UN ends Haiti peacekeeping operations
AFP, United Nations
The UN Security Council ended 15 years of peacekeeping operations in Haiti on Tuesday, voicing regret that the country is still saddled with huge economic, political and social woes.
The United Nations first sent peacekeepers to Haiti after then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown by the army in 2004 under the pressure of a popular uprising.
In 2017 those soldiers were replaced by a UN police mission whose numbers dropped gradually from 1,300 to 600 and are now to be replaced by a scaled down political mission.
Iran detained 2nd French researcher, colleagues say
AP, Paris
The Iranian government has been holding a second French researcher in custody for the past four months, according to his colleagues.
Roland Marchal, a sub-Saharan Africa specialist at Paris university Sciences Po, was arrested in June when he traveled to Iran to visit his partner, Fariba Adelkhah, according to Sciences Po professor Richard Banegas.
Brother of Iran’s President begins prison term
AP, Tehran
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency is reporting that President Hassan Rouhani’s brother has begun serving a five-year prison sentence on corruption charges.
Tasnim said Wednesday that authorities had transferred Hossein Fereidoun to Tehran’s Evin prison.
Earlier in October, Iran’s judiciary said an appeals court lowered Fereidoun’s sentence to five years from seven on bribery charges.
Putin invites Turkey President to Russia amid Syria offensive
AP Moscow
Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the conflict in Syria in a phone call with Recep Tayyip Erdogan and invited the Turkish leader to visit Russia soon, the Kremlin said.
Putin invited Erdogan “for a working visit in the coming days”. “The invitation was accepted,” Putin’s office said in a statement late Tuesday.
