Every Wednesday you will find links and top-line summaries to current events around the globe.
‘Controlled Burn’ Considered for Gulf Oil Spill [New York Times]
- A joint government and industry task force has been unable to stop crude oil from streaming out of a broken pipe attached to a well 5,000 feet below sea level. The leaks were found Saturday, days after an oil rig to which the pipe was attached exploded and sank in the gulf about 50 miles southeast of Venice, La. An estimated 42,000 gallons (159,000 liters) a day are now spilling into the Gulf of Mexico
- Officials said Tuesday that wind projections indicated that the oil would not reach land in the next three days, and it was unclear exactly where along the Gulf Coast it might arrive first. Admiral Landry said a final decision had not been made yet about whether to burn the oil
- With the spill moving toward land, the impact on the shoreline has to be considered. That part of Louisiana contains some 40% of the nation’s wetlands and is spawning grounds for countless fish and birds. Administration officials also met Tuesday with top executives of BP, which was leasing the rig and is required by law to pay for the cleanup
Goldman CEO faces withering attack over ethics [Reuters]
- The masters of the universe were forced down to earth on Tuesday. Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein, the head of the most powerful investment bank in the world, faced a blistering cross-examination from U.S. lawmakers about the company’s ethics and behavior toward its clients
- Blankfein was the last in a parade of Goldman Sachs Group Inc current and former executives who tried to fend off accusations they helping inflate the housing bubble and then made billions off the market’s collapse. Sworn in over seven hours after the hearing started, Blankfein said, as a market maker, it was not Goldman’s responsibility to tell customers how to trade or invest
- The SEC’s April 16 fraud suit centers on a subprime mortgage-linked product known as “Abacus 2007-AC1.” The agency says Goldman failed to disclose that hedge fund Paulson & Co had input into its construction and was betting it would fail. Despite the hearing, Goldman Sachs shares were up 0.7% at $153.04 by the close of trading on Tuesday, defying a drop of about 2% in the broader market triggered by downgrades in Greek and Portuguese debt
Ousted Kyrgyz President Charged With Murder [New York Times]
- Kyrgyzstan’s new authorities have charged the country’s former president with mass murder in the deaths of scores of antigovernment protesters earlier this month. The police and presidential guards opened fire on thousands of demonstrators on April 7, killing at least 85 people. They failed, however, to stop the protesters, who commandeered weapons and an armored personnel carrier and overran the government
- Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the former president, was forced to flee the country, and is currently in Belarus, where the president, Aleksandr Lukashenko, has guaranteed his security. The interim government has struggled to return order to Kyrgyzstan, an impoverished Central Asian nation that hosts a United States air base that serves as a transit hub for troops and equipment for the NATO mission in Afghanistan
- Russia, which has pledged its support to the new Kyrgyz government, has already extradited Mr. Bakiyev’s former interior minister, who had been recovering in Moscow after being severely beaten in the protests. On Monday, the provisional government said that the former minister would also face charges in the deaths of the demonstrators
Sierra Leone starts free care for mothers and children [BBC]
- Sierra Leone has launched a free healthcare plan for pregnant women, breast-feeding mothers and children under five years old. The country has some of the world’s highest maternal and child death rates. Doctors blame this partly on health service fees and the cost of medication, and hope the healthcare plan will help save lives
- Sierra Leone is one of the world’s poorest countries. It emerged from a decade of civil war in 2002, but reconstruction is still proving to be a big struggle. Free healthcare in Sierra Leone is expected to save the lives of more than one million mothers and children, at an initial cost of $19m (£12m).
- Other countries in Africa, such as Burundi, have also introduced free care to new mothers and children under five in recent years. In Sierra Leone, the programme’s main donors have been the UN and the UK, who between them have helped refurbish hospitals, supply drugs and pay health workers’ wages
China Moves to Tighten Data Controls [New York Times]
- China is on the verge of requiring telecommunications companies and Internet service providers to halt and report leaks of what the government deems to be state secrets, the latest in a series of moves intended to strengthen the government’s control over private communications
- The proposed amendment to the state secrets law, reported Tuesday by the state news media, defines a state secret broadly and loosely as information that, if disclosed, would damage China’s security or interests in political, economic, defense and other realms. The amendment was submitted Monday to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, for a third reading, the final step before being signed into law. Few measures reach that point in China without being adopted
- In a related move, the Chinese government on Monday posted on a government Web site a broad definition of what constituted a commercial secret, covering information related to strategic plans, management, mergers, equity trades, stock market listings, reserves, production, procurement and sales strategy, financing and finances, negotiations, joint venture investments and technology transfers
Greece debt: Merkel pledges support from Germany [BBC]
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pledged German support to a European financial aid package for Greece, provided “certain conditions” are met. Speaking to reporters, the chancellor said that Germany would play its part in order to ensure the future stability of the euro. But she said Greece would have to be ready to accept “tough measures” over several years in return
- Germany has faced criticism over its lukewarm response to Greece’s problems. Fears that Europe’s largest economic power would refuse to back a rescue package for the struggling Greek economy has helped to hit investor confidence in recent weeks
- The country needs to raise 9bn euros by May 19 and cannot go to the markets because of the “prohibitive” interest rates. The Greek government’s cost of borrowing on the money markets has reached record levels in recent days amid investor concern over whether a 40bn euro bail-out package for Greece will be agreed. Eurozone countries, together with the International Monetary Fund, have yet to agree details of the package, which has met with domestic resistance in Germany and other eurozone countries
Sudan elects wanted Bashir as president [Reuters]
- President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has won Sudan’s first open elections in 24 years in a result that confirms in office the only sitting head of state wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. Bashir won 68% of the presidential vote, while Salva Kiir retained his job as the president of Sudan’s semi-autonomous south, with 92.99% of the vote in that race, Sudan’s National Elections Commission announced.
- After a vote that outside observers said fell short of global standards, Bashir is expected to form a coalition with Kiir as the country heads toward a 2011 referendum on whether south Sudan should split off and become Africa’s newest state. Bashir had hoped a win in a legitimate vote would help him defy the ICC warrant, in which he is accused of ordering a campaign of murder, torture and rape in Sudan’s Darfur region
- But the election, meant to mark Sudan’s transformation into a democratic state, were marred by widespread charges of fraud, including from Kiir’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), suggesting the new ruling coalition will be a fragile one. Many southerners fear Bashir will try to disrupt the plebiscite in a maneuver to keep control of the south’s oil
Noriega Extradited to France to Face Charges [New York Times]
- Two decades after United States troops invaded Panama and arrested Manuel Noriega, the country’s dictator, Mr. Noriega left federal prison in Miami on Monday and was extradited to France. In 1999, he was convicted in France in absentia of laundering more than $3 million in drug profits by buying luxury apartments there. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. France has agreed to hold a new trial
- Noriega was also convicted in Panama of ordering the murder of political opponents, as well as embezzlement and corruption. Despite the more serious charges there, Mr. Noriega, who is in his seventies, fought to return to Panama. Elderly prisoners there are permitted to serve prison terms at home
- Convicted in federal court in Miami of turning Panama into a transshipment point for Colombian traffickers smuggling cocaine to the United States, Mr. Noriega was sentenced to 30 years in 1992. The United States military invaded Panama on Dec. 20, 1989, to overthrow Mr. Noreiga and bring him to the United States for trial
Ship Attack Shows South Korean Quandary Over How to Respond to North [New York Times]
- South Korea’s defense minister on Sunday said a torpedo attack was the most likely cause for the sinking of a South Korean warship that killed at least 40 sailors last month, a statement that inched the country closer to placing blame on North Korea and added urgency to the question of how the South might respond
- The minister did not mention the North, continuing a cautious government approach that reflects the lack of good options available to South Korea’s leaders if they decide that North Korea was responsible for what would be one of the most serious attacks since the Korean War ended in a truce. Any military retaliation could provoke a response from a country with the capacity to strike Seoul and a mercurial leader who has proved to be violent and unpredictable. A lesser response, could lead North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to conclude that he could lash out again without facing consequences
- The announcement on Sunday by Defense Minister Kim Tae-young appeared to fit a pattern that some analysts say shows the government is carefully building a case for a limited response — doling out information slowly enough so emotions ease before a final assignment of blame. In the end, should it be determined that Pyongyang sank the ship, the greatest danger could be to the “Sunshine Policy,” a legacy of the last two liberal presidents
- Deadly new Russian weapon hides in shipping container [Reuters]
- Milliken’s plea: Let’s not fail democracy now [The Globe and Mail]
- Gamble Sours for Many Kentucky Horse Breeders [New York Times]
- Malcolm X Killer Is Freed on Parole [New York Times]
- Protests as Ukraine approves Russian base extension [Reuters]
- Porsche recalls all Panameras in embarrassing move [Reuters]
- Belgian king accepts government’s resignation [Reuters]
- Landslide victory for Hungary’s conservative opposition [BBC]
- Hertz to buy Dollar Thrifty for $1.2 billion [Reuters]
- Hollywood sign is saved at last minute by Hugh Hefner [BBC]
Photograph by Gerald Herbert
An aerial photo shows oil in the Gulf of Mexico, more than 50 miles (80.4 km) southeast of Venice on Louisiana’s tip, as the Deepwater Horizon oil rig burns. The deepwater oil platform that burned for more than day after a massive explosion sank into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, April 22, 2010, turning what is likely a deadly blast into an environmental emergency. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
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