World PM News Briefs For Tuesday, 26 January 2016
Hello Australia!! - Health officials say Australians have been infected with the Zika virus that's been causing so much trouble in South America - Malaysia's government is finally explaining why the PM suddenly had hundreds of millions of dollars in his bank accounts - Two Elderly women take war crime compensation into their own hands - And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:
Australian tourists returning home from South America have been infected with the mosquito-borne Zika Virus, according to virologists. Health officials from the UN and throughout Latin America are extremely concerned after almost 4,000 babies in Brazil were born with a birth defect called microcephaly, or abnormally small skulls. DFAT is cautioning Australians - particularly pregnant women - to reconsider plans to travel to 22 countries Latin American and Oceanic nations affected by the virus. There is no vaccine and no cure for Zika, and no way to fight it other than to clear pools of standing water where mosquitoes breed.
The UN Security Council is agreeing to create a mission for Colombia to oversee the disarming of the Marxist FARC as part of completing the peace process. This "political mission" will consist of unarmed observers from Latin American and Caribbean nations. Negotiators for the FARC and the Colombian government requested the mission from the peace talks going on in Havana, Cuba; they hope to have a peace deal signed by the end of March. The five-decade civil war in Colombia is the Western Hemisphere's longest conflict, and has cost more than 220,000 lives.
Malaysia's attorney general has cleared Prime Minister Najib Razak of criminal wrongdoing over that US$700 Million that suddenly appeared in his personal bank accounts. Critics suspected that the money may have come from a state development fund that crashed after losing just about the same amount of money. But Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali says Mr. Najib's windfall was a "gift" from the Saudi Arabian royal family. AG Apandi's announcement didn't clear up why the Saudis would make such a "donation", or if any action was expected in return.
Two elderly South Korean women are rejecting the deal struck between Japan and Seoul to compensate the women kidnapped by the Imperial Japanese Military during World War II and forced into service in brothels. 88-year old Lee Ok-sun and 87-year old Kang Il-chul went together to Tokyo to demand an apology from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and to seek formal compensation. Ms. Lee and Ms. Kang are among tens of thousands of women sexually abused by the Japanese military. The deal reached between South Korea and Japan last month sets up a A$11.5 Million fund for just the women from South Korea.
While Iran's president is visiting Europe to sign billions of dollars worth of trade deals now that the international economic sanctions have been lifted, Amnesty International would like to remind everyone that Iran gas a really terrible justice system. Dozens people are on death row in Iran for crimes committed before they reached the age of 18 - mostly drug smuggling offenses, but some for religious "crimes" as well. The rights group's new 110 page report details how Iran has executed at least 73 juvenile offenders between 2005 and 2015, including at least four last year. Iran is the world's second largest user of the death penalty, behind China.
China has released a Swedish human rights activist from jail and deported him. Authorities detained 35-year old Peter Dahlin since 4 January for allegedly "damaging national security". He is one of the co-founders of Chinese Urgent Action Working Group (China Action), which provides legal aid in rural areas and to people who may have had their human rights violated by the Chinese State.