Incident Comments

Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission, (IEC), announced on Wednesday that a number of voter registration centres are to be opened across the country starting on Sunday.  IEC spokesman, Mohammad Noor, stated that; 3 x centres will be opened in Kabul, 2 in Kandahar, 2 in Herat, 2 in Nangarhar and 2 in Balkh provinces.  Noor went on to say that further registration centres will be opened in other districts, but that security is of a concern.  300,000 supervisors have been nominated to oversee the Afghan election process, but the security of both staff, premises and the voters themselves remains a major concern.  The outgoing French Ambassador to Kabul, Bernard Bajolet, recently voiced what many are thinking privately, by questioning how the international community could have created such a ‘perfect storm’ of events in 2014, with the conclusion of the ISAF mission, draw-down in military personnel, hand-over of security control and Presidential elections all occurring at the same time.

Incident Comments

A man has died of the novel coronavirus (NCoV) in Tunisia, in what is believed to be the first such case in Africa. Tunisia's health ministry said on Tuesday that the 66-year-old had visited Saudi Arabia, which is badly affected by the virus. About 20 deaths and 41 cases have been reported worldwide since 2012, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says. NCoV is from the same family of viruses as the one that caused the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) outbreak in 2003, killing about 770 people. However, NCoV and Sars are distinct from each other, the WHO says. It appears likely that the virus can be passed between people in close contact, it adds. The Tunisian man, a diabetic, had been complaining of breathing problems since he returned from Saudi Arabia and he died in hospital in the coastal city of Monastir.

Incident Comments

At least 10 people have died and 70 have been wounded in the latest round of sectarian violence in Tripoli in Lebanon. Four people were killed overnight in fighting between Alawite supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Sunnis, who back the Syrian opposition. The death toll since fresh fighting broke out on Sunday includes two Lebanese soldiers. Earlier this month, five people were killed in violence in the city. The Lebanese media says that residents had to take shelter from shelling and sniper fire, as the clashes entered a fourth day. Fighting in Tripoli has been concentrated in the predominantly Sunni Bab al-Tabbana area and the Jabal Muhsin area, which is populated mainly by Alawites.

Incident Comments

Seven women and five men have been shot dead in a brothel in Baghdad, state and medical officials say. Unknown armed gunmen are said to have burst into the brothel in the well-to-do eastern district of Zayouna on Wednesday afternoon and opened fire. Prostitution is prohibited under Islam, the dominant religion in Iraq.

Incident Comments

Two prominent figures in Iran have been barred from standing as candidates in next month's presidential election. Ex-President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a close ally of outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had been excluded by the Guardian Council, state TV reported Tuesday. Only eight of the 686 people who registered as potential candidates were reportedly cleared to stand. The Guardian Council is loyal to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he will contest the disqualification of his ally Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei from next month's presidential poll.

Incident Comments

Seven members of the Egyptian security forces who were abducted in the Sinai Peninsula have been freed. The men arrived at a military base in a Cairo suburb on Wednesday where they were received by President Mohamed Morsi and government ministers. Mr Morsi made the unprecedented move of calling on the people of Sinai to "give up their arms". The peninsula has become increasingly lawless since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011. The hostages were seized while travelling in minibuses in northern Sinai, east of the city of El Arish on May 16.

Incident Comments

The House of Commons voted 366 for to 161 against on Tuesday to allow gay marriage in England and Wales. Several Tory MPs spoke against the proposals, which have caused tensions in the party, but the Labour and the Lib Dem leaderships backed them. The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill now goes before the House of Lords.

Incident Comments

Up to 600 Afghan interpreters who worked alongside British troops are to be given the right to live in the UK. The plan marks a climb down from ministers who had decided they should not get the same UK resettlement rights as interpreters in the Iraq conflict. A five-year visa will be offered initially to those who worked on the front line for a year or more - covering around half of interpreters.

Incident Comments

Rioters have lit fires and stoned emergency services in the suburbs of Stockholm for the third night in a row after a man was shot dead by police. Incidents were reported in at least nine suburbs of the Swedish capital and police made eight arrests. On Sunday night, more than 100 cars were set alight, Swedish media report. Police in the deprived, largely immigrant suburb of Husby shot a man dead last week after he reportedly threatened to kill them with a machete. The founder of a local youth group told Swedish media the riots were a reaction to "police brutality". Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told reporters on Tuesday that Sweden would not be intimidated by rioters.

Incident Comments

An imprisoned member of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot has announced a hunger strike after being refused the right to attend her own parole hearing. Maria Alyokhina used a video link from her prison to tell the court in the Urals town of Berezniki that her legal rights had been violated. Last month, fellow band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova was denied parole. The two women were jailed for two years in August for a breach of public order motivated by religious hatred. They had performed an obscenity-laced "punk prayer" at Moscow's main cathedral, in protest against Vladimir Putin during his re-election campaign. An appeals court suspended the sentence of a third band member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, in October, but upheld the jail terms for Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina. Alyokhina said she was asking her lawyers to withdraw from the hearing until she was allowed to attend it in person.

Incident Comments

A Chinese fishing crew seized by North Koreans two weeks ago has been freed along with their boat, reports say. The 16-man crew was taken captive by unidentified North Koreans in the Yellow Sea on May 5. China said on Monday it had been negotiating with Pyongyang for their release since May 10. All were "safe on their way back", China's Xinhua news agency reported. Boat owner Yu Xuejun told Reuters news agency no ransom had been paid. He had earlier said that the North Koreans were demanding a 600,000 yuan ($100,000; £66,000) ransom, and that he had received eight calls demanding payment.

Incident Comments

Japan's parliament has voted to adopt an international treaty on child abductions, after years of pressure from Western countries. The 1980 Hague Convention sets out procedures for handling cross-border child custody disputes. Japan is the only country out of the Group of Eight industrialized nations (G8) yet to ratify the convention. Its policies have been blamed for making it easy for Japanese mothers to remove children from foreign fathers.
 

Incident Comments

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has sent a special envoy to Beijing, state media has announced, amid cooling relations between the two neighbors. Choe Ryong-hae, a top military official, flew to the Chinese capital on Wednesday, KCNA said. The brief dispatch gave no details of the visit, which comes amid an apparent toughening of Beijing's stance in the wake of Pyongyang's third nuclear test. Chinese media said Mr Choe met Wang Jiarui, a top foreign affairs official. The visit - the duration of which remains unknown - follows weeks of high tension on the Korean peninsula.

Incident Comments

A sweeping immigration bill that would offer a chance of citizenship to millions living in the US illegally has taken a stride forward in Congress. A Senate panel voted 13-5 on Tuesday to back the measure, after a plan to allow people to sponsor same-sex partners for permanent legal status was withdrawn. The full Senate will now debate the proposal next month. The bill is widely seen as the biggest overhaul of US immigration policy in more than a quarter of a century.

Incident Comments

The FBI in Orlando, Florida, have shot a man they were questioning about possible links to Boston bombs suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, US media report. An FBI spokesman said they were responding to the incident and that the agent had shot and killed the man "while conducting official duties". NBC News quoted unnamed sources as saying the suspect had tried to attack an agent. Anonymous law enforcement officials and a friend of the man in Orlando said he had been killed on Tuesday night. FBI spokesman Dave Couvertier said in a statement: "The agent encountered the suspect while conducting official duties.

Incident Comments

Two Spanish tourists have been kidnapped in Colombia while driving in La Guajira, near the Venezuelan border. The couple disappeared on Friday, but Spanish authorities only confirmed the kidnapping on Tuesday. The kidnappers contacted the hostages' family and identified themselves as members of the left-wing rebels Farc, Colombian authorities say. The group, which last year vowed to stop civilian hostage-taking, has not claimed responsibility.

Incident Comments

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered the release of all women held in connection with "terrorist activity", the defence ministry says. The decision was aimed at enhancing peace efforts in Nigeria, it added. The army is conducting an offensive in three states, where an emergency was declared last week to fight the militant Islamist group Boko Haram. The group had set the release of women and children as a condition for talks with the government. More than 2,000 people have died in the conflict in Nigeria since Boko Haram launched its insurgency in 2009 to create an Islamic state. Earlier this month, it said it had abducted women and teenage girls in response to the security forces arresting the relatives of its fighters. It said it would treat them as "slaves".

Incident Comments

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy have been named in connection with post-election violence in a long-awaited report investigating human rights abuses in the country. The report gave no recommendation for action to be taken against Mr Kenyatta and Vice-President William Ruto. The report's chairman told the media that this was because they already face charges at the International Criminal Court. Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto deny such allegations. The Truth Reconciliation and Justice Commission (TRJC) was set up following deadly post-election clashes five years ago. After those elections some 1,500 people were killed and more than 600,000 forced to flee their homes.

Incident Comments

A mortar has hit the main city in eastern DRC, killing one person, the UN said Wednesday. The attack came as UN chief Ban Ki-moon arrived in the capital, Kinshasa, to promote peace in the region. Government and M23 rebel forces have been involved in heavy fighting near Goma, the east's economic hub, since Monday, killing 19 people. The clashes are the first since the M23 pulled out of the city last year under diplomatic pressure. The UN says it will speed up efforts to deploy a 3,000-strong intervention force to eastern DRC to end the latest conflict.

Incident Comments

The British government has relented under public pressure to give Afghans asylum who have assisted British forces during the ISAF campaign, and who’s lives may subsequently be under threat.  Approximately half of those who have assisted with the British mission, which equals around 600 people plus their families, are to be given the opportunity to re-settle in Britain as the mission concludes.  Applications for re-location will be considered on a case by case basis and individuals must have been employed with the British military for a minimum of 12 months to be eligible.  Moves such as this however, raise awkward questions of exactly what has been achieved during the 13 years of the ISAF campaign if at it’s conclusion, large swathes of the local population remain in fear of their lives.