WorldcrunchA photograph of five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, covered in dust and blood after an Aug. 17 airstrike in the Syrian city of Aleppo wrenched our hearts, and reminded us that the country’s civil war is not just some geopolitical football. Omran was lucky to survive. Tens of thousands of other children have not, including Omran’s own […]
SPOTLIGHT: A FRENCH HERO AND THE REST OF US When a murderous truck hurtled down a promenade in the French city of Nice last week, slamming into innocent bystanders and leaving a trail of death and destruction in its wake, a 49-year-old man riding his scooter nearby threw his life on the line to stop […]
BRUSSELS MANHUNT CONTINUES Belgian police are hunting two suspects believed to have participated in Tuesday’s Brussels terror attacks that killed at least 31 people and injured 270, Le Monde reports. One of them can be seen on airport security footage accompanying killers Ibrahim el-Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui. Police believe he fled after dropping off a […]
NORTH KOREA FIRES ROCKETS Photo: YTN/Yao Qilin/Xinhua/ZUMA North Korea has fired six short-range projectiles into the sea, an angry reaction to new UN sanctions adopted yesterday against Pyongyang, news agency Yonhap reports. The sanctions, motivated by North Korea testing nuclear weapons in early January, are the harshest to date against Kim Jong-un’s regime. They ban […]
Le Quotidien de la Réunion, July 31, 2015 “The probe zeroes in,” reads Friday’s front-page of the French newspaper Le Quotidien de la Réunion after a piece of plane debris was found on the French island in the Indian Ocean that may be from the missing MH370 flight that disappeared 16 months ago. France’s air […]
ISIS CALIPHATE CRUMBLINGAs Iraqi armed forces close in on the ISIS-held Tikrit, The Washington Post reports that the terrorist group that holds vast parts of Iraq and Syria appears to be “starting to fray from within.” The newspaper cites dissent, defections, battlefield defeats and growing tensions between foreign and local fighters as signs that the […]
BEIJING — Since Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, two dozen nations have joined in the search and demonstrated a true spirit of international cooperation. But absent the timely release of information by certain countries — because of profound fear of compromising national security data — cooperating countries haven’t been able to wholly […]
ISIS ASSAULT OF KOBANI CONTINUESISIS fighters are gaining ground in Syria’s Kurdish town of Kobani, on Turkey’s border, forcing a wave of Kurdish civilians to try to cross into Turkey, where the police repeatedly used tear gas to disperse them and the press. Those who managed to cross the border told Guardian journalists stories of […]
Friday, August 8, 2014 OBAMA AUTHORIZES IRAQ AIRSTRIKES Marking the most significant intervention in Iraq since American troops were withdrawn in 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama authorized airstrikes against Islamist extremists there and aid to desperate civilians a day after the country’s largest Christian town was seized, forcing thousands to flee. “Earlier this week, one […]
STANDOFF CONTINUES IN EAST UKRAINE An ultimatum from acting Ukrainian President Olexandr Turchynov expired this morning, ignored by pro-Russian protesters who have been occupying state buildings in several East Ukrainian cities, increasing fears of further escalation in the region, the BBC reports. Although they were urged to lay down their weapons, armed protesters in Gorlovka […]
UKRAINE’S ULTIMATUM TO PRO-RUSSIAN PROTESTERS Ukraine’s acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has said that the situation in Eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists are still occupying state buildings, will be “resolved in 48 hours,” threatening “the minority who want conflict” with a “forceful answer”, the BBC reports. “There are two options — political and negotiations, and […]
“COUNTERTERRORISM” UNDERWAY IN EAST UKRAINE The Ukrainian police arrested 70 pro-Russian protesters who were occupying government buildings in the eastern city of Kharkiv as part of what acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov described as “a counterterrorism operation,” Ria Novosti reports. According to Reuters, the standoff continues in Luhansk and Donetsk. VERBATIM“I was besotted,” Oscar Pistorius […]