'Million migrants' enter Europe in 2015
One million migrants and refugees have entered Europe by land and sea in 2015, UN officials say
The number represents a fourfold rise on the total last year.
The vast majority crossed by sea, with more than 800,000 travelling from Turkey to Greece. Most are refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The IOM says 3,695 migrants have drowned this year or remain missing.
'We must act'
The symbolic milestone was passed on Monday, the IOM said, with the total for land and sea reaching more than 1,006,000.
The figure covers entries via six European Union nations - Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Malta and Cyprus.
My husband the warlord: an extract from the memoir of Joseph Kony's wife
Abducted when she was 11 years old, Evelyn Amony spent more than a decade at the brutal LRA leader’s side. In her new book, she recounts her past
Evelyn Amony
Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army abducted Evelyn Amony a few months before she turned 12 years old, in August 1994. Trained as a child soldier by the rebel leader and now indicted war criminal, Amony was raped by Kony at 14, and told that she had become his wife.
Amony spent 11 years with Kony in Uganda as one of his more than 60 wives. She gave birth to three of his daughters while he waged a campaign of destruction against local populations in the country’s north-west.
In the following excerpt from her new book, she recalls how a bushfire took the lives of Kony’s favourite wife, Fatima, and her son, also called Kony. Amony describes how she had to coax the guerrilla leader from the brink of suicide, knowing the remaining wives and children would have little chance of surviving without him.
This is who FIFA should replace Sepp Blatter with
It has finally happened. Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini have received eight year bans from all football activity as a result of the former's suspicious payment of two million Swiss francs to the latter in 2011, for work so vague neither man could convincingly describe it. This was apparently undertaken between 1998 and 2002 and they argued that this was due to FIFA's difficult financial situation at the time. We've all been there.
“You need some work done but you're a bit tight? Don't worry about it. Just pay me in nine to thirteen years. No need for a contract. I'm sure everything will be fine. See you down the banquet hall.”
China’s ambitious Silk Road strategy
An important element of Chinese foreign policy is the Silk Road initiative, which is supposed to realize the "Chinese dream," and make China one of the world’s leading nations. But there are many misgivings.
Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to create close ties with Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He first propagated the idea of the "modern Silk Road" during state visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia in 2013. But really, it's two roads, or rather "One Belt, One Road" (OBOR). The "belt" refers to the Eurasian land route between China and Europe, while the "road" is a maritime trade route linking Chinese ports with the African coast and Europe's Mediterranean nations.
The Silk Road strategy is part of Xi Jinping's vision of turning China into a global geopolitical powerhouse by 2049 - the 100th birthday of the People's Republic.
To kick things off, Beijing has earmarked 40 billion dollars in the state's own Silk Road Fund. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), founded in 2014, has also contributed a two-figure billion-dollar amount to the initiative. "China wants to use its surplus currency reserves and industrial overcapacity to secure food, energy and raw materials as well as open up new markets for investment and exports; that would allow it to secure its growth long term," political scientist David Arase told DW.
Fukui gov. OKs restart of Kansai Electric nuclear reactors
FUKUI, Japan (Kyodo) -- As Japan seeks to push ahead with the resumption of nuclear power generation following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis, the Fukui governor announced Tuesday he has approved the restart of two nuclear reactors in the prefecture.
Gov. Issei Nishikawa gave the go-ahead for Kansai Electric Power Co. to reactivate the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors at its Takahama plant on the Sea of Japan coast. The utility is looking to restart the No. 3 unit in late January and the No. 4 unit in late February.
However, a court injunction issued in April bans Kansai Electric from reactivating the Takahama units due to safety concerns. The Fukui District Court will make a decision Thursday on an objection filed by the utility against the injunction.
What really happened to the U.S. train-and-equip program in Syria?
When the first group of Syrians from a U.S.-trained force intended to combat the Islamic State crossed into their country from Turkey in mid-July, they arrived in uniform carrying M16 rifles, mortars and flak vests. But they had no expense money, little food and no clear idea of how they, just 54 men, were to do battle against the extremists.
Most had been in near-total isolation during their two months of training in Turkey and Jordan, and they wanted to see their families, many of whom had been under heavy government bombardment. And it was Ramadan, a month of fasting, so they voted to take a two-week break, according to their elected commander, a former Syrian army lieutenant colonel, Amin Ibrahim.
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