INTERNATIONAL OCTOBER 2015

INTERNATIONAL OCTOBER 2015

• Law and Justice Party win Poland elections
  In Poland, conservative opposition Law and Justice Party has won parliamentary elections. Its eurosceptic leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has claimed victory, and the outgoing Prime Minister, Ewa Kopacz of the centrist Civic Platform party, has admitted defeat.
  
• Massive quake hits Afghanistan, Pakistan
  More than 260 people have died, mostly in Pakistan, after a magnitude-7.5 earthquake hit north-eastern Afghanistan. Tremors from the quake were also felt in northern India and Tajikistan. At least 12 of the victims were Afghan schoolgirls killed in a crush as they tried to get out of their building.
  
  The earthquake was centred in the mountainous Hindu Kush region, 76km (45 miles) south of Faizabad, the US Geological Survey reported. The death toll is set to rise as the most severely affected areas are very remote and communications have been cut off.
  
  The quake was 196 km deep and centred 82 km southeast of Feyzabad in a remote area of Afghanistan in the Hindu Kush mountain range.
  
  Even at its revised magnitude of 7.5, this was a powerful tremor. Around the world only about 20 quakes each year, on average, measure greater than 7.0.
  
  But its focus was deep - much further below the surface than the 7.8 quake which brought widespread destruction to eastern Nepal in April. That event was only 8km deep and was followed in early May by an aftershock with magnitude 7.3.
  
  Similarly, the devastating 2005 Kashmir earthquake was magnitude 7.6 and just 26km deep. Today's quake, at a depth of more than 200km, appears to have caused widespread but less severe ground shaking.
  
  Earthquakes can alter Earth's crust, says study: Earthquakes can change elastic properties of the Earth's crust up to 6,000 kilometres away, altering its ability to withstand stresses for up to a few weeks, a new study has found. The research demonstrates that the Earth is a dynamic and interconnected system, where one large earthquake can create a cascading sequence of events thousands of kilometres away, according to researchers
  
  When a surface wave from an earthquake some way off passes through another fault region, it changes the balance between the frictional properties that keep the surfaces locked together, the elasticity that allows the crust to withstand strain, and the stress state that can cause it to fail In the new research, published in the journal Science Advances, scientists studied the 2012 earthquake off the coast of North Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. The earthquake, which had a magnitude of 8.6, is known to have been followed by two earthquakes in Japan with a magnitude greater than 5.5.
  
  The researchers studied data from strain metre readings, GPS equipment, and information on seismicity -- or the number of small-magnitude earthquakes -- in the region, as well as the migration of the earthquakes. They found that the two triggered quakes with a magnitude of greater than 5.5 were part of a cluster of activity in the area in the days after the Indian Ocean event.
  
  This region of the Earth's crust was already critically stressed following the major Japanese earthquake of 2011, so the additional stress, albeit temporary, caused by the surface wave passing through, was enough to trigger another cluster of quakes.
  
  When a fault fails and an earthquake occurs, it also pushes into the neighboring region, reducing the available space and compressing the crust in this area.
  
  So the researchers also looked for signs of compressive stress in this region of Japan following the Indian Ocean earthquake. They found signs that cracks in the rock under the Japanese mainland were closing as a result of compressive stress, increasing the shear strength of the crust.
  
• Underworld don Chhota Rajan arrested in Indonesia on India's request: CBI
  Fugitive Chhota Rajan has been arrested in Indonesia after decades on the run. Wanted over a series of murders in India, Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje, alias Chhota Rajan was detained by Indonesian authorities on 25th October, as he arrived in the popular resort island of Bali.
  
  Union Minister of State for Home, Kiren Rijiju said that Underworld don Chhota Rajan was arrested after a close coordination among the agencies of India, Indonesia and Australia. He said, now the CBI will further process deportation of Rajan.
  
• European leaders agree to refugee welcome centres
  European leaders at an emergency summit in Brussels agreed to create another one lakh spaces in refugee welcome centres. The heads of 11 EU states and three non-EU countries met to discuss how to handle growing number of migrants. Under the deal, Greece will open reception centres with enough room for thirty thousand migrants by the end of the year.
  
  The UN's refugee body, the UNHCR, will provide another twenty thousand spaces in the same time. It will also add another reception centres with fifty thousand spaces in Balkan countries, which are the most popular routes north for migrants looking to travel north to Germany and Scandinavia.
  
  More than nine thousand migrants arrived in Greece every day last week, the highest rate so far this year.
  
• UN Security Council reforms process gets new chair
  United Nations Security Council UNSC reforms process is now having a new chair. Luxembourg envoy to the UN Sylvie Lucas has been appointed as the next chair of the Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) on UNSC reforms. The move comes ahead of the next round of negotiations that are beginning in the first week of November.
  
  Lucas replaces Ambassador Courtenay Rattray of Jamaica who had achieved a breakthrough of sorts by putting on the table a negotiating text that contained the positions of various UN members on expansion of the council.
  
  Ahead of the IGN talks, General Assembly 70th anniversary session president Morgens Lykketoft said he will convene a plenary debate on question of equitable representation and increase in the membership of the UN Security Council on October 30.
  
• 191 members vote resolution condemning US embargo on Cuba
  India along with 190 other members of the UN General Assembly, UNGA, has voted in support of a resolution condemning an economic embargo imposed by the US on Cuba. It is stated that existence of such restrictions undermines multi-lateralism and credibility of the UN.
  
  In a near unanimous vote, the 193-member United Nations General Assembly on 27th October adopted the resolution renewing its call for an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the US against Cuba. Israel and the US were the only two countries to vote against the resolution.
  
  The Assembly, however, welcomed the resumption of diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba announced last July and the willingness of US President Barack Obama to work towards the lifting of the economic, financial and trade embargo against Cuba.
  
• Fuel agreement inked with China
  Nepal signed its first fuel agreement with China on 28th October to supply petroleum to ease a crippling shortage after protests blocked imports from sole supplier India. Scores of trucks have been stranded at a key India-Nepal border checkpoint for more than a month, cutting off vital supplies and forcing fuel rationing across the landlocked Himalayan nation.
  
  The shortages have led to overnight queues at gas stations in the Nepalese capital and prompted the government to turn to its northern neighbour for help, ending a decades-long monopoly by India as tensions deepen between India and Nepal.
  
• China abandons its decades old 'one child policy'
  China will allow all couples to have two children, abandoning its decades-long one-child policy, according to a communique issued on 29th October by the ruling Communist Party. The restriction was introduced in 1980 as a way to curb the population and limit demands for water and other resources.
  
  The controversial policy restricted most couples to only a single offspring, and for years authorities argued that it was a key contributor to China's economic boom.
  
• Human rights violation: Sri Lanka decides to set up Committee
  The Sri Lanka government has decided to set up an All Religious Committee to facilitate national and religious reconciliation and implement UN recommendations on human right violations.
  
  The decision was announced by President Maithripala Sirisena during a special discussion with religious leaders of all faiths at the Presidential Secretariat.
  
  The leaders were called to discuss the United Nations Human Rights Council proposals on accountability for war crimes and reconciliation.
  
  This was a part of consultation process that Sri Lankan government is undertaking before setting up institutions to address rights violations allegations and demands for political reconciliation.
  
  President called for national unity to face the challenges and informed the religious leaders of the opinions expressed by various political parties on the issue during the all-party meet held earlier in October, 2015.
  
• Russian plane crashes in Sinai killing all 224 people on board
  A Russian airliner has crashed in central Sinai killing all 224 people on board. The Airbus A-321 had just taken off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on 31st October, on its way to the Russian city of St Petersburg. Russian authorities said it was carrying 217 passengers, 17 of them children, and seven crew.
  
  A commission headed by Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov is to leave for Egypt. According to reports, Egypt's Prime Minister Sharif Ismail had a meeting with ministers and security officials regarding the crash. Sinai is the scene of an insurgency by militants who support Islamic State. Russia launched air raids against Syrian opposition groups including Islamic State on September 30.
  
  But Egyptian security sources said there was no indication that the Airbus jet had been shot down or blown up. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for downing the Russian passenger plane in the Sinai peninsula.
  
• European Parliament votes in favor of ‘dropping charges’ against Snowden
  The European Parliament has called on EU member states to drop all criminal charges against Edward Snowden and protect him against extradition to the United States.
  
  MEPs voted 285 votes to 281 in favour of a resolution that the NSA whistleblower should be allowed to seek safe asylum in the EU. The resolution, which isn't binding, is nonetheless a strong signal from MEP's that EU member states should grant Snowden protection. MEPs voting in favour of the measures described Snowden as a "human rights defender" and urged member states to "drop any criminal charges" against him.
  
• UN, World Bank to launch refugee and reconstruction bonds
  International agencies plan to raise billions of dollars to tackle the worsening refugee crisis in the Middle East and North Africa by issuing new bonds to help displaced people and support reconstruction in the war torn region. The United Nations, World Bank and Islamic Development Bank announced the proposal after global policymakers met to discuss ways to ease the growing humanitarian and economic crisis stemming from conflicts in countries including Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya.
  
  World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said more than 15 million people had fled their homes, sending a massive influx of refugees into countries like Lebanon and Jordan. A working group will finalise details of the proposed fund rising, which would make resources available to other development agencies as well, by February.
  
• Dutch Probe: Russian-made Buk missile brought down MH17
  An investigative panel into the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17 over eastern Ukraine says the plane was shot down by surface to air missile from a Russian-made Buk missile launcher. The Dutch led panel in its final report issued today said the missile hit the front left of the plane, as a result of which part of the plane broke off.
  
  However, it made no absolute determination of who fired the missile believed to have struck the plane during its flight. The plane - flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur - crashed in rebel-held eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014 at the height of the conflict between government troops and the pro-Russian separatists killing all 298 people on board, most of them Dutch citizens.
  
• Pakistan executes 9 convicts
  According to a Pakistani prison official authorities have hanged nine convicts, including four brothers, the latest in a series of death sentences to be carried out since the country lifted a moratorium last year.
  
  The executions bring the nationwide total to 255 since December, when Pakistan lifted the moratorium on the death penalty following a Taliban attack on a school that killed 150 people, mostly children. Pakistan has presented the reinstatement of capital punishment as a response to years of militant violence, but human rights groups say the majority.
  
• Ukraine, Japan, Egypt win UN Security Council seats
  Ukraine, Japan and Egypt won seats at the UN Security Council on 15th October as world diplomacy is overshadowed by tensions with Russia and bloodshed in the Middle East. Senegal and Uruguay were also among the five countries that garnered the required votes for council seats during a secret-ballot poll held at the UN General Assembly.
  
  The five countries ran unopposed for the non-permanent seats after regional groups put them forward as their choice, but the contenders still had to garner two-thirds of votes cast. Senegal had won the largest share, picking up 187 votes followed by Uruguay with 185.
  
  Japan picked up 184 votes, Egypt won 179 and Ukraine 177 in the 193-nation assembly. The newly-elected members will begin their two-year stint on January 1, replacing Chad, Chile, Jordan, Lithuania and Nigeria. One of the most experienced non-permanent members, Japan, will be taking its seat for the 11th time as it is locked in an island dispute with China and bristles at Beijing's global role.
  
• Myanmar signs peace deal with armed rebel groups
  Myanmar has signed a peace deal with armed rebel groups. The government has signed a ceasefire deal with eight armed ethnic groups. The signing ceremony in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, was the culmination of two years of peace talks.
  
  But the most active seven rebel groups have stayed out of the deal. Myanmar has been engaged in an armed conflict with various ethnic rebel groups seeking greater autonomy since independence from the British in 1948.
  
• UNSC renews mandate of UN mission in Haiti
  The UN Security Council on 14th October renewed for another year the mandate of the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), while maintaining its authorised troop strength at 2,370 military personnel and 2,601 police.
  
  In a resolution adopted, the 15-nation council decided to extend the mandate of MINUSTAH until October 15, 2016 and then to consider the possible withdrawal of MINUSTAH based on the security conditions on the ground.
  
  It said the UN mission's "transition to a future United Nations presence beginning no sooner than October 15, 2016, to continue to assist the Government of Haiti to consolidate peace".
  
  In this regard, the resolution requests UN secretary general to conduct a strategic assessment on Haiti and on this basis, to present to the council recommendations on the future presence and role of the UN in Haiti, in 90 days after the inauguration of the new president, and ideally after the formation of a new government.
  
  While welcoming the holding of the first round of legislative elections in Haiti, the most powerful UN body urged Haiti's political actors to work without further delays to ensure the holding of free, fair and transparent legislative, partial senatorial, municipal, and local elections.
  
  The UN mission has been working in Haiti since violence and upheaval broke out in the island country in 2004. Since the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010 in Haiti, it has been engaged in the efforts to help Haitians with the country's reconstruction and recovery.
  
  Last year, the Security Council cut MINUSTAH's military component from more than 5,000 personnel to 2,370, while keeping the police contingent unchanged at 2,601.
  
• China proposes joint maritime drills with South East Asian nations
  China has proposed joint maritime drills with South East Asian nations in the hotly contested South China Sea in 2016. The suggestion for joint drills was made on 16th October with Defence Ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional alliance. Beijing is currently hosting an informal meeting for Defence Ministers from the region.
  
  China's Defence Ministry said in a statement that the drills would be one way of achieving the aim of jointly solving disputes and controlling risks. Beijing's reclamation activities in the sea in recent years have raised tensions with its neighbours.
  
• Pakistan, Russia sign gas pipeline pact
  Pakistan and Russia signed an agreement on 16th October to build a gas pipeline stretching hundreds of kilometres from Karachi on the Arabian Sea to the eastern city of Lahore.
  
  Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Pakistan Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi signed the agreement. According to Officials the North-South gas pipeline project would be built by Russian company RT Global Resources — a part of Russian state corporation Rostec.
  
  The 1,100-kilometre (680-mile) pipeline, with a capacity of 12.4 billion cubic metres (438 billion cubic feet) per year, will connect liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in Karachi with those in Lahore.
  
  Russia is to invest about $2 billion in the pipeline and its first phase is expected to be completed by December 2017.
  
  The pipeline will be operated by the manufacturer for 25 years before being transferred to the Pakistani government. Russia has long been the largest supplier of weaponry to Pakistan’s nuclear-armed archrival India, which is the world’s top arms buyer. But now Moscow appears to be pivoting towards Islamabad as New Delhi becomes closer allies with Washington.
  
• Greece adopts more reforms
  Greek Parliament has narrowly voted in favour of more reforms demanded by international creditors. In return, Greece will receive another installment of loans worth two billion euros. The new austerity measures are the first to be passed by Greece, since a bailout deal was struck in July, following acrimonious negotiations. Greek is now committing to self to reforms such as pension cuts and tax rises.
  
  The vote clears the way for more loans to help the country avoid running out of money and crashing out of eurozone. It means, the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has survived his first major test since winning a snap election last month.
  
• Israel rejects call for UN police at Al-Aqsa
  Israel on 17th October rejected Palestinian calls for a protection force to be deployed in East Jerusalem to quell violence around the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque. The 15-member council met in an emergency session to discuss weeks of escalating violence between Israel and the Palestinians in Jerusalem and the territories.
  
  Israeli security forces deployed massively in Jerusalem after two weeks of violence that have left 39 Palestinians dead and hundreds more wounded in clashes with Israeli forces. The violence began on October 1, when a suspected cell of the Islamist movement Hamas murdered a Jewish settler couple in the West Bank in front of their children.
  
  Those killings followed repeated clashes at East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound in September between Israeli forces and Palestinian youths.
  
• Social Democratic party won in Kyrgyzstan’s election
  According to Electoral officials of Kyrgyzstan on 4th October’s elections Democratic Party won. With virtually all votes counted, officials said the Social Democrats were winning nearly 27 percent of the vote, with the nationalist opposition (Respublika-Ata-Jurt) party winning 20 percent. In all, six parties mainly supporting closer ties with Russia secured enough votes to win seats in the 120-member legislature.
  
• US, Japan, 10 other Pacific Rim countries sign sweeping trade agreement
  The US, Japan and 10 other Pacific Rim countries have signed a controversial and sweeping trade agreement that covers about 40 percent of the world economy. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will create a new economic bloc with reduced trade barriers between the 12 nations involved. The deal was signed on 5th October after five days of talks in Atlanta in the US, which has been under negotiation for five years. It was delayed repeatedly by negotiations over drug patents. The other countries in the TPP are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.
  
• New Greek parliament sworn-in
  Greece's new parliament was sworn-in on 3rd October following the September 20 snap elections. The new Prime Minister is Alexis Tsipras. A confidence vote on the new government will be held on 7th October. In the 300-member assembly, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' left-wing radical SYRIZA party and the right-wing Independent Greeks party now jointly control 155 seats.
  
• 60 million people in the world displaced: UN official
  According to UN Refugee chief, 10 years ago, the world counted 38 million people displaced by conflict and persecution but now it is more than 60 million and rising
  
  As he prepares to step down at the end of the year, Guterres delivered a wide-ranging speech to the refugee agency's executive committee in Geneva stressing the importance of upholding the 1951 convention on protecting refugees, especially in light of Europe's refugee crisis, and how essential it is to build a positive relationship between the Western and Muslim worlds.
  
  According to him: 
  • The "interlinked mega-crises" in Iraq and Syria have uprooted 15 million people, he said
  • In the last 12 months, 500,000 people have fled their homes in South Sudan, 190,000 in Burundi, 1.1 million in Yemen and 300,000 in Libya.
  • Tens of thousands are fleeing gang violence in Central America. And there has been little or no improvement in the crises in Central African Republic, Nigeria, Ukraine and Congo
  • The world is faced with 15 conflicts that have erupted and or reignited in the past five years. And more than two-thirds of refugees worldwide are Muslim; stressing the world must counter "the backward narrowness of xenophobia."
  • Donors provided a record $3.3 billion last year to UNHCR last year but this was "vastly insufficient to cover even the bare minimum" of the humanitarian budget,
  • This year, the 33 U.N. appeals to provide humanitarian assistance to 82 million people around the world are only 42 percent funded, and UNHCR expects to receive just 47 percent of what it needs by the end of the year
  • Most urgently, the refugee agency needs $215 million for Africa to pay for already authorized expenditures, including 14 new refugee camps and the expansion of seven others.
  • A relatively small number of refugees can return home - just 126,000 last year, only 11 percent of the number repatriated in 2005.
  • The number of people being displaced around the world every day as a result of conflict has quadrupled from almost 11,000 in 2010 to 42,500 last year.
  
  
• Maritime Silk Road focal point, Nanning
  China has made Nanning one of the focal points of the proposed Maritime Silk Road, leveraging the southern city’s natural connectivity linkages with Southeast Asia and growth hubs of Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macao. The waterways of Xijiang River that flows through the city lead to the Pearl River and the South China Sea.
  
  Once a port on the river is modernised, approximately in five years, it would enable a cargo ship of 2,000 tonnes to head for the bustling commercial cities of Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macao. By 2020, Nanning port’s capacity is expected to rise to 22.83 million tonnes.
  
  In view of the vast potential of the greater Pearl River Delta region, Chinese authorities are developing the Pearl River-Xijiang River Economic Belt. When fully developed, the waterways would strongly reinforce Nanning’s state-of-the-art rail and road connectivity to the coast. An active high-speed link has already slashed transit time between Nanning and Guangzhou to four hours.
  
  Shanghai is only 10 hours away, leaving behind the rather arduous 33-hour rail journey of the past into distant memory. The Guangxi province, of which Nanning is the capital, is also the gateway to a large landlocked space. Three deep water ports that face the Beibu Gulf of the South China Sea — Qinzhou, Fangchenggang and Beihai — at a distance ranging from104 to 204 km can be accessed from Nanning.
  
• Madhesi stir: Nepal Govt agrees to bring about few amendments to New Constitution
  Bowing to relentless agitation by Madhesi, Tharu and other ethnic minority groups in Terai region, the Nepal Government has finally agreed to meet some of the demands of these people formally. A Bill to amend Nepal's NEW Constitution has been entered into Nepali Parliament's agenda on 7th October. In particular, the Bill seeks to amend the new constitution on two issues: proportional inclusion in state organs and making population the major basis for delineation of electoral constituencies. The Bill is likely to be tabled on 9th October.
  
• Antibiotic resistance a global health crisis: WHO
  According to World Health Organization director general Margaret Chan, the rise of antimicrobial resistance is a global health crisis. Medicine is losing more and more mainstay as pathogens develop resistance and the second-line treatments are less effective, more costly, more toxic, and sometimes extremely difficult to administer, Chan added in her address at the G7 health ministers' meeting in Germany.
  
  According to the WHO director general, superbugs haunt hospitals and intensive care units all around the world. Gonorrhea is now resistant to multiple classes of drugs. An epidemic of multidrug-resistant typhoid fever is rolling across parts of Asia and Africa. Even with the best of care, only around half of all cases of multidrug- resistant tuberculosis can be successfully cured
  
  The WHO, in May this year, had come up with an action plan to deal with the crisis. It included increasing awareness, strengthening surveillance and research, to reduce infections, using medicines wisely, and to ensure sustainable investment, also in R&D for replacement products and better diagnostic tools.
  
  The experts warn if the current trends continue modern medicine will end. Sophisticated interventions, like organ transplantation, joint replacements, cancer chemotherapy, and care of pre-term infants, will become more difficult or even too dangerous to undertake.
  
• Refugees surge as UN approves military action on smugglers
  Greece was hit by a huge new surge in refugees as the United Nations on 9th October approved a European seize-and-destroy military operation against people smugglers in the Mediterranean. The backing for EU navies to take action against traffickers in international waters came as the first asylum seekers were flown from Italy to Sweden under a hotly disputed relocation scheme to share the burden of Europe’s refugee crisis.
  
  As the 19 Eritreans made their trip, new data emerged showing a massive surge in the number of migrants arriving in Greece to 7,000 from 4,500 a day at the end of September.
  
  With 5,70,000 people having already arrived in the EU so far this year, the figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) underlined the limited scope of the relocation scheme, which seeks to move 1,60,000 refugees from Italy and Greece over the next two years.
  
  The head of the UN’s refugee agency also warned of a humanitarian disaster this winter unless Greece was given much more help to house the new arrivals.
  
• UNSC approves EU countries to inspect, seize vessels smuggling migrants
  The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution authorizing the European Union and individual countries to inspect and seize vessels smuggling migrants and refugees on the high seas. The council approved the EU-proposed resolution by majority vote on 9th October. Fourteen council members, including all 5 permanent members, supported the measures.
  
• Two Japanese documentary assets added to World register
  UNESCO is adding two Japanese documentary assets to its Memory of the World register. The Japanese assets are Buddhist temple archives and post-World War-2 internment and repatriation records. UNESCO made the decision after an advisory panel examined nominations at a meeting in Abu Dhabi. The internment records consist of 570 items. They include diaries and drawings by former Japanese inmates of Siberian internment camps and lists of those repatriated after the war.
  
  The records are kept in the port city of Maizuru as about 660,000 Japanese people arrived there from Siberia and elsewhere after the war. The other Japanese asset is an archive from Toji Temple in the city of Kyoto. Known as the Toji Hyakugo Monjo, it consists of 25,000 documents from more than 1,000 years ago. The material gives insight into the culture and daily life of people across Japan. It is designated a national treasure. UNESCO's decision means 5 Japanese assets are listed on the Memory of the World register.
  
• Russia and US call urgent talks after Syria strikes
  Russia and United States have agreed to call urgent military talks to head off the risk of clashes between their forces, after Moscow's dramatic entrance into the Syrian war.
  
  Lavrov agreed their talks had been useful and both men said they would take their ideas for the political process back to their respective presidents, Russia's Vladimir Putin and the US's Barack Obama.
  
  But the narrow agreement to seek a mechanism to avoid accidental encounters between Russian and US-led forces could not disguise the deep divisions Moscow's actions had revealed. Both Moscow and Damascus presented the operation as targeting Islamic State militants, an idea disputed by US officials.
  
• Palestinian flag flies at UN for first time
  Palestinian flag has been raised for the first time at United Nations headquarters in New York. The ceremony was attended by the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas.
  
  Addressing the UN General Assembly, Mr. Abbas said it was unconscionable that the question of Palestinian statehood remained unresolved. He also warned that the Palestinian Authority no longer felt bound by agreements with Israel he claimed were continually violated.
  
  Writing in the Huffington Post yesterday, Mr. Abbas had said the raising of the Palestinian flag at the UN would be a most emotional and proud day. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Mr Abbas' speech was deceitful and encourages incitement and lawlessness in the Middle East.