Syria war: At least 70 killed in suspected chemical attack in Douma
At least 70 people have died in a suspected chemical attack in Douma, the last rebel-held town in Syria's Eastern Ghouta, rescuers and medics say.
Volunteer rescue force the White Helmets tweeted graphic images showing several bodies in basements. It said the deaths were likely to rise.
There has been no independent verification of the reports.
Syria's government has called the allegations of a chemical attack a "fabrication".
The US state department said reports suggested "a potentially high number of casualties", including families in shelters.
It said Russia - with its "unwavering support" for Syria's government - "ultimately bears responsibility" for the alleged attacks.
‘These are people with nothing to lose’. Inside Gaza
A Palestinian video journalist was among the nine people killed during the ‘Great March of Return’
Hashem Zakout should have been at his local hospital yesterday doing the voluntary work as a clerk that he hopes will lead to a paid full-time job. Instead the 24-year-old was a patient in the emergency room at another northern Gaza hospital, shot in the left knee after throwing “little stones” at Israeli troops across the border, east of the Jabaliya refugee camp where he lives.
Zakout was wounded on Friday when he was 10 metres from the border fence, hit by a sniper during the latest mass protests at the divide between Israel and Gaza. The “Great March of Return”, a series of protests intended to continue until 15 May, the 70th annual commemoration of “the Nakba” or catastrophe, when 700,000 Palestinian refugees were forced from their homes in the 1948 war, has captured his imagination.
Insisting he was “not afraid”, Zakout said he had been taking part in the protests for the idea of a “return to our lands” – the home in what is now Israel, from which his grandparents had to flee in 1948. But he also said he would not have joined Friday’s border demonstration if he had a full-time job.
Hybrid swarm of ‘mega-pests’ threatens crops worldwide, warn scientists
New strain could be significant biosecurity risk and has potential to go 'completely undetected'
A pair of major agricultural pests have combined to produce a “mega-pest” that could threaten crops around the world.
Losses from the original pest species, cotton bollworms and corn earworms, already amounts to billions of dollars worth of food.
But a hybrid of the two, shows signs of rapidly developing resistance to pesticides and it scientists fear it could cross international boundaries undetected, wiping out all the crops it comes across.
Poisoned DialogueSkripal Case Descends into a Propaganda War
In its rush to assign guilt to Moscow for the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter, the British government now finds itself on the defensive. Some German politicians have their doubts. By DER SPIEGEL Staff
A voice from someone still thought to be gravely ill could be heard on Russian television on Thursday. It allegedly belonged to Yulia Skripal, the daughter of the former spy Sergei Skripal, who was poisoned together with her father in the English town of Salisbury five weeks ago. She was apparently speaking on the phone from a British hospital with her Russian relatives.
"Everything's okay," said the voice. "Everything can be solved, everything can be healed." In reference to her father, the voice said: "He's resting now, he's sleeping. Everyone's health is okay. Nothing irreversible happened."
After dramatic standoff, Brazil's Lula surrenders to police
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was taken into police custody Saturday after a tense showdown with his own supporters.
Just hours earlier, da Silva told thousands of supporters that he would turn himself in to police, but also maintained his innocence and argued his corruption conviction was simply a way for enemies to make sure he doesn’t run and possibly win re-election in October in Brazil.
When he first tried to leave the metal workers union headquarters where he was holed up to turn himself in, dozens of supporters blocked a gate where a car carrying da Silva was trying to exit.
Turkish voices stifled by new law as Ankara launches crackdown
The Erdogan regime has shut down a raft of newspapers and restricted online media, with many of the survivors now owned by government-linked firms
For two years running, the international Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has declared it the “worst country in the world” for jailing news gatherers.
In 2017, it sank to 155th out of 180 countries on the Reporters Without Frontiers (RSF) press freedom index.
Now, a new law on digital media looks set to push the country’s ranking down even further, while a recent corporate acquisition has left it with around 90% of its mainstream media owned by government-linked companies.
The country in question is Turkey, which until recently had a thriving media sector – even if the press has always been partly restricted. The current environment, however – and the speed with which it has been created – have left many fearing the worst for the country’s future.
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