Page 54 - English Tehelka Issue 7 - April 15, 2018

around the w rLd Here is a round-up of international news to update our readers on everything

important that’s happening in different parts of the world.

Thousands of American students take to ter to get around term limits. He is expected to continue ism strikes in Libya almost
with little change in terms of trying to rebuild Russia as a
exclusively on Islamic
global power while limiting economic reforms at home. State fighters and opera-
streets seeking laws to end gun violence Given his lame-duck status, many expect the fight will tives. In 2016, the military
now begin in earnest among the Kremlin elite to choose
conducted nearly 500
his successor. airstrikes in the coastal
city of Surt over several
months to destroy the Is-
Vast crowds com- nuclear weapons pro- lamic State’s stronghold
prising mainly of students, gram. Kim told the Chi- FourteeN European nations, including Poland, Italy, there. The recent attack
many of them still in el- nese leader that he was Denmark, France and Germany, announced plans to took place in the country’s
ementary schools, spilled open to dialogue with expel Russians from their countries in response to Russia’s southwest, a notorious
onto the streets in cities the United States, includ- alleged poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. US haven for a deadly mix of Al Qaeda and other extrem-
and towns across the USA ing a potential summit President Donald Trump also ordered the expulsion of 60 ist groups that also operate in the Sahel region of Niger,
to protest against in- meeting with US Presi- Russians from the United States in solidarity with Britain, Chad, Mali and Algeria. The US military’s Africa Com-
creasing incidents of gun dent Donald Trump, and which previously expelled mand said the strike had targeted militants with Al Qaeda
violence and demanding was committed to the 23 Russian diplomats in the Islamic Maghreb, an affiliate also known as AQIM,
gun control laws in the denuclearization of the after the poisoning. and had been carried out in coordination with the United
country. Korean Peninsula. Hours Canada also said it would Nations-backed unity government in Tripoli.
The students, in rallies after the meeting was expel four. The American
named ‘March For Our Lives’, delivered the anguished announced, Trump said on Twitter that he looked forward expulsion order, an-
and defiant message that they are “done hiding” from to meeting Kim, and that there was “a good chance” that nounced by administra-
gun violence, especially in schools, that takes hundreds of the North Korean leader would “do what is right for his tion officials, includes 12 at least 64 people, many of them children, died in a
innocent lives every year and will “stop at nothing” to get people and for humanity.” people identified as Rus- fire at a shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo.
politicians to finally prevent it. The main rally took place sian intelligence officers At least 16 people were still missing after the blaze in
in Washington DC where thousands of marching students who have been stationed the industrial city of about half a million people, over
seized the prominent Pennsylvania Avenue. Thousands at the United Nations in 2,000 miles east of Moscow. The Russian authorities
more rallied at about 800 “sibling” marches around the russiaN PresideNt Vladimir V. Putin was elected New York, and also closes said that the missing had little chance of survival. The
USA and in other countries including Britain and Aus- to the post for a fourth term, with nearly complete figures the Russian consulate in Seattle. The Russians and their fire started around 5 p.m. on the fourth floor of the mall,
tralia where students made eloquent calls for gun control from the Central Election Commission showing him win- families were given seven days to leave the United States. which includes a three-screen cinema complex, a skating
and pledged to exercise their newfound political power in ning more than three-quarters of the vote with a turnout The expulsions are the toughest action taken against the rink and an entertainment centre for children. Speak-
the midterm US elections to be held later this year. of more than 67 percent. Kremlin by President Trump, who has been criticized for ing to the relatives of the missing, Vladimir Chernov, a
More than 56 million of Russia’s 110 million eligible not being firm enough with President Vladimir V. Putin of deputy governor of the
voters backed Putin. Russia. According to US officials, the action was a coordi- Kemerovo region, was
The big numbers allow nated effort with other allies. quoted as saying that the
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un made an unan- Putin, 65, to claim a fire had started in the
nounced visit to Beijing and met Chinese President Xi popular mandate for children’s entertainment
Jinping weeks before planned summit meetings with another six-year term, room, where there was
American and South Korean leaders. The visit amounted which under current two al Qaeda militants were killed as the United a trampoline with foam
to Kim’s international debut — It was the 34-year-old term limits should be States military carried out its first ever drone strike in rubber. According to in-
leader’s first trip outside North Korea since he took power his last. Putin has been southern Libya, vestigators, the fire alarm
in 2011, and his first meeting with another head of state. president since 2000, signaling a possibly significant expansion of the American did not work and that the
The surprise discussions added another layer of complex- stepping aside for one counterterrorism campaign in the North African nation. cinema hall’s doors were
ity to the rush of global diplomacy around North Korea’s term as prime minis- The Pentagon had until now focused its counterterror- shut.

Tehelka / 15 april 2018 54 www.Tehelka.com Tehelka / 15 april 2018 55 www.Tehelka.com

54-55 World News.indd 2-3 30/03/18 3:30 PM