Kabul bombing: Huge explosion rocks diplomatic district
Dozens of Afghan civilians killed after massive explosion rips through the heart of the capital's diplomatic district.
A suspected truck bomb has ripped through the heart of Kabul's diplomatic district, killing at least 80 people and wounding hundreds, in a powerful blast described by officials as "one of the biggest" to have hit the Afghan capital.
Sources said Wednesday's suicide attack took place near Zanbaq square, in Kabul's 10th district, close to shops and restaurants, as well as government offices and foreign embassies.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, told Al Jazeera that the group was not responsible for the attack.
Activists investigating Ivanka Trump's China shoe factory detained or missing
Three men from New York-based rights group China Labor Watch were looking at conditions at plant where Trump shoes are assembled
A labour activist working undercover investigating abuses at a Chinese factory that makes Ivanka Trump shoes has been detained by police and two others are missing, raising concerns the company’s ties to the US president’s family may have led to harsher treatment.
Hua Haifeng was being held by police on suspicion of illegal surveillance, his wife Deng Guilian said. Hua had worked for labour rights organisations for more than a decade and was investigating a factory in southern Guangdong province for New York-based rights group China Labor Watch.
Hua, 36, attempted to travel to Hong Kong last week but was stopped at the border. He was later questioned by police in Shenzhen, a city on the border with Hong Kong, and was released. He then traveled to Jiangxi province and disappeared, before his wife was notified by police.
In the age of Islamic literalism we should remember the Egyptian scholar who fought back
Listening to Abu Zeid’s words today, they might have been used to condemn Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s Isis pronouncements – or indeed the army of Saudi Arabian imams who preach the Salafist-Wahhabi cause so beloved of Isis
In the age of Isis, we should remember Nasr Abu Zeid. He was a hero of his time, who would, had he lived – now that the Salafist cult has been let loose in the Europe of his exile as well as the Egypt that was his home – have long ago been murdered. Before I telephoned him for the first time in Cairo, I wondered if he’d be still alive to talk to me by the time I reached his home.
Almost exactly 22 years ago, I rang the bell and it was his wife Ibtihal who opened the door in a tired way, weary beyond her 37 years, pointing to the sitting room where her husband was waiting to explain to me why they wouldn’t divorce each other. The price was already high. Islamists had called for his death. Others had accused Ibtihal of “fornication” because she refused to leave the husband she had been told to divorce by the Egyptian Appeals Court and was thus living out of wedlock.
What would Europe's 'fate' be without the US?
Without US support and its "nuclear umbrella," analysts believe Russia could swing the balance of power in the region despite a weaker military. Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron hold the keys to self-sufficiency.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says it's time for Europe to take its fate into its own hands, given a Trump Administration attitude toward European defense that's too tepid for the comfort of some NATO governments. Countries that are underspending may naturally be feeling overexposed, with the US threatening to "moderate" support for those not meeting the alliance mandate of 2 percent of GDP budgeted for defense. If US President Donald Trump made good on his threats, what kind of security could Europe provide itself?
Former European Defense Agency official Nick Witney believes there's never been a more pressing need - nor a better opportunity - for Europe to get serious about this. With Trump's threats coming from one direction and Russia's from the other, the election of France's new cool headed president, Emmanuel Macron, gives Merkel the best set of circumstances she's going to get for shoring up Europe's self-reliance.
Koike takes on Japan's old-boy network, but denies run for PM
By Linda Sieg and Ami Miyazaki
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike is challenging Japan's old-boy network in the capital, where she thrashed a ruling party rival to win her post and now aims to lead reform-minded candidates to victory in a city-wide July election.
A popular former TV announcer who speaks Arabic and English, Koike is the leader of a mega-metropolis with an economy bigger than Holland's and a budget on par with Sweden's - and her reformist image has some politicians betting she could become Japan's first female premier in a few years.
For now, the former defense minister says her sights are set firmly on a July 2 Tokyo metropolitan assembly poll, where she's targeting a majority for her fledgling "Tokyo Citizens First" party and its allies.
Koike, in an interview with Reuters, compared herself to French President Emmanuel Macron, whose election marked a meteoric rise and whose party now needs a majority in June parliamentary elections so he can carry out reforms.
How America's 'ground-zero' for modern slavery was cleaned up by workers' group
Alejandrina Carrera is covered from head to toe.
Long pants tucked into her shoes. Long sleeves tucked into her gloves. And layers of material covering her entire head and face, a protective shield against the brutal south-Florida sun.
Today, the oppressive heat is her only worry.
Yet that wasn't the case when Carrera first came to the United States from Mexico 20 years ago, a migrant farmworker in search of a better life. She was just 14 years old, scared, vulnerable, and alone.
"I was very young, I didn't have my father or mother, no one," she says.
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