Africa
Al-Shabab ambush ministers and defend Jowhar in Somalia
After weeks of relative calm in Somalia, a convoy carrying three ministers has been attacked, while fierce fighting has erupted near the militant base of Jowhar, officials say. The ministers of defence, interior and justice were unharmed after a landmine exploded under a vehicle near the port of Merca. The port of Jowhar, which saw a two-hour gunfight, is the biggest town under the control of the al-Shabab Islamist militant group. The al-Qaeda linked group has been driven out of most urban areas over the last two years but still controls many rural areas of the country. Three Somali soldiers and 15 al-Shabab fighters have been killed in the fighting, according to local governor Abdi Jiinow. Mr Jiinow says the fighting was the fiercest in the area for several months since government forces advanced on the town.
Asia
Violence flares in Bangladesh strike
Violence has flared in Bangladesh as the country’s largest Islamist party enforces a general strike to demand the release of its leaders from prison. One protester was killed last night in the northern town of Chirirbandar amid protests ahead of today’s strike. A special court is trying senior leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami for allegedly carrying out atrocities during the 1971 independence war. The party says the charges are politically motivated.
Philippines Mindanao island hit by Typhoon Bopha
More than 40,000 people have been moved into shelter as a powerful typhoon strikes the southern Philippines. Typhoon Bopha made landfall on Mindanao early on Tuesday, bringing heavy rain and wind gusts of 210kph (130mph). At least two people have died in the storm, which caused power cuts, travel disruption and flooding in areas at risk of landslides. Bopha comes a year after Typhoon Washi killed more than 1,500 in the same region. Yesterday, President Beningo Aquino urged people in Bopha’s path to take the storm seriously: “we can minimise the damage and loss of lives if we help each other.”
Middle East
Nato warns Syria over chemical weapons
Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has underlined US President Barack Obama’s warning to the Syrian government not to use chemical weapons against its own people. At a Nato foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels, Mr Rasmussen said their use would be “completely unacceptable” and that he would “expect an immediate reaction from the international community” if they were used. The foreign ministers are expected to approve the deployment of Patriot anti-missile batteries to Turkey, in a move designed to defend the Turkish border with Syria. A Syrian official has insisted the country would “never, under any circumstances” use such weapons, “if such weapons exist”.
Netanyahu defies outcry over E-1 settlements
Israel says it will not relent to international pressure to halt plans for 3,000 new settler homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel would “continue to stand by its vital interests, even in the face of international pressure, and there will be no change in the decision that was made”. The UK, France, Denmark and Sweden have all summoned Israeli ambassadors in protest at the plans, and the United States also called on Israel to “reconsider” its decision. Russia, Germany and the UN have also objected to the plans. The new settlements were authorised a day after the UN voted to upgrade Palestine to the status of a non-member observer state, which Israel condemned as a “gross violation” of previous settlements.
UN fears for Iranian hunger striker Nasrin Sotoudeh
Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, says she is extremely concerned about the health of the Iranian human rights activist, Nasrin Sotoudeh. Ms Sotoudeh is in the seventh week of a hunger strike in Tehran’s Evin prison. Her family says she has lost a lot of weight and that her blood pressure is now abnormally low. She is serving a six-year sentence for acting against national security and spreading propaganda. The Iranian government says she is in good health. The UN regards her imprisonment as arbitrary and a human rights violation.
Europe
David Cameron tells editors to arrange press regulator
British Prime Minister David Cameron has met newspaper editors and says he told them to act quickly to establish a new press regulator in the wake of the Leveson report. Mr Cameron tweeted: “I’ve just spoken to newspaper editors in No.10 – telling them they need to set up an independent regulator urgently.” The Leveson report, published last week, recommended an independent self-regulatory body for the press, which he said should be backed by legislation. The Labour opposition and Mr Cameron’s coalition partners, the Liberal Democrat party, both support statutory underpinning, but Mr Cameron and the majority of his Conservative party are against it. Mr Cameron said the industry’s regulator needed to meet “the requirement of Lord Justice Leveson’s report… that means million-pound fines, proper investigation of complaints, prominent apologies, a tough independent regulatory system.”
North America
White House rejects Republican fiscal cliff counter-offer
The White House has rejected a Republican offer to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff”, saying it did not meet “the test of balance”. The Republicans had made a $2.2tn proposal, including changes to benefits. The plan would cut $600bn from federal health programmes and decrease cost of living adjustments to Social Security, and was condemned in a statement by White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, which said it “promises to lower rates for the wealthy and sticks the middle class with the bill”. The Republican proposal was a response to President Barack Obama’s offer last week of a $1.6tn deal involving tax rises and spending cuts. Negotiations are ongoing to avoid the fiscal cliff, the term for a raft of automatic spending reductions and expiring tax cuts, which will come into effect on 1 January if no deal is passed before then. It is predicted to have a strong adverse effect on the economy.
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