May, 2016

• 1 May

  Car bombings kill 33 in Iraq

  

    BAGHDAD / AP Militants on Sunday unleashed dual car bomb attacks in southern Iraq, killing at least 33 people and wounding dozens, officials said, at a time when the country’s government is struggling with mounting public unrest in the capital over delays in promised reform plans. A police officer said two parked explosives-laden cars were detonated within minutes of ...

  Read More »
• 1 May

  Ukraine accuses separatists of violating Easter armistice

    MOSCOW/ AP The Ukrainian government says one soldier has been killed and several troops wounded in the country’s east in what seems to be a violation of a recently brokered armistice. Both sides in the deadly conflict between government forces and Russia-backed separatists had agreed to observe a cease-fire with the start of the Orthodox Easter and May Day ...

  Read More »
• 1 May

  Brussels Airport departure hall reopens after attacks

    BRUSSELS / AP The Brussels Airport is reopening its departure hall for the first time since deadly extremist attacks on March 22. The airport had already resumed some flights but passengers had been using a temporary check-in tent because of extensive damage to the departure hall from the twin suicide bombings that killed 16 people. Passengers on select flights will ...

  Read More »
• 1 May

  French far-right father-daughter feud disrupts tradition

    PARIS/ AP Jean-Marie Le Pen, a founder and the decades-long leader of France’s far-right National Front, declared Sunday that his daughter, the party president who has expelled him, will lose next year’s presidential race if she fails to unify the party. The bitter division between the 87-year-old and his daughter Marine Le Pen, 47, played out Sunday with the ...

  Read More »
• 1 May

  4 die in attack on Aden top cop

    Aden / AFP Four Yemeni guards were killed in a bombing that targeted the convoy of Aden’s police chief, officials said, the second such attack on him in the southern city this week. A bomb-laden car in Aden’s Mansura district exploded as General Shallal Shayae’s convoy passed, damaging military vehicles and prompting clashes between his guards and Al-Qaeda suspects ...

  Read More »
• 1 May

  Refugee influx spurs German justice to tackle Syrian war crimes

  

    Berlin / AFP Germany will on Tuesday start its first war crimes trial over atrocities in Syria, as a mass refugee influx brings not only witnesses and victims but also suspects into the country. Aria L., a 21-year-old German national and suspected extremist, posted on Facebook photos of himself posing next to two decapitated heads in Syria—and his case ...

  Read More »
• 1 May

  Trump backers yell foul over loss at Arizona GOP

    PHOENIX / AFP Texas Sen. Ted Cruz pulled out a strategic victory at the Arizona Republican Party convention, nailing down a large majority of delegates to the national convention amid cheating accusations from backers of businessman Donald Trump. The Cruz slate won virtually all of the 28 at-large national delegates and roughly split the 27 delegates selected by congressional ...

  Read More »
• 1 May

  Britain flirts with economic insanity

  

  Countries usually don’t knowingly commit economic suicide, but in Britain millions seem ready to give it a try. On June 23, the United Kingdom will vote to decide whether to quit the European Union, the 28-nation economic bloc with a population of 508 million and a gross domestic product of almost $17 trillion. Let’s not be coy: Leaving the EU ...

  Read More »
• 1 May

  Ill-conceived plans script Venezuela’s power woes

    The economic recession triggered by the drop of oil prices and the El Nino weather phenomenon, which has caused the country’s hydroelectric dams to run low, have combined to bring the once-booming Venezuela to its knee. Venezuela’s revenue, highly dependent on oil exports, has dropped from $80 billion in 2013 to between $20 billion and $25 billion in 2015, ...

  Read More »
• 1 May

  Meet the big spenders on Research & Development

    Justin Fox Amazon.com and Facebook had great earnings reports this week. They also reported spending a lot of money on the future. Capital spending was up 35 percent at Amazon and 125 percent at Facebook in the first quarter compared with the same quarter last year. Research and development spending was up 28 percent at Amazon and 26 percent ...

  Read More »