Europe
Germany ordered to boosts benefits to asylum seekers
Germany’s Constitutional Court has ordered the country’s government to pay a 50% rise in benefits to asylum seekers, who have for two decades received less than native Germans. The court ruled that the current level of benefits, of about €7.50 per day, did not meet the constitutional requirement that everyone should be entitled to a “human subsistence level”. Instead, the court has ordered Germany’s 130,000 asylum seekers should receive €336 per month (up from €224). The minimum welfare payment to which full German citizens are entitled is €374 per month.
Nazi war crimes suspect detained in Hungary
Hungarian authorities have taken Laszlo Csatary into custody for questioning, prosecutors have said. Mr Csatary stands accused of assisting in the murder of 15,700 Jews, and is at the top of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s most-wanted list. Reporters from British newspaper the Sun found Mr Csatary, now 97, living in Budapest last week. He is said to be in good physical and mental health, considering his age.
Vatican bank “needs more reform” to prevent financial crime
Moneyval, the European banking watchdog, has said the Vatican bank has “come a long way” in addressing financial transparency, but needed further reform to show it is effective at preventing financial crime, concluding that its measures for tackling money laundering and financing terrorism were inadequate. The Vatican has tried to gain membership to a so-called “white list” of countries that are globally recognised as financially transparent. Moneyval’s approval is not an official qualification for entry, but it is respected internationally as reflecting good financial practices.
North America
FDA approves weight-loss drug for use in USA
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new weight-loss drug for patients who are overweight or obese, and who have at least one other weight-related condition. The drug, Qsymia, is made by pharmaceutical company Vivus. Its approval comes one month after that of another anti-obesity drug, Belviq. The two approvals are the first in the US for 13 years, and come amid pressure by US doctors for health regulators to approve new weight-loss treatments, with obesity rates among American adults around one in three.
Latin America
Chilean ex-military officials charged over torture and murder of Gen Bachelet
Two former Chilean military officials, Ramon Caceres and Edgar Ceballos, have been charged with torturing Gen Alberto Bachelet, father of former president Michelle Bachelet, to death. The arrests come after a forensic report into Gen Bachelet’s death in prison in 1974, which suggests he died as a result of torture. Gen Bachelet was loyal to President Salvador Allende, who was deposed in a military coup in 1973. His daughter – also tortured along with his wife before fleeing toAustralia– becameChile’s first female president in 2006, and now heads the UN women’s agency.
Indigenous Colombians expel troops from Cauca base
Members of the indigenous Nasa tribe claim to have driven roughly 100 Colombian army soldiers from a base they were guarding in Cauca province, in the southwest of the country. The Nasa say they are caught in the crossfire between the Colombian army and members of the Farc,Colombia’s largest paramilitary rebel group. Colombian General Alejandro Navas said his troops were still on the mountain where they were based, but have moved temporarily further down its slope to avoid further confrontation with the Nasa. The province is a Farc stronghold and a key route for the trafficking of cocaine, a trade which finances Farc activity.
Russia and Asia
Kim Jong-un named marshal of North Korea’s military
State media has announced that Kim Jong-un,North Korea’s leader and successor to his father Kim Jong-il, has been named marshal – the highest military rank. The news comes just days after former army chief Ri Yong-ho was removed from his post “due to illness”, and will cement Mr Kim’s control over the nation’s armed forces. North Korea has one of the world’s largest standing armies, with over a million active personnel.
Africa and Middle East
Key Syrian government personnel believed dead in suicide bomb attack, Damascus
General Daoud Rajiha,Syria’s Defence Minister, is confirmed dead in a suspected suicide bombing at the national security headquarters inSyria’s capitalDamascus, according to Syrian state television. Assef Shawkat, deputy head of the country’s armed forces and President Assad’s brother-in-law, is also reported to have died, and several senior officials meeting in the building are believed to be critically injured. Sources suggest the bomber was a bodyguard for members of the President’s inner circle. The attack comes amid reports of a major rebel assault on the capital.
Secularists in Libyan election success
In the first elections in Libya since the overthrow of Col Gaddafi, the National Forces Alliance, led by ex-interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, has won 39 out of the 80 seats reserved for political parties in the country’s General National Assembly. The Jibril bloc is seen as broadly secular. By contrast, the Muslim Brotherhood party has gained 17 seats. There will also be 120 independent candidates in the assembly, whose allegiances will determine the majority leader.
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