Politics this week from the Economist by Biodun Iginla, BBC News and the Economist

Friday, October 23, 2009











Thursday October 22nd 2009
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Politics this week

Oct 22nd 2009
From The Economist print edition

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AP


Pakistan’s army launched a long-awaited offensive against Taliban strongholds in the tribal area of South Waziristan, to fierce resistance. Tens of thousands of civilians fled the region. Apparently in retaliation for the offensive, a series of terrorist attacks killed at least 166 people in a 12-day period. In Islamabad, a Pakistani brigadier was shot dead and an attack on an Islamic university killed eight people, forcing schools and colleges across the country to shut. See article
Afghanistan announced the result of its presidential election, two months after the poll. Although a preliminary tally had given the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, 55% of the vote, so many of the ballots were found to be fraudulent that a second round will be needed. Due on November 7th, it will pit Mr Karzai against his closest rival, Abdullah Abdullah. See article
The European Union published the results of an inquiry into Sri Lanka’s human-rights record. It said that serious shortcomings should preclude the continuation of trade privileges, and the 27 EU members will now have to decide whether to suspend them. Sri Lanka says the loss of the privileges could cost tens of thousands of jobs in its garment industry. See article
Visiting Japan, Robert Gates, the American defence secretary, urged his hosts to honour a 2006 agreement to move an American airbase to another part of the island of Okinawa. The new Japanese government has said it wants to review the deal, and perhaps shift the base off Okinawa altogether.

Rubles and rudeness
Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, offered a €1 billion ($1.5 billion) loan to Serbia during a visit to Belgrade. Among a further series of bilateral projects to cement closer ties, Serbia was offered a share in the South Stream pipeline planned by Russia’s gas giant, Gazprom. See article
Some 100,000 Italian women signed a petition against an allegedly sexist remark made on television by Silvio Berlusconi. Italy’s prime minister said that Rosy Bindi, a female politician appearing on the show, was “more beautiful than intelligent”. She retorted that she was “not a woman at your disposal”. See article
Reuters


Prosecutors in France asked merely for a suspended jail sentence for Dominique de Villepin, a former French prime minister, in the so-called Clearstream trial in Paris. Other defendants face actual prison terms.
Thirty-four Kurdish rebels peacefully crossed back from northern Iraq into Turkey. Five suspected of belonging to the PKK terrorist group were briefly arrested but were later freed by a judge. See article
The pope created a new way for groups of Anglicans to convert to Roman Catholicism, precipitating one of the sharpest disputes between the churches for decades. See article

Oil and rigging
As a result of a Nigerian government amnesty which ended earlier this month, some 15,000 rebels in the oil-rich Delta region have surrendered in the hope that the country’s president, Umara Yar’Adua, will fulfil a pledge to help develop the poor villages in the area. See article
Meanwhile, Mr Yar’Adua, who also chairs the Economic Community of West African States, suspended Niger from that regional body after its president, Mamadou Tandja, fiddled a general election.
A year after becoming president, Ian Khama, son of Botswana’s founding leader, Sir Seretse Khama, was returned to the country’s top post when his party won an increased majority in a general election. See article
Iran’s official media said that at least 42 people, including 15 Revolutionary Guards and one of their most senior commanders, had been killed by a suicide-bomber in a south-eastern province bordering Pakistan. It was the deadliest attack in Iran since its war with Iraq ended in 1988. A Sunni jihadist group called Jundullah, which is based in Pakistan, was widely blamed.
A majority of countries on the UN’s Human Rights Council voted for a resolution to send its Goldstone report on the Gaza war to the UN Security Council for possible referral to the International Criminal Court. The United States and five other countries voted against the resolution, which was critical of Israel. Unusually, Britain and France withheld from voting.

Out of the frying pan
Congress passed a bill that will allow detainees in Guantánamo Bay to be brought to the American mainland to stand trial. But it is still unclear where they will be held if convicted, or released to if they are found to be innocent. Barack Obama has pledged to close the camp by the end of January 2010. See article
Efforts to reform the American health-care system remained bogged down in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The main disagreements are over whether there should be a government-run insurance plan for people without cover and over payments to doctors.
A Massachusetts man was charged with participating in terrorist conspiracies to attack an American shopping mall and assassinate federal officials. Tarek Mehanna, who has dual American-Egyptian citizenship, is due to enter a plea next week.

All together now
Leftist representatives from nine countries in the Americas took the first steps towards creating a common currency, the sucre. But they resisted a proposal by Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez to form a military alliance.
AP


Two weeks after Rio de Janeiro won the contest to host the 2016 Olympics, gunfire from feuding drugs gangs in the Brazilian city’s favelas brought down a police helicopter and left at least 25 people dead. See article
Uruguay’s Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a law that grants amnesty to military officials accused of murders and disappearances during the country’s dictatorship of 1973-85. The ruling came only days before an October 25th referendum on whether to scrap the law.
Nicaragua’s Supreme Court overturned a clause in its constitution banning presidents from having two consecutive terms in office. The decision clears the way for Daniel Ortega to run for re-election in 2011, despite objections from his opponents.





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Posted by BiodunIginla at 2:37 AM Labels: bbc news biodun iginla, bbc news the economist 0 comments:

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