Weekday News Wrap: Monday, January 28, 2013

28 Jan Weekday News Wrap: Monday, January 28, 2013

• Talks have broken down at the African Union summit in Ethiopia on plans to solve the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• The UN wants to set up an intervention force to fight rebels fueling conflict in the DRC, according to a UN official.
• According to B’Tselem, a rights group, Israel is breaking its own rules of engagement by using deadly force to disperse unarmed Palestinian protesters in the occupied West Bank.
• US President Barack Obama said he has been wrestling with the question whether a U.S. military intervention in Syria’s 22-month-old civil war would help resolve the bloody conflict or make things worse.
• UN Secretary Ban Ki-Moon said in a statement delivered Sunday to the African Union summit that the leaders in Africa must increase efforts to lower poverty levels, end cycles of violence and accelerate development.
• The French military has recaptured Goa, Mali, from Islamist rebels, although their retreat is seen as only temporary, as drugs money and ransom payments by Western government continue to fuel the rebels’ coffers.
• Egyptian President Morsi has declared the state of emergency in three cities and invited opposition politicians to a national dialogue, as violent protests continued over the weekend.
• Latin American states may rally behind a single candidate for the post of WTO Director-General if one of the three current candidates has a better chance of being selected.
• At a recent summit with Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the EU has asked for more legal certainty for its investments in the region.
• The EU and the US are in the final stages of preparing for negotiations on a free trade agreement, although the EU Trade Commissioner expects the negotiations to be anything but easy.

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