January 13th News Update

Vanderbilt Model UN Weekly Briefing

For 1/5/2010-1/13/2010

Written at on 1/13/2010 at 11:00am

• Haiti: Thousands are feared dead in a 7.3-magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of Haiti, reported as the worst quake in two centuries.
• Haiti’s envoy to the U.S. talked of a “catastrophe of major proportions.”
• The Red Cross says up to 3 million people have been affected.
• The U.S., France, China, United Kingdom, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic have sent search and rescue teams to find any survivors in the rubble as well as aid.
• Over 100 United Nations workers are reported as missing, including the head of the U.N. Mission in Haiti, Hedi Annabi.
• China: Google may end operations in China after hackers in the nation have targeted the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists
• Yemen: The attack on a US jetliner on Christmas Day by a Nigerian man is the first attack in North America by Al-Qaeda originating from the Arab nation.
• The attack signifies the new structure of Al-Qaeda and its ability to plan and carry out attacks despite American operations to dismantle the terror organization.
• Afghanistan: A United Nations report by the U.N. Mission in Afghanistan reported today that the number of Afghan civilians killed in violence in 2009 was higher than in any year since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.
• 1/3 of the deaths were the result of suicide attacks, according to the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies.
• American and NATO combat deaths jumped from 295 last year to 520 in 2009.
• Guinea: Guinea's junta leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, who was wounded by an aide last month, was moved to Burkina Faso to recover after surgery in Morocco for a bullet wound.
• A leaked U.N. report states that the leader should be tried with crimes against humanity for killing opposition protesters and mass rape and sexual abuse by the militia government.
• Camara has been in charge of the military government since President Lansana Conte died in December 2008.
• Iran: The government is continuing its effort to discredit opposition.
• Opposition leader Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri died 19 December.
• At least 8 were confirmed dead following anti-government protests in Tehran, 300 reported arrested.
• Tens of thousands of Iranians have protested in favor of their government in the past weeks, in response to the opposition demonstrations.
• The rallies were reportedly organized by the government, according to BBC News.
• Somalia: The Piracy Reporting Center of the International Maritime Bureau reported Somali pirates carried out a record number of attacks and hijackings in 2009.
• These record numbers occurred despite the deployment of international warships and a U.N. Security Council resolution.