Africa
Nato forces needed in Mali, says African Union
The African Union’s chairman Thomas Boni Yayi has called for Nato to send forces to Mali to help fight militant Islamists who have captured the north. The Malian conflict was an “international” question and Nato should intervene just as it had in Afghanistan, but the campaign against the militants should be led by an African force, said Mr Yayi, who is Benin’s president. Several Nato members, including the US and France, say they will help train an African force for the Mali operation, but have not offered to send ground troops. The United Nations last month approved plans to deploy 3,000 African troops to Mali, with officials saying they did not expect the troops to arrive before September.
South African police fire rubber bullets at farm workers
South Africa’s police have fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse striking farm workers in the wine-producing Western Cape region. The workers barricaded roads and threw stones at police in De Doorns town, a major grape production area outside Cape Town, local media reported. The strikers, who pick and pack fruit, are demanding a doubling of their daily wage to about $15. South Africa has suffered a series of wildcat strikes since last year – in this case, talks between union and employer representatives to avert a strike collapsed earlier this week. General Secretary of the Agricultural Workers’ Union, Nosey Pieterse, said “we have been met with naked racism and white arrogance”. Labour relations in South Africa remain fraught with racial tension, more than 18 years after white minority rule ended. Most farm owners are white, while their workers are black.
Asia
‘Deal’ reached at Southern Weekly in China censorship row
Reports from China suggest journalists at a newspaper embroiled in a censorship row are returning to work after an agreement was reached. Staff at the respected Southern Weekly had demanded that a top propaganda chief step down after a New Year message was changed. Reports said that the provincial Communist Party chief, Hu Chunhua, had intervened to defuse the situation.
Japan seeks to boost military spending
Japan’s defence ministry says it is seeking more funds for military spending, a day after news the government would boost the defence budget for the first time in ten years. The ministry is asking for ¥180.5bn ($2.1bn), some of which an official said would be spent on missile interceptors and fighter jets. The announcements come amid a territorial row with China, and in the wake of nearby North Korea’s successful long-range rocket launch. The defence ministry spokesman said the funds were needed “to prepare for the changing security environment surrounding Japan”. The mooted increase is not large – Japan’s annual defence budget is ¥4.65 trillion – but it breaks a ten-year trend of gradual decline in the budget.
Three Delhi gang rape suspects to plead not guilty
Three of the five men accused of the abduction, gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi will plead not guilty to all charges against them, their lawyer has said. The five accused were charged on Monday. The next hearing in the case will be held tomorrow.
India says Pakistan ‘beheaded’ Kashmir soldier
India says one of two soldiers killed in an alleged cross-border attack by Pakistan troops in the disputed territory of Kashmir was beheaded. Pakistan has rejected accusations that it killed any Indian soldiers or fired across the Line of Control (LoC) which divides Kashmir. A statement by India’s foreign ministry said the soldiers’ bodies had been subjected to “barbaric and inhuman mutilation”.
Middle East
Iranian hostages released by Syrian rebels in exchange
Forty-eight Iranians held hostage by rebels in Syria since August have been freed, according to Iranian state television. The Iranians were released in exchange for 2,130 prisoners held by the Syrian authorities, a Turkish charity said. Rebel fighters claimed the hostages had been carrying out a mission on behalf of Syrian government forces. Iran conceded a number were retired members of the armed forces, but insisted they were pilgrims who had visited a Shia shrine in south-east Damascus, and that the group also included university students and public servants. The Free Syrian Army’s al-Bara Brigade said it had proof the Iranians belonged to the Revolutionary Guards and had come to Syria to “serve the regime”.
Morsi ‘to mediate’ talks between Fatah, Hamas leaders
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is set to mediate talks in Cairo between the leaders of Fatah and Hamas to help implement a unity pact signed in 2011. Egypt helped broker the deal between Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the Fatah party, and Hamas’s Khaled Meshaal. The Islamist movement ousted Fatah from Gaza in 2007 after winning Palestinian elections the previous year. Observers say tensions appear to have eased in recent months.
North America
Afghan ‘zero option’ raised as Karzai set to meet Obama
The White House has said for the first time it is possible that no US troops will remain in Afghanistan past 2014, as Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived in Washington for talks Barack Obama. Mr Karzai’s three-day trip will include crucial talks with President Obama and other officials, but no final decision. The Afghan president wants US troops out of Afghan towns and villages. Ben Rhodes, a top US security official, told reporters the administration was still considering a range of options.
Latin America
Colombia’s Alvaro Uribe investigated for ‘militia links’
Colombia’s attorney general’s office has reopened a preliminary criminal investigation against former President Alvaro Uribe. Mr Uribe is accused of involvement with far-right paramilitary groups while he was a state governor in the 1990s. The case is based on testimonies by imprisoned former right-wing militia members. Mr Uribe’s lawyers deny all charges, saying they are “full of suppositions, imprecisions and lies”.
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