Syria crisis: refugees top 2 million
• UN says Syrian refugee crisis worst in history
• Assad warns that intervention could prompt regional war
• Obama officials to make case to Congress for Syria strikes
• Assad warns that intervention could prompt regional war
• Obama officials to make case to Congress for Syria strikes
A little more detail on that alarming Russian report via Reuters:
Russian radar detected two ballistic "objects" that were fired towards the eastern Mediterranean from the central part of the sea on Tuesday, state-run news agency RIA quoted the Defence Ministry as saying.The Defence Ministry declined immediate comment to Reuters. A ministry official had earlier criticised the United States for deploying warships in the Mediterranean close to Syria.
Russia says 'objects' fired
Gulp...
The Russia's Defence Ministry says it has detected two ballistic 'objects' fired towards the eastern Mediterranean.
Reuters cites the Russian news agency RIA Novosti for the report.
We'll have more details as we get them.
Updated
Sweden has become the the first country in the EU to offer permanent residency to Syrian refugees, according to the Swedish news site The Local.
The decision covers all asylum seekers from Syria who have been granted temporary residency in Sweden for humanitarian protection. They will now receive permanent residence permits, the Swedish Migration Board announced on Tuesday.Previously, around half of Syrian asylum seekers had been granted permanent residency, with the remaining half receiving three-year residence permits.
The foreign ministers of countries neighbouring Syria are due to meet in Geneva on Thursday to discuss the refugee crisis, the UNHCR reports.
A little more detail on that alarming Russian report via Reuters:
Russian radar detected two ballistic "objects" that were fired towards the eastern Mediterranean from the central part of the sea on Tuesday, state-run news agency RIA quoted the Defence Ministry as saying.The Defence Ministry declined immediate comment to Reuters. A ministry official had earlier criticised the United States for deploying warships in the Mediterranean close to Syria.
Russia says 'objects' fired
Gulp...
The Russia's Defence Ministry says it has detected two ballistic 'objects' fired towards the eastern Mediterranean.
Reuters cites the Russian news agency RIA Novosti for the report.
We'll have more details as we get them.
Updated
Sweden has become the the first country in the EU to offer permanent residency to Syrian refugees, according to the Swedish news site The Local.
The decision covers all asylum seekers from Syria who have been granted temporary residency in Sweden for humanitarian protection. They will now receive permanent residence permits, the Swedish Migration Board announced on Tuesday.Previously, around half of Syrian asylum seekers had been granted permanent residency, with the remaining half receiving three-year residence permits.
The wildcards of Germany’s general election
Despite predictions of a third Merkel term, the most closely watched German election in decades is also the most uncertain
German federal elections are not for the faint-of-heart – or the colour blind. For the first time in decades, when the polls open for 60 million German voters on September 22nd, Europe – and the world – will be watching.
The huge level of international attention is down to the cause and effect of the euro crisis. The domino effect in the crisis exposed just how interlinked our European economies and political systems already were. Shifts in Europe’s political tectonic plates are under way, pushing Berlin to the fore and its influence on post-crisis measures that will, in future, bind us even closer together.
NUCLEAR
Japan pledges funds to help with Fukushima cleanup
Japan has said it will pledge $473 million to contain leaks of radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima plant. The government has vowed to take the lead in the cleanup, the worst atomic disaster since 1986.
The Japanese government plans to spend 47 billion yen ($473.05 million) to deal with the growing amounts of radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima plant, the country's Industry Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Tuesday.
Tokyo Electric Power, known as Tepco, has struggled to deal with the huge amounts of water used to cool the reactors that went into meltdown after being struck by a powerful earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
God 'tells' king Swaziland is a monarchial democracy
Africa's last absolute monarch King Mswati III has declared his tiny mountain kingdom has a new political system – a "monarchial democracy" – his spokesman said on Monday.
South African and Swaziland media reported that the king told how he had received a vision from God during unseasonal thunderstorms that hit the country at the weekend, prompting the change.
"Swaziland is a monarchial democracy: the marriage between the monarch and the ballot box," the king said, as cited by the government spokesman Percy Simelane on Monday.
"The ballot box being the will of the people providing advice and counsel to the king which ensures transparency and accountability."
Egypt press crackdown and propaganda
The information wars are heating up in Egypt.
Egypt's military-backed government over the weekend signaled an expanded crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood by announcing that deposed President Mohamed Morsi, who was elected president in June 2012 and deposed this July 3, would be put on trial for inciting violence.
That decision came less than two weeks afterPresident Hosni Mubarak, who headed a military-backed dictatorship for 30 years until February 2011, was released from prison and placed under house arrest while awaiting a trial of his own. Morsi, meanwhile, remains in the secret prison Egypt's military whisked him to shortly after it removed him from office.
Looking a little further, the current regime appears eager to shut down most political avenues and media outlets it can't control.
3 September 2013 Last updated at 00:30 GMT
The great Cold War potato beetle battle
In 1950 the East German government claimed the Americans were dropping potato beetles out of planes over GDR fields in an attempt to sabotage their crops. Was it true, or an example of Cold War propaganda?
On 23 May 1950, farmer Max Troeger noticed two American planes flying over his fields in the East German village of Schoenfels bei Zwickau.
The next morning - according to an East German government leaflet - he was shocked to discover that his fields were covered with Colorado potato beetles, an insect which can devastate potato crops.
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