Foreign Digest: War on Terrorism, Afghanistan, Egypt, Hong Kong and Austria

War on Terrorism

One of the Islamist Hezbollah terrorists responsible for the hijacking of a TWA flight in 1985 was arrested in Greece late this month.  The flight from Egypt to the United States was hijacked after takeoff in Greece and held for 17 days.  The passengers were mostly Americans, with the remainder Europeans.  The Lebanese Iranian-backed Shi'ite terrorists killed an American serviceman.  Other hijackers had been arrested over the years.  

Afghanistan

            Afghans voted over the weekend in presidential elections, despite deadly attacks by the Taliban, the Islamists who led a de facto government that harbored the al-Qaeda terrorists responsible for the September 11 Terrorist Attacks on the United States in 2001, until an American-led coalition removed them from power within months.  Afghanistan is governed by a unity government.  The U.S. and its allies have continued to train and support Afghan forces against the Taliban and other Islamists to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a safe harbor again for Islamist terrorists.

Egypt

            There were protests last week against the authoritarianism of the President of Egypt.  There were mass arrests of protestors.

Hong Kong

            Protests have continued in Hong Kong on a weekly basis.  Citizens of the territory are protesting against violations of the city state’s autonomy and freedom by Communist China after Peking had promised to maintain a separate system for Hong Kong when it reverted from British rule in 1997.  There have continued to be arrests.  There were sympathetic protests in the Republic of China on Taiwan and elsewhere.  One of the opposition leaders announced he will seek one of the elected seats on the Hong Kong legislature, which is dominated by Peking.

Austria

           The center-right won a plurality in the parliamentary elections in Austria today, vanquishing the far-right party it had governed with until May, when their coalition government broke up after a video revealed the acceptance by the Vice-Chancellor, who led the junior coalition far-right party, of campaign contributions from the Russian Federation.  After the Vice Chancellor resigned and the far-right party left the Government, the center-right-led government was left without a parliamentary majority.  A center-left technocratic government won the confidence vote in Parliament.  The far-right party had also faired poorly in the European elections in May.  The center-left came in a distant second and the far-right third, which was a significant drop from its previous result three years ago.