednesday, August 15, 2012
15.08.12
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- In Syria, fresh clashes have broken out in Damascus and Aleppo, even though the defected Prime Minister Hijab has said the regime is close to collapse. Human Rights Watch reports that fighter planes have struck a hospital in Aleppo, while Reuters provides an exclusive about Libyan fighters joining the rebel forces.
- US Defense Secretary Panetta has accused Iran of supporting pro-Assad militias in Syria. Meanwhile, China has argued Western states’ attempts to engineer a regime change in Syria undermine solidarity on the UN Security Council.
- The Guardian reports that Ecuador has granted asylum to WikiLeaks’ founder, Julian Assange, though Ecuador denies that it has made a decision. Ecuador has to also think about providing an exit from London, as Britain is determined to extradite Assange to Sweden. Foreign Policy asks whether Ecuador would have to smuggle him out of the UK.
- Mali has said that ECOWAS troops are only welcome in the north of the country. IPS provides commentary about why military action in Mali would be extremely dangerous.
- A cousin of former Bosnian Serb leader Ratko Mladic has received a suspended prison sentence for hiding Mladic in his home until last May. Jurist has more here.
- Jurist also covers the Guatemalan medical experimentation victims who are looking to appeal the dismissal of their lawsuit against the United States, in which they allege they were purposefully infected with sexually transmitted diseases in order to test the effects of penicillin.
- The economy of the Eurozone shrank in the second quarter, raising fears of an impending debt crisis.
- Events to mark the end of World War II with Japan are creating friction in Asia. Two Japanese ministers paid a visit to the controversial Yasukuni shrinefor the war dead. A group of pro-China activists is sailing towards the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands while a South Korean pop-singer has held a 220km relay swim to the Dokdo islands at the center of a territorial dispute with Japan.
- Australia’s plain packaging laws for tobacco have survived their first challenge with Australia’s High Court rejecting tobacco companies’ claims of unconstitutionality.
- The New Zealand government has announced its intention to sign up to the WTO’s Government Procurement Agreement.
- Standard Chartered Plc has reached a settlement with New York regulators over transactions with Iran that could have caused its banking license to be revoked.
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