UNITED NATIONS
Half of refugees are children
Some 28 million children around the globe have been driven from their homes by violent conflict, with nearly as many abandoning their homes in search of a better life, according to a UNICEF report released Tuesday. The report found that while children make up about a third of the world’s population as of 2015, they accounted for nearly half of all refugees, with the number of child refugees having doubled over the last decade. The report said 45 percent of the children refugees came from just two countries: Syria and Afghanistan.
Brazil
Ousted president moves out
Dilma Rousseff moved out of Brazil’s presidential palace Tuesday, six days after senators voted to impeach and remove her from office. A crowd of supporters cheered the country’s first female president outside the Alvorada Palace in the capital of Brasilia, some giving her flowers and other gifts. The news portal G1 showed her later being greeted by supporters at the airport and boarding a plane. Rousseff has said she planned to return to her hometown of Porto Alegre in southern Brazil. Rousseff was removed from office Wednesday for breaking fiscal responsibility laws in her management of the federal budget.
Laos
Obama targets North Korea
In the wake of another missile launch, President Barack Obama vowed Tuesday in Asia to work with the United Nations to tighten sanctions against North Korea, but added that the U.S. was still open to dialogue if the government changes course. Obama signaled the U.S. would redouble its effort to choke off North Korea’s access to international currency and technology by tightening loopholes in the current sanctions regime. Obama called the series of ballistic missile launches “provocations” that flouted international law.
England
Scandal envelops lawmaker
A powerful Labour Party lawmaker stepped down Tuesday as chair of a British Parliament committee devoted to law, security and immigration issues after a sex scandal threatened to overshadow the committee’s work. Keith Vaz was under pressure to resign from the U.K. Home Affairs Select Committee after the Sunday Mirror and the Daily Mirror published stories alleging the married father of two had paid for the services of male escorts. Vaz has not commented on the substance of the reports, but said they made it impossible for the committee to function without distraction.
Compiled from wire reports