Moscow /Â AFP Russia’s security service said on Tuesday it had detained five suspects with ties to the IS extremist group who were plotting to carry out attacks in the country. The FSB security service said in a statement it had “thwarted the activities of a group created to perpetrate crimes of a terrorist and extremist nature” in Moscow and ...
Read More »Hunger risks spark fresh exodus from Syria
Rome/Â AFP A farming crisis in war-torn Syria has reduced food production to a record low and raised fears people in the conflict-hit country will be forced to flee famine, the UN’s food agency said on Tuesday. “Widespread insecurity and unfavourable weather conditions” in parts of the country continue to “hamper access to land, farming supplies and markets”, the Rome-based ...
Read More »Migrants flee Spain detention centre again
Madrid / AFP Spanish police were searching on Tuesday for several Algerians who fled a migrant detention centre following a riot, the sixth such incident since August as calls mount to close the facilities. In the latest incident, which took place on Monday evening, nine Algerians escaped from a holding centre in Murcia, a region in the south east, ...
Read More »Burundi risks genocide on ‘descent into hell’
France /AFP Burundi’s brutal regime has set the small central African country on a “descent into hell”, a prominent human rights group said on Tuesday, warning of the risk of genocide. “Since April 2015, when large popular protests broke out against the decision of President Pierre Nkurunziza to seek a third term, Burundi has been in violent political crisis,” ...
Read More »200 Rohingya stranded at Bangladesh border
Dhaka / AFP Around 200 Rohingya Muslims fleeing a surge in violence after security forces took control of Myanmar’s Rakhine state last month are stranded at the Bangladesh border, community leaders said on Tuesday. Bangladeshi border guards pushed back the Rohingya—mostly women and children—to the Myanmar side on Monday, community leaders said. “We heard they are 200 in number. ...
Read More »Democrats in Congress should try cooperation
Democrats and progressives, you lost. You can fight President-elect Donald Trump, or you can join him. There will be time enough for fighting, but for now, I suggest that you join him — at least on some of his high priority items. As it turns out, several of them are your priorities too. 1: Infrastructure. The president-elect is a ...
Read More »LatAm’s new politics aren’t Left or Right
Donald Trump was not the only septuagenarian with some strong notions about world affairs to score big in the Americas this month. On Nov. 6, Nicaraguan guerrilla-turned-strongman Daniel Ortega won his third consecutive presidential mandate. To hear Ortega’s boosters tell it, his re-election was a much needed affirmation for the Latin American leftist leaders who are now faltering or ...
Read More »China finally boosts prices, only too well
By December 2015, China had endured four years of declining producer prices. Coal was down 38 percent on the year, and steel down 31 percent. That month, the Communist Party hit on a new plan for reversing this dynamic. They called it “supply-side reform,” and it was widely perceived as an attempt to eliminate the surplus capacity at mines ...
Read More »UAE has a big role to play in 4IR
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) will shape the world’s future. It has already dawned on us. The UAE is joining the World Economic Forum (WEF) to lead from the front as it ushers in the 4IR and gives fillip to technological advancements. While setting up the world’s first permanent policy council that will study and implement the plans of ...
Read More »Why Putin sacrificed his economy minister
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been rather consistent lately in making it clear that senior officials were not immune from corruption charges. Yet Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev’s arrest in the wee hours of Tuesday still stands out. It raises questions about the future of Putin’s highly professional, technocratic economic team as well as one of the president’s closest associates, ...
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