Trump and Putin 'agree to defeat IS in Syria'
US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have agreed to defeat so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syria, the Kremlin says.
It said a statement was prepared by experts after they met briefly on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Vietnam on Saturday.
There has been no official confirmation from the US about the statement so far.
The Kremlin say they also agreed there was no military solution to the conflict in Syria.
A meeting between President Trump and Vladimir Putin was widely expected at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit, but few details have emerged.
China faces historic corruption battle, new graft buster says
Zhao Leji says Communist party faces being erased by history if it does not tackle corruption
China must win its battle against corruption or face being erased by history, its new top graft buster said in an editorial on Saturday, underscoring the ruling Communist party’s focus on eliminating corrupt behaviour.
Zhao Leji, appointed to the new seven-member politburo standing committee last month and tasked to lead president Xi Jinping’s signature war on corruption, wrote in the state-run People’s Daily that failure would lead to the party’s downfall.
“If our control of the party is not strong and party governance is not strict, then the party won’t be able to avoid being erased by history and the historic task the party carries will not be able to be fulfilled,” Zhao wrote.
The resignation of Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, has not gone as smoothly as the Saudis wanted
To have Saudi officials now trying to dictate the make-up of another Lebanese government suggests that they want to take on the role played out for decades by pre-civil war Syria
The Saudis may be holding the Lebanese Prime Minister hostage but their apparent plan to topple the Beirut government has gloriously backfired. Far from breaking up the cabinet and throwing Hezbollah’s ministers to the wolves, the Lebanese nation has suddenly woken up to what it’s like to be united – against the Saudis. The Lebanese government has announced that it does not accept the resignation statement which Saad Hariri was obliged to make in Riyadh, and overnight hashtags have appeared on several Beirut streets saying “kul na Saad” – “We are all Saad”. Even the Sunni Muslims of Lebanon are furious at their Sunni counterparts in Saudi Arabia.
President Macron of France was first off the mark by detouring into Riyadh on his way to Dubai to ask 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman what on earth he was doing. Almost the entire two-hour meeting was taken up with why and for what Hariri has been detained – or constrained, or kidnapped or held hostage or treated as an honoured guest of Saudi Arabia (take your pick). For the Lebanese government – and for many tens of thousands of Lebanese – the Saudi decision to present Hariri with a resignation letter to read on the Arabia television channel was a national insult.
US Marine drill instructor sentenced for abusing Muslim recruits
A military jury has sentenced a US Marine Corps drill instructor to 10 years in prison over his treatment of new recruits and abuse directed toward Muslims. One of the recruits killed himself during training.
Gunnery Sergeant Joseph Felix was found guilty of extreme hazing of over a dozen Muslim recruits, and a military jury sentenced him to 10 years in prison on Friday.
Felix, 34, was found guilty of targeting other recruits as well, ordering them to choke each other, punching them, kicking them, and walking over them with other drill instructors. He also ordered them to drink chocolate milk and then forced them to train until they vomited.
"He wasn't making Marines. He was breaking Marines," prosecutor Lt. Col. John Norman told the eight-member jury earlier this week.
A Haitian father makes a robot to teach his son to speak
Jean-Max Dumont
Using just a few recycled objects and his knack for programming, a man living in Port-au-Prince, Haiti made a robot that can have conversations with people. When making the robot, he had one little person in mind: his three-year-old son, who has had trouble learning language. The proud father says the robot is already improving his son’s communication skills.
Jean-Max Dumont, age 32, made a robot out of practically nothing: salvaged pieces from old electronics, PVC and a bluetooth speaker. He then used paper mâché to make a face for it.
He programmed the robot to respond to questions using the Google Now personal assistant’s sound database. Dumont estimates that it cost him about $52, equivalent to about 45 euros.
"Our child speaks much more now that he has this robot”
The modern gold rush that's destroying the Amazon
By Bill Weir, CNN
One autumn day in 2009, the price of gold topped $1,000 an ounce.
That nice, round number brought cheers on London trading floors and toasts in Manhattan bars, but it made a different noise in "Mother of God," Peru.
Madre de Dios is a pristine chunk of the Amazon about the size of South Carolina, where macaws and monkeys, jaguars and butterflies thrive. It is some of the healthiest rainforest left on Earth and here, that $1000 number brought the sound of chain saws, diesel pumps and dirt bikes.
No comments:
Post a Comment