 » The fighting between Colonel Muammar Qaddafi's forces and those rebelling against him moved to and fro along the coast road between the oil town of Brega and Benghazi, the rebels' capital in the east. The Americans handed control of the anti-Qaddafi coalition to NATO, which continued its assault on the Libyan government's ground forces from the air. See article » More than 250 migrants were reported to have drowned after a boat that set off from Libya carrying 300-odd people, mostly from Bangladesh, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan, sank on April 6th off the Italian island of Lampedusa. » President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen struggled to stay in charge in the face of growing demonstrations in the capital and unrest across a divided country. In a policy shift, meanwhile, the American administration signalled that it would like Mr Saleh to be eased out of office, despite fears that al-Qaeda might fill the vacuum if he departed. See article » Richard Goldstone, a South African judge who headed a UN inquiry into Israel's three-week war on Gaza two years ago, recanted a key finding of his original report. He says that he now believes Israel did not intentionally target civilians "as a matter of policy". » The palace compound of Côte d'Ivoire's Laurent Gbagbo, in Abidjan, was surrounded by UN and French troops. He was defeated in a presidential election in November but has refused to step down. Forces loyal to the election winner, Alassane Ouattara, have conquered the rest of the country. Hundreds of people have been killed in the past fortnight. See article
Toxic water, water everywhere » Radioactive water from Japan's stricken nuclear power plant seeped into the sea around Fukushima. The leak was sealed on April 6th as engineers were forced to dump 11,500 tonnes of less contaminated water into the ocean to make room for fresh coolant. Japan acknowledged that South Korea and China were not adequately consulted about the situation. See article » China's government detained Ai Weiwei, a Chinese artist and dissident, for "economic crimes" after preventing him from boarding a flight bound for Hong Kong. His whereabouts had been unknown for days. A state newspaper chided Mr Ai for being a political "maverick". See article  » Kazakhstan re-elected Nursultan Nazarbayev as its president with 95.5% of the vote. Mr Nazarbayev is popular among his countrymen but the near-perfect result is an embarrassment for the foreign governments that applauded him for calling the election. Even an opposition candidate voted for him. See article » Two suicide-bombers in Pakistan's Punjab province blew themselves up near a Sufi shrine, killing at least 50 people and injuring 100. » Thousands of Afghans protested about the actions of
Christian bigots in Florida who had burned a Koran on March 20th. Seven foreign UN staff and guards were killed in Mazar-i-Sharif, while a dozen people died in clashes with police in Kandahar. See article
He'll be back  » To no one's surprise, Barack Obama announced that he is to seek re-election as president in 2012. In his opening message, he called for a big push on fund-raising, and some analysts reckon he might raise as much as $1 billion, shattering all records. Only one serious Republican candidate has so far entered the race for that party's nomination. » As The Economist went to press, the threat of a government shutdown in America loomed large; the Republicans and the Democrats had so far failed to agree on a fresh extension of funds, meaning that non-essential functions could be shut down as soon as April 9th. See article » Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, submitted his version of a budget for fiscal year 2012, which begins in October. Mr Ryan proposes to spend $6.2 trillion less over the next ten years than Mr Obama does. Mr Ryan's
proposals include, in effect, privatising Medicare, the government-run health scheme for the elderly. See article
Stepping aside » Guido Westerwelle resigned as leader of Germany's Free Democratic Party, a junior coalition member, and as federal vice-chancellor, following the party's poor performances at recent state elections. Philipp Rösler, the 38-year-old health minister, will replace him in both roles, although Mr Westerwelle wants to stay as foreign minister, a position in which he has attracted much criticism. See article » José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain's unpopular prime minister, said that he would not stand for a third term at a general election due by early 2012. The ruling Socialist Party is expected to hold primaries to elect Mr Zapatero's successor as party leader after local elections on May 22nd. See article » Ronan Kerr, a Catholic Northern Irish police officer, was killed by a bomb planted under his car. No one claimed responsibility for the attack but republicans opposed to the peace process are being blamed. Mr Kerr is the second officer to have been killed since the province's police service was reformed in 2001. See article
A comfortable win » Preliminary results released by the electoral authority showed Michel Martelly, a conservative and a popular singer, winning Haiti's presidential election, with 67.6% of the vote. He will take office in May, charged with speeding up the country's reconstruction after last year's earthquake. See article  » In Mexico, protests against drug-related violence in many cities across the country were interrupted when police in Tamaulipas state found 59 bodies in eight graves, including one that had 43 corpses buried in it. » Ecuador expelled the American ambassador to Quito, Heather Hodges, after she was quoted in a leaked diplomatic cable as saying that the country's police suffered from generalised corruption. Ms Hodges's departure follows the resignation of Carlos Pascual as American ambassador to Mexico, after his frank assessment of the shortcomings of Mexico's police was similarly WikiLeaked. » American officials said that they had reached an agreement under which Colombia will strengthen its efforts to protect trade unionists, clearing the way for a free-trade agreement between the two countries to be sent to the United States Congress. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment