Around the world in 60 seconds - 25 June 2010

This week’s events include:

• Afghanistan’s top US General fired over criticism
• Crucial whaling meeting fails to produce an agreement
• Australia has its first female prime minister as Kevin Rudd steps down
• Jamaican drug lord Christopher Coke turns himself in

Afghanistan’s top US General fired over criticism

America’s highest military official in Afghanistan General Stanley McCrystal has been dismissed by President Obama over comments made in a magazine article.

McCrystal has been heading up America’s and NATO’s war in Afghanistan since Obama appointed him in June 2009.

He has generally been considered a success after convincing the government to send another 30,000 troops and changing the strategy from attacking the Taliban to serving the civilians.

However, his comments in a Rolling Stones magazine article titled “The Runaway General” showed “poor judgement”, according to the White House.

The comments included mockery towards Vice-President Joe Biden, doubt towards America’s special envoy, and an accusation of betrayal by the US Ambassador to Afghanistan.

President Obama has replaced him with General David Petraeus, the current head of the Iraq war operation.

Crucial whaling meeting fails to produce an agreement

Negotiations between the 88 countries which belong to the International Whaling Commission failed to produce a commercial whaling agreement this week in Agadir, Morocco because “the fundamental positions remained very much apart.”

Japan, Iceland and Norway want to hunt whales commercially with a specified limit (quota).

However, countries like USA and New Zealand want the quota significantly less than what is being requested and under tight monitoring, while Australia and Latin American countries wants it banned altogether.

An agreed level could not be reached, and nor could a commitment from Japan that it would eventually stop whaling for any purposes in the Antarctic Sea.

It’s now likely that commercial whaling from the three countries will continue via a legal loophole in the current ban which allows whaling for “scientific” purposes.

Talks may be extended for another year. Meanwhile, Australia is suing Japan at the International Court of Justice over its whaling in the Southern Ocean. However, experts believe their legal case isn’t very strong.

Australia has its first female prime minister as Kevin Rudd steps down

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd resigned yesterday morning due to a lack of support from within his Labor Party.

He has been replaced by Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, making her the country’s first ever female prime minister.

The party believed they wouldn’t win the next election if they were led by Rudd, and were preparing to hold a ballot to decide their leader later that morning.

Rudd’s lack of support has supposedly come from his leadership style and his decisions over the country’s emissions trading scheme and a super tax of mining company profits.

Jamaican drug lord Christopher Coke turns himself in

On Tuesday, Jamaican drug lord Christopher “Dudus” Coke was arrested on his way to the American Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica where he was planning on turning himself in.

He was arrested at a roadblock while travelling in a car with a prominent priest from a local mega-church and two car-loads of armed henchmen.

He was wearing a curly wig and a black hat, perhaps in an attempt to bypass the Jamaican authorities in preference for American detention (his father was killed in a prison fire in Jamaica in 1992).

It’s unsure why he turned himself in. Many thought he had successfully escaped to another country or had been shot.

70 people died in the gunfight in May between Coke’s supporters and the Jamaican police who were trying to arrest him to face trial in America for drug and gun running.

Photo – Australia’s new Prime Minister Julia Gillard