From gas blast to carnage in Las Ramblas: the attacks that shook Spain
A night of terrorism in Catalonia that left 19 people dead - including five terrorists - and more than 130 injured began with a botched attempt to construct a gas bomb
When an explosion ripped through a house in the small southern Catalonian town of Alcanar in the early hours of Thursday, police and firefighters initially assumed there was an innocent explanation.
All that remained of the building when they arrived was a heap of smouldering rubble. Several neighbouring buildings had also been badly damaged by the blast, which could be heard from miles away.
Picking carefully through the debris they found the body of a woman, a severely injured man and the remains of around 20 butane and propane gas bottles.
The house, which had been repossessed by a bank years ago, was being squatted by a group of men who neighbours assumed were Moroccan and who came and went on powerful Kawasaki motorbikes.
Trump's claim that a general dipped bullets in pigs' blood is fake news – but the US massacre of Moro Muslims isn't
Pershing had left the islands and the Philippine-US war was officially over when the Americans slaughtered the Moro Muslims in their hundreds – men, women and children. With Trump-like enthusiasm, Republican President Theodore Roosevelt congratulated the US commanders on their 'brilliant feat of arms'
I don’t know what the people of Barcelona think about Trump’s demented and repulsive tale of bullets and pig’s blood – but I know what Mark Twain would have said. He was the finest American political writer of his time – perhaps of all time – and he wrote with bitterness, sarcasm and disgust about the US military’s war crimes in the Philippines in 1906. No doubt Trump would have approved of them.
As so often, there’s no proof – and thus no truth – to the story that General Pershing ever told his soldiers to execute Filipino fighters with bullets dipped in pigs’ blood. Besides, Pershing had left the islands and the Philippine-US war was officially over when the Americans slaughtered the Moro Muslims in their hundreds – men, women and children – in what became known as the Battle of Bud Dajo. With Trump-like enthusiasm, Republican President Theodore Roosevelt congratulated the US commanders on their “brilliant feat of arms”.
Lebanese, Syrian armies begin offensive to flush out jihadists
The Lebanese army launched an offensive against an Islamic State enclave on the northeast border with Syria, a Lebanese security source said on Saturday, as Hezbollah and the Syrian army announced an assault from the Syrian side of the border.
The Lebanese army was targeting Islamic State positions near the town of Ras Baalbek with rockets, artillery and helicopters,the source said. The area is the last part of the Lebanese-Syrian frontier under insurgent control. "We started advancing at 5 a.m. (0200 GMT)," the Lebanese source said.
The operation by the Syrian army and Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Lebanese group, was targeting Islamic State militants in the western Qalamoun region of Syria, the
Hezbollah-run al-Manar television station reported, an area across the frontier from Ras Baalbek.
Hezbollah-run al-Manar television station reported, an area across the frontier from Ras Baalbek.
Unmasking the leftist Antifa movement: Activists seek peace through violence
By Sara Ganim and Chris Welch, CNN
On the morning of Donald Trump's inauguration, Keval Bhatt hunted through a closet in his parents' Virginia home for the darkest clothes he could find.
The 19-year-old didn't own much in black, the color he knew his fellow protesters would wear head to toe on the streets of Washington that day.
As Bhatt drove into the city for his first-ever protest, he hesitated.
"I thought, there's a very good chance that I might get arrested, that my whole life could be radically altered in a negative way if I kept driving, and I was really close to turning around," Bhatt told CNN. "But I think the rationale is that even if it did negatively affect my life, I had still contributed to this movement that was necessary. I was still making an effort to make other people's lives better, even if it made my life worse, and once I realized that, I had no regrets."
Using radio to confront climate change in Peru
Radio hosts us indigenous language radio broadcasts in Peruvian Amazon to raise awareness and rally isolated villages.
by
Neil Giardino
Pahoyan, Peru - In June, indigenous communities in the Central Peruvian Amazon marched in the sweltering jungle city of Pucallpa to condemn widespread deforestation in their communities and to commemorate Amazonian victims of environmental conflict. In the remote village of Pahoyan, Antonio Rojas Shuna got word of the protest quickly and in his native language, but not on TV or the internet.
Radio is the bridge between the city and indigenous communities.
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"Our Shipibo brothers inform us of what's going on with our territory and the environment," said Rojas Shuna, 53, as he repaired the foundation of his flood-damaged home.
In the age of instant access to digital information, radio is redefining its purpose in isolated villages in the Peruvian Amazon, where Spanish is a second language and signs of climate change are everywhere.
Railways struggling to meet fiscal 2020 deadline for platform door installations
(Mainichi Japan)A working group comprising the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) and railway operators decided in December 2016 that platform doors should be installed at all train stations that have at least 100,000 passengers per day by fiscal 2020 following the deaths of those with visual impairments. However, it seems that this deadline may not be met.
The decision was sparked by the August 2016 death of Naoto Shinada, a visually impaired man who fell onto the tracks of the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line and was fatally hit by a train. According to the MLIT, of the 260 train stations marked for the installation of platform doors, construction was completed at only 84 stations as of the end of fiscal 2016.
A further 64 stations remain to be completed by fiscal 2020. With problems such as the positioning of doors on different types of trains and other obstacles, it appears unlikely that installation work at 61 other stations will be completed even by fiscal 2021 or later.
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