Monitor13/10/2013 00:00
TW
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SOME 700 African migrants rushed the barriers in an attempt to cross Morocco's border with the Spanish enclave of Melilla. In a week of chaos several migrants were killed, some were dumped in the desert by Morocco and Spain returned others who had managed to climb the fence. The United States reported that a record 464 people had died trying to cross the border from Mexico in the year ending September, a 43 percentage increase on the previous year. THREE bomb blasts killed 19 people in a suicide bombing attack in Indonesia's tourist island of Bali; newspapers carried photographs of the severed heads of the bombers in the hope that they would be identified. AFTER protests from the United Nations and the United States, the government of Iraq withdrew a proposal to change the rules of the referendum on the country's constitution to make it more likely that it would be approved. Al-Qaeda posted an internet message to Iraq for Ramadan: “We say, O Islam, muster your strength, and we incite believers to fight the worshippers of the cross.” ALGERIANS voted by a large majority to endorse a Charter on Peace and Reconciliation intended to draw a line under the killings that took place in 1991 after the army cancelled an election the Islamists were about to win.

THE EU began membership negotiations with Turkey after Austria withdrew its objections at the last minute; discussions are likely to last ten years before a decision is reached. Mr Tony Blair and President Jacques Chirac met in Paris agreed to be “a force for harmony” in Europe but did not announce any specific agreements on outstanding issues. IN Britain the party conference season ended with the Conservatives moving on to a series of votes to choose their fourth leader in five years. Despite a promise in 2004 by the Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, to cut civil servants by 84'000 the numbers rose to 95'000 in the year to June. BP said that the Hurricanes Katrina and Rita had cost it the loss of 145'000 barrels of oil a day and US$700m in profit in the third quarter. Boots the Chemist, with 1'400 outlets in Britain, merged with Allied UniChem which has a similar number in Europe; the new company will have 100'000 staff and a value of 7 billion pounds.