Shorter Question Everything

Haiti

• Although a U.S. Baptist group said it was trying to rescue 33 “orphans” by taking them out of earthquake-ravaged Haiti, all the children have close family still alive, The Associated Press has found.

Niger

• The leaders of the military coup in Niger have promised a “return to constitutional order”, three days after overthrowing President Mamadou Tandja.
  A spokesman for the coup leaders said they would draft a new constitution and hold elections, but did not say when.
  Mr Tandja – seized during a cabinet meeting on Thursday – was being held at a house in the capital Niamey, he said.
  Delegations from the UN and the West African regional body Ecowas have been in Niger for meetings with the junta.

Honduras

• The new Honduran government has re-established relations with 29 nations, which had severed relations with Tegucigalpa following a military coup that removed the country’s constitutional President Manuel Zelaya.
  Honduran Foreign Minister Mario Canahuati, in an interview with El Tiempo daily, announced that France, Spain, Italy, Guatemala and Germany are among the countries that have restored ties with the Central American nation, AFP reported.
  Relations with the major regional countries including Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela and Nicaragua have yet to be normalized, added Canahuati.

Afghanistan

• One day after the Dutch Cabinet collapsed, the country’s prime minister has announced that he expects the Netherlands to pull out all its troops from Afghanistan in August. The Dutch parliament had voted for the August pullout last October.
  One Afghan official told the BBC that a withdrawal would leave a “big vacuum” in training, construction and security operations that the Dutch are involved in.

Argentina

• Argentina cemented a Latin American front over the Falklands today as a British oilrig began drilling in the disputed seas around the islands.
  Regional leaders at the Rio Group summit in Mexico were expected to sign up for a resolution backing Argentina in its escalating row with Britain after Brazil and Chile pledged their support.
  Venezuela’s vociferous President, Hugo Chávez, set the tone of the summit, offering military support. Characterising Britain as an imperialist relic, Mr Chávez demanded the return of “Las Malvinas”, as they are known to Argentinians.
  “The English are still threatening Argentina. Things have changed. We are no longer in 1982,” he warned. “If conflict breaks out, be sure Argentina will not be alone like it was back then.”
  Brazil, the biggest regional power and traditionally Argentina’s main rival, was similarly supportive.

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