Iran's hardliners say Trump has done them 'great favors'
Updated 0516 GMT (1316 HKT) October 16, 2017
Tehran is a city that wears its political colors on its sleeve. The sprawling Iranian capital nestles between barren mountain ranges, its streets packed with high rises, leafy parks and markets.
A major boulevard slices through the metropolis, from the working class south to the more affluent north; a journey along this road highlights the many political views of its population.
Vicious infighting has raged here since Iranian President Hassan Rouhani signed a landmark nuclear agreement with the West; moderates rally around Rouhani, calling for more political freedom, while hardliners and clerics lament the country's "softer" international stance.
Iraqi forces clash with Kurds in operation to 'impose security' on Kirkuk
Forces started moving towards oilfields and airbase amid rising tensions after Kurdish vote for independence
Iraqi forces have reportedly advanced on Kirkuk’s oilfields and an airbase after the prime minister, Haidar al-Abadi, ordered his army to “impose security” on the Kurdish city after a recent vote for independence.
Kurdish and Iraqi officials both reported that forces began moving at midnight on Sunday, with state TV reporting that “vast areas” of the region had been seized, a claim disputed by the Kurds.
Military sources on both sides reported exchanges of Katyusha rocket fire to the south of the provincial capital. Multiple Kurdish peshmerga fighters were injured in the clashes, a local security source told Agence France-Presse.
In Algeria, sub-Saharan migrants are scapegoats for politicians
Abderrahmane Semmar
Since September, Algerian authorities have been arresting large numbers of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Numerous videos have emerged on social media showing how, after being arrested, the migrants are then transferred to detention camps in Algiers or brought to the southern town of Tamanrasset, where some are then deported to Niger. For our Observers, these new measures are a natural progression from the openly xenophobic declarations made by the Algerian government."They are hunting down everyone, even those who have a passport, even those who have a visa,” says one of the people who was arrested by the Algerian police in a video that has been circulating online since October 5.
The man, who himself is from sub-Saharan Africa, claims that Algerian security forces are arresting “everyone with black skin” in the Algerian capital and moving them to Camp Zéralda [Editor’s note: Some people did escape this wave of arrests], a resort located to the west of the capital, Algiers. Camp Zéralda is only open to tourists during the summer months and this isn’t the first time it has been converted into a detention centre. After Algerian authorities carried out a series of raids in December 2016, migrants en route for deportation were brought there. It’s estimated that around a thousand undocumented migrants were deported in what activists denounced as “illegal collective deportations.”
Death of IS leaders boosts battle to retake besieged Philippine city
The top leaders of Islamic State-aligned militants who besieged the southern Philippine city of Marawi have been killed during a battle to rescue hostages.
Philippine army commanders are now confident they will be able to quickly retake the city after the killing of Isnilon Hapilon, Islamic State's designated leader in south-east Asia who is on America's list of most wanted terrorists with a US$5 million bounty on his head.
Also killed was Omar Maute, a Middle East-educated extremist who described himself on Facebook as a "walking time-bomb".
Maute had pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
THE DRUG INDUSTRY’S TRIUMPH OVER THE DEA
Amid a targeted lobbying effort, Congress weakened the DEA’s ability to go after drug distributors, even as opioid-related deaths continue to rise, a Washington Post and ‘60 Minutes’ investigation finds.By Scott Higham and Lenny Bernstein
In April 2016, at the height of the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history, Congress effectively stripped the Drug Enforcement Administration of its most potent weapon against large drug companies suspected of spilling prescription narcotics onto the nation’s streets.
By then, the opioid war had claimed 200,000 lives, more than three times the number of U.S. military deaths in the Vietnam War. Overdose deaths continue to rise. There is no end in sight.
A handful of members of Congress, allied with the nation’s major drug distributors, prevailed upon the DEA and the Justice Department to agree to a more industry-friendly law, undermining efforts to stanch the flow of pain pills, according to an investigation by The Washington Post and “60 Minutes.” The DEA had opposed the effort for years.
Can we teach robots ethics?
We are not used to the idea of machines making ethical decisions, but the day when they will routinely do this - by themselves - is fast approaching. So how, asks the BBC's David Edmonds, will we teach them to do the right thing?
The car arrives at your home bang on schedule at 8am to take you to work. You climb into the back seat and remove your electronic reading device from your briefcase to scan the news. There has never been trouble on the journey before: there's usually little congestion. But today something unusual and terrible occurs: two children, wrestling playfully on a grassy bank, roll on to the road in front of you. There's no time to brake. But if the car skidded to the left it would hit an oncoming motorbike.
Neither outcome is good, but which is least bad?
The year is 2027, and there's something else you should know. The car has no driver.
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