Report on Syria conflict finds 11.5% of population killed or injured
Exclusive Syrian Centre for Policy Research says 470,000 deaths is twice UN’s figure with ‘human development ruined’ after 45% of population is displaced
Syria’s national wealth, infrastructure and institutions have been “almost obliterated” by the “catastrophic impact” of nearly five years of conflict, a new report has found. Fatalities caused by war, directly and indirectly, amount to 470,000, according to the Syrian Centre for Policy Research (SCPR) – a far higher total than the figure of 250,000 used by the United Nations until it stopped collecting statistics 18 months ago.
In all, 11.5% of the country’s population have been killed or injured since the crisis erupted in March 2011, the report estimates. The number of wounded is put at 1.9 million. Life expectancy has dropped from 70 in 2010 to 55.4 in 2015. Overall economic losses are estimated at $255bn (£175bn).
Turkey, Greece seek NATO mission in Aegean, says German official
Germany, Greece and Turkey will ask NATO to approve a maritime surveillance mission in the Aegean to combat illegal people smugglers. Greece had previously voiced reservations about the proposal.
The proposed mission to be discussed at a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels on Thursday comes days after German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutolgu said they would raise the issue of refugees with the Alliance.
According to a Reuters report citing a senior German official, initially reticent Greece has now given the green light for the operation, which could see NATO assets deployed in the Aegean in a mostly intelligence and reconnaissance role.
Under the proposal, which would need to be approved by Alliance members, NATO maritime assets would provide information to national coastguards and the EU border agency Frontex to combat illegal smugglers using rickety boats to bring migrants to Europe.
Five years after nuclear meltdown, no one knows what to do with Fukushima
Anna Fifield
Futaba: Seen from the road below, the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station looks much as it may have right after the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that caused a triple meltdown here almost five years ago.
The No. 3 reactor building, which exploded in a hydrogen fireball during the disaster, remains a tangle of broken concrete and twisted metal. A smashed crane sits exactly where it was on March 11, 2011. To the side of the reactor units, a building that once housed boilers stands open to the shore, its rusted, warped tanks exposed.
The scene is a testament to the chaos that was unleashed when the tsunami engulfed these buildings, triggering the world's worst nuclear disaster since the one in Chernobyl, in Ukraine, in 1986. Almost 16,000 people were killed along Japan's northeastern coast in the tsunami, and 160,000 more lost their homes and livelihoods.Facebook board member apologises for India tweets
Twitter outburst denouncing India's "anti-colonialism" draws sharp rebuke from Mark Zuckerberg and Indian citizens.
| Facebook, India, Social media
A prominent venture capitalist and Facebook board director has apologised for tweets that condemned the Indian government for "anti-colonialism" after it banned the social media giant's free internet service.
Marc Andreessen, who often takes to Twitter to offer his opinions, said on Wednesday new rules imposed by the government have denied India's poor online access.
Only 252 million out of India's 1.3 billion people have internet access.
India introduced rules on Monday preventing service providers from having different pricing policies, effectively dismantling Facebook's Free Basics programme, which offers a pared-back version of the internet.
"Denying world's poorest free partial internet connectivity when today they have none, for ideological reasons, strikes me as morally wrong," Andreessen wrote.
"Anti-colonialism has been economically catastrophic for the Indian people for decades. Why stop now?"
South Korea begins Kaesong industrial park shut down
South Korea has begun shutting down its operations in the Kaesong industrial park jointly run by the rival Koreas.
On Wednesday, Seoul announced it would suspend its activity there because of the North's recent rocket launch.
It had already restricted some South Korean activity there following Pyongyang's nuclear test last month.
It is unclear how long the shutdown will last, which Seoul said was aimed at cutting off money the North used for nuclear and missile development.
About 124 mostly South Korean companies operate in Kaesong employing thousands of North Koreans.
The BBC's Steve Evans in Seoul says those companies have started taking out easily-moveable equipment and stocks of finished goods and raw materials.
Why Republicans are debating bringing back torture
Updated by Zack Beauchamp
John McCain is very angry about the way the Republican race is going — on the specific issue of torturing detainees suspected of terrorism.
"It's been so disappointing to see some presidential candidates engaged in loose talk on the campaign trail about reviving waterboarding and other inhumane interrogation techniques," McCain, who was himself tortured while he was held prisoner during the Vietnam War, said during a Tuesday Senate speech. "Our enemies act without conscience. We must not."
McCain has good reason to be angry. Several Republicans have suggested that they'd be open to torturing suspected terrorists if elected — especially New Hampshire primary winner Donald Trump.
"Waterboarding is fine, and much tougher than that is fine," Trump said at a Monday campaign event in New Hampshire. "When we're with these animals, we can't be soft and weak, like our politicians."
No comments:
Post a Comment