Monday, 1st September 2014
LIBYA – Libya’s elected Parliament, the House of Representatives, has asked Abdullah al-Thinni to form a new caretaker government, amid political division and ongoing violence in the country. (AlJazeera)
TURKEY – Dozens of Turkish police officers, including a former chief of a police financial unit, were detained on Monday in a fresh wave of arrests over allegations of plotting against the government. (Reuters)
ISRAEL – Israel announced on Sunday a land appropriation in the occupied West Bank that an anti-settlement group termed the biggest in 30 years, drawing Palestinian condemnation and a U.S. rebuke. (Reuters)
Tuesday, 2nd September 2014
IRAQ – ISIS has released a video that shows the beheading of U.S. journalist, Steven Sotloff, and justifies it as a retaliation for the Obama’s airstrikes in Iraq. Sotloff is the second American journalist to be killed by ISIS, and his death comes two weeks after James Foley was executed in a similar video. (DailyMail)
TUNISIA – A deputy in Tunisia’s transitional Parliament survived an assassination attempt in the city of Kasserine, near the Algerian border, where security forces have been hunting Islamist militants for months.(Reuters)
SPAIN – Jordi Pujol , the man who became a figurehead for Spain’s wealthy Catalonia region and its drive to become an independent nation, will be brought to justice for hiding millions from the taxman, a government minister told parliament on Tuesday. (DailyMail)
Wednesday, 3rd September 2014
SOMALIA – A hail of U.S. missiles aimed at the leader of Somalia’s al Shabaab militants may have left a gaping hole in the group’s leadership, potentially the biggest challenge to its unity since it emerged as a fighting force eight years ago. Washington said on Wednesday it was still uncertain whether the laser-guided attack on Monday had killed Ahmed Godane, who aligned al Shabaab with al Qaeda. (Reuters)
ALGERIA – The states of the African Union (AU) have created a body tasked with coordinating anti-terrorism measures in the continent. The heads of state of Algeria, South Africa, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, and Ethiopia will be part of the committee, which will be chaired by Algeria.(ANSAmed)
YEMEN – Yemen’s president dismissed his government, proposed a national unity administration and suggested reinstating fuel subsidies, government sources said, in moves to quell weeks of unrest by a rebel movement. But the Houthis, a Shi’ite Muslim group that had massed tens of thousands of supporters in the capital Sanaa within camps near the Interior Ministry, rejected the compromise proposals by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. (Reuters)
Thursday, 4th September 2014
FRANCE – President Francois Hollande’s popularity has sunk to 13%, according to a TNS-Sofres poll conducted for the Le Figaro Magazine. The level is the lowest seen for a French president since 1978. (ANSAmed)
IRAN – The United States and Iranian officials resumed another round of bilateral talks on Thursday over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program. This meeting between the two sides came after the P5+1 group, comprised of the United States, China, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and Iran, failed to meet a deadline of July 20 to reach a comprehensive agreement. (Xinhua)
NATO – Nato leaders have descended on the Welsh resort of Celtic Manor for a two-day summit, which formally started with a meeting about Afghanistan but will be dominated by discussion on Ukraine and the threat of Islamic State (Isis) extremists in Iraq and Syria. (TheGuardian)
Friday, 5th Friday 2014
UKRAINE CRISIS – Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko confirmed on his Twitter account that envoys meeting in Minsk to end fighting between Kiev’s forces and pro-Russian separatists had signed a ceasefire agreement that would come into effect later on Friday. (Reuters)The European Union was set to agree on new economic sanctions against Russia but could suspend them if Moscow withdraws its troops from Ukraine and observes a ceasefire, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. (Reuters)
IRAQ – The US has announced it is forming a “core coalition” to battle Islamic State (Isis) in Iraq, and has given the new block two weeks to finalise plans to help the Baghdad authorities and the Kurds in the north to intensify the fight against the militants. (TheGuardian)
IRAN -Iran’s Supreme Leader has approved co-operation with the US as part of the fight against Islamic State (IS) in Iraq. Ayatollah Khamenei authorised his top commander to co-ordinate military operations with the US, Iraqi and Kurdish forces. (BBC)