Syria war: US launches missile strikes in response to chemical 'attack'
The US has carried out a missile attack against an air base in Syria in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held town.
The Pentagon said 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired at 04:40 Syrian time (01:40 GMT) from destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean.
In a televised address, President Donald Trump said the base was the launch point for the chemical attack.
He called on "all civilised nations" to help end the conflict in Syria.
Dozens of civilians, including many children, died in the suspected nerve gas attack on Tuesday in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province.
Why Israel and Hezbollah are heading for a new, devastating war in the Middle East
In 13 years of watching these two bitter opponents, I have never seen such a high degree of anxiety that war is coming
This past Sunday, with great fanfare, Israeli politicians and military leaders finally announced to the Israeli public – and to the country’s enemies – that they had successfully layered the nation’s airspace with the most sophisticated anti-missile defence system ever developed.
Long-range Iranian or Syrian missiles, as it is anticipated, would mainly be handled by the US-backed Arrow system at high altitudes; smaller, but nevertheless extremely accurate, missiles from Hezbollah in Lebanon or Syria would be the domain of the US-backed David’s Sling, while drones, artillery and smaller rockets will continue to be dealt with by the (also US-backed) Iron Dome.
In mid-March, the new Arrow-3 missile system had seen its first successful use, knocking out a Syrian missile fired towards Israel in response to yet another Israeli Air Force attack within Syria, allegedly targeting Hezbollah positions.
UN: Record amount of renewable energy capacity added in 2016
Global renewable energy capacity jumped eight percent last year despite a 23 percent drop in investment. Falling renewable energy prices are driving a build-up of capacity.
The world added a record amount of renewable energy in 2016 despite a sharp drop in investment, the UN said Thursday, largely due to falling costs of clean energy.
New renewable energy, excluding large hydro projects, added 138.5 gigawatts of power in 2016, up eight percent from the previous year. The new capacity came despite investment falling to $241.6 billion (227 billion euro), 23 percent lower than the previous year and the lowest since 2013.
"Ever-cheaper clean tech provides a real opportunity for investors to get more for less," said Erik Solheim, Executive Director of UN Environment. "This is exactly the kind of situation, where the needs of profit and people meet, that will drive the shift to a better world for all."
Basque separatists ETA confirm plans to disarm
The Basque separatist group ETA has confirmed it will disarm on Saturday, in a letter published by the BBC.
"'Disarmament day' is tomorrow and we want to warn that still the process can be attacked by the enemies of peace," the group said in a letter published in English and Spanish and dated April 7.
In the note, addressed to the international community and published by the BBC late Thursday, ETA said it had given up "all its weaponry (arms and explosives) to Basque civil society representatives" and described itself as a "disarmed organization".
The group said Bayonne, a city in the French Basque region, will be the focal point of the disarmament process where it expected thousands of people to gather on Saturday.
Badiucao: A Chinese political cartoonist reinvents himself in Australia
Updated 0457 GMT (1257 HKT) April 7, 2017
Halfway up Mount Lofty, a squat, scenic mountain that overlooks the Australian city of Adelaide, Badiucao is uneasy.
The dissident Chinese artist left his phone in the car, over an hour's hike away, and now he feels cut off.
Even for a millennial, Badiucao -- he uses a deliberately nonsensical pseudonym to protect his identity -- is tied to his phone. With it in hand he is constantly checking Twitter, staying connected with China thanks to a non-stop stream of posts from journalists and fellow dissidents.
After almost seven years in self-imposed exile in Australia, more than anything else he fears being cut-off from his homeland, becoming another irrelevant overseas critic fighting yesterday's battles.
After St. Petersburg bombing, a notable absence: Russian anti-Islam backlash
Monday's terrorist bombing in St. Petersburg appears to bring Russia and the West closer in many ways.
Unlike past terrorist attacks against Russia's heartland, which were rooted in Moscow's savage war to subdue a local insurgency in the north Caucasus, this one was carried out by a Muslim immigrant who security services say had apparent links to Middle East extremists.
That tracks pretty closely with the frequent attacks that have recently struck European countries, whose armed forces are also fighting against jihadism in the Middle East. So too does the public response of rallying around the victims and redoubling official determination to destroy the terrorists in their desert lairs.
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