Hotovely boosts settler diplomacy

ISRAEL: Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely told Army Radio yesterday that diplomatic service trainees must visit the West Bank and be taught to defend illegal Jewish settlements there.

She announced that she had initiated changes in thei curriculum to include a greater emphasis on ancient Jewish links to occupied Palestinian land.

Ms Hotovely emphasised that zionist settlements on the West Bank, including Jerusalem, were legal “by law and custom.”

ECB tells banks to increase capital

GREECE: The European Central Bank announced at the weekend that Greek banks needed €14.4 billion (£10.3bn) in fresh money to get back on their feet and resume normal business.

The announcement followed an ECB review of Greece’s four main banks following agreement on a third bailout.

Alpha Bank, Eurobank, National Bank of Greece and Piraeus Bank must submit plans for raising the money to boost their capital buffers against future financial turmoil and losses.

Suu Kyi offers reconciliation

MYANMAR: Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi addressed tens of thousands at a rally on the outskirts of Yangon yesterday, offering reconciliation to political opponents if her party won forthcoming elections.

The National League for Democracy leader called for calm ahead of the November 8 election.

Her party has been criticised for not including any members of the oppressed Muslim minority among its 1,200 candidates.

Ruling party set for electoral success

AZERBAIJAN: Elections held yesterday are likely to see the return of President Ilham Aliyev’s ruling New Azerbaijan Party.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe refused to monitor the vote after the authorities demanded that it cut the number of observers.

Mr Aliyev’s government is notorious for denying free expression and for holding elections that fall below democratic standards.

Israeli occupiers kill another man

PALESTINE: Israeli occupation forces shot dead a Palestinian in the West Bank city of Hebron yesterday, claiming that he had tried to stab them.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said later that a Palestinian had driven his car into a group of Israelis in the occupied West Bank and had escaped.

Amnesty International said at the weekend that four recent shootings by Israeli security forces appeared from its investigations “to have been extrajudicial executions.”

Khamenei warns against US imports

IRAN: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned yesterday against imports of consumer goods from the US as the country prepares for the lifting of sanctions under a landmark nuclear deal.

He advised authorities to “be watchful about irregular imports after lifting sanctions and seriously avoid importing consumer goods.”

Imports from the US reached $140 million (£91m) in the first half of 2015, around 60 per cent higher than a year before.

Experts examine concert fire dead

ROMANIA: Forensic experts began carrying out the first autopsies yesterday of victims of Friday’s Bucharest rock concert fire where 27 people were killed and 180 injured.

People died as they fled the fire, ending up in a panicked stampede towards the only door in the basement nightclub Colectiv.

The government decreed three days of mourning for the victims, 146 of whom remain in hospital, 35 of them in a serious condition.

Armed rebels detain 13 UN contractors

SOUTH SUDAN: United Nations information officer Shantal Persaud revealed yesterday that armed rebels were holding 13 UN contractors prisoner in Upper Nile state.

The rebels captured the men last week when they seized a UN barge carrying fuel along the Nile river.

They said that they suspected it of delivering weapons to government troops and of carrying soldiers and members of the domestic spy agency.