Istanbul, Turkey | AFP | A Turkish policeman crying “Aleppo” and “revenge” shot dead Russia’s ambassador to Turkey at an art exhibition in Ankara on Monday, in what Moscow said was a “terrorist act”. Andrei Karlov died of his wounds after the shooting, which occurred on the eve of a …
Read More »Puerto Rican is Miss World 2016, Uganda’s Leah Kagasa participates
Oxon Hill, United States | AFP | Stephanie del Valle of Puerto Rico was crowned Miss World 2016 on Sunday, edging out runners-up from the Dominican Republic and Indonesia, and beauties from around the globe. Del Valle, 19, is a brown-eyed brunette student who speaks Spanish, English and French, and …
Read More »Aleppo evacuations again suspended after deadly attack
Aleppo, Syria | AFP | Evacuations Sunday of fighters and civilians from the devastated Syrian city of Aleppo were postponed until further notice after gunmen attacked buses for a similar operation from two rebel-besieged villages. The development came as Syria ally Russia warned it would veto a French-drafted resolution …
Read More »Kadaga: End gender violence in elections
Chairperson of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians Rebecca Kadaga has urged fellow legislators to help end violence targeted at women during elections. She said there are many incidents of women being victims of election related violence compared to men, which indicates that women are often targeted not necessarily because of their …
Read More »Pope Francis hits 80 – and he’s not slowing down
Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis turns 80 on Saturday with no sign of slowing down in his drive to reshape the Catholic church to reflect his own vision of compassion and humility. Three years and nine months after his election, the first pope from the Americas …
Read More »Between guilt and outrage, West looks helpless over Aleppo
Berlin, Germany | AFP | The fall of Aleppo has unleashed a mixture of outrage and impotence in the West, in which fury at the relentless carnage has mingled with guilt over the failure to stop it. Even the European public — who marched in the millions over the siege …
Read More »Anti-plagiarism university head accused of ‘borrowing’
Madrid, Spain | AFP | A Spanish university chancellor who’s institution developed a system to catch plagiarists was forced to quit his post on a national education commission on Thursday — having been accused of plagiarism. Head of the King Juan Carlos University in Madrid since 2013, Fernando Suarez has …
Read More »Study warns of world’s groundwater depletion by 2050
Washington, United States | AFP | Groundwater resources could be depleted in the next few decades in dry areas of the world where people use lots of water for drinking and irrigating crops, researchers said Thursday. The research was presented at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in …
Read More »Canada to ban asbestos by 2018
Ottawa, Canada | AFP | Once the world’s top producer of asbestos, Canada said Thursday it will ban the heat-resistant fibrous mineral that is woven into building and other materials but which has been found to cause cancer. In a statement, government ministers of health, science and the environment said …
Read More »Yahoo hack shows data as tool of information warfare
Washington, United States | AFP | The massive hack affecting a billion Yahoo users shows how seemingly innocuous bits of data gleaned from cyber attacks can be exploited for profit — and potentially for espionage and information warfare. The latest breach disclosed Wednesday is the largest on record and comes …
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