US vows to deter any Iran aggression on Gulf states
President Obama defends Iran nuclear deal, but voices "serious concerns" about Tehran's behaviour in the region.
| Politics, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, GCC
The United States will deter and confront aggression against Gulf Arab countries, which continue to have concerns about threats from Iran, President Barack Obama said after meeting their leaders to iron out strains in their alliance.
"I reaffirmed the policy of the United States to use all elements of our power to secure our core interests in the Gulf region and to deter and confront external aggression against our allies and our partners," Obama said in Riyadh on Thursday after the summit with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
"Even with the nuclear deal we recognise collectively that we continue to have serious concerns about Iranian behaviour," he said.Nigerian army killed 350 and secretly buried the bodies, Amnesty says
Amnesty International report says military shot and burned members of Islamic Movement in Nigeria last December and secretly buried the bodies
The Nigerian military has been urged to “come clean” over the deaths of 350 civilians who are alleged to have been shot or burned alive and then dumped in a mass grave following a confrontation in the north of the country last December.
A new report from Amnesty International, which includes witness testimony and satellite images of a possible mass grave, accuses the military of illegally attacking members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) and then trying to cover up the atrocities.
Between 12 and 14 December last year, more than 350 men, women and children belonging to the Shia sect are thought to have been killed in the town of Zaria in Kaduna state. Violence erupted after IMN supporters – some of whom were armed with batons, knives and machetes – refused to allow an army convoy to pass along a road close to the group’s headquarters.
Isis documents leak reveals profile of average militant as young, well-educated but with only 'basic' knowledge of Islamic law
Military analysts in the US said the importance of insight gained using the documents 'cannot be overstated'
Male, 26, single, quite well-educated but not an expert on the Quran – this is the profile of an average fighter joining Isis.
Analysis of thousands of entry documents leaked from the terrorist group has provided vital new insight into the background and expertise of its international jihadists.
The US military’s Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) said all evidence pointed to the cache being genuine, exposing personal details of 4,188 militants who joined Isis in 2013 and 2014.
A year on, millions of Nepal quake survivors wait for aid
KATHMANDU (AFP) -
A year after an earthquake flattened her home in Nepal, Menuka Rokaya still lives in a tent with her husband and nine-month-old baby as they await even a sliver of a $4 billion aid fund.
"We have lived like this with a baby through monsoon and winter," says Rokaya, one of an estimated four million people who are still homeless.
"The quake spared us, but it is difficult to survive now.
"Earlier, many people used to come here to help us. But... they have all disappeared now," she told AFP as she nursed her young daughter.
The world rallied to donate money to help the desperately poor Himalayan nation after the 7.8-magnitude quake struck on April 25 last year.
Hundreds of volunteers come to quake-hit Kumamoto's aid
NATIONAL
Volunteers shifted into high gear in quake-hit Kumamoto and surrounding southwestern Japan prefectures on Friday as hundreds of people seeking to help arrived at some of the hardest-hit areas.
Some 700 people reported to Kumamoto on Friday morning, the first batch of volunteers to be accepted by the city, as the health of people stranded in evacuation centers becomes an increasingly serious issue across the region. More than a week has passed since the initial magnitude-6.5 quake on April 14, which was followed by a M7.3 quake on Saturday.
While the death toll from the quakes stands at 48, 11 other people are suspected to have died due to health issues triggered by stress and fatigue suffered while evacuated from their homes.
Earth Day: We're not as doomed as you think
Updated 0450 GMT (1150 HKT) April 22, 2016
Sure, there are plenty of reasons to be terrified about the future of the planet: melting ice sheets, intensifying heat waves, vanishing rainforests,falling temperature records, dying elephants, bleached out coral and kids in China don't know the sky is blue.
This stuff is serious. It's real. It's bad.
But -- know what? -- it's not the full picture.
In celebration of Earth Day, a day on which more than 155 countries are planning to sign a landmark U.N. agreement on climate change, here are five reasons Earth is not as doomed as you think.
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