MOSCOW (AP) – The latest news on developments in the Syrian conflict. All times local: 11:40 a.m. Turkey has welcomed the formation in Saudi Arabia of a 34-nation military coalition to fight terrorism. The kingdom announced the new “Islamic military alliance” just hours earlier, saying it will have a joint …
Read More »Yearly Archives: 2015
Doctors still working in Iraq face violence, tribal justice
BAGHDAD (AP) – For nearly three months, anesthesiologist Bashar Taha lived in fear of deadly retaliation. Taha, 38, was part of a team that performed plastic surgery on a female patient’s nose in a Baghdad hospital. The woman had surgery complications afterward and was sent to intensive care, where she …
Read More »China’s plainclothes officers a force against dissent
BEIJING (AP) – The tough guys wore smiley face stickers, but they weren’t there to spread good cheer. Scenes of pushing, shouting and shoving outside a Beijing courthouse this week were orchestrated by plainclothes security officers identified by a sticker familiar around the world – the yellow decal identified since …
Read More »Carter’s trip aims to strengthen fight against Islamic State
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey (AP) – Defense Secretary Ash Carter flew to Turkey Tuesday, saying he is looking for new ways the U.S.-led coalition can strengthen its fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. Carter said he will be asking his military commanders and other officials to come …
Read More »Siri vs. Cortana vs. ‘OK Google’: Who’s better, who’s best
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Cortana’s learning the neighborhood. Google’s digital assistant can’t tell a joke. And Siri apparently has a thing for the metric system. Those are just a few of the things I learned after staging a face-off between the three leading digital assistants. Apple’s Siri and “OK Google” …
Read More »Global supermarkets selling shrimp peeled by slaves
SAMUT SAKHON, Thailand (AP) – Every morning at 2 a.m., they heard a kick on the door and a threat: Get up or get beaten. For the next 16 hours, No. 31 and his wife stood in the factory that owned them with their aching hands in ice water. They …
Read More »Lawyer on trial in Beijing as police scuffle with protesters
BEIJING (AP) – Police scuffled with protesters and journalists at a Beijing courthouse Monday as a prominent rights lawyer stood trial on charges of provoking trouble and stirring ethnic hatred with online commentary critical of the ruling Communist Party. Chinese protesters and foreign rights groups said Pu Zhiqiang’s trial at …
Read More »French far right collapses in regional runoff elections
PARIS (AP) – Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front collapsed in French regional elections Sunday, failing to take a single region after dominating the first round of voting, pollsters projected. The conservatives surged against the governing Socialists, changing the political map of France. The failure of the National Front to …
Read More »Beijing: Glimpses of a courthouse scuffle
BEIJING (AP) – Security agents forcibly kept dozens of people away from the Beijing court where rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang stood trial Monday, and authorities roughed up at least five protesters before taking them away in vehicles. At least one foreign journalist also reported being slammed to the ground. The …
Read More »Winners and losers in the Paris climate pact
LE BOURGET, France (AP) – The climate deal adopted in suburban Paris was the culmination of four years of negotiations on how to get nearly all countries to jointly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are warming the planet. The talks were difficult and sometimes teetered on the …
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