June, 2016

• 8 June

  The Omani back channel to Iran

  

  WASHINGTON One of the mysteries of Campaign 2016 is why the Iran nuclear deal has vanished as an issue. But a new book reveals some startling details about how the diplomacy with Tehran began in secret, long before reformers took power there, and the crucial role played by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. The diplomatic narrative is laid out ...

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• 8 June

  Clinton, Trump ready for final showdown

    Once more history is being scripted in the US election. Eight years ago, an African American young Senator, Barrack Obama, cruised to the Oval House. Now Hillary Clinton claimed victory on Tuesday over rival Bernie Sanders in the Democratic White House nomination race. If she defeats Donald Trump in November, Clinton will become the first female president of America. ...

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• 8 June

  How a data revolution can solve plane mysteries

      Adam Minter When Air France Flight 447 crashed in the Atlantic in 2009, it took two years and more than $25 million before investigators found it. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in 2014 and still hasn’t turned up. EgyptAir 804, lost on May 19, is somewhere on the bottom of the Mediterranean, but until investigators can dredge up ...

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• 8 June

  Trump’s wasting time trying to save factories

      Listening to our political leaders, you’d think everyone on the planet works in a factory. Donald Trump wants to stop China and Mexico from “taking our jobs” by preventing factories from moving there — and he’s willing to launch a trade war to do so. Michael Short, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, recently claimed that a ...

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• 8 June

  Thousands flee IS group Syria bastion as coalition closes in

  

    Beirut / AFP Thousands of civilians have fled a stronghold of the IS group in northern Syria almost surrounded by US-backed fighters seeking to cut a key supply lifeline for the extremists. The Arab-Kurdish offensive on the town of Manbij is one of two major assaults on the route IS uses to send in more fighters, weapons and money from ...

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• 8 June

  Erdogan approves lifting of MP immunity

    Ankara / AFP Turkish President RecepTayyipErdogan has signed into law a reform lifting immunity for lawmakers, his office said, in a move critics believe is aimed at evicting pro-Kurdish MPs from parliament. Erdogan’s approval came late Tuesday, less than a month after parliament adopted the highly controversial reform, which lifts the immunity of 138 deputies from all parties who ...

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• 8 June

  Indonesia plans tougher punishments for poachers

    Jakarta / AFP Indonesia plans to quadruple maximum jail terms for animal poachers and traffickers in a major overhaul of wildlife crime laws, but environmentalists expressed scepticismon Wednesday the changes would be effective. Maximum sentences for poaching and trading protected animals will be increased from five years to 20 under the new legislation proposed by the environment and forestry ...

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• 8 June

  Migrant deaths in Med ‘hit 10,000’

  

    Strasbourg / AFP More than 10,000 people have died crossing the Mediterranean to Europe since 2014, the UN said Tuesday, as the EU unveiled fresh plans to stem the migrant flow from Africa. Following a rash of deadly shipwrecks that have claimed hundreds of lives, the UN refugee agency said the number of deaths at sea had risen sharply, with ...

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• 8 June

  Crimes against humanity in Eritrea since 1991: UN

    Geneva / AFP Eritrea’s government has systematically committed crimes against humanity in the last 25 years, with top officials bearing direct responsibility, UN investigators said on Wednesday. The second report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) on human rights also said there was a “rule of law vacuum” in the secretive Horn of Africa nation. Independent UN ...

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• 8 June

  Austria far-right challenges election result

  

    Vienna / AFP Austria’s anti-immigration Freedom Party filed on Wednesday a legal challenge two weeks after its candidate lost out by the narrowest of margins on being elected the EU’s first far-right president, alleging “terrifying” irregularities. “We are not sore losers. This is about protecting the very foundations of democracy,” FPOe leader Heinz-Christian Strache said in Vienna as he ...

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