Nagorno-Karabakh crisis escalates amid threat of war
Armenia and Azerbaijan ramp up rhetoric as fighting continues for third day in disputed region.
| War & Conflict, Europe, Armenia, Azerbaijan
Fighting has continued in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, with Azerbaijan saying three of its troops were killed in the past 24 hours and both sides ramping up their rhetoric.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan warned on Monday that his country could formalise ities with Nagorno-Karabakh by officially recognising it as independent if the fighting escalates.
He warned that any such escalation could lead to a "large-scale war."
Azerbaijan's defence ministry said that if Armenian-backed forces continued to fire on civilians near Nagorno-Karabakh then its army would prepare to attack the region's capital Stepanakert.
Shock as Thai junta gives army sweeping powers of arrest
The US and human rights groups call for Thailand’s coup leaders to limit military influence over civilian authorities
Thailand’s coup leaders have been criticised for giving military officers broad police-like powers to arrest and detain, further eroding the capabilities of civilian authorities in the junta-run state.
Soldiers from the rank of sub-lieutenant and higher will now be allowed to prevent or suppress 27 types of offences, including crimes against public peace, defamation, gambling, extortion, and labour abuses. They will also be allowed in some cases to search property without a warrant.
The military is now authorised to seize assets, suspend financial transactions and ban suspects from travelling.
Panama Papers leak sparks massive protests in Iceland over PM's link to tax havens
More than 10,000 protesters gathered in front of Iceland's Parliament to call for Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson to resign
Thousands of protesters are calling for Iceland's prime minister to step down after the Panama Papers revealed his wife owned an offshore company with a significantINVESTMENT
in the country's collapsed banks.
in the country's collapsed banks.
Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson is facing a vote of no confidence after the leaked documents showed he and his wife had bought Wintris from Mossack Fonseca in 2007.
Protesters gathered in front of the Icelandic Parliament in the capital of Reykjavik to call for Mr Gunnlaugsson to stand down, with many beating drums and blowing whistles.
Organisers said more than 10,000 had gathered. An online petition calling for his resignation received 29,000 signatures. Iceland has a population of approximately 330,000.
Internal divisions threaten South African student protests
Sne Ngxukumeshe is a first-year student at Wits, studying commerce.
The most recent wave of student protests in South Africa shut down the Braamfontein campus at the University of the Witwatersrand for a few hours on Monday, April 4. But some witnesses reported that the students, who are calling for structural changes to the university system, including free education, are also dealing with internal divisions.
Since last year, universities in South Africa have been shaken by an unprecedented wave of student activism. It has been called the largest youth movement since the Soweto Uprising in 1976. It has provoked responses and real changes from as high up as President Zuma.
Though the protests originally began about schools fees, they have morphed into a more general call for the transformation and “decolonization” of educational institutions.
38 North: 'Suspicious activity' noted at North Korean nuclear site
Updated 0742 GMT (1442 HKT) April 5, 2016
The North Korea monitoring project 38 North says that satellite imagery shows "suspicious activity" at a nuclear enrichment site in North Korea.
Plumes of exhaust steam, a byproduct of heating the main plant at the Yongbyon Radiochemical Laboratory complex, have been seen in commercial satellite images taken March 12 and over the preceding five weeks, the group says.
This activity is unusual, the report by the Washington, D.C.-based project, says.
"Exhaust plumes have rarely been seen there and none have been observed on any examined imagery this past winter," the report says.
In drought-stressed regions, 'graywater' recycling gains attention
SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS
Some households and businesses are reusing graywater – water from bathroom sinks, showers, bathtubs, washing machines, and laundry sinks.
Many regions of the United States are struggling with water shortages.Large areas of the West are contending with moderate to severe drought, while California is now in the fifth year of one of the most extreme droughts in its history. Even non-arid regions, such as the Southeast, are not exempt from water shortages. At the same time, rapid population growth is increasing water demand in many of the nation’s most water-scarce regions, including California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Florida.
In these conditions, some state and local governments are looking for innovative ways to save water. One strategy gaining increasing attention is using graywater – water from bathroom sinks, showers, bathtubs, clothes washers and laundry sinks, but not from toilets or kitchens – for purposes other than drinking, such as flushing toilets.
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