(Current Affairs) International Events | January: 2016

International Events

Hollande vows to punish IS for attacks

  • French President Francois Hollande vowed to attack the Islamic State group without mercy as the jihadist group claimed responsibility on Saturday for orchestrating the deadliest attacks on France since World War II.
  • The Islamic State group’s claim of responsibility appeared in Arabic and French in an online statement circulated by IS sup-porters. It was not immediately possible to confirm the authenticity of the admission, which bore the group’s logo and resembled previous verified statements from the group.
  • Officials said a Syrian passport was recovered from the remains of one suicide bomber outside the stadium and that a suicide bomber at the concert hall was identified as a young Frenchman flagged in the past for links with an Islamic extremist activity.
  • Prosecutor’s office spokes-woman Agnes Thi-baultLecuivre said authorities couldn’t rule out the possibility that other militants involved in the attack remained at large.
  • The violence raised questions about security for the millions of tourists who come to Paris and for world events routinely hosted in the normally luminous capital, where 1,500 troops were deployed to support police in restoring order and re-assuring a frightened populace.

Suu Kyi set to form govt.

  • Myanmar democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi’s Opposition party on Friday clinched enough seats in Parliament to elect a President and form a government when incoming lawmakers convene next year.

  • As of Friday afternoon, the country’s election commis-sion had announced the election results for 452 of the 491 Parliamentary seats contest-ed in the election. The National League for Democracy won 364 seats compared with the governing party’s 40. Smaller parties took the rest.

  • The confirmation came five years to the day since the junta released Suu Kyi from house arrest. She had been confined for the best part of two decades. The triumph of the charismatic Nobel Peace Prize laureate sweeps out the old guard of former generals that has run Myanmar since President Thein Sein ushered in democratic and economic re-forms four years ago.

  • Despite the landslide, Suu Kyi cannot become President herself under a Constitution drafted by the military before the end of nearly 50 years of rule. She has said she will run the country anyway, through a proxy chosen by her party.

Vienna talks agree on concrete calendar for transition in Syria

  • The discovery of a Syrian passport on an attack-er in Paris has once again underlined the urgent need to begin a peace process in Syria which is facing a multi-cornered civil war since February 2011.

  • The attacks in Paris took place even as high-power global diplomats like US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were on their way to the Austrian capital of Vienna for talks over Syria.

  • Interestingly, a day after the attacks in Paris, a French delegation of politicians and intellectuals met President Bashar Al Assad in Damascus dis-playing a healing touch of dialogue. Meeting the delegation, led by prominent French politician Thierry Ariani, Mr. Assad asked France to intro-spect over its policies over Syria.

  • Following the attacks in Paris, Turkish newspapers spoke of the need for a joint strategy over Syria, but there are obvious differences among the countries backing rival fighters in Syria.

  • Speaking to a group of journalists in Delhi last week, Turkey’s Ambassador to India BurakAkcapar had said that the need of the hour is to have an inclusive government in Syria which can begin the process of normalisation in consultation with all sections of people.

European IS-linked terror cell busted

  • Law enforcement authorities of Eu-rope announced on Thursday they had broken up a Norway-based Iraqi Kurdish recruitment ring that radicalised prospects via the Inter-net and sent them to fight in Iraq and Syria alongside the Islamic State group. Police in six European countries arrested at least 15 suspected members of the militant group, Italian authorities said.

  • They said the militants planned to strike Norwegian and British diplomats in West Asia and politicians in Norway but gave no further information about the potential targets or the time frame for any attacks. Police in Oslo said there had never been a “concrete or acute threat” against any Norwegian citizens or interests.

  • Italy’s national Carabinieri police led the investigation, with security forces in Italy, Britain, Nor-way, Finland, Germany and Switzerland taking part in Thurs-day’s swoop.

  • “This was an incredibly difficult and complicated investigation that has been going on for five years,” said prosecutor Franco Roberti, the head of Italy’s anti-mafia and anti-terrorism unit. A total of 17 arrest warrants were issued, almost all for Iraqi Kurds, and 15 suspects were picked up immediately.

  • One of those wanted was believed to be in Iraq, while it was not yet clear whether another suspect had been found in Switzerland.

EU-Africa refugee action plan

  • EU to provide initial 1.8 billion euros ($1.9 billion) to a new Emergency Trust Fund to support projects aimed at reducing refugee flows from Africa to Europe and displacement of people within Africa.
  • Future development cooperation to focus on projects which will reduce migratory pressures: includes fostering jobs and economic growth in areas refugee come from or transit through, a scheme to reduce the development impact of remittances by cutting transfer costs and joint research on the causes of migration.
  • Opportunities for legal migration to be “promoted”. Only concrete step agreed was an increase in the number of EU-funded scholarships for African students and academics.
  • New programmes to be set up by end-2016 to increase protection and economic opportunities of displaced people in the Horn of Africa and North Africa.
  • Increased cooperation on combatting illegal immigration and people trafficking, including creation of joint investigative team as a pilot project in key transit country Niger.
  • Repatriation of failed asylum seekers to be accelerated. At least 10 African countries agreed to help European states identify illegal immigrants without official documents (making them difficult to deport).

Suu Kyi’s party on course for landslide

  • Myanmar’s ruling party conceded defeat in a general election on Monday as the Opposition led by democracy figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi appeared on course for a landslide victory that could en-sure it forms the next government.
  • By late afternoon, vendors out-side the headquarters of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Yangon were selling red T -shirts with Suu Kyi’s face and the words “We won.”.
  • The election was a landmark in the country’s unsteady journey to democracy from the military dictatorship that made the former Burma a pariah state for so long. It is also a moment that Suu Kyi will relish after spending years under house arrest following thecountry’s 1990 election, when the NLD won a landslide victory that was ignored by the junta.
  • But although the election appears to have dealt a decisive de-feat to the USDP, a period of un-certainty still looms over the country because it is not clear how Suu Kyi will share power easily with the still-dominant military.
  • Even if the NLD gets the majority it needs, Suu Kyi is barred from taking the presidency herself under the Constitution written by the junta to preserve its power. Suu Kyi has said she would be the power behind the new President regardless of a charter she has derided as “very silly.”

Pakistan invites India for key Afghan meet

  • Pakistan has invited External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for a crucial regional conference here on Afghanistan, a move that could provide an opportunity for the two neighbours to mend their frosty ties.
  • The ‘Heart of Asia’ conference will be held on December 7 and 8, where representatives from Azerbaijan, China, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajiks-tan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and the UAE are expected to attend.
  • Pakistan has also sent an invitation to Ms. Swaraj, the Express Tribune reported. “ A formal invitation has been sent to India and 25 other countries for the Heart of Asia ministerial meeting on Afghanistan to be hosted by Pakistan,” a senior Foreign Office official was quoted as say-ing by the paper.
  • An Indian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed New Delhi has received the invitation but said the decision on whether the External Affairs Minister will attend the conference has yet to be taken.

Pak. in a losing nuclear race: NYT

  • Persuading Pakistan to re-in in its nuclear weapons programme should be an international priority, accord-ing to The New York Times. In an editorial published on November 7, the American daily said Islamabad’s competition with India, “which is adding to its own nuclear arsenal, is a losing game”.
  • At present, Pakistan is spending about 25 per cent of its budget on de-fence. Reining in its nuclear operations would be in the country’s long-term interest, the editorial said. “It cannot provide adequate services for its citizens” because of the huge allocation for defence.
  • Pakistan’s official position is that it needs more nuclear weapons to counter India’s conventional arsenal. It’s expected to become the world’s third largest nuclear power with as many as 120 warheads, behind the U.S. and Russia.
  • Last month, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhary had told a news briefing in Washington that Islamabad had built low-yield nu-clear weapons, or tactical nuclear weapons, “to counter Indian aggression”. Such weapons “are more likely to be used in a conflict with India and could more easilyfall into the hands of terrorists…,” added the editorial.

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