Australia | Abbott vows to resettle ‘significant’ number of Syrians 

Australia’s prime minister said yesterday that his country will resettle a “significant” number of refugees from Syria this year, while the opposition called for an additional 10,000 refugee places to help the world cope with a humanitarian crisis.
Tony Abbott told Parliament he would have more to say about numbers today after Immigration Minister Peter Dutton reports back from meetings with the United Nation refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration in Geneva and Paris about the refugee crisis from Syria.
“It is the government’s firm intention to take a significant number of people from Syria this year,” Abbott said.
“The women and children in camps, in particular the women and children from persecuted minorities in camps, they deserve a compassionate response from Australia and that is exactly what they will get from this government,” he said.
The opposition Labor Party called for an additional 10,000 refugee places on top of the 13,750 already planned for the current fiscal year that began in July.
Australia’s refugee policy has faced sharp criticism after a deal to resettle asylum seekers in Cambodia came to light. On Sunday, one of four refugees resettled in Cambodia just three months ago from an Australian-run detention camp on the Pacific island nation of Nauru said he wants to go home. The man, an ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar, said he wanted to give up his refugee status and return to his homeland, according to Cambodian Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak. Rod McGuirk, Canberra AP

Pakistan | Gov’t claims use of first indigenous armed drone

Pakistan used its first-ever armed drone yesterday, killing three “high profile” militants near the Afghan border, according to the army.
The missiles hit a compound in the Shawal valley of the Waziristan tribal region, a Pakistani army statement said.
Pakistan first displayed the drone in March, saying it had already been successfully test fired in targeting both static and moving targets. But little is known of the drone’s armament or capabilities.
Pakistan has sought to develop its own drone program for years, and displayed a drone meant solely for surveillance in 2012. The U.S. frequently uses drones to target militants in Pakistan’s tribal regions, but the United States has refused to share the technology with Islamabad — a stance that former Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf once referred to as “undeclared technological apartheid.”
The U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan have been a frequent source of tension and controversy; they are unpopular among many Pakistanis and the government has occasionally decried them as violations of Pakistani sovereignty. Asif Shahzad, Islamabad, AP