Patrick PiersonBy Patrick Pierson.
Check out this story on the situation facing homeless veterans in the US. US VIP Mike Pence was in Peru this week for the Summit of the Americas meeting. Is Facebook implicitly helping to facilitate the illicit global trade of wildlife? The UN mission in Haiti has been extended for another year. The US Coast Guard intercepted a boat full of Haitian migrants in waters off the coast of Cuba this week. Drug-related violence is on the rise in Costa Rica. Guatemala has announced plans to relocate its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem in May. The dispute swirling around a Trump Hotel in Panama City, Panama, continues. Colombia has fired the head of a $500 million fund tasked with post-conflict peace programs over corruption allegations. Colombian authorities are ratcheting up efforts to combat the Gulf Clan cartel after the group was blamed for a bomb attack that killed eight police officers. Colombian drug traffickers are also thought to be responsible for the recent kidnapping of Ecuadorean journalists near the Ecuador-Colombia border.
Spain continues to urge German authorities to turn over former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont. Leaders in Berlin are moving forward on plans to rename streets linked to Germany’s oppression of Namibia during the colonial era. Increasingly large numbers of Syrian refugees are leaving Germany for Turkey. The spat between Greece and Turkey continues. French authorities are trying new approaches to manage the country’s growing prison population. The US and Norway have officially agreed on a new mutual defense arrangement. In Sweden, a Tibetan man has been charged with spying on fellow Tibetans on behalf of the Chinese government.
Turkish authorities have detained 140 people over suspected links to Fethullah Gulen. Are Iran and Israel on a collision course in Syria? A robber held up a bank in Amman this week with a fake gun. A Yemeni human rights group filed a lawsuit in French courts against the visiting crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman. Authorities in Oman arrested two expats on drug and human trafficking charges. President Trump praised Qatar’s anti-terrorism efforts this week. More than a dozen people were killed in a Taliban attack in southeastern Afghanistan this week. In Sri Lanka, parliament has been suspended until May 8th. Protests continue in India surrounding the rape and murder of an eight-year old girl. Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been banned from politics for life by the Pakistani Supreme Court. Bangladesh and the UNHCR have outlined an MoU for repatriating Rohingya refugees to Myanmar. A number of Myanmar soldiers have been sentenced to prison terms for their role in the massacre of Rohingyas. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has apologized to Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi after claiming that genocide was taking place in Myanmar. Almost three dozen employees at the US embassy in Cambodia have been fired for sharing pornographic material. The embassy also warned of a potential bomb threat during the country’s holiday weekend. The crackdown on political activists in Vietnam continues. A Syrian man is stuck in a Malaysian airport. Is China trying to build a military base in Vanuatu?
Check out this primer on 2018 elections across Africa. Dozens of Sudanese political prisoners have been released. The US is conducting annual military exercises in Niger this week. This comes amid reports that the US will reduce the role of Special Ops forces on the front lines in missions across Africa. An aid worker has been kidnapped in western Niger. A military plane crash in Algeria this week killed 257 people. Has Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar had a stroke? Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has announced he will run for re-election next year. More than a dozen people were killed in the Central African Republic this week in clashes between UN peacekeepers and residents of a Muslim quarter of the country’s capital, Bangui. Protesters laid the bodies of slain Central Africans in front of UN headquarters. An opposition politician has filed a legal challenge in the presidential elections in Sierra Leone. Officials in Zimbabwe have invited international elections observers to monitor upcoming national elections. Malawi is dealing with a cholera outbreak.
