April, 2016

• 10 April

  Brazil’s inflation falls below 10 percent a year in March

  BRASILIA / Reuters Brazil’s inflation rate slowed sharply in March to below 10 percent a year, the lowest in nine months, although it still remained well above the government’s target despite a severe recession and one of the world’s highest interest rates. Consumer prices as measured by the benchmark IPCA index rose 9.39 percent in the 12 months through March, ...

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• 10 April

  Syrian rival forces race to retake territory from IS extremists

  

  Beirut / AFP The IS group is under growing pressure on several fronts in Syria as rival forces battle to wrest territory from the extremists, who are excluded from a six-week-old ceasefire. The scramble by the regime, anti-government rebels and Kurdish militia to recapture areas from IS has been given added urgency by the prospect of a possible federal system. ...

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• 10 April

  Syria ceasefire ‘about to collapse’: Opposition

  Paris / AFP The ceasefire in Syria “is about to collapse,” an official from the opposition said in an interview published on Sunday, just days before the resumption of peace talks in Geneva. “Over the last 10 days we have seen a very serious deterioration and the ceasefire is about to collapse,” BassmaKodmani, a member of the High Negotiations Committee ...

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• 10 April

  Fierce fighting kills 35 around Syria’s Aleppo

  Beirut / AFP Clashes around Syria’s second city Aleppo have killed at least 16 pro-regime fighters and 19 members of Al-Qaeda’s affiliate and allied rebel groups within a 24-hour period, a monitor said on Sunday. “Fierce fighting raged past midnight (Sunday) on several fronts in the south of Aleppo province,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah ...

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• 10 April

  Militants kill 18 Philippine soldiers

  

  Philippines / AFP A Philippine offensive against the extremist Abu Sayyaf group after a spate of kidnappings has left 18 soldiers and five fighters dead in the worst violence in the troubled south this year, authorities said on Sunday. Saturday’s clashes on the strife-torn island of Basilan came after an April 8 ransom deadline set by Abu Sayyaf, who had ...

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• 10 April

  Taiwanese rally for death penalty after child’s beheading

  Taipei / AFP Hundreds of Taiwanese rallied on Sunday to show support for retaining the death penalty, after the beheading of a child in a street attack shocked the island. Demonstrators dressed in black and held white roses in mourning for the four-year-old girl murdered on March 28 near a Taipei metro station. Many wore stickers reading “Death penalty is ...

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• 10 April

  ‘Saddam aide’ to reshape Sunni insurgency

  BAGHDAD / Reuters A rallying cry to Iraqi Sunnis from former President Saddam Hussein’s top surviving aide aims to bolster the old ruling Baath party’s appeal with Sunni Muslims fearing new reprisals by Shi’ite militias, experts said. The footage purportedly featuring Ezzat Al-Douri was released on Thursday, the anniversary of the fall of Saddam’s Sunni-led rule when US troops stormed ...

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• 10 April

  Refugees escape war, but face ‘germ threats’ in Europe

  

  Amsterdam / AFP Having survived perilous escapes from war zones, refugees find themselves assailed anew in Europe by germs proliferating in crowded, unsanitary camps that could become outbreak hotspots, infectious disease experts have warned. Their systems weakened by physical exhaustion, a lack of safe food, clean water and medicine, refugees are sitting-duck targets for entirely preventable diseases that can scar, ...

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• 10 April

  A testing year for American tolerance

  

  Donald Trump tests the limits of campaign speech. He makes false statements and refuses to correct them. He attacks other religions and ethnic groups, inflaming domestic tension and foreign terrorist rage. He pledges to overhaul long-standing US commitments in ways that frighten allies. He cavalierly predicts a “massive recession,” undermining confidence in the US economy. When criticized, Trump adopts the ...

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• 10 April

  Fair probe must before Rousseff impeachment

  Massive recession and charges of juggling government accounts to disguise the depth of budget shortfalls during her 2014 re-election, combined to weigh heavily on Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who is currently facing imminent impeachment. But she and her supporters argue that this relatively technical accusation regarding the budget is not an impeachable offence. Indeed, the grip is tightening on Rousseff, ...

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