Convoy of foreign tourists attacked in Afghanistan
At least six wounded after 11-member group of US, UK and German nationals comes under attack en route to Herat.
Foreign tourists being escorted by an army convoy in western Afghanistan have been attacked by fighters, leaving at least six wounded, Afghan officials say.
At least 11 tourists from the US, the UK and Germany were attacked in the Chesht-e-Sharif district of Herat province on Thursday while on their way to Herat from Bamiyan and Ghor provinces.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Jalani Farhad, spokesman for the Herat governor, blamed the attack on the Taliban.
Chinese lawyer who exposed baby milk scandal jailed for subversion
Zhou Shifeng, director of Beijing’s Fengrui law firm, jailed for more than seven years in latest crackdown on activists
A Chinese lawyer has been sentenced to seven years in prison in the third of a series of subversion trials demonstrating the ruling Communist party’s determination to shut down independent human rights activists and government critics.
Zhou Shifeng was director of Beijing’s Fengrui law firm that took on sensitive cases and represented people who dared challenge the party.
Zhou accepted the ruling and would not appeal, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
His half-day trial in the northern city of Tianjin followed those of two related legal activists earlier this week, one of whom was sentenced to 7 ½ years and the other given a suspended sentence, both for subversion.
No, Aleppo is not the new Srebrenica – the West won’t go to war over Syria
There are no ‘good guys’ among the Syrian warlords yet, despite all the evidence, we want to find them. It's time to stop lying to the people of the Middle East
As armed rebels – “terrorists” in the eyes of the regime – tighten their grip on the country, at one stage holding 60 per cent of the land, government troops hit back, seizing control of the main roads and laying siege to major towns.
The ruthless dictator, supported by Russia, accuses foreign powers of assisting his rebel enemies. There are massacres by both sides. NGOs fear for the tens of thousands of civilians trapped amid the fighting, while Western powers threaten to strike at the dictator unless he abides by a humanitarian ceasefire.
Sound familiar? Of course. I’m describing Kosovo in 1998, the year before Nato launched its war against Slobodan Milosevic’s regime in Serbia.
Venezuela and Nicaragua, socialist dictatorships under a democratic guise
"It should look democratic - but we have to hold the reins," former East German communist head of state Walter Ulbricht once said. Venezuela and Nicaragua appear to function along those same lines, says DW's Uta Thofern.
We all know how it ended. Back in May 1945, when German politician Walter Ulbricht propagated a make-believe democracy, he let the Soviet-controlled "Ulbricht group" fight against supposed opponents instead of rebuilding structures in war-torn Berlin. During almost the entire first 25 years of the German socialist dictatorship - East Germany (GDR) - Ulbricht was that state's most striking leader. The state never managed to survive another 25 years.
The communist attempt at deception worked convincingly for years, until in 1989, a sufficient number of people were sufficiently disenchanted with the system to topple the Berlin Wall. Not just idealists who believed in their revolution and wanted to build a new, better Germany after the Nazi dictatorship; average Germans, tired of the war, also hoped for a better future with socialism. Even in free West Germany, the GDR had a lot of supporters to the very end, people who seriously believed in progress on the never-ending "path to communism" - and called it democratic.
Police and protesters clash as Olympic torch passes through Rio
Latest update : 2016-08-04
Police used rubber bullets and pepper spray against protesters as the Olympic torch passed through a poor suburb of Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, two days before South America's first Olympic Games open under tight security.
Some 85,000 police, soldiers and security personnel will be deployed in Rio, more than double the amount in London in 2012, to deter protests, street crime and the threat of attacks by extremists.
Police dispersed anti-government protesters in Duque de Caixas, on Rio's north side, after they allegedly threw rocks and blocked the torch's path. A video of the incident spurred social media criticism of the police and amplified complaints that the Games ignored the poor.
'Burkini-only day' at French waterpark criticised
A waterpark in France is to be booked out for one day to Muslim women wanting to wear "burkinis" - but the decision has led to criticism by politicians on the right.
A community group in Marseille arranged the day, giving access only to women wearing the all-over swimming garment.
The group was set up to "encourage women to join in with the community".
Some leading political figures said the move was contrary to France's legally enshrined secular values.
"Accepting this so-called fashion means we accept communalism in our country,"said Valerie Boyer, a mayor of two Marseille districts from the centre-right group Les Republicains group, led by ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy.
"However, it's also a question of the woman's dignity, a question of our most fundamental principles."
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