1 Iraq PM Maliki forced out over jihadi crisis
(Martin Chulov, Luke Harding & Dan Roberts in The Guardian) Iraq's
embattled prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, appeared to have lost his job on
Monday, after the country's president appointed a rival Shia candidate to form
a new government in a bid to end the deadlock that has paralysed the Baghdad
government while jihadists have swept through the country's north.
Maliki had appeared to be clinging to his post, but
he was abandoned by party allies and sidelined by religious and regional
backers who no longer believe he can save the crumbling state. His defiance
sets the scene for yet another volatile period in Iraqi politics at a time when
the Islamic State (Isis) jihadist group continues to rampage through the
country, fast diminishing the authority of the central government.
The US warned military officials not to get involved
in the political process. The move to effectively remove Maliki came after the
White House launched a fresh volley of phone calls to politicians in Baghdad on
Monday. In his fourth diplomatic intervention in as many days, the US
vice-president, Joe Biden, called both the Iraqi president, Fouad Massoum, and
the man he has selected to try to replace Maliki, Haider al-Abadi, indicating
that further US military support could follow swiftly if they succeed in their
efforts to form a new government.
The international community has repeatedly put
pressure on Maliki to step down ever since the start of the jihadist
insurrection in June that saw Mosul, Tikrit, and much of western Iraq fall to
Isis and Kirkuk fall to the Kurds. Iraq's army abandoned its posts in the north
in one of the more spectacular routs in modern military history. And, as
commander in chief, Maliki had been unable to reverse the losses.
The US and Britain, along with Saudi Arabia and the
Gulf states claim that overtly sectarian policies adopted by Maliki since the
onset of the civil war in Syria have disenfranchised the country's Sunnis, in
part making them prey for the jihadists who now control much of Sunni Iraq.
2 Brazilians bid $611m for Chiquita (BBC) Two
Brazilian companies have made a $611m bid for US banana group Chiquita. Juice
maker Cutrale and conglomerate Safra have offered $13 a share, a 29% premium to
Chiquita's closing share price on Friday. Chiquita shares jumped 31% in New
York after the bid was announced.
The offer rivals the proposed merger between
Chiquita and Irish fruit firm Fyffes, announced in March. Shares in Fyffes fell
15% in London. The merger would create the world's largest banana company worth
$1bn.
But the two Brazilian companies said their offer
"is clearly more favourable to the Chiquita shareholders than the proposed
merger with Fyffes". The global banana market is currently controlled by
four firms, Chiquita, Dole Food Company, Fresh Del Monte and Fyffes, according
to the United Nations.
3 Singapore home resale prices at 21-month low
(Melissa Tan in Straits Times) Resale prices for private homes continued their
slide in July to reach their lowest level in 21 months, according to Singapore
Real Estate Exchange (SRX) flash estimates. Rents also fell to a 38-month low
amidst greater competition for tenants.
Prices of resale private homes fell 1.3 per cent
from June to July to their lowest point since October 2012, after dropping 1.4
per cent from May to June. The islandwide fall in prices was led by the city
centre, where values tumbled 4 per cent from the previous month.
4 Actor-comedian Robin Williams found dead (Michale
Lallo in Sydney Morning Herald) Veteran actor and comedian Robin Williams has
been found dead in his California home. He was 63. It appears the popular performer – loved for
both his comedic and dramatic roles – took his own life. His publicist, Mara
Buxbaum, said Williams had been battling depression recently. Williams' wife,
Susan Schneider, said she is "utterly heartbroken".
In his final tweet, posted almost a fortnight ago,
the actor wished a happy birthday to his eldest daughter and "baby
girl" Zelda Rae, posting a black and white photo of him cuddling her when
she was a toddler. US president Barack Obama is one of many who paid tribute to
Williams.
Obama said: "Robin Williams was an airman, a
doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a professor, a bangarang Peter Pan, and
everything in between. But he was one of a kind. He arrived in our lives as an
alien – but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit."
Williams rose to fame in the late 1970s through his
role as the alien Mork in the popular TV series Mork & Mindy. He most
recently starred in the CBS comedy The Crazy Ones, which was cancelled after
one season. "You look at the world and see how scary it can be sometimes
and still try to deal with the fear," he told the Associated Press in
1989.
"Comedy can deal with the fear and still not
paralyse you or tell you that it’s going away. You say, OK, you got certain
choices here, you can laugh at them and then once you’ve laughed at them and
you have expunged the demon, now you can deal with them. That’s what I do when
I do my act."
His most popular films include Good Morning Vietnam
(1987), in which he played an army radio DJ; Dead Poets Society (1989); Mrs
Doubtfire (1993); The Birdcage (1996), in which he played a gay nightclub
owner; and Patch Adams (1998), a biographical comedy about a doctor who uses
humour as medicine. Earlier this year, he checked into a renewal facility to
"focus on his ongoing sobriety", according to the Hollywood Reporter.
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