What's in the Headlines?

Mexican mayor and wife suspected involvement in disappearance of 43 students

Protesters stormed and set fire to the main government building in Iguala, Mexico on Wednesday as anger continues to mount over the failure of authorities to locate 43 students who have been missing since September 26.

As the attack on the town hall occurred, Mexican federal police forces, which have been in charge of public safety since the September attacks, were nowhere to be found.

Attorney general Jesús Murillo Karam said there was clear evidence that José Luis Abarca, the mayor of Iguala, ordered local police to target the students who are from a teacher training college in Ayotzinapa. The students had travelled to nearby Iguala to protest against what they said were discriminatory hiring practices, and to collect funds for their college.

However, the mayor knew of the student’s intentions and had local police intercept them because he feared they would disrupt a speech by his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda. Mr Murillo Karam said police officers testified that they had been told to intercept the students "on the mayor's orders". The local police have been accused of firing upon the three buses carrying the students, killing six. Eyewitnesses described seeing the remaining 43 students being bundled into police cars.

Mr Murillo Karam said the police then handed the students over to a local drug trafficking group, known as Guerreros Unidos, who took them to an area where mass graves have since been discovered. The leader of Guerreros Unidos, Sidronio Casarrubias, was arrested last week and told police that the mayor’s wife María de los Angeles Pineda was the group’s “main operator within city hall”.

Abarca requested leave from his post following the incident on 26 September and neither he nor his wife or the town's police chief, Felipe Flores have been seen since.

What's in the Headline?

China’s mission to the moon

Beijing has launched the third phase of its lunar exploration program. The spacecraft was launched from the LC2 launch complex of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, Sichuan Province at 1800UTC. The mission, dubbed Chang’e-5-T1, is to head into Lunar Transfer Orbit (LTO), before performing a flyby around the Moon and re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and landing after a 9 day flight, , the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND) said in a statement.

The mission will be used to test technology that will be used in China’s unmanned 2017 mission to land on the moon to gather lunar samples. China currently has a rover, the Jade Rabbit, on the surface of the moon which was launched as part of the Chang'e-3 lunar mission late last year, and has been declared a success by Chinese authorities. The military-run project has plans for a permanent orbiting station by 2020 and eventually to send a human to the moon.

Beijing sees its multi-billion-dollar space programme as a marker of its rising global stature and mounting technical expertise, as well as evidence of the ruling Communist Party's success in turning around the fortunes of the once poverty-stricken nation.

What's in the Headlines?

Fall in crude prices may push Russia into a recession

Russia's ruble currency has hit yet another record low on the back of plummeting oil prices. The price of crude oil has fallen 15% in the past three months and is at its lowest in four years. Higher output coupled with weaker demand from China and Europe has driven the price of crude down to $85. The US also now produces 65% more oil than it did five years ago following the increase in shale production. Russia obtains more than half its budget revenue from oil and gas, making its economy vulnerable to oil price changes.

On Wednesday Russia's central bank announced that it would sell $50 billion in foreign currency auctions, this move would help the banking sector pay back its dollar and euro debts and try to ease the ruble's volatility. The central bank has already spent almost $7 billion this month propping up the ruble.

Timur Nigmatullin, a macroeconomic analyst at Investcafe, argued that relatively high oil prices in the first half of the year, when prices were above $100 a barrel, would compensate for the lower prices now. Nigmatullin believes that the government would seek to mitigate the country’s worsening economic situation by borrowing, reducing expenditures and spending money from the reserve fund built up when oil prices were higher. But all these have negative effects, notably rising debt servicing costs and reduced popularity for the government, he said.

Economists have warned that if the oil price does not improve, Russia could face a recession in 2016 or even earlier. Russian recession may impact Putin’s popularity with the country’s business elite. Konstantin Sonin, a professor at the Higher School of Economics, said the falling oil price would lead to spending cuts that could set off alarm bells among business leaders. "The elite is now realizing what these achievements cost," Sonin said, referring to Putin's annexation of Crimea and support for the separatist state in eastern Ukraine.

What's in the Headlines?

Clashes erupt on Turkey’s streets, at least 31 people killed

At least 31 people have been killed and 360 others wounded in four days of violent protests in Turkey by Kurdish demonstrators. The demonstrators are frustrated by the government's lack of action to save the Syrian town of Kobane from a jihadist militant takeover.

Police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons against a students in Ankara, namely those protesting in support of Syrian Kurds in Kobani at the Middle Eastern Technical University (ODTÜ) campus and at Ankara University. At least 25 people have been detained. Turkish troops and tanks were deployed to restore order. Curfews were imposed in five provinces.

However, the curfew was broken in the southeastern province of Gaziantep on Thursday night when clashes broke out between pro-Kurdish activists and their opponents. The rival groups attacked each other with pistols, rifles and axes, leaving at least 20 people injured.

Kurdish forces say they have stalled the advance of Islamic State (IS) militants in the town after more American airstrikes overnight.

Turkish forces are standing by near Kobane but the government in Ankara has refused to send them into action, or to establish a safe corridor to ferry fighters and supplies to the besieged Kurdish fighters. Foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu commented on the situation "It is not realistic to expect Turkey to conduct a ground operation on its own,"

Washington has suggested that Ankara is not pulling it’s own weight, but the Turkish government resents this. Cavusoglu went on to say that "We are holding talks ... Once there is a common decision, Turkey will not hold back from playing its part."