Syrian army seizes Aleppo villages, takes aim at Raqqa
Monitoring group says Syrian forces advancing, as unrest continues elsewhere, with twin bombings killing 25 in Homs.
| ISIS, War & Conflict, Middle East, Syria, Syrian Civil War
Syrian government forces have continued to tighten their grip around Aleppo province, as they push for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIL) stronghold in Raqqa, a monitoring group and state media have said.
The push for more territory came amid continued violence elsewhere in the country, with twin car bombings killing at least 25 people in the central city of Homs.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday that government forces backed by Russian air strikes have captured 18 villages in Aleppo's eastern suburbs - giving them access to 40km of the highway between Aleppo and Raqqa.
The stretch of highway passes by the Kweires military airport that government forces recaptured in November.
China to build ventilation 'corridors' in Beijing to help tackle air pollution
Construction in zones created by connecting parks, rivers, lakes, highways and low building blocks, will be strictly controlled and obstacles to air flow removed
Authorities in Beijing are reportedly developing a network of ventilation “corridors” to help tackle the city’s notorious air pollution.
Construction in the zones, which will be created by connecting parks, rivers, lakes, highways and low building blocks, will be strictly controlled and obstacles to air flow will be removed over time, said the Xinhua state news agency, citing Wang Fei, deputy head of Beijing’s urban planning committee, as saying.
There will be five large corridors that will be more than 500 metres wide and several smaller ones, the report said, without giving a time frame for the project.
Pollution is a sensitive topic in China, spurring public protests every year about environmental degradation, particularly from factories.
Kanhaiya Kumar: Arrest of student leader in Delhi sparks campus protests across India
The 28-year-old was detained under a colonial-era sedition law for shouting 'anti-national' slogans at a university rally
Leila Nathoo Delhi
Awanish Kumar waves an Indian flag in the midst of a massive crowd assembled on one of Delhi’s wide boulevards. “We will not go along and let the state crush our voices,” says the 30-year-old, one of thousands who have taken to the streets across India in recent days to protest at the arrest of a student union leader.
The man who now finds himself at the centre of a political storm is Kanhaiya Kumar (no relation of Awanish). The 28-year-old student leader was detained under a colonial-era sedition law for shouting slogans at a university rally that authorities claimed were “anti-national”.
His arrest elevated him into a hate figure for some and a symbolic victim of injustice for others, pitching India into an increasingly polarised debate about patriotism, freedom of expression and the autonomy of universities under the country’s Hindu-nationalist government.
The Integration Puzzle: What a Million Refugees Mean for Everyday Life
By SPIEGEL Staff
More than a million refugees are now living in Germany. The next task is to integrate them. SPIEGEL spoke with dozens of experts and people working in the field about the everyday challenges the influx means for the country.
As Germany attempts to integrate hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Middle East and Africa, SPIEGEL met with people around the country and posed some simple questions about its new residents, their integration and general challenges for German society.
What's working? What isn't? How much will it cost? Why go to all this trouble? And how do we expect things will turn out in the end? We spoke to 22 men and women who face these questions every day and asked them about their experiences, perspectives and the challenges they face.
Michael Schürks, 54, teaches self-defense classes in Berlin.
Why do you teach women how to hit, Mr. Schürks?
SPIEGEL: How's business?
Schürks: I've been doing this for eight years, but the demand for my courses has never been higher due to the New Year's attacks in Cologne. That really changed the world.
He lives in a country of his own that no one can enter without his permission. There may be cases registered against him outside the boundary of his country but he cannot care less about them. He will not surrender to the police and the courts whose jurisdiction stops where his own jurisdiction starts. He can challenge the government, he can defy the state by issuing statements supporting those who are bent upon destroying it, and he – along with his family – can lead pitched battles against the law enforcement agencies causing a civil war within the heart of the federal capital. Anyone trying to arrest or try him better be warned. The whole country burnt the last time someone attempted to do that. His supporters blew themselves up as human bombs, taking hundreds of lives with them; his students launched numerous deadly attacks on security forces wherever they could.
He goes by his own set of laws and under those laws there is nothing wrong with spreading sectarian hatred, with accusing parts of the state of conspiring against him, even subjecting the writ of the courts to his own whimsical choices disguised as wait for a divine signal. It does not matter that there is a law against hurting other people’s religious sentiments; against questioning the integrity of the state institutions; against willfully indulging in contempt of the courts. What could have Abdul Aziz done to possess such superhuman powers? His Lal Masjid is a fort – made impenetrable by his acolytes willing to serve as human shields – where messengers from the police and the courts can only enter to confer not confront.
'Baby Asha' avoids deportation to Nauru for now
Updated 0903 GMT (1703 HKT) February 21, 2016
The baby that has attracted global media attention to Australia's immigration policy is no longer facing "imminent" deportation to an offshore detention center but will be transferred to a local community center.
The one-year-old child, known as "Baby Asha" will be discharged within 24 hours, the Brisbane hospital caring for her said.
Her doctors initially refused to release her, fearing she would be deported to an offshore camp notorious for its poor conditions. She was admitted to Lady Cilento Children's Hospital after suffering serious burns while under government detention on Nauru.
"The [immigration] department further advised that there is no imminent plan for the family to return to Nauru and the family's case is under consideration," a hospital statement said.
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