September, 2016

• 25 September

  South Sudan rebel chief issues war call from exile

    Nairobi / AFP South Sudan’s rebel leader issued a call for renewed war with the government this weekend, declaring the collapse of an internationally-backed peace deal. Former vice president Riek Machar is in exile in Khartoum where he fled following fighting in the South Sudanese capital Juba in July. In a statement received by AFP on Sunday, Machar said he ...

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• 25 September

  Cypriot leaders hope for ‘road map’ for unification from UN talks

  

    Nicosia / AFP Cypriot leaders meeting UN chief Ban Ki-moon in New York on Sunday hope to gain a “road map” leading to an agreement by the end of 2016 for reunifying the island, Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci said. “We expect tomorrow’s meeting to draw up a road map pointing us to the way to the long-expected final resolution” ...

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• 25 September

  Trump’s contrarian Silicon Valley supporters

  

    Donald Trump has few supporters in liberal Silicon Valley — even Peter Thiel, the PayPal co-founder and Facebook board member, who spoke for the Republican nominee at the Republican National Convention, hasn’t given a cent to the campaign. Yet the tech world doesn’t unanimously favour Democrats. Consider, for example, the financial support that Oculus founder Palmer Luckey has given ...

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• 25 September

  The difference between the Bushes and Trump

    It’s hard to be a Bush these days. Liberals still condemn the most recent President Bush for “lying us into war” in Iraq. Even if you credit George W. Bush with benign intentions, his record is undeniably grim. In foreign policy, fiscal policy and much else — including its catastrophic inattention to the aims and capabilities of Osama bin ...

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• 25 September

  Fears of US govt shutdown are overblown

    The federal government will shut down at the end of the month unless Congress can pass a continuing resolution to keep the doors open. And Congress just left for the weekend with things looking bleak indeed. Unresolved is funding for efforts to fight the Zika virus, to help Flint, Michigan, deal with its drinking-water crisis, and to aid in ...

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• 25 September

  Cutting airplane emission a formidable challenge

    If global aviation were a country, it would be the 7th highest carbon emitter in the world, suggests a recent study. Another indicates that the greenhouse gases that airplanes spew are equal to the amount that Germany emits. Currently, airline carbon emission is around 2% of the global total. And if this is not checked, it might triple by ...

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• 25 September

  Fresh strikes pound Aleppo ahead of UN Syria talks

  

    Aleppo / AFP Syrian and Russian warplanes pounded rebel-held east Aleppo on Sunday ahead of a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the worst surge in violence to hit the devastated city in years. Overnight, residents and a monitor reported heavy air raids on the besieged east of the city, which Syria’s army has pledged to retake. Washington and its ...

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• 25 September

  Turkey could only join US Raqa operation sans Kurds: Erdogan

  

    Ankara / AFP President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey could join a US-led operation in Syria to retake the IS group’s stronghold of Raqa only if Kurdish fighters are not involved, a newspaper reported Sunday. US support for Kurdish forces in Syria is a sore point for Ankara, which considers such fighters to be “terrorists” linked to the Kurdish ...

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• 25 September

  Suicide bomber kills 7 Shiites in Iraqi capital

    BAGHDAD / AP A suicide bomber in Iraq killed at least seven people who were setting up tents on Sunday ahead of a major Shiite religious observance next month, officials said. The bomber struck as residents of Baghdad’s western Eskan neighborhood were preparing for Ashoura, which commemorates the 7th century death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, ...

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• 25 September

  India pledges to ratify Paris Agreement on climate change

  

    NEW DELHI / AP India’s prime minister said on Sunday that his country will ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change early next month. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government will ratify the agreement Oct. 2, coinciding with the birth anniversary of India’s independence leader Mohandas Gandhi. Modi made the announcement at a meeting of his Bharatiya Janata Party’s ...

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