The world at a glance
Beirut
PM quits: Lebanon’s PM, Saad Hariri, stood down on Tuesday, following two weeks of protests calling for political change. As many as a million people are thought to have taken to the streets to demand not just Hariri’s resignation, but also that of the governor of the central bank and Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, the Shia political party that is a member of the coalition government and is widely seen as a proxy of Iran. “I have reached a dead end,” said Hariri: Lebanon needs the “positive shock” of fresh leadership to cope with the crisis. The protests were sparked by a tax on WhatsApp, among other revenue-raising measures which have now been dumped. Hours before Hariri quit, a Hezbollah mob attacked the protesters in Beirut with pipes and sticks.
Addis Ababa
Interethnic riots:
A few weeks ago
Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy
Ahmed, won the
Nobel Peace Prize for halting the decades-long conflict with Eritrea and for releasing political prisoners. But last week, street protests against his government turned violent, and have now morphed into interethnic clashes in which 67 people have been killed. The protests were spearheaded by Jawar Mohammed, the founder of a media network and a high-profile ally-turned-critic of the PM – who claims the police have been instructed to arrest and possibly even kill him. Jawar, who is thought to have been mounting a challenge to Abiy in next year’s election, claims that despite the PM’s rhetoric, Ethiopia is already sliding back towards authoritarianism.
Sochi, Russia
Russia woos Africa: The leaders of 43 African nations attended the inaugural “Russia-Africa summit” in the Black Sea resort of Sochi last week – part of an intensive drive by Moscow to win friends, sign new business deals and re-establish Russia’s Soviet-era role as a geopolitical power broker on the continent. Russia’s trade with Africa is currently $20bn a year, just a tenth of China’s Africa trade, but President Putin (pictured with Egypt’s President Sisi) aims to double that within the next five years. Russia is already the continent’s biggest arms supplier.
Feni, Bangladesh
Death penalty: In a case that has rocked Bangladesh, the head of a small-town religious school (madrasa) has been sentenced to death for ordering the murder of one of his students, 19-year-old Nusrat Jahan Rafi. Back in March, Nusrat had reported him for touching her inappropriately: soon after, she was lured onto the roof of the madrasa, doused in kerosene and set on fire. She died four days later. The conspirators tried to pass it off as suicide. Fifteen others who took part in the attack, including fellow students from the madrasa, two teachers and two politicians from the ruling Awami League, have also been sentenced to death.
Karbala, Iraq
Protesters killed: Iraqi security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters encamped in the Iraqi city of Karbala on Tuesday, killing at least 18 people and wounding several hundred. It was one of the deadliest single incidents in a renewed upsurge of civilian protest that kicked off last Friday. Thousands of protesters clashed with the Iraqi security forces and Iran-backed militias in demonstrations that started in Baghdad and then spread across the Shia-majority south. The explosion of anger, against a government held responsible for rising poverty, unemployment and corruption, has been met with an uncompromisingly brutal response from the security forces. At least 90 people have been killed in the protests, to add to the 150 who were killed in the first wave at the start of October.
Pyongyang
Chronic lack of food: Nearly half of North Korea’s population is undernourished, according to an investigation by the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea. Tomás Ojea Quintana, an Argentinian lawyer, says that some 140,000 children suffer from lack of food; that 30,000 “face an increased risk of death”; and that he had seen no improvement during the last three years. North Korea, his investigation said, was “violating its human
rights obligations”.
Hong Kong
Economic slowdown: Five months of anti-government protests have tipped Hong Kong into recession, and it will be “extremely difficult” to steer the economy back towards positive growth, according to the territory’s financial secretary, Paul Chan. There was a nearly 50% drop in the number of tourists in October, and retailers have also been badly hit. In the latest round of violent protests, demonstrators set fire to shops and hurled petrol bombs at police. Last week, the Hong Kong government scrapped the extradition bill that sparked the current unrest.