Another News Story takes a fresh view of the European refugee crisis. The film opens in 2015 Greece as refugees arrive on the idyllic island of Lesbos and follows refugees into Hungary and Croatia and across Europe to a hoped-for sanctuary. Since 2015 the current refugee crisis has flooded every news and media outlet across the globe. Another News Story takes a unique approach to capturing this narrative. While still giving a groundfloor perspective of migrants fleeing Syria and Turkey and their struggle to find a country where they are welcome, director Orban Wallace simultaneously turns the camera on the journalists and the role they play in representing the crisis to the world. Wallace’s gripping debut feature raises important questions about what happens behind the camera, and how the life cycle of a news story starts and grows.
Another News Story has had 17 international film festival selections including Karlovy Vary, IDFA, Zurich and Glasgow among others. The UK theatrical release for the film is at the end of April.
Run Time: 84 mins
Trailer: http://www.anothernewsstory.com/
Ethical Journalism Network
The Ethical Journalism Network is an alliance of reporters, editors and publishers aiming to strengthen journalism around the world, working to build trust in news media through training, education and research.
The EJN has developed migration-reporting guidelines, which are available as an infographic and as a video have been used for training around Europe and have been presented to the United Nations in New York and other international forums.
The migration and media studies that the EJN has published or contributed to are:
How do media on both sides of the Mediterranean report on migration – A 17-country study commissioned by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development to produce a study analysing how media cover migration in Europe, Middle East and North Africa.
Fatal Journeys – Improving Data on Missing Migrants – Published by the IOM in 2017.
Refugees Images: Ethics in the Picture – From the EJN’s 2017 Ethics in the News report.
Moving Stories – An international review of how media cover migration published by the EJN in 2015.
To find out how to support the EJN visit: http://ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/support
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When people think of diaspora populations, their first thought tends to be of refugee populations, the migrant crisis, and communities fleeing conflict as a result of what’s reported in the media. However, this is only part of the story. Often these scattered populations across the globe continue to have an enormous impact on their homelands.
The European Research Council has sponsored 5 years of extensive research and close to 500 first-hand interviews among Kosovo, Albanian, Armenian, Bosnian, Kurdish, Iraqi and Palestinian diasporas, and a large-scale survey. These displaced, real, diverse people, living in European countries from the UK, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and France give us a unique insight into the homelands from which they originate.
This resourceful, entrepreneurial section of the population are important actors in the conflicts and post-conflict reconstruction processes of their homelands, be that Iraq, Palestine, Bosnia or Armenia.
Conflict-generated diasporas can have a huge influence on war and peace, and it is often something that is under reported in the media.
Dr. Maria Koinova, Principal Investigator for the ERC Project implemented at Warwick University, and her team will present their paper “Diasporas and Contested Sovereignty”, and be joined by journalists to discuss the wider importance of their work and how it can influence public policy today.
For more information on the project, visit their website here.
Chair
Chris Morris – BBC Correspondent
Morris regularly contributes to BBC News, Today and From Our Own Correspondent, and is the author of the 2005 Granta publication The New Turkey. He was BBC Turkey Correspondent from 1997-2001 based first in Ankara and later opening the BBC’s new bureau in Istanbul covering the 1999 İzmit earthquake and the arrest and trial of the Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan. From 2001-2005 Morris was the BBC Europe Correspondent based in Brussels covering the European Union, the proposed European constitution, and other European stories.
Speakers
Dr Maria Koinova – Principal Investigator of the ERC Starting Grant “Diasporas and Contested Sovereignty”
Before joining Warwick University in 2012, Dr. Maria Koinova held research fellowships and visiting scholar positions at Harvard, Cornell, Dartmouth, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C., the European University Institute, and Uppsala University, among other academic institutions. Koinova is the author of Ethnonationalist Conflict in Postcommunist States. Since 2006 Koinova has worked on topics related to diasporas, conflicts, post-conflict reconstruction and democratization, and has conducted multi-sited fieldwork among the Albanian, Armenian, Bosnian, Croatian, Lebanese, Palestinian, Serbian, and Ukrainian diasporas in the US and/or in Europe.
Tony Barber – Financial Times Europe News Editor
Tony is a columnist and specialist writer on European political, economic and business news and currently the Europe editor for the Financial Times. From 1990 – 1997 he was the East Europe Editor and Europe Editor at the Independent. Before that, he worked as a Reuters Foreign Correspondent from a range of cities from New York, Vienna, Moscow, Warsaw to Belgrade.
Dr Ben Margulies – post-doctoral Research Fellow, University of Warwick
Ben’s research background is primarily in comparative and European politics. He is also interested in the way that nations and party systems respond to migration and globalisation. His Ph.D. “Liberal Parties and Party Systems” used data taken from European party manifestos to track when parties moved left or right, and showed how these movements affected vote shares that liberal parties received. Ben joined this project to help develop a large-scale survey among conflict-generated diasporas in Europe.
Dr Dženta Karabegović – Ph.D. University of Warwick
Dženeta’s Ph.D. research project analyses diaspora influence on a weak state in post-conflict environments. Her work has looked into Bosnian diaspora mobilisation in Europe around issues of transitional justice, genocide remembrance, and political participation. This research was undertaken in the form of interviews, participant observation and process tracing with multi-sited fieldwork. Dženeta holds an MA. from the University of Chicago and was a visiting scholar from the Harriman Institute at Columbia University.
Dr Oula Kadhum – Ph.D. University of Warwick
Oula Kadhum’s research investigates in a comparative perspective diaspora mobilisation for state-building following the 2003 intervention in Iraq. Her work explores how the diaspora in the UK and Sweden mobilised towards this end and why there were differences in their approaches to building the state. Oula completed her Masters degree at the School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London, a postgraduate certificate in Education at Kings College London, and a Bachelors degree from Queen Mary University of London.
Featured image: protestors demonstrating against Turkish President Erdogan’s visit to Strasbourg. France Oct 4th, 2015
]]>Acclaimed British foreign correspondent and author Christina Lamb now tells the timely and inspiring story of a remarkable young hero: sixteen year-old Nujeen Mustafa. Born with cerebral palsy, Nujeen undertook a harrowing journey from war-ravaged Aleppo to Germany in all in a wheelchair. She tells the details of her experience for the first time in a memoir, Nujeen, co-authored with Christina Lamb.
In the context of Nujeen’s unimaginable journey, we will look at the course of the Syrian Civil War, the impact of bringing individual stories to the public, and action Western countries could take to bring urgent relief to the besieged population of Aleppo.
Chaired by Azadeh Moaveni (@AzadehMoaveni), former Middle East correspondent for Time magazine. She reported from throughout the region for much of the past decade, and speaks Persian and Arabic. Her books include Lipstick Jihad, Honeymoon in Tehran, and she is co-author, with Shirin Ebadi, of Iran Awakening.
Speakers (full panel announced soon):
Nujeen Mustafa (@NujeenMustafa) is a Syrian refugee currently based in Germany and author of the memoir Nujeen
Christina Lamb (@christinalamb) is the roving foreign affairs correspondent for The Sunday Times. She has been a foreign correspondent for more than twenty five years, living in Pakistan, Brazil and South Africa first for the Financial Times then The Sunday Times. She is the author of The Africa House, House of Stone: The True Story of a Family Divided in War-torn Zimbabwe, Waiting For Allah: Pakistan’s Struggle for Democracy, The Sewing Circles of Herat, My Afghan Years and co-author of I Am Malala. Her newest book Nujeen: One Girl’s Incredible Journey From War-Torn Syria in a Wheelchair is published by Harper Collins.
Rt Hon. Andrew Mitchell is the MP for Sutton Coldfield and Secretary of State for International Development.
Mina Al-Oraibi (@AlOraibi) is an Iraqi-British journalist and political analyst, a senior fellow at the Institute of State Effectiveness and a Yale World Fellow. She is a member of the Global Agenda Council on the Middle East and has written extensively on US and European policies in the Middle East, in addition to conducting several high profile interviews including with US President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi.
]]>Following the success of Girlfriend in a Coma, director Annalisa Piras brings us an artfully constructed depiction of how Europe is sleepwalking toward disaster, starring Angus Deayton in fiction scenes from a post-EU future. Piras pairs an imagined view from a dystopian future with insightful analysis by ordinary Europeans and economic and political experts on how and why things are going so wrong.
With an innovative form that combines playful narrative and hard facts, the film examines the identity crisis of current-day Europe and the complex challenges that are mounting against the Union’s survival. Beset by growing nationalism, seven years of economic crisis and an increasing dissatisfaction with its undemocratic political structure, will Europe sleepwalk into catastrophe as it did one hundred years ago?
Using beautiful photography, expert interviews, personal stories, and archival footage, Piras constructs a picture of a Europe that is worth fighting for, but which, if things carry on as they are, looks destined for disintegration. Through 5 different European stories – in Britain, Sweden, Germany, Spain and Croatia – the film creates a unique, choral portrait of the “European dream” and how it could be lost forever.
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The creative documentary 1989 is a high-politics drama about the the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Iron Curtain. When the young technocrat, Miklós Neméth, was appointed Hungary’s new prime minister, his main task was to save the country’s appalling economy. Neméth decided to remove the expensive border control apparatus from the state budget, a decision which set him up against communist hardliners, and soon after the Berlin Wall fell.
Director Anders Østergaard recreates the events of 1989 and invites the audience into the secret meeting rooms through a mixture of testimonials, archive material, recreation and reconstructed dialogues of the key political players.
Directed by Anders Østergaard
Duration: 96′
Year: 2014
On Tuesday 16 September, the Frontline Club hosted a preview screening of Night Will Fall, followed by an insightful Q&A with director André Singer and producer Sally Angel. The powerful film interweaves eyewitness testimony and original archive footage in order to chronicle the process of the filming, by American and British and Soviet combat cameramen, of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps in 1945.
Originally commissioned to provide lasting, undeniable evidence of the Nazis’ unspeakable crimes, the film was never completed. Seventy years on, however, the Imperial War Museum has restored the filmic testimony in its intended order and under its original title, German Concentration Camps Factual Survey. Night Will Fall also explores the political context in which the production of this film was suspended.
Angel commented on her initial interest in the project, sparked by a meeting with the Imperial War Museum’s senior curator Dr Toby Haggith, who was, at that time, beginning to digitally remaster and piece together fragments of German Concentration Camps Factual Survey:
“When he started describing the footage and the story behind it, I knew that would be something that I’d want to take further and really explore that moment of liberation and the challenges of bearing witness to atrocity.”
Singer agreed on the importance of the project, and emphasised his desire to create an “experiential” film rather than a reportage dictated by historians and critics, whose detached narrating of events he later labelled “not just superfluous, but intrusive”.
“If there’s one major thing that I feel most strongly about, it’s that the film should respect that the story was something that had to be told by the people who experienced it, not by others. . . . We ended up with the right combination of characters who . . . had the right to interpret what was happening at that time for another audience, 70 years on.”
Singer then touched on the potential re-traumatisation of the film’s central witnesses, all of whom reacted emotionally during their recounting of the events of 1945.
“The trauma that you’re creating is something that preys on your mind as a filmmaker . . . yet I feel the justification is that everybody who participated in the film overwhelmingly insisted that this was an important story to tell . . . and that their own personal angst or trauma . . . contributed to show how important the project was.”
Sally Angel and Andre Singer discuss NIGHT WILL FALL following a packed preview screening @frontlineclub pic.twitter.com/Lj9cQ8SFZK
— Emma Hewitt (@EmzoH) September 16, 2014
An audience member asked whether Singer and Angel intended to produce a film about the atrocities themselves, or about the process of filming the atrocities by Allied cameramen. Singer responded:
“It’s a genuine conundrum about the direction of the film. . . . The starting point of the film was that this was going to be very different in so far as it was going to be a film about the original film, the reconstruction of that film, the importance of that film, the extraordinary role of the cameraman.”
The filmmaker continued by revealing Night Will Fall’s evolution into a wider project:
“I personally . . . got more and more absorbed by the chaos of 1945, that political cauldron that was happening . . . before and then after the end of the war, the Palestine issue, the problems in England and Germany at that time . . . are we telling a narrow story about the film itself or are we trying to paint a broader picture?”
Another audience member commented on the intensely graphic nature of the footage included, not at all habitual in previous combat footage. Singer responded:
“Atrocity footage used out of context is pornography, it has no rational or reason to be used. But put in context and explained, it can carry the message that one needs to carry. . . . Nearly 50% of the footage we were tempted to use, we pulled out of the film because we didn’t want to overwhelm. . . . I hope that we have the balance about right.”
Angel echoed this sentiment, and commented on the radical difference in the extremity of this footage in comparison with previous combat images:
“The cameramen were very aware that they were gathering evidence . . . and part of their filming close-ups was about their anger as well, . . . about making sure that the world knew what was going on.”
Singer closed the discussion with an evaluation of the educational and cautionary elements of the project, recalling the words of Richard Crossman, the future cabinet minister who pinned the emotive script for the original documentary:
“‘Unless the world learns the lesson these pictures teach, night will fall. But, by God’s grace, we who live will learn.’ . . . We see now in everything we’ve seen subsequent to World War II, in 10 or 15 different cases, that of course we haven’t learnt. The tragedy of the film lies in those words.”
Visit the BFI website to find out more information on Night Will Fall and upcoming screenings.
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Rabbit à la Berlin
Academy Award-nominated documentary Rabbit à la Berlin uses the Berlin Wall rabbit population as a metaphor for the huge transition post-communist societies underwent. For 28 years, the Death Zone between the Berlin Walls was a safe home for wild rabbits: full of grass, no predators, guards protecting them from human disturbance. They were enclosed but happy. When the rabbit population grew to thousands, guards started to remove them but the rabbits survived and stayed until, one day, the wall fell down. The rabbits now had to abandon the comfortable system they had been living in. They moved to West Berlin, where they’ve have been living in small colonies ever since. They are still learning how to live in the free world, just as many citizens of Eastern Europe. Directed by Bartek Konopka and Piotr Rosołowski | Duration: 39’| Year: 2009
EXIT
In October 1989 the East German authorities tightened border security following the exodus of GDR citizens that had started earlier in the summer. Through exceptional and rare footage shot between 10 and 20 October 1989, Exit shows East German refugees who managed to cross the Polish border in order to reach the West German embassy in Warsaw. For the first time they talk openly about life in East Germany, not knowing the world is about to change. Directed by Małgorzata Bieńkowska-Buehlmann | Duration: 30′ | Year: 1990-2009
Oxygen
During the communist dictatorship in Romania (1945-1989), thousands of people risked their lives attempting to flee their country. Despair made them invent the most incredible methods to cross the border illegally. Some of them managed to escape, but many lost their lives in these attempts. Oxygen is a free re-enactment of a real case: a man who tried to cross the Danube illegally using an oxygen cylinder, to escape the communist Romania. Directed by Adina Pintilie | Duration: 30′ | Year: 2010
The screening of Rabbit à la Berlin kindly supported by Deckert Distribution
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By Nicole Hunt
Given the ongoing violence and international concern over Syria, it’s hard to believe (‘ridiculous’, even) that parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place on Monday, but President Bashar al Assad has insisted they will go ahead. The polls were set on 13 March, following the approval of a new constitution which changed electoral rules that had previously reserved 167 or 250 seats for the Ba’ath-supporting National Progressive Front coalition.
In Moscow, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin returns to the role he held from 1999 to 2008 when he is sworn in as President following elections in March. President Dmitry Medvedev, who acted as something of a placeholder while Putin took an obligatory term off, returns to his old post of Prime Minister.
The Atlantic Council holds its annual awards dinner in Washington, where Prince Harry, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and ‘the Enlisted Men and Women of the United States Armed Forces’ are among those receiving honours. Harry’s Distinguished Humanitarian Leadership Award is in recognition of his charitable work supporting members of the armed forces, while Ban receives the Distinguished International Leadership Award.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is in London from Tuesday, his fist high profile endeavour since being convicted of contempt of court on 26 April. Gilani is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister David Cameron and participate in the first annual review Meeting of the Enhanced Strategic Dialogue, but his five-day visit may also be used to try to shore up party support among Britain’s sizeable Pakistani community.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan host a joint Italian-Turkish summit in Rome, bringing together their foreign affairs, economy, interior, economic development, labour and environment ministers to discuss policy and bilateral relations.
Following VE Day on Tuesday, President Putin can celebrate his return to the helm on Wednesday at Russia’s annual Victory Day military parade, commemorating Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany. The parade is traditionally a fairly spectacular affair, including missiles, tanks and marching soldiers.
The World Economic Forum holds its annual meeting on Africa in Addis Ababa, this year focusing on the theme of ‘Shaping Africa’s Transformation’. Speakers include African Development Bank president Donald Kaberuka, president of the China Investment Corporation Gao Xiqing, Wal-Mart International CEO Doug McMillon, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies secretary general Bekele Geleta, and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Annan participates in his role as chairman of the Africa Progress Panel and as a board member of the WEF Foundation, but he has been preoccupied as of late with his role as UN-Arab League Joint Special Envoy for Syria.
Two high-profile international trials were postponed last week and rescheduled for Thursday. The judgement in former Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase’s appeal was scheduled for 2 May, but was postponed at the last minute. Nastase was convicted in January of illegally raising €1.6m during the 2004 election campaign and sentenced to two years in prison.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Vice President Tareq al Hashemi’s trial (in absentia) for allegedly running a death squad was postponed from 3 May in Baghdad after a series of shootings and explosions near the courthouse prompted his lawyers to request a venue change.
Algerians go to the polls on Thursday to elect members to the People’s National Assembly, in what President Abdelaziz Bouteflika called the beginning of a new stage of political reforms when he broke with tradition and announced the election date on TV, rather than asking the electoral college to set a date for the vote. Conscious of the 36 per cent turnout in the 2007 elections, Bouteflika encouraged more people to vote this time around, especially as the elections follow protests in 2011 over youth unemployment and inequality.
And some positive news from Greece, for once: Thursday marks the beginning of the Olympic Torch Handover Relay, which begins with a lighting ceremony at the Temple of Hera before the Torch is taken on an eight-day trek around the country and handed over to the UK.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych hosts a summit in Yalta on Friday that’s quickly become more noteworthy for who’s not attending rather than who is. German President Johann Gauck announced that he was cancelling his visit in protest at the continued imprisonment of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, prompting eight other leaders, including European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the presidents of Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Austria, Croatia, Estonia and Bulgaria, to decline their invitations.
The Food and Agriculture Organization’s Committee on World Food Security, which normally sits just once a year, holds an extraordinary meeting in Rome to adopt the (deep breath) Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT). The guidelines are the end result of an extensive three-year drafting process, and are designed to help governments designing policies in these areas.
The European Commission publishes its biannual EU Economic Forecasts on Friday, looking at short-term and macro-economic projections for the euro area and member states over the next two years. Though the publication traditionally comes out in May and November, the Commission released an interim report in February this year ‘due to the rapidly changing economic circumstances’; the interim report predicted ‘a mild recession with signs of stabilisation’.
Demonstrations are planned across Spain on Saturday to mark the one year anniversary of the ‘indignados’ movement, which occupied Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square from 15 May last year. The occupation lasted nearly a month, which now seems a short time compared to the Occupy movements, but sparked the whole movement of taking back public spaces.
Palestinian activist Bassem Tamimi, who was recently released on bail after more than a year in prison, is expected to find out on Sunday whether he has
been found guilty of organising illegal protests and incitement to stone-throwing. The Ofer Military Court is scheduled to rule on the charges, which relate to weekly demonstrations in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh.
Regional elections take place in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the seventh state elections in just over a year. As always, observers are watching closely for indicators of the falling popularity of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and its allies.
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By Nicole Hunt
Monday looks to be the biggest day of what should be an interesting week internationally. Kicking off with the ongoing EU debt crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosts French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Berlin to iron out amendments to the new EU fiscal stability treaty that was agreed last month.
Italian bank Unicredit opens its €7.5bn rights issue, having discounted shares by about 43 per cent in a bid to raise funds. Investors will be watching the sale closely to gauge market support for European banks.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak begins a three-day visit to China at the invitation of President Hu Jintao. Discussions are expected to focus heavily on regional security in the wake of the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy trial, which has dragged on for nearly two years, finally comes to an end as the jury is scheduled to deliver its verdict in Kuala Lumpur. In addition to Ibrahim’s freedom – he faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty – the verdict will also determine who will run against Prime Minister Najib Razak in the country’s next elections, which are not due until June 2013 but look increasingly likely to be called this year.
Attentions turn Stateside on Tuesday as New Hampshire Republicans cast their ballots in the presidential primary. Following the 3 January Iowa Caucus, in which Mitt Romney beat Rick Santorum by just eight votes, Michelle Bachman announced that she was dropping out of the race.
In Washington, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announces whether to move the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock, which represents how close humanity is to ‘catastrophic destruction’. The last time the clock was moved, in January 2010, the BAS’ outlook was somewhat positive, moving the minute hand back one minute from five to six minutes before midnight.
Tuesday also marks the 10th anniversary of the arrival of the first detainees at the Guantánamo Bay detention centre.
The High Court in London is expected to rule on Wednesday whether the Occupy London protesters can remain in their camp outside of St Paul’s Cathedral. Despite legal action from the City of London Corporation, the camp has been in place since 15 October.
The World Economic Forum releases its annual Global Risk Report ahead of the Davos Forum, which opens on 25 January. Last year’s report found that the financial crisis had ‘drained’ the world’s ability to deal with shocks.
The European Central Bank’s Governing Council meets in Frankfurt on Thursday to decide whether to raise, lower, or maintain the euro area’s interest rate. After last month’s meeting, during which the interest rate was decreased to 1 per cent, ECB President Mario Draghi announced major refinancing operations to support bank lending and market activity.
Alleged al Qaeda member Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who pled guilty in October to attempting to set off an explosive device in his underwear on a Detroit flight on Christmas Day in 2009, is sentenced in Detroit.
India is hoping to celebrate a milestone anniversary on Friday. If no new cases of polio are reported between now and then, the country will mark its first-ever year without any new cases. The World Health Organisation considers a disease to be eradicated when no new cases are reported for three consecutive years. Apple is set for a massive sales boost as the iPhone 4S goes on sale in China and 21 other countries in South America, the Caribbean and Africa.
Apple is set for a massive sales boost as the iPhone 4S goes on sale in China and 21 other countries in South America, the Caribbean and Africa.
Saturday marks the one year anniversary of the resignation of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, whose 23-year rule was ended after nearly a month of protests dubbed the Jasmine Revolution. The success of protests in Tunisia spurred similar movements across the region, with widely varying results in Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria, Morocco and Syria.
In Taiwan, voters go to the polls to elect a new President for a four year term. Incumbent Ma Ying-jeou faces challenges from China-sceptic Tsai Ing-wen and pro-Beijing James Soong.
Elections also take place in Kazakhstan on Sunday, following President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s snap decision to dissolve Parliament on 16 November. The vote is expected to see at least one opposition party enter Parliament, usually dominated by Nazarvbaeyev’s Nur Otan party, though that party is likely to be close ally Ak Zholl.
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By Nicole Hunt
Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, better known as Carlos the Jackal, goes on trial in Paris on Monday accused of complicity in the deaths of 11 people. The charges relate to bombings in France in 1982 and 1983. Carlos is already serving a life sentence for the 1975 murder of two French security agents and a Lebanese informant; he rose to prominence after orchestrating an armed raid on OPEC’s Vienna headquarters that same year, during which three people were killed.
In Brussels, euro zone Finance Ministers hold their monthly meeting. Tensions are expected to be high following last week’s will-they-or-won’t-they discussions on a referendum on the new EU bailout deal.
The meeting continues into Tuesday when non-euro zone EU members join their counterparts for yet more talks.
The second round of Liberia’s presidential election is also on Tuesday, with the country set to find out whether incumbent President and newly-anointed Nobel Peace laureate Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf will serve another term or be replaced by former UN envoy William Tubman.
Dmitry Medvedev, Angela Merkel, Francois Fillon and Mark Rutte attend the opening ceremony for the Nord Stream 1 Pipeline in Lubmin, Germany. The gas pipeline connects Northern Europe to Russia via the Baltic Sea.
The International Energy Agency publishes its annual World Energy Outlook on Wednesday, which projects energy supply and demand worldwide through to 2030.
In Paris, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) convenes to discuss the recommended catch limits for bluefin tuna. The meeting follows a report last month which found that overfishing was rampant, with 140 per cent more bluefin meat entering the market than was reported from the Mediterranean alone.
News Corporation’s James Murdoch is back in front of the UK Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Thursday. The Committee recalled Murdoch to question him about testimony he gave at a hearing on 19 July, when he appeared alongside his father Rupert, which was contradicted by witnesses at subsequent hearings.
With all eyes nervously watching the global financial markets, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the European Central Bank hold their annual International Banking Conference on Thursday and Friday.
The New 7 Wonders Foundation announces the new seven wonders of nature on Friday, following a world campaign that has seen them visit 28 finalists sites and has encouraged people to vote for their favourites.
Meanwhile, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the UN tribunal set up to investigate the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al Hariri, holds a public hearing to decide whether to try in absentia four Hezbollah members indicted in the case.
The United States hosts the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting in Honolulu on Saturday, followed by the North American Leaders’ Summit with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Sunday.
Candlelight vigils are held in London, Cape Town and Mariestad, Sweden, in memory of Anni Dewani on the first anniversary of her death. Dewani was murdered in an apparent carjacking while on honeymoon in Cape Town last year. Her husband Shrien was subsequently implicated in her death, and is currently appealing his extradition to South Africa to face charges.
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