Every Wednesday, the Sifter posts top-line summaries to current events around the globe. All news articles are from Reuters, The New York Times and BBC News.


Obama hails end to US combat operations in Iraq [BBC News]

- President Obama has hailed the end of US combat operations in Iraq, saying the US has paid a “a huge price” to “put Iraq’s future in its people’s hands”. In a speech delivered in a rare Oval Office address, he said he was “awed” by the sacrifice of the US military. But he said America’s “most urgent task” was now to “restore our economy”
- Obama said the drawdown in Iraq allowed the US military to divert resources to the fight in Afghanistan, where he said the US remained committed to defeating al-Qaeda and the Taliban. But he reiterated the mission in that country would last “a limited time” before Afghan security forces would have to take over
- Violence in Iraq is down from the peak seen during the sectarian conflict in 2006-2007, although the number of civilian deaths rose sharply in July. The last US combat brigade left Iraq nearly two weeks ago, well ahead of the 31 August target set by President Obama to cut the number of US troops in Iraq below 50,000. All US forces must be gone by the end of next year

Floodwaters in south Pakistan ‘begin to recede’ [BBC News]

- Emergency officials in Pakistan say water levels in flood-stricken southern Pakistan are beginning to recede. They warned, however, that water levels on the southern reaches of the Indus River were still “exceptionally high”. The floods, triggered by torrential monsoon rains in the north-west, have moved south through the country, submerging towns and farmland
- More than 1,600 people have died and about six million are homeless after Pakistan’s worst flooding. In total, about 17 million of Pakistan’s 166 million people have been affected by the disaster. A month after the floods began, the effort is still focused on the first stage of relief, rescuing and evacuating people. About 72,000 children were already affected by severe malnutrition, UN officials said
- The UN’s World Food Programme estimates that the floods have damaged about 14% of the country’s cultivated land. With damage to crops estimated at almost $3bn, the country will need help feeding its population for some time

China to vaccinate 100 million children to fight measles [Reuters]

- Nearly 100 million children in China will be vaccinated against measles this month to help eliminate the disease, a leading cause of avoidable death and disability in developing countries, the WHO said on Wednesday
- There were more than 52,000 cases of measles in China in 2009. Michael O’Leary, the World Health Organization’s representative in China, said China’s measles cases made up 86 percent of all cases in the western Pacific
- Globally, 164,000 people died from measles in 2008 - mostly children under the age of five, or 18 deaths every hour. To eliminate measles, every child should get two doses, the second given after the age of one year

Australian PM wins Greens support in government bid [Reuters]

- Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard forged an alliance with the Greens party on Wednesday to take her party closer to forming a government, but vowed not to allow the deal to change her plans for a tax on miners’ profits
- Labor’s widely expected agreement with the influential Greens party gives Gillard 73 seats in the 150-member lower house, bringing her level with the opposition conservative coalition but still three short of the majority required to rule. A jostle for the support of four independent lawmakers who emerged from August 21’s inconclusive election holding the balance of power could still drag into early next week
- So far financial markets have not been ruffled by the political uncertainty. Investors are more focused on the risk that economic weakness in the United States and Japan could spill into Australia, undermining its relatively robust growth

Mexicans hope drug lord’s arrest may turn tide [Reuters]

- Mexico paraded one of its most violent drug lords on Tuesday after a police raid that President Felipe Calderon’s government hopes will mark a breakthrough in its campaign against powerful cartels. But the capture of Edgar “La Barbie” Valdez, a Texas-born 37-year-old, may do little to halt the flow of drugs into the United States or staunch bloodshed in Mexico’s most violent areas, many of them along the U.S. border
- Officials say Valdez, as a leader of the Beltran Leyva cartel based in central Mexico, trafficked a ton of cocaine each month and was responsible for “several dozen” murders. He is believed to be behind merciless beheadings of rivals, torture and mutilation of victims, and the slaughter of the family of a marine who took part in the killing of his former boss Arturo Beltran Leyva in December
- But Valdez’s operations were small compared to Mexico’s top gangs — the Sinaloa, Gulf and Juarez cartels — which smuggle the majority of the 140 tons of cocaine the United Nations estimates that Mexico exports to the United States every year. While the government hopes the capture will weaken Mexican cartels, such operations in the past have at times intensified bloodshed at least temporarily as subordinates battle for control of gangs believed to rake in up to $40 billion a year

Japan Airlines slashes workforce [BBC News]

- Japan Airlines (JAL) has announced its restructuring plan after filing for bankruptcy protection on 19 January. The struggling airline intends to cut a third of its workforce, more than 16,000 jobs, and close unprofitable domestic and international routes
- Some of the job reductions will be gained through early retirement and the sale of subsidiaries. The company also intends to reduce by 103 aircraft, or 40%, the number of planes in its fleet. Like other major global airlines, JAL has been hit hard by falling passenger numbers during the global economic downturn and faces an increasing challenge from Japanese rival All Nippon Airways
- It said its headcount would be cut from 48,714 at the end of 2009 to 32,600 by the end of this year. The restructuring plan is being orchestrated as part of a government-backed bail-out after JAL’s bankruptcy in January with more than $25bn in debt. The bankruptcy of Japan Airlines was one of the country’s biggest corporate failures to date

Obama widens U.S. sanctions on North Korea [Reuters]

- President Barack Obama broadened financial sanctions on North Korea on Monday and froze the U.S. assets of four North Korean citizens and eight firms in part to punish it for the sinking of a South Korean warship. Obama signed an executive order that lets the United States block the U.S. assets of North Korean entities that trade in conventional arms or luxury products, counterfeit currency or engage in money laundering, drug smuggling or other “illicit” activity that supports the government or its leaders
- Perks and luxuries such as jewelry, fancy cars and yachts derived from North Korea’s shadowy network of overseas interests are believed to be one of the main tools Pyongyang uses to ensure loyalty among top military and party leaders to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il
- U.S.-North Korean relations have deteriorated since Obama took office, with his aides deeply unhappy about Pyongyang’s decision to conduct nuclear and missile tests last year as well as the March 26 sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan. It was unclear what had determined the timing of the executive order

South Africa wage offer increased in bid to stop strike [BBC News]

- The South African government has increased its wage offer to more than a million striking public sector workers. President Jacob Zuma had called for fresh attempts at reconciliation as the two-week long strike has seen many schools and hospitals grind to a halt
- After a night of tough negotiations, government representatives raised their pay offer to 7.5%. The unions have been demanding 8.6% and are expected to vote on Tuesday night on whether to accept the new offer. The strike has had a crippling affect especially on hospitals, where army medics and volunteers are caring for patients
- Before this latest round of negotiations, the main trade union federation, Cosatu, had threatened a one-day general strike on Thursday if the wage demand of 8.6% was not met, said the BBC’s Karen Allen in Johannesburg. About a million civil servants are already on strike, but Cosatu’s total affiliated membership is double that

India parliament passes nuclear liability bill [Reuters]

- India’s parliament on Monday approved a bill to open up the country’s $150 billion nuclear power market, sealing legislation crucial for the entry of U.S. firms like General Electric and Westinghouse Electric. The legislation, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said was critical for India’s energy security, was backed by the main opposition after the government agreed to tougher provisions
- Opening up the sector will facilitate the building of nuclear plants and narrow energy deficits in a country where lack of adequate power has been a drag on economic growth. India, which has a total installed power generation capacity of 164 giga watts (GW), aims to raise it up to 186 GW by end-March 2012
- Apart from this, more hurdles remain. Land has increasingly become a politically charged issue and there has been a series of violent protests against farmland being acquired for industrial purposes

- Hurricane Earl churns towards US east coast [BBC News]
- South Sudan to end use of child soldiers [BBC News]
- China Fortifies State Businesses to Fuel Growth [New York Times]
- Putin hints will return to Kremlin in 2012 [Reuters]

Photograph by NASA/NOAA GOES Project


Three Storms: The current Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite GOES-13 captured this image of Hurricane Danielle heading for the north Atlantic (top center), Hurricane Earl with a visible eye hitting the Leeward Islands (left bottom) and a developing tropical depression 8 (lower right) at 1:45 p.m. EDT on Aug. 30.


via NASA: Image of the Day




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