Europe
Spanish recession deepens, but borrowing costs fall
Official figures show a contraction of 0.4% inSpain’s GDP for the second quarter of the year. This shows the country’s recession deepening as it follows a 0.3% contraction in the first quarter. Despite the figures, yields onSpain’s 10-year bonds have fallen to 6.55% from last week’s record high of 7.5% on hopes of action from the European Central Bank. These hopes were prompted by a joint statement from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, in which the two leaders pledged to do “everything possible to protect the eurozone”. Spain’s GDP contractions reflect “weaker domestic demand”, said national statistics institute INE, which published the figures.
North America
Romney: US has “moral imperative” to block Iranian nuclear ambitions
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said, during a visit to Jerusalem, that the United States has a “moral imperative” to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Branding Iran“the most destabilising nation in the world”, he said it would be “foolish” not to take its threat seriously. He said he recognised Israel’s right to defend itself and said the USA should stand by Israel as it did so, with one of his advisers saying he would respect any decision by Israel to use military force against Iran. US President Barack Obama has focused on using sanctions to contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Latin America
Colombia: Farc rebels release two abducted pilots
Two civilian pilots, captured on 10 July byColombia’s largest rebel group, the Farc, have been handed over to a Red Cross delegation in a remote part of the Colombian jungle. The Farc had announced in February that they would stop all political abductions for ransom. Despite this, in April they kidnapped a French journalist who was filming Colombian soldiers destroying coca laboratories, on the basis that as he was wearing army-issued armour, he was a prisoner of war rather than a civilian abductee. He was held for 36 days before being released. A pressure group representing the relatives of kidnap victims says the number of people abducted in Colombia has risen this year.
Asia and Russia
Massive power cut in Delhi and northern India
More than 300 million people have been affected as a huge power cut swept through Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan states in northern India. The reason for the power cut is unclear, but could be due to states using more power than authorised. Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has organised an inquiry, and said 60% of the supply had been restored, with the rest to be reactivated soon. The effects on infrastructure were the most disruptive, with train services, traffic lights, water treatment plants and hospitals all non-functional for an extended period, prompting travel chaos and health fears.
Punk band Pussy Riot on trial in Moscow
Pussy Riot, the punk protest girls’ group arrested in February for singing a song opposing President Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral, have gone on trial. The song, laced with obscenities and imploring the Virgin Mary to “throw Putin out”, outraged the Russian Orthodox Church, which accused the group of blasphemy. The group’s supporters say the case reflects the state’s intolerance of government opponents. The three women, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich, stand accused of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred or hostility and could each face up to seven years in prison.
Africa and Middle East
UN: 200,000 people have fled fighting in Aleppo, Syria
The United Nations has said that roughly 200,000 people have fled intense fighting in Aleppo,Syria’s second city, in the past two days, with others trapped in the city and in need of urgent help. The exodus comes after a major ground assault by government forces on Saturday, which followed a week of artillery bombardments and sweeps by fighter jets. The rebels in the city are outgunned by the government, but fighting an effective guerrilla war in the streets. Food shortages and power cuts are constantly affecting the citizens.
Mali calls for talks with Islamists
Mali’s interim President Dioncounda Traore has called for talks with militant Islamists who have captured the north of the country. He made the calls in his first national address last week, after spending two months in Paris recovering from injuries sustained in a beating by supporters of a coup in March. Tuareg rebels and Islamist militants capitalised on the ensuing chaos and seized control of major cities in the north of the country, but their uneasy alliance has since collapsed and fighting has erupted across the region. Thousands of refugees have fled its major cities –Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal, all of which are now under Islamist control.
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