Death on the BosphorusHow an Apparent Saudi Hit Job Has Shaken the World
A gruesome crime has quickly turned into a crisis in international relations: Saudi agents acting on behalf of the crown prince are thought to have dismembered a prominent opposition journalist. The West is disgusted and U.S. President Donald Trump finds himself in a tight spot. By DER SPIEGEL Staff
Doctor Salah Muhammed Al-Tubaigy is an expert with extraordinary skills. His specialty is the rapid autopsy. In an interview with an Arab newspaper, he once boasted that he could dismantle a corpse into manageable parts in record time.
Tubaigy has had a storybook career within the Saudi state apparatus. After completing his medical studies, he opened one of the first research institutes for forensics in the Middle East. He now holds the rank of lieutenant colonel and heads up the forensic medicine department at the Interior Ministry. His task had been to bring research in Saudi Arabia up to Western standards. Now, he and 14 men have instead plunged the royal house into one of the most serious crises to face the country since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Trapped at the border: the forlorn Hondurans hoping to reach the US
Nina Lakhani in Mexico City and José Alejandro García in Tecún Umán, Guatemala
Dozens of Hondurans fleeing poverty and violence abandoned their efforts to cross through Mexico to the US amid mounting fear and exhaustion, more than a week into the gruelling journey north.
As many as 4,000 Hondurans, including pregnant women and children, remain trapped at the Guatemala-Mexico border awaiting permission to continue the long journey to the US.
The caravan of thousands started as 160 people nine days ago but its numbers have swelled as more have joined in an attempt to leave poverty and violence behind them. Now a minority have turned back, using transport organised by Guatemalan security forces.
'It's a dark time': Fears Hong Kong is losing its freedom as China tightens grip on city
A number of moves by China have led some to proclaim ‘the death of Hong Kong’ as Beijing points to economic growth
Peter YeungHong Kong
When Britain handed Hong Kong back to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, it was agreed that the city would enjoy “a high degree of autonomy” for at least the next 50 years. Chris Patten, its 28th and last British governor, shed a tear on that rainy day in June over the “extraordinary” former colony. The Prince of Wales, with more than a hint of drama, promised the city “we shall not forget you”.
For years the principle of “one country, two systems” has served Hong Kong well, as it continues to prosper as one of the world’s major financial and business centres, and retaining its own civil liberties, free press, judiciary and distinct culture – a stark contrast from the mainland’s authoritarian single-party communist rule.
Burundi: A day in the lives of child workers who collect scrap metal
Every day, in Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi, children scavenge to earn enough to to survive and many also have families to support. Our Observer, Ferdinand Bi Sengi, recently met a group of children who gather waste metal in the streets of Bujumbura, and sell it for recycling.
“They sell the scrap by the weight, for very little, given the strenuousness of the work”
Ferdinand Bi Sengi is a Burundian journalist.
Two weeks ago, when I was out in the street, my eyes were drawn to a group of children who were going through a pile of rubbish where they were gathering bits of metal in bags. So I decided to follow them for a few hours and take photos
The Kavanaugh Hearings Just Won't Leave Me Alone
TomDispatch,HuffPost
By Belle Chesler
It’s been three weeks since Dr. Christine Blasey Ford gave her testimony before the nation and I’m still struggling to move on. As talk turns toward the impending midterms, I find myself mentally pushing back against the relentlessness of the news cycle as it plows on, casting a spell of cultural amnesia in its wake. I’m still mired in the past, shaken by the spectacle of the Kavanaugh hearings, and pulled across the decades into the darkest crevasses of my memories.
In October 1991, I sat perched on a stool in Mr. Bundeson’s seventh grade woodshop class listening with fascination as Anita Hill testified about her experience of sexual harassment by then Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. To a seventh grader, the details, both surprisingly specific and appealingly lurid, were especially intriguing. What 13-year-old could have resisted the simultaneously bizarre and gross testimony regarding a pubic hair placed on a can of Coke? We were riveted. Who could make something like that up? Over the course of the hearing, our teachers rolled out TVs on carts and let the proceedings play during our classes. It felt like we were sharing a significant national moment and watching together meant we were all a part of history being made.
President Trump to pull US from Russia missile treaty
The US will withdraw from a landmark nuclear weapons treaty with Russia, President Donald Trump has confirmed.
Speaking to reporters, Mr Trump said Russia had "violated" the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty.
The deal banned ground-launched medium-range missiles, with a range of between 500 and 5,500km (310-3,400 miles).
The US would not let Russia "go out and do weapons [while] we're not allowed to", Mr Trump said.
"I don't know why President [Barack] Obama didn't negotiate or pull out," the president said after a campaign rally in Nevada. "They've been violating it for many years."
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