Must-Reads from Around the World, July 10, 2012

Today's picks: the stormy waters of the South China Sea, India faces the fallout from late monsoon rains and a controversial German writer and economist (not surprisingly) speaks his mind

  • Share
  • Read Later
in Liangkuai/Xinhua

Photo taken on May 7, 2012 shows the sixth-generation semi-submersible CNOOC 981 at the South China Sea, 320 kilometers southeast of Hong Kong, south China

South China Sea — The BBC reports the Association of South East Asia Nations (Asean) has adopted ”key elements” of a code of conduct for resolving disputes in the South China Sea, China’s state-run Global Times issues another stern warning to Tokyo over contested islands. “Japan underestimates China’s determination to safeguard its own sovereignty,” wrote Zhou Yongsheng, deputy director of the Japan Study Center at China Foreign Affairs University.

Crisis Looms — As India continues to await late southwest monsoon rains, the Hindu reports on “an alarming depletion” in water levels at key reservoirs. It said the worsening situation prompted the central government to issue an advisory to Indian states Monday to make “judicious and regulated” releases of water. “The States have been advised to give preference to drinking water and irrigation and enhance groundwater use to meet current needs,” it wrote.

Mr. Controversial — Australia’s Global Mail interviews commentator Thilo Sarrazin, who “discomfits Germans with his blunt take on what he thinks ails them.” Among his comments: “I tell the German people you shall pay for Europe because your ancestors murdered the Jews” and “we should stop immigration from the Middle East and from Africa altogether. This is a very serious long-term demographic and cultural risk for Europe, not only for Germany.”

Power Struggle — “In a raw contest between Egypt’s competing centers of power,” the New York Times writes that the Egyptian parliament has “defied the country’s highest court and its most senior generals by holding a brief session of the dissolved Parliament.” It reconvened at the order of President Mohamed Morsy of the Muslim Brotherhood, the ruling party, creating “another chapter in the long-running battle between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military.”

Warlord Jailed — The Guardian describes the first sentence handed down Tuesday by the international criminal court a decade after its inception, “jailing for 14 years a Congolese warlord who recruited and used child soldiers.” In March, Thomas Lubanga also became the first person convicted by the permanent war crimes tribunal. He operated in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern Ituri region in 2002-2003. Lubanga showed no emotion as his sentence was read out by presiding judge Adrian Fulford.

Gang Culture — Reuters reveals the findings of a report by advocacy group Human Rights Watch, that gangs in Greece are “regularly attacking immigrants with impunity across the country and authorities are ignoring or discouraging victims from filing complaints.” The report states that although “tourists are welcome, migrants and asylum seekers face a hostile environment, where they may be subject to detention in inhuman and degrading conditions, risk destitution and xenophobic violence.”