Around the world in 60 seconds – 12 March 2010

Today’s trip around the world includes:

• Mass murder and tension in Nigeria
• US Vice-President visits Israel
• Iraq election gets under way
• Burma bans Suu Kyi from election

Tension and murder in Nigeria’s north-south boundary

In the last two weeks, 109 people (earlier reports were of 500) have been murdered in the Nigerian city of Jos. Bodies hacked up by machetes have been found in mass graves.

About 200 mainly Muslim men have been arrested. They claim to have committed the atrocities as retribution for Christian violence against them in January that left more than 300 people dead.

The area is the boundary between Nigeria’s poor Muslim north, and its richer Christian south.

Discrimination has caused violence in Jos over the last decade. Muslim ‘settlers’ don’t have the same legal rights to jobs, or get their education paid for by the government, unlike the Christian ‘indigenes.’

US Vice-President Joe Biden visits Israel over Iran and Palestine

US Vice-President Joe Biden travelled to Israel this week to try to get stalled peace talks started.

He first met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to confirm America’s commitment to their security and to making sure Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons.

He then met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to reassure him of America’s intentions to get a proper Palestinian country.

While he was there, Israel inflamed the situation by announcing the building of 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem – what Palestinians hope to be their future capital city.

Biden promptly labelled the decision “precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now.”

Iraqis vote on their future

Polling booths opened on Sunday for Iraq’s parliamentary elections – the second since the 2003 invasion. 6,200 candidates are competing for 325 seats in the new parliament.

The main players are the State of Law coalition, a group of moderate Shiite and Sunni religious parties led by the current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. They are credited with improving security and getting the economy started.

The other two are the Iraqiya coalition, a non-religious group of Shiite and Sunni parties, and the Iraq National Alliance, a collection of Shiite religious parties who have support from Iran.

The preliminary results are expected over the next few days.

Burma bans democracy icon from up-coming election

The military government in Burma (also known as Myanmar) has passed a law banning all people with a criminal conviction from joining a political party.

This includes Nobel peace prize winner and pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who is the leader of the opposition party.

She was convicted of breaking the rules of her house arrest when an unknown American, John Yettaw, swam to her house across a lake in May 2009.

This means she cannot take part in the highly-anticipated elections planned for sometime this year.

Photo – US Vice-President Joe Biden