Afghanistan conflict: Civilian deaths hit record high, says UN
The number of civilians killed in the long-running war in Afghanistan reached a record high in the first six months of this year, the UN says.
Some 1,692 fatalities were recorded, with militant attacks and suicide bombs said to be the leading causes of death.
The figures for the conflict, which began in 2001, are the highest since the UN started keeping records in 2009.
Recent attacks claimed by Taliban and Islamic State group militants have killed scores across the country.
'This massacre must stop': Nicaraguan student rebels face militia assault
Witnesses describe terrifying attack on occupied university where activists are protesting president Daniel OrtegaTom Phillips Latin America correspondent
Pro-government militias have launched what witnesses described as a terrifying all-night assault on a university campus at the heart of attempts to unseat Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua’s embattled president.
Hundreds of student rebels have been occupying the Managua campus of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (Unan) since early May as part of a intensifying nationwide revolt against the former revolutionary hero that has now claimed more than 300 lives.
But on Friday, after renewed anti-Ortega protests across the country, police and paramilitary troops moved in on the improvised barricades that students have erected around their tree-lined university.Thai cave rescue: The unbelievable operation that saved a football team and their coach
‘The whole world was watching, so we had to succeed,’ said Kaew, a Thai navy Seal who shook his head in amazement at how each of the rescues worked. ‘I don’t think we had any other choice’
Improbably enough, most of the escapes went flawlessly.
But on trip No 11, to save one of the last football teammates stuck for 18 days deep inside the cave, something went dangerously wrong.
Rescuers inside an underground chamber felt a tug on the rope – the sign that one of the 12 boys and their coach would soon emerge from the flooded tunnels.
“Fish on,” the rescuers signalled, recalled Major Charles Hodges of the US Air Force, mission commander for the US team on site.Criticism of Israel or Blatant Anti-Semitism?BDS Movement Sets Sights on German Cultural Festivals
The Middle East conflict has arrived in Germany in the form of boycotts against German cultural festivals. The development raises the question of where the line is crossed between criticizing Israel as a state and anti-Semitism.
By Tobias Becker, Andreas Borcholte, Georg Diez and Jurek Skrobala
The Young Fathers sound a bit like gospel singers who have long been locked up in a church -- and have now been released into freedom, into a world of unlimited possibilities, but also one filled with many truths and conflicts. They sing about identity and power, violence and war, love and sex. And often about God and the devil.
It is the music of doubtful young men, one white and two black, a Scottish pop group in the digital postmodern era. Critics have dubbed them "the most interesting newish band in the English-speaking world," and Stefanie Carp, the new artistic director of the Ruhrtriennale, an annual music and cultural festival in Germany's Ruhr region, was proud when she succeeded in booking the Young Fathers for a concert. In a cheerful announcement, organizers of the festival, which begins in August, described the group's music as "genre-defying."
Central African Republic: The way of the warlord
In the war-torn Central African Republic, former rebels who mounted a coup in 2013 are now dreaming of independence. FRANCE 24’s reporters James André and Anthony Fouchard went to meet one of the most powerful armed groups in the country, in the capital of their parallel state in the north.
Since gaining independence from France in 1960, the Central African Republic has never truly experienced peace. In March 2013, a coalition of rebel groups called the Seleka seized power in country’s fifth coup d'état. Leaders on all sides exploited religious tensions for political ends and the country descended into violence. The Seleka, led by Michel Djotodia, was forced to give up power after nine months, completely unable to restore security. Under UN auspices, France deployed more than 2,000 soldiers to restore a fragile peace and avoid what it called a “genocide".
The hacked emails at the center of Mueller’s Russia investigation, explained
The leaks that plagued the DNC, John Podesta, and others are crucial to the Russian interference probe.
By
Update: On Friday, Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officials who he alleges are involved in these hackings and leaks. You can read about the new breaking indictment at this link. Our original explainer on the hackings, written before the new indictment, is below.
Original post: There’s one positively enormous shoe that still hasn’t dropped in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 campaign: an indictment about all those hacked emails.
The hacking and release of leading political figures’ emails is the most visible election intervention attributed to Russia’s government. And it’s long been one of the leading, and perhaps the leading, possibility about just what “collusion” between Donald Trump’s team and the Russians might have involved.
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