Monday, 10th November 2014
SPAIN – 80.72 percent of the more than two million Catalans who participated in Catalonia’s symbolic independence referendum voted yes, Catalan vice president Joana Ortega said, referring to almost 90 percent of votes counted. (ANSAMED)
EGYPT – Egypt is drafting a law tightening restrictions on media coverage of the armed forces, government and judicial sources said, alarming journalists who believe this would end three years of relative press freedom. (Reuters)
Tuesday, 11th November 2014
ISRAEL – Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian during clashes in the occupied West Bank, a day after Palestinian assailants fatally stabbed an Israeli soldier and a woman in attacks that raised fears of a new uprising. Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel would seek to crush the spiraling violence by meting out stiffer punishments, deploying more forces and destroying assailants’ homes. (Reuters)
QATAR – Qatar’s emir publicly invited fellow Gulf rulers to a Doha summit, apparently seeking to forestall what diplomats say is an attempt by some peers to move it elsewhere in protest at what they see as an Islamist tilt in his foreign policy. (Reuters)
LIBYA – A UN envoy held talks for the first time with the head of a self-declared Libyan parliament, which rejects the internationally recognized authorities, as part of efforts to find a solution to the country’s deepening conflict. (Reuters)
Wednesday, 12th November 2014
TURKEY – A group of Turkish ultra-nationalists attacked three US sailors on a crowded street in Istanbul on Wednesday, shouting “Yankee go home” and trying to pull hoods over their heads in an assault condemned by the US embassy. (Reuters)
FRANCE – French lawmakers are set to hold symbolic parliamentary votes over the next month on whether the government should recognize Palestine as a state, a move likely to anger the Jewish state. France does not classify Palestine as a state, but says it could extend recognition if it believed doing so would help promote peace between the Palestinians and Israel. (Reuters)
GREECE – Greek Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, and Deputy Premier, Evangelos Venizelos, met on Tuesday to study the list of 19 actions that the troika has demanded from Athens, setting apart five on which they believe the government will have to proceed cautiously. (ANSAMED)
Thursday, 13th November 2014
SAUDI ARABIA – Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, called for attacks against the rulers of Saudi Arabia in a speech, saying his self-declared caliphate was expanding there and in four other Arab countries. (Reuters)
IRAQ – The government of Iraq and the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan have reached a deal to ease tensions over Kurdish oil exports and civil service payments from Baghdad. (Reuters)
PALESTINE – Israel and the Palestinians have pledged to take concrete steps to calm tensions around Jerusalem’s holiest site, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday after talks in the Jordanian capital. (Reuters)
Friday, 14th November 2014
ISIS – Islamic State commanders are liable for war crimes on a “massive scale” in northeast Syria, where they spread terror by beheading, stoning and shooting civilians and captured fighters, UN investigators said on Friday. (Reuters)
ITALY – Italian unions, joined by students and leftwing groups, demonstrated across the country against Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s planned overhaul of job protection rules. (Reuters)