Category: WORLD NEWS

Baghdad, Oct 28 (DINN) Students and schoolchildren hit the streets of Baghdad and southern Iraq on Monday to join escalating calls for the government to quit, defying the education minister, legal threats and even their parents. Swathes of the country have been engulfed by protests this month, with anger over unemployment and accusations of graft evolving into demands for a total political overhaul. More than 200 people have been killed and 8,000 wounded, the majority protestors, since the movement erupted on October 1. This week, Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi…

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President Donald Trump ended sanctions against Turkey on Wednesday, drawing a line under American involvement in “blood-stained” Syria, as Turkish and Russian troops seized territory previously held by US troops and their beleaguered Kurdish allies.“Let someone else fight over this long blood-stained sand,” Trump said in a White House speech that formalized the ceding of power in northern Syria to Ankara and increasingly influential Moscow.Trump said he was lifting the sanctions because a ceasefire was holding in the area, which Turkey invaded to drive Kurdish military groups from their strongholds.Trump…

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Indonesia’s new cabinet were introduced at an informal presentation on the palace steps Wednesday, with President Joko Widodo tapping his election arch-rival — a former general with a chequered rights record — as defence minister.More than three dozen new ministers — the vast majority of them men — sat casually in batik shirts in front of the imposing doric columns of the Merdeka Palace for the unveiling.Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, beat Prabowo Subianto in April elections to secure another term as president of the world’s third-biggest democracy.The victory followed…

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Incidents of violence and discrimination against minorities, including attacks on Dalits and Muslims by cow vigilantes, are not in keeping with India’s legal protections for minorities, a top US diplomat told a Congressional subcommittee on Monday. “Incidents of violence and discrimination against minorities in India, including cow vigilante attacks against members of the Dalit and Muslim communities, and the existence of anti-conversion laws in nine states are not in keeping with India’s legal protections for minorities,” Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Alice G Wells told…

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In signs of worsening of relations between the two countries, Pakistan has stopped postal mails from and to India, a move that New Delhi slammed as a violation of established international norms. Pakistan has not accepted any postal consignment from India after August 27 in a move seen as a retaliation for scrapping of special status for Jammu and Kashmir. Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who is also in-charge of the postal department, said Islamabad resorted to stopping postal mail services unilaterally and without giving any prior notice…

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President Donald Trump is pushing back at criticism that his Syria withdrawal is damaging U.S. credibility, betraying Kurdish allies and opening the door for a possible resurgence of the Islamic State. He touted a cease-fire agreement that seemed at risk as Turkey and Kurdish fighters differed over what it required and whether combat had halted. “We’ve had tremendous success I think over the last couple of days,” Trump declared Friday. He added that “we’ve taken control of the oil in the Middle East” — a claim that seemed disconnected from…

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The US is not going to get involved in “crazy endless wars” over 7,000 miles away, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, defending his decision to withdraw troops from northern Syria. The last week decision paved the way for Turkey to launch a cross-border military offensive that aims to push the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from the region. Turkey considers the biggest militia in the SDF a terrorist organisation. Several lawmakers have criticised the move as an abandonment of Kurdish forces, who were a crucial US ally in the…

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A fire at a fuel storage facility in the San Francisco Bay Area prompted a hazardous materials emergency Tuesday afternoon that led authorities to order about 12,000 people in two communities to stay inside with all windows and doors closed. Emergency sirens blared and thick plumes of black smoke and flames filled the skyline around the NuStar Energy LP facility in Crockett, California, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of downtown San Francisco. Video footage of the fire showed flames leading up to an explosion so strong it blew the…

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The toll of death and destruction from a massive typhoon that tore through central and northern Japan continued to climb Tuesday, as the government said it was considering approving a special budget for the ongoing disaster response and eventual reconstruction.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a parliamentary session that the number of deaths tied to Typhoon Hagibis had climbed to 53 and was expected to rise, as at least another nine people are presumed dead. Lawmakers prayed in silence for the victims before starting the session.Abe pledged to do the utmost…

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