Global Focus
1. LAHORE,PAKISTAN
A terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka Cricket team has left 8 Pakistanis dead and 7 members of the team injured. The assault took place in the area surrounding the Gaddafi stadium where the second test match against Pakistan was due to take place. It is believed that the Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, who are suspected of perpetrating the Mumbai attacks of last November, are responsible.
2. EDINBURGH, UNITED KINGDOM
Rows in Parliament continue over the prospect of reducing the pension of disgraced banker Sir Fred Goodwin. The former RBS chief executive has earned himself the much quoted title ‘world’s worst banker’ based on his high risk approach to finance resulting in the RBS bailout. Sir Fred is legally entitled to almost £700,000 a year during his retirement despite the damage he did to the British economy.
3. CARACAS, VENUZUELA
In a move to increase state ownership of industry further President Chavez has seized rice mills militarily from their private owners. Chavez told reporters that he had “no problem expropriating” and would not compensate the owners with cash but with bonds.
4. BISSAU, GUINEA BISSAU
President João Bernado Vieira was shot dead by members of his own military in what is being described as an act of revenge. The army accused the president of being responsible for the killing of Army Chief of Staff Batista Tagme Na Waie just hours earlier. The two had been fierce political rivals for some thirty years.
5. KUALA LUMPA, MALAYSIA
Riot police fired tear gas on a crowd of thousands of protestors against the use of English in schools. Although the tear gas was unprovoked, the organisers of the protest had previously agreed that nothing would happen in the capital. 124 people have been held after calling for Malay to be restored for the teaching of maths and sciences.
6. WASHINGTON D.C. , US
This week Prime Minister Gordon Brown became the first European leader to meet with US president Barack Obama. Despite worries that the president would be less enthusiastic than his predecessor about the ‘special’ transatlantic relationship Obama maintains that there is “a bond that will not break” between the US and the UK.
7. TEHRAN, IRAN
Tensions in the West are running high as Iran tests its first nuclear reactor. Western leaders suspect that the Iranian energy program is a front for the building of a nuclear bomb. If plans go ahead the plant will become active within a year.
8. DARFUR, SUDAN
The international criminal court has charged President al-Bashir with war crimes, provoking fear of further violence in the Darfur region. The result follows eight months of deliberation by the International Criminal Court.
9. BEATRICE, ZIMBABWE
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangerai’s wife has been killed in a car crash. Tsvangarai was also in the car, along with an aide, and has been mildly injured. The car was in a collision with a lorry while Tsvangarai was driving to his country home for the weekend; he is currently recuperating in Botswana.
10. NAIROBI, KENYA
Two Kenyans, an influential human rights activist and his colleague, have been shot dead. Oscar Kamau Kingara and John Paul Oulu were targeted by gunmen as they sat in a car 500 metres from the president’s heavily guarded official residence. The killings take place a week after a UN expert described the Kenyan police as “a law unto themselves” and have sparked accusations that the assassination was carried out by security forces.
11. STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
A British couple have committed suicide together at a clinic run by the controversial Dignitas charity in Sweden. They became the first Britons to take their lives at such a clinic since the Lord Chief Justice said that anyone helping a terminally ill person to arrange an assisted suicide would not be prosecuted.
12. LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson was gunged after he got out of his car to attend a meeting on climate change in Central London. He was approached by well known environmental protestor Leila Deen who threw a cup of green custard in his face. The incident has raised questions about the lack of security arrangements for British politicians.
13. ANTRIM, NORTHERN IRELAND
An attack on an army base thought be have been carried out by dissident Republicans has left two soldiers dead and four injured, two of whom were pizza delivery men. The soldiers are the first to be murdered in Northern Ireland since an IRA sniper attack in 1997.
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