World View: India's PM Narendra Modi Government in Crisis over Iraq Hostages

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• China sends four new oil rigs into South China Sea
• In a turnabout, Pakistan refugees flood into Afghanistan
• India’s PM Narendra Modi government in crisis over Iraq hostages
• In strategic victory, ISIS captures Syria-Iraq border crossing

China sends four new oil rigs into South China Sea

After military tensions surged in the last few months between Chinaand Vietnam over China’s drilling rig within Vietnam’s exclusiveeconomic zone (EEZ), China is now launching four new oil rigs. Inresponse to a question, China’s foreign ministry said, “Please don’tworry, there won’t be any problem.” It’s possible, though not yetconfirmed, that all four of the oil rigs are entirely within China’swaters. Reuters

In a turnabout, Pakistan refugees flood into Afghanistan

For years, Pakistan has been hosting hundreds of thousands of refugeesfrom Afghanistan fleeing the war there. Now there’s a flood ofthousands of Pakistan refugees fleeing into Afghanistan, where thereare no refugee camps to accommodate them. They’re escaping from theviolence of the military action by Pakistan’s army against Talibanhideouts and weapons stores in North Waziristan in Pakistan’s tribalarea. The military action was triggered by the terrorist attack on the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi earlier this month. More than100,000 thousand people in North Waziristan have been forced to fleetheir homes, and those that haven’t gone to Afghanistan have traveledto nearby provinces in Pakistan in the hope of finding food andshelter. VOA

India’s PM Narendra Modi government in crisis over Iraq hostages

The Iraq crisis has become a political crisis for the new governmentof prime minister Narendra Modi, because the Islamic State of Iraq andSyria (ISIS) has taken 40 India citizens as hostages. According toreports, the the Indian workers are now being held in a cottonwarehouse in the vicinity of Mosul. In addition, 46 Indian nurses aretrapped in a hospital in Tikrit. There are over 10,000 to 20,000Indians in Iraq, both legal and illegal migrants. Many of them are inthe Shia-dominated south, and if the war escalates, then they will bein danger. India is also concerned that the conflict will result in asharp increase in oil prices, which would harm India’s economy.The Hindu (India) and Times of India

In strategic victory, ISIS captures Syria-Iraq border crossing

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) made a major strategicvictory on Saturday by capturing the town of al-Qaim in Iraq, a bordercrossing between Syria and Iraq. This will permit ISIS to join itsarmies in Syria and Iraq, and permit the free flow of people, weaponsand commercial goods between the two armies, and will provide a directpath for ISIS to approach Baghdad. ISIS has captured billions ofdollars worth of American weapons, including tanks, humvees,helicopters, and other heavy weaponry, from storehouses in Mosul thatwere supposedly being guarded by the Iraqi army. Those weapons cannow be moved back into Syria, if desired, for use against Hezbollah,Iranian forces, and the Syrian regime army. CNN andAFP

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