Syria conflict: US 'outraged' over aid convoy attack
The US has expressed "outrage" over an attack on an aid convoy near the Syrian city of Aleppo that, a monitoring group says, left 12 civilians dead.
The UN has confirmed that the convoy was hit near the rebel-held town of Urum al-Kubra, without giving details.
Activists say an air strike hit the trucks hours after the army declared a US-Russian brokered truce over.
The US says it will "reassess the future prospects for co-operation" with Russia - an ally of Syria's government.
"The destination of this convoy was known to the Syrian regime and the Russian Federation," state department spokesman John Kirby said.
Norwegian editor challenges Zuckerberg to discuss censorship
Head of Aftenposten, which forced backdown over ‘napalm girl’ photo, accuses Facebook founder of hiding from debate
The Norwegian editor who successfully took on the might of Facebook over its censorship of the famous “napalm girl” photograph has challenged Mark Zuckerberg to publicly face up to his responsibility as one of the world’s most powerful people.
Espen Egil Hansen, whose newspaper Aftenposten helped force the social media site to back down in it decision to remove The Terror of War image from Facebook versions of its articles, accused Zuckerberg of ducking the debate. He branded Facebook a “frenemy of the people” because of the way it dominates the internet.
Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, has refused to comment on the issue. The company has relied instead on anonymous quotes released by a Swedish PR firm, Hansen said.The US and Russia have less influence in Syria than they think
Despite 10 months of negotiations between the US and Russia, the two biggest players in the Syrian conflict, the ceasefire is close to unravelling
At about 5pm on Saturday, two US F-16 fighter bombers and two A-10 specialised ground attack aircraft bombed what they believed was a concentration of Isis fighters besieging pro-government forces in the city of Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria.
Whoever it was in the US Air Force who had misidentified the target as Isis made a disastrous error; the US planes were attacking Syrian Army soldiers fighting Isis at a position called Jebel Tharda close to Deir Ezzor airport. The city has been besieged by Isis for over a year and 110,000 civilians are trapped inside. By the time the US bombing raid was over it had killed at least 62 Syrian soldiers and injured another 100, enabling Isis to overrun the survivors before being forced to retreat by a counter-attack backed by Russian airstrikes.
Transgender Iranians take to the stage to raise awareness
OBSERVERS
In a conservative society like Iran, talking about what it is like to be transgender is still considered shocking and taboo. But a theatre group is daring to start that conversation in cafés and performing arts spaces across Tehran. For some of the actors, the struggle is personal.
While most LGBT communities are banned in Iran, transgender people who choose to undergo a sex change operation – also known as transsexual people – are legally recognised. Our Observer Saman Arastou was born with female anatomy, but underwent a sex change operation in 2008. After a stint as an actor, Arastou became a theatre director and playwright. He and his troupe have been performing his play, “You all know me”, which discusses what it is like to be transgender in Iran today, across Tehran. In parallel, Arastou has also been organising small, informal performances about transgender issues in cafes across the Iranian capital.
Bonded labour, brick kilns and torture: How Sajida lost her family
ZAWARAH ASAD
Let me tell you a story that still haunts my mind about one of Pakistan’s biggest evils: bonded labour.
Our housekeeper Sajida had 13-year-old twin daughters, Bushra and Nusrat. They used to come over to our place after finishing work at our neighbour’s house.
A hardworking woman, Sajida raised the girls on her own in Islamabad as her husband and her only son worked in Chiniot.
Bushra was a firecracker while Nusrat was the quiet, studious one. She was a bright child who enjoyed studying and aspired to be a teacher. I used to help her with her school work, while Bushra happily watched Indian soap operas.
Innovative water storage helps Kenyans thrive in drought
A PATH TO PROGRESS
Rock catchment systems take advantage of the area's hilly, rocky geography. The systems are even generating income for the community groups that build them.
MAKUENI, KENYA — Even after the heavy rains that drenched East Africa in April, Makueni County in eastern Kenya remains dry – and it's not clear when increasingly elusive rainfall will come again.
But the women of Kikumbulyu village are not worried. Last November, they built a rock catchment system to harvest rainwater. Now, despite dry weather, the village still has plenty of water.
"Apart from the gift of life from God, this is the other biggest blessing that has come to us," said villager Mary Mwikali Kiminza, a mother of five and a member of the village's Ithine Self Help Group.
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