August, 2016

• 29 August

  3rd warrant issued over Thai tourist town attacks

  Bangkok / AFP A Thai military court on Monday issued an arrest warrant for a third suspect in a spate of bomb attacks on tourist towns, all three of them Muslims from the insurgency-plagued south. No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing and arson spree, which hit popular resorts across the south this month, killing four and wounding dozens including …

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• 29 August

  Brussels crime lab attacked, five arrested

  

    Brussels / AFP Several attackers rammed a car through the gates of Belgium’s national crime laboratory on Monday in Brussels and then started a fire in what prosecutors said may have been an attempt to destroy evidence. Five people were arrested nearby and are being questioned, but there is no confirmed link to terrorism so far. No one was …

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• 29 August

  Rousseff arrives in Senate for impeachment showdown

  Brasília / AFP Suspended president Dilma Rousseff arrived on Monday at Brazil’s Senate for a dramatic finale to an impeachment trial likely ending 13 years of leftist rule in Latin America’s biggest country. Rousseff, 68, was greeted by cheering supporters as she arrived in the Senate to testify for the first time in her defense, just hours before senators were …

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• 29 August

  Colombia ceasefire ends half-century war with FARC

  

    Bogota / AFP Colombia on Monday began its first day of peace with the country’s largest insurgency after a ceasefire between the FARC and the government went into effect, ending 52 years of warfare. The full ceasefire ordered by President Juan Manuel Santos and the head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Timoleon Jimenez, began at midnight Sunday …

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• 29 August

  China’s economic shift leaves many adrift

  

    Economists too often talk about policy changes in abstract, ignoring the drawbacks that even sensible reforms can bring. For years, analysts have been urging China to shift its economy away from heavy industry and toward services and consumption. Yet now that Beijing is taking heed, the costs are piling up. Most obvious is a deepening gulf between winners and …

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• 29 August

  Will 2016 US election come down to electoral map?

  

    Any American political strategist or reporter — I’ve been one for more than four decades — loves the map: That’s the electoral map that decides the presidential election every four years. Each of the 50 states is awarded electors based on its members of Congress, essentially by population; Washington, D.C., for example, gets three votes. In almost all states …

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• 29 August

  How next US jobs report could affect Fed

    Most of the time, it would be very foolish to suggest that a single data release could determine a policy decision by the Federal Reserve. After all, Fed officials — board governors, regional presidents or senior staff members— pride themselves on considering a wide array of numbers and multidimensional models. Yet the jobs report for August that will be …

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• 29 August

  Colombia’s economic growth linked to peace

    It took four years of difficult negotiations between the Colombian government and The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to strike a historic peace accord to end the 52-year-old conflict that claimed over 260,000 lives, displaced 6.8 million and left 45,000 missing. The pact will now stand the crucial public test when it goes for a referendum on October …

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• 29 August

  Your privacy doesn’t matter at the US border

  

    Wall Street Journal reporter Maria Abi-Habib made waves in journalistic circles last month after she posted on Facebook that Department of Homeland Security officials tried to seize her phones as she entered the U.S. at Los Angeles International Airport. What was striking about her post was that Homeland Security’s demand (which it eventually gave up) was probably lawful and …

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• 29 August

  What the new planet says about life in the universe

    The newly discovered planet Proxima b is about to change the focus of astronomy for decades to come —and maybe longer, if it reveals signs of life. The planet, some 25 trillion miles away from our own, is like a twin to Earth, but one separated at birth and living a very different kind of life. The discovery, which …

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