Top Stories from DAWNS Digest
36 Killed in Spate of Attacks and Bombings Targeting Iraq’s Shia
The security situation in Iraq is rapidly deteriorating. “The attacks capped a week of turmoil that is posing the greatest test of Iraq’s stability since U.S. troops left the country in late 2011. At least 218 people have been killed in attacks and battles between gunmen and security forces that began with clashes at a Sunni protest camp in northern Iraq last Tuesday. The unrest follows four months of widespread protests among Iraq’s Sunni minority, who feel they are discriminated against and are being marginalized by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shiite-led government.” (WaPo http://wapo.st/Zwofab)
Revealed: China’s Africa Aid Flows
China’s previously unrecorded assistance to Africa in terms of aid and development was painstakingly compiled in a groundbreaking report from the Center for Global Development. “A comprehensive new study has found some $75 billion in unrecorded development projects between 2000 and 2011—and some $6.3 billion in aid flows each year. The money ranges from direct grants funding projects from dams to stadiums, to deals to finance and support natural resource exploration. For example, in 2006, Nigeria gave China oil drilling licenses in exchange for a $4 billion loan to build infrastructure.” (Quartz http://bit.ly/ZwoKRz) The report from CGDev can be read here: http://bit.ly/Zwov99.