One million forced from school by Boko Haram war
More than 2,000 schools in Nigeria and neighbouring countries closed over Boko Haram conflict, UN finds.
Teo Kermeliotis | | Boko Haram, Nigeria, Education, Africa, War & Conflict
An estimated one million children have been forced out of school as a result of violent attacks by Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria and its neighbouring countries, a new UNICEF report said on Tuesday.
The ongoing violence has led to the closure of more than 2,000 schools in Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon, the agency said. Hundreds of others have been attacked, looted or burned by Boko Haram, whose name roughly translates to "Western education is forbidden".
"The conflict has been a huge blow for education in the region, and violence has kept many children out of the classroom for more than a year, putting them at risk of dropping out of school altogether," said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF's West and Central Africa regional director.
Fontaine said the "staggering" figure of one million children out of school increased the risks of them being "abused, abducted and recruited by armed groups".
Purple haze: lilac sky at night highlights China’s smog blight
Images showing Nanjing city shrouded in a violet fug – said to be caused by a pollution spike at sunset – follow two red alerts for Beijing over toxic air
Photographs appearing to show one of China’s most famous cities shrouded in a spectacular violet mist went viral on Wednesday, as millions of citizens choked on the country’s latest bout of toxic smog.
The fluorescent purple haze that engulfed Nanjing – reportedly the result of a pollution-tinged sunset – was at one point the second most talked-about topic on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter.
“Who can explain what has happened to the sky?” wrote one concerned Weibo user, as tens of thousands of people posted comments on the phenomenon.
“It’s the new, grape-flavoured smog!” replied another.
Russia 'directly targets civilians' in Syria, killing at least 200 in possible war crimes, Amnesty report reveals
Russian bombers have “directly attacked” and killed at least 200 civilians in Syria and its campaign of air strikes could amount to war crimes, campaigners say.
In a major new report on Russia’s intervention in Syria, Amnesty International accused Vladimir Putin’s government of knowingly targeting residential areas in “indiscriminate attacks”, before covering up the evidence and effectively lying to the international community.
The campaign group’s researchers analysed 25 suspected Russian air raids since the start of Moscow’s campaign in Syria, with targets including homes, medical facilities and a mosque.
Trapped in war zone, locals struggle in Turkey curfew towns
His neighbourhood battered by shelling and food running out, Bahattin Yagarcik hunkers down in a basement along with several other families to take cover from the standoff between the Turkish military and Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey.
Yagarcik's hometown of Cizre and the nearby town of Silopi in Sirnak province in the Kurdish majority southeast have been under curfew since early last week as the army wages an all-out offensive against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the town's streets.
"Tanks were deployed on the hills overlooking the city and my three-storey apartment building was set on fire last Wednesday by intensive shelling. It is completely unusable now," Yagarcik told an AFP correspondent in Ankara by telephone from Cizre.
Fifteen years ago the CIA tried to predict the world in 2015. Here's what they got wrong
Laurence Dodds
London: Back in the futuristic year 2000, the CIA convened a group of experts from outside the Agency. Their mission: to gaze into the near future and predict 2015 would look like.
The result was a 70-page report covering everything from the rise of nanotechnology through oil shocks and demographic change to the fate of the global economy. You can read the full document here.
Fifteen years later, how right were they about the future we are living through now?
Many of their conclusions were uncontroversial: water would still be wet, sugar would still be sweet, and ethnic and religious tensions would continue to drive conflict in nations where governance is poor.
But other predictions have fallen flat – such as the notion we'd all be eating cloned beef burgers, or that North and South Korea would be unified.
Read on to find out just what they got right and wrong about the world of today.
Indonesia punishes 23 companies for causing forest fires
The World Bank estimates that Indonesia's economy has lost $16 billion due to the fires, which have been started to make room for pulp and palm oil plantations.
JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Indonesian government has punished 23 companies for causing forest fires that spread thick, smoky haze around Southeast Asia, an official said Tuesday.
The Forestry Ministry's investigations director, Brotestes Panjaitan, said that 33 more companies are under scrutiny and waiting for decisions on possible punishment.
Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya announced Monday that a total of 56 companies were involved in the land-clearing activities that led to the fires.
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