Download - news report volume 6 issue 18
The Weekly Newspaper of Foreign Policy and International Relations Club
Volume 6, Issue 18
24 April 2012
Hollande tops Sarkozy in French vote, Le Pen surges Far-rightist Marine Le Pen threw France's presidential race wide open on Sunday by scoring nearly
20 percent in the first round - votes that may determine a runoff between Socialist favorite Fran-
cois Hollande and conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy. Hollande led Sarkozy by about 28.5 percent to 26 percent meaning
the two will meet in a head-to-head decider on May 6 that may be
closer than had been expected. But Le Pen's record score of 19.6 per-
cent was the sensation of the night, beating her father's 2002 result
and outpolling hard leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon in fourth place on 11
percent. Centrist Francois Bayrou finished fifth on less than 9 per-cent. It was the first time a sitting president seeking re-election had
been beaten into second place in the first round. But Sarkozy backers
at his campaign headquarters chanted "We are going to win", inter-
preting Le Pen's score as more significant than Hollande's narrow lead
over the incumbent. Jean-Marie Le Pen, visibly elated at his daugh-ter's result, said the National Front would now focus on winning seats in June parliamentary elections.
"There is a lot of hope for us," he told France 2 television as party supporters shouted "Victory!" Voter
surveys show about half of Le Pen's supporters would back Sarkozy in a second round and perhaps one
fifth would vote for Hollande, making her a potential kingmaker in the runoff. Continues on page 2
Members of the European Parliament have condemned Argentina's decision to nationalise the
Spanish-controlled oil company YPF.
They said the move was "an attack on the exercise of free enterprise". They also demanded that the
European Commission take action against Buenos Aires at the World Trade Organization. Spain
meanwhile announced its first retaliatory step,
saying it would promote Spanish biodiesel fuel production to reduce Argentine imports. Deputy
Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said
Spain was considering further political and
diplomatic measures in retaliation for Argentina's
decision to take control of 51% of YPF. Argentine
officials have said they are not worried about possible reprisals. Argentine President Cristina
Fernandez de Kirchner announced the measure on
Monday, saying she was asserting sovereignty over
Argentina's energy resources. Continues on page 3
European Parliament condemns Argentina's YPF nationalisation
THIS
WEEK
EUROPE
PAGE 2
AMERICAS
PAGE 3
ASIA
PAGE 4
MIDDLE EAST&AFRICA PAGE 5
TURKEY
PAGE 6
SOCIAL
PAGE 7
EDITORIAL
PAGE 8
EUROPE
PAGE 2
Norway's Breivik gives chilling account of gun massacre
Thousands have taken to
streets of the Italian capital Rome to protest over
government plans to
introduce legislation that
will make it easier for
compan ie s t o sack employees.
Euronews / April 20,
2012
King Juan Carlos I of Spain
came under intense media
fire for hunting elephants
in Botswana in the middle
of financial crisis.
Al-Jazeera / April 19,
2012
A t t h e E u r o p e a n
Parliament in Strasbourg,
President Martin Schulz
welcomed 12 Croatian
observer MEPs. Croatia will have 12 fully-fledged MEP’s
once the country joins the
EU which is set for July 1
next year.
Euronews / April 20,
2012
Anders Behring Breivik, who admits killing 77 people in Norway last
summer, gave chilling details at his trial Friday of the gun rampage in
which he systematically shot dead scores of young people.
Hollande tops Sarkozy in French vote, Le Pen surges Far-rightist Marine Le Pen threw France's presidential race wide open on Sunday by scoring nearly
20 percent in the first round - votes that may determine a runoff between Socialist favorite Fran-
cois Hollande and conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy.
If Hollande wins on May 6, he would be only France's second left-wing
leader since the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958. He has promised to
lead a push for a bigger focus on growth in the euro zone, mainly by adding pro-growth clauses to a European budget discipline treaty. If Sarkozy loses,
he would be the 11th euro zone leader to be swept out since the start of the
bloc's debt crisis in late 2009 and the first French president to lose a re-
election bid in more than 30 years. However, many economists see both
Hollande and Sarkozy being obliged to pursue fairly similar, fiscally tight,
economic policies. Daily News Analysis / April 23, 2012
Without apparent emotion, he recounted firing more bullets into teenagers
who were injured and so couldn't escape, killing those who tried to "play
dead" and driving others into the sea to drown. e told the court he had said to himself, just before he started shooting, "I just don't want to do this."But
then, he said, he thought, "It is now or never." Breivik has said his rampage
was meant to save Norway from being taken over by multicultural forces
and to prevent ethnic cleansing of Norwegians.CNN / April 20, 2012
About 550 German soldiers and
130 Austrian troops will be de-
ployed to the region by May 1 at NATO’s request in a bid to
strengthen its KFOR peacekeep-
ers mission, said German Cen-
tral command spokesman
Hauke Bunks. Serbia will hold
parliamentary and local elec-tions May 6, which could re-
ignite tensions between minority
ethnic Albanians and majority
Serbs in northern Kosovo. “In
their evaluation of the situation, NATO and the European Union found that the KFOR forces on the ground
might not be sufficient to appropriately react to possible Kosovo-wide secu-
rity incidents in connection with the elections,” the German military said in
a statement. The Washington Post / April 21, 2012
Germany says NATO set to deploy some 700 additional troops to Kosovo
ahead of Serbia election
Germany will deploy a quick reaction force of several hundred troops
to Kosovo to strengthen the NATO mission there amid heightened ten-
sions ahead of next month’s election in neighboring Serbia, an official said Saturday.
AMERICAS
PAGE 3
Members of the European Parliament have condemned Argentina's decision to nationalise the
Spanish-controlled oil company YPF.
The move has wide support in Argentina but has provoked outrage in
Spain, which has threatened reprisals. Repsol has said it wants around
$10bn for its stake in YPF, but Argentina has said it does not accept that valuation. It says YPF did not invest enough to increase output from its oil
fields, forcing Argentina to rely on imports. YPF, Argentina's biggest oil
company, was privatised in 1993. Last year it announced huge new finds of
shale oil and gas. BBC / April 20, 2012
Three more Secret Service Agents resign
Student protest brings chaos to Canada
A 5,500 metre volcano outside
Mexico City has spewed
burning rock down its slopes
and plumes of ash into the
sky.
Euronews / April 21, 2012
Graphic photos published in
an American newspaper show
US soldiers posing with the
mangled bodies of suspected
Afghan suicide bombers.
Al-Jazeera / April 19, 2012
Thousands of rural workers in
Honduras have occupied land
as part of a dispute with large
l a n d o w n e r s a n d t h e
government.
BBC / April 18, 2012
European Parliament condemns Argentina's YPF nationalisation
Canadian police resorted to tear gas and rubber bullets as a two-month
student protest brought chaos to Montreal.
They turned out in mass as Quebec’s premier, Jean Charest, delivered a
speech on a controversial development plan for the north of the province.
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois of the student association C.L.A.S.S.E said: “We want a Quebec with accessibility to education. We want a Quebec of social
justice and not a Quebec where we sell ourselves to the mining companies.”
However some warn that the longer the strikes and demonstrations con-
tinue, the longer the list of complaints will grow. Many students are now
expressing a general anger over Charest’s government which is already dog-
ged by conflict-of-interest and ethics scandals. Euronews /April 21, 2012
The U.S. Secret Service said on Friday that three more of its employ-
ees have resigned, bringing to six the number that have left the agency
in connection with alleged misconduct involving prostitutes in Colom-bia last week before President Barack Obama's trip there.
The Secret Service also said that a 12th employee had been
implicated in the ongoing inves-
tigation into a night of partying
on April 11-12 that embar-
rassed the United States and
overshadowed Obama's partici-pation in the Summit of the
Americas last weekend. The
agency's statement said that
one employee had been cleared
of "serious misconduct" but
would face administrative ac-tion - presumably something
short of losing his job. Eleven
Secret Service agents were originally linked to the scandal last week in
which at least 21 women were brought back to a beach front hotel in the
coastal city of Cartagena, badly damaging the agency's clean-cut, security-conscious image. The 11th man was a member of the Army's Special Forces.
President Obama was briefed on the investigation on Friday in the Oval Of-
fice by Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, a White House official said,
but gave no details of the content. Reuters / April 20, 2012
PAGE 4
ASIA
US says China has helped North Korea missile programme
The US government says it believes China has provided help for North Korea’s missile programme.
Reports have suggested a missile transporting vehicle seen at a Pyongyang military parade resembled
others of Chinese design.At a Washington hearing, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta was asked whether Beijing had supported North Korea’s missile programme via “trade and technology
exchanges”.“I’m sure there’s been some help coming from China. I don’t
know, you know, the exact extent of that. I think we’d have to deal with it
in another context in terms of the sensitivity of that information. But
clearly there’s been assistance along those lines,” he replied.China and
other countries are banned under two UN Security Council resolutions from helping North Korea with its ballistic missile programme.Beijing has denied
breaking any rules.Pyongyang has rejected Western criticism of last
Friday’s failed rocket launch, vowing to continue putting satellites into
space for peaceful purposes.The US believes it was a long-range missile
test. Euronews / April 20, 2012
More than 800 people participated in a regular rally held by Russian
communists to protest the creation of a NATO transit hub in the Volga
city of Ulyanovsk, birthplace of Vladimir Lenin, on Saturday, a local interior affairs department official said.
Members of the country's Communist Party from different regions, includ-ing the parliamentary faction led by party's leader Gennady Zyuganov,
gathered in the city's downtown on Saturday afternoon to hold the rally.
Supporters of A Just Russia Party as well as activists of the Left Front
Movement and The Other Russia independent news web-site took part in
the rally and the following march. The Kremlin's intention to allow NATO to
set up a hub for Afghan transit operations in the Volga region city of Uly-anovsk has triggered mass protests amid claims the deal would undermine
Russia's national interests and security. The Russian authorities have re-
peatedly dismissed concerns over the deployment of a NATO transit hub in
the middle of the country claiming it would involve only the transport of
non-lethal cargoes, which would be subject to customs checks. Ria No-
vosti / April 21, 2012
China says India is a 'partner, not rival' after missile launch
China downplayed India's successful missile launch this week, saying
that the two sides are not rivals but cooperating partners.
"China and India are both emerging countries, we are not
rivals but cooperation partners," said Liu Weimin, China's
foreign ministry spokesman, on Thursday. India's govern-ment touted the successful Thursday launch of the Agni V
missile. "This launch has given a message to the entire
world that India has the capability to design, develop,
build and manufacture missiles of this class, and we are
today a missile power," VK Saraswat, chief of the Defence
Research and Development Organisation, told India's Eco-nomic Times.While China has not perceived India as a threat, experts say
India has boosted military spending in recent years in part due to China's
increasing dominance in the Indian Ocean. CNN / April 20, 2012
Over 800 Protesters Hold Anti-NATO Rally on Volga
Australian Prime Minister
Julia Gillard announces
plans for troops' exit from Afghanistan a year before
2 0 1 4 d e a d l i n e f o r
international withdrawal.
Al-Jazeera / April 17,
2012
Russia failed to sway Italy
on NATO’s missile defense
shield that is to be deployed in Europe,
Russian Defense Minister
Anatoly Serdyukov said on
Friday.
Ria Novosti / April 20,
2012
The Myanmar opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi
and members of her party
are unlikely to attend the
first session of parliament
since their election amid a dispute over the wording of
the oath that lawmakers
have to take, a party
spokesman said Friday.
CNN / April 20, 2012
PAGE 5
The ‘Friends of Syria’ meeting in Paris stressed the UN-backed peace plan was the only game in
town to prevent the country from sliding into all out civil war.
The 14-nation group called on the Syrian government to stop all violence
amid fears an escalation could spill out into the wider region. French For-eign Minister Alain Juppe said: “Today for us the priority is to put into place
the Annan plan, which for us is the last chance for peace, the last chance to
avoid civil war in Syria. To make sure the plan works a strong observation
mission has to be deployed as quickly as possible.” “Still the absence of
Russia and China and the manner Moscow spoke about the talks suggest
the unity needed to resolve the Syrian crisis is still very far away.” said Eu-ronews correspondent Giovanni Magi. Euronews / April 20, 2012
Al-Wefaq, Bahrain's main opposition bloc, has said that a man has
been found dead after clashes with riot police in the village of Shak-houra, a day before the Gulf state stages its Formula One Grand Prix.
Al-Wefaq named the dead demonstrator on Saturday as Salah Abbas Habib,
37.It said Habib was part of a group who were beaten by police during
clashes late on Friday night. Violence has escalated in the run-up to the Grand Prix, which has come under huge criticism from country’s mainly
Shia protesters, while the government wants the race to run as per schedule
to send out a signal to the
world of a return of nor-
malcy. The protesters have
blamed the Sunni ruling elite for shutting them out
of opportunities, jobs and
housing. They have made it
clear they will use the inter-
national attention the motor race has focused on Bah-
rain to air their grievances.
Al-Jazeera / April 21,
2012
MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA
'Protester killed' during Bahrain clashes
Ahead of elections, Egyptians protest military rule
Thousands of Egyptians from across the political spectrum turned out
at the iconic plaza unified in their opposition to remnants of Hosni Mubarak's regime and in their determination to protect the goals of a
hard-fought revolution.
Rival factions put their differences aside to come together against military
rule. The Muslim Brotherhood joined hands with liberals to voice discontent
with an electoral process that has disqualified several candidates, including
the leader of the Islamist group. Next month's polling will be the nation's
first presidential election since Mubarak's ouster in February 2011.The
Muslim Brotherhood's political wing won nearly half the seats in the first parliamentary elections in November. Adding to the tension is an effort to
craft a new constitution and a verdict in Mubarak's murder trial, scheduled
for June. CNN / April 20, 2012
Two minutes silence was
marked across Israel on Thursday to remember the
victims of the Holocaust.
Sirens echoed across the
country to mark the
national memorial day. A silent protest was held
outside the German
embassy in Tel Aviv to
denounce a poem – critical
of Israel – by German
author Guenter Grass.
Euronews / April 19,
2012
The Sudanese president
has vowed to "never give
up" a disputed oil-rich region that has escalated
tensions with South Sudan
and sparked fears of the
two neighbors' return to
war. CNN / April 20, 2012
The leader who Guinea-
Bissau's military rulers proposed to run a
two-year transition to
democracy has refused the
offer, casting doubt on the
country's roadmap toward
elections as the UN Security Council
threatened sanctions
against the West African
nation.
Al-Jazeera / April 21,
2012
‘Friends of Syria’ stress UN plan is last chance for peace
The terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) should lay down its weapons for a peaceful solution
to the Kurdish issue, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani said on Friday during an official visit to Turkey.
Barzani arrived in Turkey for a two-day visit on Thursday and met with Erdoğan, Gül and Davutoğlu on
Friday. The fight against the PKK was also among the issues discussed during Barzani and Davutoğlu’s
meeting. According to Foreign Ministry sources, a more effective strategy
against the PKK and economic cooperation were also discussed during the meeting. In addition, the two sides reportedly agreed to continue consulta-
tion on various issues, particularly the fight against terrorism. Barzani
also met with pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Co-Chairman
Selahattin Demirtaş, Co-Chairwoman Gültan Kışanak and Mardin deputy
Ahmet Türk, on Friday afternoon. Demirtaş told reporters after the meeting
that they did not have a “special agenda” but just had lunch with the Iraqi Kurdish leader. Today’s Zaman / April 20, 2012
TURKEY
Ankara starts initiative for Bosnia’s NATO status
Turkey started an initiative with several Balkan countries yesterday
to push NATO to recognize the Membership Action Plan (MAP) status of Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to the Turkish foreign minister.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Turkey and Bulgaria, along with several Balkan countries, have prepared a joint letter, speaking after the
NATO foreign and defense ministers’ meeting. “After the formation of a gov-
ernment in Bosnia, there was a compromise for paving the way for Bosnia’s
membership in NATO,” said Davutoğlu yesterday at a joint press confer-
ence with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Memmedyarov in Brussels.
Davutoğlu said he met with his Bosnian counterpart on April 18 and planned some steps to take ahead of the alliance’s crucial Chicago summit
on May 21. Hurriyet Daily News / April 20, 2012
Turkey says Sudan has
asked Ankara for immediate
help in border clashes with South Sudan that are
threatening to spiral into full
-scale war.
Today’s Zaman / April 20,
2012
Turkey, US and EU High
Representative for External
Affairs Catherine Ashton
declined to join in press
conference with host country France after the “Friends of
Syria” meeting in Paris
aimed at putting pressure on
Syrian regime to end 13-
month violence in the country.
Today’s Zaman / April 20, 2012
Turkey must not threaten or
try to undermine Greek Cyprus' European Union
presidency once the divided
island assumes the bloc's
helm in July, Poland's prime
minister said Wednesday.
Today’s Zaman / April 19,
2012
KRG's Barzani in Ankara, calls on terrorist Pkk to lay down arms
Turkish officials board ship possibly
carrying weapons to Syria Turkish port authorities boarded a German-owned cargo ship reported
to be carrying Iranian weapons bound for Syria, TV news footage
showed on Wednesday.
Citing unnamed dissident sources within the Syrian government, the Ger-
man magazine Der Spiegel first reported last week that the Atlantic Cruiser
was carrying Iranian arms, which were loaded at a port in Djibouti, to
Syria. The report put pressure on the German government, which, as part of the European Union, is obliged to enforce an EU arms embargo against
Syria. The ship's Hamburg-based
owner, W. Bockstiegel Reederei GMBH,
issued a statement Monday denying the
Atlantic Cruiser was carrying weapons.
Despite the ship-owner's denials, the foreign minister of Cyprus announced
last weekend that if the Atlantic Cruiser
requested to dock at a Cypriot port, it
would be denied access. CNN / April
18, 2012
PAGE 6
PAGE 7
Soccer ball swept up by Japanese tsunami found in Alaska
A soccer ball that bobbed onto the shore of a remote Alaska island is likely
the first salvageable debris from last year's Japanese tsunami that could be
returned to its owner, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. Reuters / April 23, 2012
ODDLY ENOUGH
WHAT IS KFOR?
The Kosovo Force (KFOR) is a NATO-led international peacekeeping
force responsible for establishing a secure environment in Kosovo.
KFOR entered Kosovo on 12 June 1999 under a United
Nations mandate, two days after the adoption of UN Security
Council Resolution 1244. At the time of UN Security Council
Resolution 1244, Kosovo was facing a grave humanitarian crisis, with
military forces from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and
the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in daily engagement. Ethnic tensions
were at their highest and the death toll had reached a historic high.
Nearly one million people had fled Kosovo as refugees. As of February
1, 2012, KFOR consists of 5,790 troops.
KFOR contingents were originally grouped into 4 regionally based
multinational brigades. The brigades were responsible for a specific
area of operations, but under a single chain of command under the authority of Commander KFOR. In
August 2005, the North Atlantic Council decided to restructure KFOR, replacing the four existing
multinational brigades with five task forces, to allow for greater flexibility with, for instance, the removal
of restrictions on the cross-boundary movement of units based in different sectors of Kosovo.
EDITORIAL
GENERAL DIRECTOR
SİBEL DÜZ
COORDINATORS
ALPER AKGÜN
HANDE KAYMA
TALYA YÜZÜCÜ
CORRESPONDENTS
BEGÜM ÇELİKTUTAN
BETÜL OFLAZ
FURKAN ÖZTÜRK
MANSUR ALİ GEDİK
MELTEM SÖĞÜTCEPINAR
NURGÜL ÜLKÜ
RYSBEK AKYLBEK UULU
YAĞMUR ERŞAN
YİĞİT AYDOĞ
ZEYNEP NUR GÖZÜTOK
Official website of the organization:
http://eurosima2012.org/home/
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