April, 2016

• 23 April

  Turkey detains 6 IS militants for suspected attacks plan

    ANKARA / AP A Turkish official says authorities have detained six suspected IS militants who were allegedly planning to carry out attacks in the central Turkish city of Konya. Gov. Muammer Erol said on Saturday that the six — all foreign nationals — were detained in Konya late Friday. He said the group was “in pursuit of attacks” against ...

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• 23 April

  Syria regime bombardment kills 27 civilians

  

    Aleppo / AFP At least 27 civilians were killed on Saturday in regime bombardment on rebel-held areas across Syria, a monitor and local sources said, in the latest deadly violence despite a ceasefire deal. Twelve civilians were killed in Aleppo, according to a local civil defence official, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 13 others died in ...

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• 23 April

  Yemen launches offensive against Qaeda militants

  

  Aden / AP Yemeni forces backed by air power from the Saudi-led Arab coalition launched an operation on Saturday to drive Al-Qaeda fighters out of a southern provincial capital, military officials said. Forces loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in Abyan province advanced towards Zinjibar and the neighbouring town of Jaar, the sources said. Soldiers reached Al-Kud, five kilometres (three ...

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• 23 April

  Hamas boosts Gaza border force to ease rift

  

  Gaza City / AP As peace offerings go, prefabricated metal huts on a sand dune may seem unimpressive, but they are what the Palestinian movement Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, has chosen. Hamas has set up dozens of new border posts and military checkpoints along the enclave’s border with Egypt in an attempt to improve relations with Cairo after ...

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• 23 April

  Libya unity government seeks EU accord on ‘migrant issues’

    Rome / AP Libya’s Vice President Ahmed Maetig has expressed hope that the European Union will enter into an agreement with his country similar to that between the EU and Turkey restricting the flow of migrants to Europe. Maetig made the appeal while in Rome meeting with Italy’s Interior Minister Angelino Alfano. “The vice president has asked that we ...

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• 23 April

  A competition deficit?

  

  The Obama administration has a new economic worry: competition or, allegedly, the lack of it. America’s businesses, the indictment goes, merge too often, innovate too little and bilk consumers too much. The open question is whether this argument is shrewd politics, shrewd economics — or both. No doubt, the politics are enticing. In this election season, criticizing big, impersonal firms ...

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• 23 April

  Emission scandals need a global response

    Revelations of global auto-emissions cheating demonstrate how difficult it would be to rein in global warming. Embarrassingly, the cheating reports continued to stream in, while the world leaders were gathering in New York on Friday to sign the landmark Paris Climate Accord. It is but a paradox that such scandals come from major auto companies in the developed countries ...

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• 23 April

  Deadly cars aren’t a profit opportunity

    Edward Niedermeyer After a 17-year-old Texas woman became the 10th American killed by exploding Takata airbags last month, it was revealed that while the vehicle had been recalled, it had never been taken in for repair. This is tragic but not surprising: Only about a third of the nearly 29 million recalled Takata airbags have actually been replaced. This ...

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• 23 April

  Chinese leaders have good reason to go slow on reform

    China’s critics are united on one point: The country’s central problem is that it’s moving too slowly to embrace free markets. For now, however, the bigger risk lies in moving too fast. It’s important to remember how China reached this point. For any big economy, coordination poses a steep challenge. The problem is particularly acute at early stages of ...

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• 23 April

  Indonesia’s hesitancy on global stage

  

    Indonesia is arguably the least well-known big country in the world, punching far below its weight when it comes to foreign affairs. Now comes a golden opportunity to change that – a seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) due next year, or in 2018. The timing could not be more apt, coming right as the country has ...

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