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World in brief: 9th October 2014

Ferry captain: I deserve to die

South Korea: The captain of the Sewol ferry, which sank in April killing 304 people, apologised for committing a “grave crime” in court yesterday but denied murder.

Lee Joon Seok said he deserved the death penalty for his role in the disaster but “cannot give my children and grandchildren a bad name as a murderer’s relatives.”

 

Donetsk gets new Communist Party

Ukraine: The founding congress of a new commun­ist party in the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR)was held yesterday.

DPR supreme council chairman Boris Litvinov was declared party leader. He said the party would support DPR prime minister Alexander Zakharchenko in May’s elections.

 

Hong Kong talks start tomorrow

China: Talks between anti-Beijing protesters and Hong Kong officials are due to start tomorrow.

Large demonstrations demanding greater democratic reforms have shrunk to almost nothing. Student protest leaders — instigated by university professors with ties to the US — have promised to pull out of talks if police move against the handful of Occupy demonstrators left.

 

Fast response to extremists urged

Mali: Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop urged the UN to create a rapid-intervention force to fight extremist groups yesterday, warning that his country risks becoming “the destination of hordes of terrorists.”

A Senegalese peacekeeper was killed in a rocket attack on Tuesday afternoon, the 10th in less than a week.

 

Bombs approved

Canada: Parliament voted 157-134 to join US-led air strikes in Iraq for up to six months on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party introduced the motion — which explicitly states no ground troops can be used — last week.

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