May, 2016

• 23 May

  IS-claimed twin bombings kill 41 army recruits in Yemen

  

    Aden / AFP Twin bombings claimed by the IS group hit Yemeni forces in Aden on Monday, killing at least 41 people in the latest of a spate of attacks in the southern city. The attacks in Aden—which is serving as the temporary government headquarters after rebels forced authorities from the capital—follow a major military operation against extremists in ...

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• 23 May

  Obama confirms Taliban leader’s death in US strike

    Hanoi / AFP President Barack Obama on Monday confirmed Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US air strike, hailing his death as an “important milestone” in efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan. Saturday’s bombing raid, the first known American assault on a top Afghan Taliban leader on Pakistani soil, marks a major blow to the militant movement, ...

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• 23 May

  UN Palestinian agency says half its schools hit by conflict

    Istanbul / AFP Nearly half of the schools run by the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees have been hit by conflict in the last five years, it said on Monday on the sidelines of the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon earlier reminded participants on the opening day of the two-day summit that attacks on ...

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• 23 May

  Wave of blasts kill 120 in Assad heartland

  

    Beirut/ AFP More than 120 people were killed on Monday in a wave of bombings claimed by the IS group in northwestern Syria, the deadliest attacks yet in the regime’s coastal heartland. Seven near-simultaneous explosions targeted bus stations, hospitals and other civilian sites in the seaside cities of Jableh and Tartus, which until now had been relatively insulated from Syria’s ...

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• 23 May

  Pope, top imam embrace in historic Vatican meet

    Vatican City / AFP Pope Francis met the grand imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar Mosque at the Vatican on Monday in a historic encounter that was sealed with a hugely symbolic hug and exchange of kisses. The first Vatican meeting between the leader of the world’s Catholics and the highest authority in Sunni Islam marks the culmination of a significant improvement ...

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• 23 May

  Iraq forces launch assault on IS extremist bastion Fallujah

  

    Near Fallujah / AFP Iraqi forces battled the IS group on Monday in the opening stages of an operation to retake Fallujah, one of the toughest targets yet in Baghdad’s war against the extremists. As Iraqi forces struck targets in and around the extremist bastion, which saw deadly battles in 2004 between insurgents and American forces, IS claimed bombings ...

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• 23 May

  Fighting for a nation called Syria

  

  The raw Sunni recruits in crisp camouflage uniforms, popping off rounds at the firing range at a US training camp here, illustrate the dilemma for the US as it seeks to form a strong military force to drive the IS from its capital, Raqqah. The US could try to build the Sunni army it would want, ideally, to capture Raqqah, ...

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• 23 May

  Greece’s recent austerity moves calculated, timely

    Greek lawmakers were pragmatic when they took the painful decision on Sunday to approve unpopular tax increases, a new privatisation fund, and free up sale of non-performing loans in exchange for much-needed bailout loans and debt relief. They will hit Greeks where it hurts, with increases in value added tax by one point to 24 per cent, more tax ...

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• 23 May

  Carbon dividends are smart, if unlikely

    Christopher Flavelle There may now be more campaigns devoted to selling a carbon tax than there are members of US Congress willing to support one. It’s unclear whether this shows progress toward an economy-wide price on carbon or how very far away it remains. The latest effort is the Climate Leadership Council, run by Ted Halstead, founder of the ...

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• 23 May

  China fabricates 488 mn social media posts per year

    A new study by researchers at Harvard University estimates that Chinese government employees fabricate 488 million social media posts each year. As the first rigorous analysis of China’s online propaganda machine, the team found that the “Fifty Cent Party” or Wumao Dang—a derogatory term used to describe contract workers popularly believed to be making fifty cents per post—largely consists ...

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