Reuters, Basra
Iraq sent an armored army division and a police strike force into the southern oil city of Basra to disarm residents amid intensified feuding between rival Shi’ite Muslim tribes, a local official and three security sources said on Friday.
The majority of crude exports from major OPEC oil producer Iraq come from oil fields around Basra, far from the northern and western parts of the country controlled by Islamic State. But fighting in the area has forced the government in Baghdad to divert critical resources to the southern province.
Ukraine expects to restore control over Crimea
AFP, Kiev
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Thursday he wanted EU and US help in securing Crimea’s return from Russia and vowed to win back the separatist east this year.
The bold announcements by the pro-Western leader came with Poroshenko facing building public pressure to end Ukraine’s brutal 20-month campaign against pro-Russian insurgents and simultaneously to stand up to Moscow’s annexation of the strategic Black Sea peninsula.
China, ROK discuss N.Korea nuclear test
AFP, Seoul
South Korean and Chinese defence ministry officials discussed North Korea’s latest nuclear test on Friday, as pressure intensified on Beijing to take a tougher line with ally Pyongyang.
The director-level defence talks are held every year, but were completely overshadowed this time around by the North’s fourth nuclear test last week, which triggered global condemnation and the promise of fresh UN sanctions.
New Ebola case emerges in Sierra Leone
BBC Online
Sierra Leone officials have confirmed a death from Ebola, hours after the World Health Organization declared the latest West Africa outbreak over.
The country was declared free of the virus on 7 November, and the region as a whole was cleared when Liberia was pronounced Ebola-free on Thursday.
