Syria civil war: Russia calls for 'regime of calm'
Temporary truce may last for 72 hours in suburbs of Damascus as country reels from ISIL bombings that killed 150 people.
Russia has called for a temporary truce to begin in two towns in the Damascus countryside after multiple attacks in northwestern Syria killed at least 150 people.
The Russian defence ministry wants the truce in the towns of Daraya and Eastern Ghouta to begin on Tuesday and last for 72 hours.
Monday's announcement came as the United States continued to urged Russia to pressure President Bashar al-Assad's government to stop bombing opposition forces and civilians in Damascus and Aleppo.
Idomeni: Greek riot police move in before dawn to clear refugee camp
No violence reported as Greek authorities order 8,000 residents of Europe’s largest informal refugee camp to leave
Greek police are attempting to clear Europe’s largest informal refugee camp, where thousands of refugees have been stranded for months just south of the Greek-Macedonian border.
Journalists and activists were barred from entry, but witnesses said about 400 riot police entered the camp at dawn on Tuesday to order the approximately 8,000 camp residents to leave. Many left voluntarily in government buses, and by 8am no violence had been reported.
Idomeni was the informal crossing point through which hundreds of thousands of refugees entered Macedonia in 2015. Refugees started camping there when the Macedonian government began shutting the border to certain nationalities last November. Once the border shut entirely in March, the site became a full-scale camp, and an emblem of Europe’s failure to manage the refugee crisis.How a coal-powered dryer is stopping Niger's tomatoes going to waste
OBSERVERS
Every year, enormous quantities of tomatoes are thrown away in Niger. With supply often far outstripping demand, producers find themselves unable to offload their excess produce. Compounding the problem is the difficulty in storing fresh tomatoes. But a young Nigerien has now found a way to put the surplus vegetables to good use, by using a coal-fired dryer to turn them into powder.
Tomatoes are a staple in most Nigerien dishes. Although the vegetable is cultivated all year round, the first few months of the year are the most important for tomato farmers, according to Yacouba Alfari Bonkano, the 30-year-old agricultural engineer behind the innovation. Based in Niamey, his company 'YABE-production' employs four people, including two on a full-time basis, to produce tomato powder that can be used for everyday cooking.
China and US tensions: what are the sticking points
May 24, 2016 - 5:50AMPhilip Wen
China correspondent for Fairfax Media
Beijing: A cornerstone of the Obama administration's foreign policy, the United States' strategic 'pivot' to Asia has long been seen by Beijing as a cynical ploy to counter its rise. This week Barack Obama made history by announcing the lifting of a decades-old US arms embargo on Vietnam, its former Cold War enemy, a move sure to raise eyebrows in China. Entering the final months of his presidency, Obama is in Vietnam and Japan to underscore Washington's commitment to the region, putting potential flashpoints in Sino-American relations squarely back in focus. So what are the areas of US-China disagreement?
South China Sea
The US sees China's aggressive programme of land reclamation and construction on islands and reefs in the disputed South China Sea as a potential threat to freedom of navigation along the critical global trade route
The Vietnam War: How they saw it from both sides of the divide
By MacKenzie Sigalos, CNN
U.S. President Barack Obama is in Vietnam forging stronger ties with a country that was the scene of bitter conflict just over 40 years ago.
The war ended on April 30, 1975, with the fall of Saigon -- now Ho Chi Minh City -- to the Communist north, two years after the withdrawal of U.S. ground troops.
We have two very different accounts of that same extraordinary day. The first, from a U.S. veteran who helped execute a mass evacuation on April 29. The Air America pilot was a part of the largest helicopter airlift in history.
The second, from a retired Sergeant Major who was among the ranks of the North Vietnamese forces. He raised the flag on Davis Camp at Tan Son Nhut Airfield at 9:30 a.m. on April 30.
Japan asks U.S. to finally stop military-related rapes, deaths
TOKYO - Japan's prime minister expressed his "strong indignation" Friday after an American working on a U.S. military base in Okinawa was arrested on suspicion of abandoning the body of a woman who disappeared last month.
"I have no words to express, considering how the family feels," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters. "We urge the U.S. side to take thorough measures to prevent the recurrence of such events."
The arrest sparked outrage on Okinawa, where anti-U.S. military sentiment is highbecause of a heavy American troop presence, and repeated instances of violent encounters between American military personnel and locals. It could fuel further opposition to the relocation of a U.S. Marine Corps air station on the southern Japanese island, a long-delayed project that Abe has been trying to push forward in the face of large protests.
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