World Review - World Focus

Inside the street battles for Mosul

Thu, 02 Mar 2017 14:14:00 +0000

ISIL fighters have launched several fierce counterattacks against Iraqi forces on the eastern outskirts of Mosul city, underscoring the intense battle ahead as government troops and their allies push into densely populated neighbourhoods. An ISIL suicide car bomber targeted Iraqi troops in the city's eastern Qadisiya neighbourhood early on Saturday, setting off heavy fighting that involved mortar rounds, gunfire, and rocket-propelled grenades. Iraqi officers told the AFP news agency that fighting was also under way in the adjoining Arbajiya area.

Dramatic Images Show Oroville Dam Crisis

Thu, 02 Mar 2017 14:11:00 +0000

In February 2017, Oroville Dam's main and emergency spillways were significantly damaged, prompting the evacuation of more than 180,000 people living downstream along the Feather River and the relocation of a fish hatchery. Damage to the dam's main spillway appeared on February 7, resulting in its closure as management tried to assess the extent of damage and ways to mitigate further damage. As storms dumped significant precipitation on the area, the lake level rose until it flowed over a concrete weir at the top of the dam's emergency spillway, despite the reopening of the damaged main spillway. As water flowed uncontrolled over the weir, headward erosion of the emergency spillway threatened to undermine and collapse the concrete weir, which could have sent a 30-foot (9 m) wall of water into the Feather River below and flooded communities downstream. A collapse never occurred, but the main spillway suffered significant damage and the bare slope of the emergency spillway was significantly eroded.

Somalia declares 'national disaster' over drought

Mon, 20 Feb 2017 13:55:00 +0000

Somalia's new leader has declared a national disaster for a prolonged drought that has forced about half of the country's population to seek urgent food assistance and sparked fears of a potential famine. The announcement on Tuesday by President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed's office came a day after the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that Somalia was at risk of its third famine in 25 years - the last one in 2011 killed some 260,000 people. "The president has appealed to the international community to urgently respond to the calamity in order to help families and individuals to recover from the effects of the drought disaster to avoid humanitarian tragedy," read a statement from the presidency.

14 Years of US-Led Death and Destruction in Afghanistan

Mon, 20 Feb 2017 13:50:00 +0000

About 104,000 people have been killed in the Afghanistan war since 2001. More than 31,000 of those killed have been civilians. An additional 41,000 civilians have been injured since 2001.

'Boom Boom' Afridi retires

Mon, 20 Feb 2017 13:40:00 +0000

Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi has announced his retirement from international cricket. The 36-year-old, nicknamed 'Boom Boom', had already quit Test cricket in 2010 and retired from one-day internationals in 2015 while he resigned the captaincy of Pakistan's Twenty20 side last year.

He had considered continuing as a player in the shortest format of the game but announced on Sunday that he was calling a halt to an illustrious and occasionally controversial 21-year international career. "I have said goodbye to international cricket," said Afridi after smashing a 28-ball 54 in a Pakistan Super League match for Peshawar Zalmi in Sharjah. "I am playing for my fans and will continue to play this league for another two years but it's goodbye from international cricket. "Now my foundation is important for me. I have played with seriousness and in a professional way for my country."

Famine fears rise as Somalia suffers worst drought in decades

Mon, 20 Feb 2017 13:35:00 +0000

The UN announcement of famine in Somalia is both a wake-up call to the scale of this disaster, and a wake-up call to the solutions needed to limit death-from-hunger now and in the future. So, what is famine and how can we prevent it?

Famine is the “triple failure” of (1) food production, (2) people’s ability to access food and, finally and most crucially (3) in the political response by governments and international donors. Crop failure and poverty leave people vulnerable to starvation – but famine only occurs with political failure. In Somalia years of internal violence and conflict have been highly significant in creating the conditions for famine.

Historic Hira Cave a big draw with the faithful

Thu, 09 Feb 2017 13:32:00 +0000

Just outside the holy city of Makkah lies one of Islam's most important historical sites — a cave where Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) spent time in seclusion, contemplation and self-reflection. It was here, inside Hira Cave located near the top of a steep hill called Jabal Nour (Mountain of Light), where Allah revealed to the Prophet (pbuh) the first verses of the Qur'an through the angel Jebril. Today, the site is among few still preserved from the Prophet's time — with help from Pakistani workers in the Kingdom. Each year, Muslims deepen their prayers and supplication in the final 10 nights of Ramadan, during which time some 1,400 years ago the miraculous revelation took place on Jabal Nour.

The hill is not part of the annual Haj pilgrimage, but its location so close to the holy city of Makkah and its significance as a place of enlightenment draws thousands of pilgrims here every year. But present-day visitors encounter a markedly different summit from the one the Prophet (pbuh) experienced. For starters, there are now more than 1,000 steps that guide pilgrims up the rocky hill to the secluded cave. Along the way, entrepreneurial Pakistanis sell bottled water, snacks and tea to pilgrims exhausted by the climb.

Unlike the quiet and seemingly endless stretch of nature the Prophet (pbuh) would have seen from the cave, massive high-rises housing five-star hotels jut into the distant skyline just steps away from the cube-shaped Kaaba. The Pakistani workers and beggars who live off the mountain's draw say they play a key role in helping to preserve it. Nizam Din, from the Pakistani city of Quetta, spends his days begging and fixing broken cement steps along the path up Jabal Nour. Jamal Khan, from Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and main port, also earns a living by serving the pilgrims who make their way to the cave.

"Our lives here are better because we do not have jobs back home," he said. "What is a better place to be than here where the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) received his first revelation from Allah?" Makkah's mayor, Osama Al-Bar, says the municipality ensures the area's cleanliness. There are also plans, he said, for the development of a visitors' center near the hill to explain to people its significance and history. He said the area is watched over by officials of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, who ensure visitors do not turn it into a place of worship that venerates anything other than Allah.

Russia opposition leader Alexei Navalny under house arrest

Thu, 09 Feb 2017 13:27:00 +0000

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been placed under house arrest and forbidden from using the internet or receiving visitors. The house arrest is for two months, but can be extended. Investigators accused him of violating the terms of a suspended sentence from an earlier case. Navalny, a leading opposition figure and anti-corruption campaigner, has dismissed the charges against him as ridiculous and politically motivated. He was given a five-year suspended sentence for the theft of 16m roubles ($450,000; £270,000) from a timber company in 2009. Officials said he had repeatedly travelled outside Moscow, in violation of the sentence. He was also charged with resisting arrest at a rally on Monday evening, at which hundreds of other activists were also picked up by police.

Dakota Access Pipeline protests

Thu, 09 Feb 2017 13:22:00 +0000

The Dakota Access Pipeline protests, also known by the hashtag #NoDAPL, are grassroots movements that began in early 2016 in reaction to the approved construction of Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access Pipeline in the northern United States. The pipeline was projected to run from the Bakken oil fields in western North Dakota to southern Illinois, crossing beneath the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, as well as under part of Lake Oahe near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Many in the Standing Rock tribe consider the pipeline and its intended crossing of the Missouri River to constitute a threat to the region's clean water and to ancient burial grounds. In April, Standing Rock Sioux elder LaDonna Brave Bull Allard established a camp as a center for cultural preservation and spiritual resistance to the pipeline; over the summer the camp grew to thousands of people.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had conducted a limited review of the route and found no significant impact, but in March and April 2016 the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Interior, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation asked the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a formal Environmental Impact Assessment and issue an Environmental Impact Statement. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe filed suit against the Corps of Engineers in July, but the motion was denied in September 2016.

The protests have drawn international attention and have been said to be "reshaping the national conversation for any environmental project that would cross the Native American land." In September 2016 construction workers bulldozed a section of land the tribe had identified as sacred ground and when protesters entered the area security workers used attack dogs which bit at least six of the protesters and one horse. The incident was filmed and viewed by several million people on YouTube and other social media. In late October, armed soldiers and police with riot gear and military equipment cleared an encampment that was directly in the proposed pipeline's path.

In late November 2016, many new participants joined the protest; fluctuating numbers of protesters remained in the thousands. Police use of water cannons on protesters in freezing weather drew significant media attention. On December 4, under President Barack Obama's administration the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied an easement for construction of the pipeline under the Missouri River. An environmental impact assessment was to be conducted by the Army Corps, but many protesters continued camping on the site, not considering the matter closed.[5][6][7] On January 24, 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to advance the construction of the pipeline under "terms and conditions to be negotiated". The order would expedite the environmental review that Trump described as an "incredibly cumbersome, long, horrible permitting process.

Heavy snowfall in Chitral

Wed, 08 Feb 2017 13:56:00 +0000