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With strife on the streets of Bangui escalating, Catherine Samba-Panza cut short her New York trip. French helicopters reportedly fired on militias near the airport. “It marked a fourth day of clashes since the killing of a Muslim man on Saturday unleashed the worst sectarian violence this year in the former French colony and raised doubts over plans to hold elections. The vote, scheduled for Oct. 18 but expected to be postponed, is meant to conclude a restoration of democracy after Muslim rebels seized power in the mostly Christian country in 2013, plunging the nation of 4.5 million people into a spiral of religious violence. Samba-Panza, who took office when Seleka ceded power in 2014 under international pressure, said the unrest was being stoked by supporters of ousted former president Francois Bozize.” (Reuters http://reut.rs/1MZolAH)
Saudi’s Under Pressure to Halt Yemen Bombing Campaign…Saudi Arabia and its allies faced mounting international pressure on Tuesday to halt a bombing campaign in Yemen the day after airstrikes killed dozens of people at a village wedding on the Red Sea coast. The attack occurred Monday morning in the village of Wahija, south of the city of Mokha, and appeared to be one of the deadliest involving civilians since the military campaign began in March. Witnesses said Monday that at least 70 people had been killed in tents set up for the wedding. On Tuesday, two local medical officials said as many as 81 people had died.
Stat of the day: The office of the U.N. human rights chief says 151 civilians have been killed in fighting in Yemen over two weeks in September, taking the civilian death toll to 2,355 over the last six months. (AP http://yhoo.it/1MYMNSJ)
On the UNGA Docket today: POTUS and VPOTUS are back in DC today. But the action still abounds in Turtle Bay. Palestine, Turkey, Iraq and Pakistan are on the speaker schedule on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Russia will chair a Security Council meeting to drum up support for its own anti-ISIS strategy.
Africa
The streets of the capital of the Central African Republic were deserted Tuesday with terrified residents sheltering indoors and 30,000 seeking refuge at the airport after three days of shooting and bloodshed. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1iJ2Jvb)
The Central African Republic’s president appealed for calm Tuesday as the United Nations reported 36 people dead and almost 30,000 displaced in three days of bloodshed terrorising the capital Bangui. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1MYMQOy)
Burkina Faso’s army took up positions on Tuesday outside the presidential guard’s camp in the capital Ouagadougou, a day after the military chief of staff said the elite unit was refusing to disarm after a short-lived coup. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1MYNEms)
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged South Sudan Tuesday not to “betray and disappoint” the international community after its president promised to implement a faltering peace deal designed to end civil war. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1MYNFXr)
Nigeria is struggling with an unprecedented economic crisis due to a plunge in oil revenues undermining the state’s ability to provide even basic services, Senate President Bukola Saraki said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1iJ83i3)
A scorching drought that has cut South Africa’s key maize crop by a third is likely to continue into the southern hemisphere summer as an El Nino weather pattern strengthens, according to the latest forecast from the South African Weather Service. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1MYMM19)
MENA
Syrian opposition forces say they will never accept President Bashar al-Assad’s rule, after signs that Western powers may be willing to work with the embattled leader to end the war. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1KJfgZc)
The United Arab Emirates is introducing labor reforms aimed at tightening oversight of employment agreements for the millions of temporary migrant workers who make up the bulk of the country’s workforce, a top Emirati official said Tuesday. (AP http://yhoo.it/1MYMNCc)
The Libyan coastguard said it rescued 346 migrants on Tuesday, almost 100 of them women and children, crammed onto rubber boats and stranded off the country’s coast. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1MYNJ9N)
The World Bank says the Palestinian economy has worsened for a third consecutive year. (AP http://yhoo.it/1OEKioM)
The U.S. is losing the battle to stop Americans from traveling abroad to enlist in ISIS, a bipartisan congressional task force concluded in a report released Tuesday. (CNN http://cnn.it/1MZo1BP)
Asia
Western embassies in Bangladesh have restricted their diplomats’ movements amid concern more foreigners would be targeted after an Italian was shot dead in the first attack in the country claimed by Islamic State. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1MYMIOP)
Deposed Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra filed a criminal case against the attorney general on Tuesday alleging unfair handling of charges against her that could see her jailed for 10 years. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1MYMJ5s)
More than 200 ethnic Rohingya stormed out of an Indonesian encampment Tuesday as tensions erupted following alleged rapes and beatings by locals at the site where members of Myanmar’s long-persecuted minority have been held since arriving by boat four months ago. (AP http://yhoo.it/1MYNETo)
Two British journalists have gone on trial in Indonesia for allegedly trying to make a documentary about piracy without the correct visas, and could face up to five years in jail, an official said Tuesday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1KJeqeP)
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi met U.S. President Barack Obama and France and Britain’s leaders on Monday, and called for a climate change agenda from upcoming global talks in Paris that helps developing countries with access to finance and technology. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1MYMI1u)
The Americas
The news keeps getting worse for the once-ballyhooed Brazilian economy, compounding the delicate political situation for President Dilma Rousseff, who polls show is the nation’s most unpopular president since the 1985 return to democracy. (AP http://yhoo.it/1P4kzp8)
The justice accord signed at peace talks between Marxist FARC rebels and the Colombian government does not address possible prison time for those who confess crimes committed during the country’s 51-year war, the rebel group said on Tuesday, contradicting government statements on the issue. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1MYNED4)
Peru declared a state of emergency in six provinces on Tuesday after protests over a big Chinese copper mining project left three people dead and 15 injured. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1KJfkZ0)
Greenpeace called on Brazilian authorities on Tuesday to reject an environmental assessment for a hydroelectric dam on the Tapajos River in the Amazon because it was a “marketing tool” that disregarded the indigenous people living along its banks. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1iJ80CU)
…and the rest
An international press freedom group says the European Union has been too lenient in its treatment of media abuses in Hungary and accuses it of economic bias in defending the rights of journalists. (AP http://yhoo.it/1KJepYk)
More than half a million migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year — 383,000 of them arriving in Greece, the United Nations said on Tuesday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1KJeprk)
Austria may have to use force to ease any backlog of migrants if Germany decided to no longer let them enter via their shared border, but will continue to work closely with its neighbor to expedite the flow, the Vienna government said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1MYNCuT)
European stock markets recovered their poise Tuesday despite an earlier rout in Asia which featured a 4 percent slide in Japan’s main index. (AP http://yhoo.it/1MYMLdr)
A top U.N. human rights official says efforts by Russia-backed separatist rebels to block the flow of humanitarian aid to people in eastern Ukraine could amount to crimes against humanity. (AP http://yhoo.it/1KJfkrQ)
Opinion/Blogs
The SDGs Should Stand for Senseless, Dreamy, Garbled (Foreign Policy http://atfp.co/1O6ouCF)
The not-so-easy task of educating girls (Humanosphere http://bit.ly/1iJ8ZTw)
A Change of Perspective on Social Good (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/1O6oDG5)
We Can Overcome Poverty and Hunger by 2030 (IPS http://bit.ly/1MYLp2C)
Maybe Trevor Noah Shouldn’t Be So Comfortable With An Indoor Toilet (Goatas and Soda http://n.pr/1P4kuBR)
In two charts, this is what refugees say about why they are leaving Syria now (Monkey Cage http://wapo.st/1iJ69hB)
Piketty’s contribution to unpacking inequality: timely and relevant (The Conversation http://bit.ly/1P4lNAF)
The majority of the world’s children are in school. So why aren’t they learning? (Guardian http://bit.ly/1ReogHU)
Secret aid worker: As a woman, I’m seen as a piece of meat (Guardian http://bit.ly/1Reom2n)
Bad time to change UN refugee supremo? (IRIN http://bit.ly/1P4mZEj)
It’s Up To The World: Pay For The Global Goals Or Buy Everyone A Latte (Goats and Soda http://n.pr/1P4mSse)