Worldcrunch
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 […]
HOMS – This city in western Syria is nearing 500 days under siege, with no supply route in or out. Medical equipment and supplies are nearly impossible to find. There are no alternatives for the medicine, be it for chronic illness or for wounds sustained during daily shellings of the city. There are few medical personnel on the scene. In Old Homs, a critical wound becomes more terrifying than death itself. A doctor might need to amputate a limb to save a patient’s life. In more critical cases, the lack of medical facilities means the only option for patients is […]
LAMPEDUSA — “Follow me,” said Jesus, “and I will make you fishers of men.” A disturbing parallel is evoked from this famous passage of the Gospel of Matthew, as nets tossed into the sea off the Italian island of Lampedusa fill up with the bodies of men… of women and children. After the latest tragic […]
ISTANBUL — A series of reports shows a growing number of recruitment campaigns to sign up young Turkish people to fight in the Syrian war — on all sides. The youth, generally ranging in age from 18 to 30, are mostly from the Adiyaman province in southeastern Turkey, though others come from a number of […]
AUSTRALIA APPROVES ANTI-ISIS STRIKESAustralia has become the latest country to join the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS. Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s cabinet approved Iraq strikes against the group, the BBC reports. The Turkish parliament also voted yesterday to send troops to Iraq and Syria, and to allow foreign forces to use its territory for operations. But […]
BENI — On a recent Friday, soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) were spending the morning helping civilians clean the road that leads to the new cemetery of this northeastern Congolese city. Here, AK-47s have been replaced by hoes, spades and rakes. Colonel Tito Bizuri, who is in charge […]
Take a tour of what the world’s been saying this week.
From 6% to 850,000,000, here’s a quick tour of the world this week — by the numbers.
TURKEY EXPECTED TO JOIN ANTI-ISIS COALITIONToday could see the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition expand, as the Turkish Parliament is expected to vote on whether to send Turkish troops into Iraq and Syria to fight against the terrorists and whether to allow foreign troops to use Turkish military bases, newspaper Today’s Zaman reports. Turkish President Recep Tayyip […]
DAMASCUS — Nada, a teacher, starts her classes by asking her third-grade students to express their feelings. She is trained to deal with children who exhibit signs of trauma after living in a war zone for over two years. The school where Nada works is located in the relatively safe neighborhood of Sahnaya, in southern Damascus, but as in the rest of Syria, war is never out of mind. On the first day of the school year, Nada distributes “face cards” to her class of mostly nine-year-olds, all showing different emotions. She asks them to pick the face that best […]
GIZA — The barber is named Wissam Ibrahim. His shop in this bustling city south of Cairo is halfway up Pyramid Street, a road that is now almost permanently blocked with traffic. Clients come down four steps into the small basement salon next to the temple-like water reservoir. Two plush chairs with headrests give the […]
ROME — Berlusconi’s world has never been at such odds with Berlusconi himself. Nobody could rightly agree with the decision to pull out of the coalition that was providing stability for the Italian government as the country attempts to pull out of a deep recession. You could count on one hand the number of loyalists […]
01.10.2014 BRITAIN BEGINS AIRSTRIKES AGAINST ISIS Britain’s Royal Air Force has joined the anti-ISIS coalition, launching its first airstrikes last night against the jihadist group in Iraq, before U.S.-led forces targeted fighters in villages near the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, not far from the Turkish border. Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby warned yesterday […]
A quick tour of the week’s news (and otherwise) from an old blood sport in Spain to a rising island in Pakistan and 15 hands that went up in New York City. And more…
NEW YORK — At long last, the members of the United Nations Security Council have reached an agreement on a Syria resolution. The West has agreed to give up on including language that Russia had furiously opposed — that is, to automatically sanction the use of force against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if he fails […]
KURDS LAUNCH ISIS OFFENSIVEKurdish Peshmerga fighters are attacking ISIS on three fronts in northern Iraq and are gaining territory on the border with Syria, AFP quotes senior Kurdish officers as saying. Meanwhile, Turkey has sent 35 armored vehicles, including a dozen tanks, to the border with Syria, where fights around the Syrian Kurdish town of […]
A week, it turns out, can be a long time in Iranian politics too. Cautious optimism about new reformist President Hassan Rouhani turned to genuine hope for a whole new era in Iran’s global diplomacy after a series of interventions last week in and around the UN General Assembly that culminated with Friday’s historic telephone […]
– Commentary- MOSCOW — Russia’s deputy prime minister in charge of defense is many things, but lazy isn’t one of them. Dimitry Rogozin has been jumping from city to city — holding conferences about the construction of new warships and delivering grandiose critiques of the leaders of the Russian space program. Everywhere he goes, he […]
ISIS CLOSING ON BAGHDADISIS fighters are close to entering the Iraqi capital of Baghdad despite U.S. airstrikes in the area, with the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East saying that they are “less than two kilometers away,” The Independent reports. The newspaper also notes that ISIS and the al-Nusra front are working […]
-Op-Ed- Last week finally saw the epilogue of the eventful Bo Xilai affair. The former high-ranking official of the single-party state, both a member of the Chinese Community Party (CCP) Politburo and the most powerful figure of the Chongqing municipality, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in the Shandong province. But this legal […]
BERLIN — Angela Merkel’s triumph in the German elections has a paradoxical flipside, as her unprecedented political strength may wind up undermining even her own interests. The Chancellor is reminiscent of an introverted child prodigy who is streets ahead of all her classmates but stands alone in the playground because the others know they can […]
JOBAR — Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighter Abu Ali stood grinning and waving at me with his right hand. Two of his middle fingers were missing. “Look at me, I’m like a Ninja Turtle now,” he said, dry humor intact. It had been three months since I last saw Abu Ali, who used to fight on the front lines of Jobar, a rebel-held district in the eastern city limits of Damascus. “My rifle exploded,” he said, beginning the story of his last few months, of how he lost his fingers, preparing his extra-sweet tea. “This was back in June, while […]
-Analysis- NAIROBI – A dozen or more attackers stormed the shopping center, throwing grenades and shooting adults and children alike. They came to kill on a massive scale and with spectacular cruelty, setting up an agonizingly drawn-out hostage situation. What took place in the Nairobi shopping center was not only an attack on Kenya, but […]
WILL UK JOIN ANTI-ISIS COALITION?All eyes will be on Westminster today, where the House of Commons will vote on what the British media are calling the “third Iraq war.” Members are expected to support the the anti-ISIS coalition with strikes in Iraq, though Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said these might be extended to Syria in […]
PARIS – It was indeed a different face for Iran at this year’s United Nations General Assembly. Back in Iran, and elsewhere around the world, news outlets and regional analysts Wednesday were measuring the potential geopolitical significance of the first big strides onto the world stage made the evening before by newly elected Iranian President […]
BERLIN – Germany has voted for stability and consensus. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s position has been confirmed with a convincing result. She has been entrusted with power for another four years, and will continue to lead the country with her cautious, considered politics. Strategy and long-term success form the yardstick for her short-term tactics. It is […]
SITAKUND — Welcome to one of the most polluted and dangerous coastlines in the world. On this murky stretch just a few kilometers from Bangladesh’s main industrial port, Chittagong, are dozens and dozens of beached ships. Sea carriers, oil tankers and huge containers that at the end of their lives — many that can no […]
ISIS-CONTROLLED OIL REFINERIES TARGETEDThe U.S. Air Force and those of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have continued to hit ISIS targets in northern Syria, including 12 oil refineries captured by the jihadist group believed to generate up to $2 million per day in revenues, the BBC reports. Fourteen terrorist fighters and five civilians […]
– Editorial- PARIS – Should the three massacres perpetrated this past weekend in Kenya, Pakistan and Nigeria be approached separately? The incidents would appear to be unrelated, but all is not so simple. In Nairobi, it took nearly three days to finally end the Westgate siege after al-Shabab, a Somali terrorist group, began their attack […]
The mainstream Syrian political opposition failed for nearly two years to draw in the Kurdish National Council (KNC), a muddled coalition of 16 Syrian Kurdish political parties. In what was hailed as a breakthrough, the KNC finally decided to join the Syrian National Coalition (NC) last month. Yet the decision will have little practical impact on Arab-Kurdish relations in Syria. Its impact will primarily play out abroad, giving both the KNC and the NC a boost in international credibility, rather than inside Syria. The NC was eager for the Kurdish bloc to join its ranks in order to address a […]
CEYLANPINAR – Instantly, spoons stop stirring in teacups and conversations freeze mid-sentence. A mortar has just been heard a few hundred meters from the main street of Ceylanpinar, a small Turkish town on the border with Syria. Through the window, everybody can see a cloud of black smoke rising up from Ras al-Ayn, the Syrian […]
Kenyan mall standoff, underwater concert, and a vigil in Pakistan are among this week’s featured photographs.
The Somali Islamist outfit al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the bloody attack on the exclusive Westgate shopping mall in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Al Jazeera looks at the origins and objectives of the group that is one of a growing number of local organizations that falls under the global umbrella of al-Qaeda.
OSLO — It’s still too early to predict how Norway’s Prime Minister-elect Erna Solberg, who was elected earlier this month, will tweak the oil policy developed by outgoing Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. During his eight-year tenure — even as Norway was in the process of building its wealth — the government adopted standards for managing […]
BERLIN — The all-conquering hero is traditionally a masculine figure, but in Angela Merkel it finds its feminine embodiment. Her election result is more than a victory; it is a triumph. Moreover, it is her triumph, and not her party’s. It is Merkel as an individual, as the chancellor with unprecedented approval ratings, who has […]
U.S. AND ALLIES STRIKE ISIS IN SYRIAThe United States has begun striking ISIS and a new al-Qaeda group named Khorosan in Syria, “unleashing a torrent of cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs from the air and sea,” according to The New York Times. The military said its first direct intervention in the country had been backed […]
Germany Spain Italy United Kingdom Greece France Belgium Turkey Portugal United States
SYRIAN KURDS FLEE ISISTurkish authorities have closed some of the country’s border crossings with Syria after ISIS’ advance has caused some 130,000 Syrian Kurds to flee to Turkey over the past two days, the BBC reports. But after clashes with the refugees on the border, with Turkish troops using water canons and tear gas, British […]
BERLIN — It is becoming chic in Germany not to vote — and to make sure that everyone knows that you didn’t. It used to be just the poor and unemployed who failed to show at the polls, and, ashamed, they hid that fact. Now abstainers come from educated, well-off circles, and opinion polls warn […]