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BEIRUT The Syrian government on Friday said it was ready to resume dialogue with the Syrian opposition, but without external intervention or preconditions, a statement carried by state news agency SANA said, citing a foreign ministry source. The statement said Syria was responding to comments by United Nations Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura on Thursday that it was time to look again at political discussions, and said […]

By Luiza Ilie | BUCHAREST BUCHAREST When Romania’s leftist government collapsed a year ago amid outrage over a deadly nightclub fire, many people spied an opportunity for sweeping change in a country plagued by corruption and inept public services. But after the upswelling of public anger over the deaths of 64 people in the Club Colectiv, which lacked emergency exits and fire safety permits, the clamour for […]

What are Australia’s policy options for responding to the internet threats of 2022? This question was explored in the 360° Cyber Game conducted jointly by RAND Corporation and the National Security College (NSC) at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra on Thursday. RAND has conducted two of these games before, in Washington DC and in Silicon Valley, and has written up the methodology and results in […]

GENEVA Hundreds of men from eastern Aleppo have gone missing after leaving rebel-held areas, the United Nations’ human rights office said on Friday, voicing deep concern over their fate at the hands of government forces. U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing the office had heard “worrying allegations that hundreds of men have gone missing after crossing into government-controlled areas” of Aleppo. “Given the […]

Relegated to the backbench  of the UK parliament, George Osborne has a great deal more time on his hands after the very public failed Brexit ‘Remain’ campaign. The former British chancellor is using the downtime to investigate why a wave of populist nationalism is currently sweeping across the world – and how it managed to bruise his political career as well as that of former prime minister […]

UNITED NATIONS The United Nations urged Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday to visit the country’s divided northwest to reassure civilians they will be protected amid accusations that soldiers have raped Rohingya Muslim women, burnt houses and killed civilians. Myanmar’s military and government have rejected the allegations. Soldiers have poured into the area along Myanmar’s frontier with Bangladesh, responding to coordinated attacks on three border […]

Two days after the Mayor of Dallas, Mike Rawlings, filed a lawsuit against the Dallas Police and Fire Pension system to block withdrawals, which he referred to as a “run on the bank” of an “insolvent” pension system in “financial crisis, the Pension’s board has finally taken steps to halt further withdrawals.  Of course, this delayed action has come only after $500 million in deposits have been […]

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By Jack Kim and Cynthia Kim | SEOUL SEOUL South Korean President Park Geun-hye, engulfed in an influence-peddling scandal, faces a historic impeachment vote in parliament on Friday that could see her become the country’s first democratically elected leader to be ousted from office. Parliament is expected to vote in favour of impeachment, with support from some members of Park’s conservative Saenuri Party, but the Constitutional Court […]

Investors have valued Athene at about $7.4bn in a stock market launch of the US pensions provider, according to people familiar with the matter. Selling shareholders led by private equity house Apollo Global Management are set to raise $1.08bn as bankers handling the float prepare to price shares in the company at $40 apiece, the people said. That is the middle of a range of between $38 […]

By Laila Bassam and John Davison | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT The Syrian army’s advance in Aleppo slowed on Thursday but a victory was still firmly in sight after President Bashar al-Assad vowed that retaking the city would change the course of the six-year-old war. Russia’s RIA news agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying the Syrian army, which has captured territory including Aleppo’s historic […]

WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone on Thursday about the situation in Aleppo and agreed to keep discussing a ceasefire to allow aid delivery and the departure of anyone who wants to leave the embattled city, the State Department said. The phone call was in addition to a brief meeting the two men had on Thursday on […]

By Steve Scherer and Francesca Piscioneri | ROME ROME Italy’s president began talks with political leaders on Thursday to seek a way out of the political crisis caused by the resignation of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Sergio Mattarella, a 75-year-old former constitutional court judge, must decide if someone can lead Italy to elections scheduled for 2018, or whether an interim government should serve until a snap vote […]

HAMBURG U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday left a meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe to head to Paris for further meetings on Syria on Saturday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters. Kerry told reporters after a second bilateral meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Hamburg that he was “hopeful” about reaching an accord with Moscow that would […]

ANKARA Turkey is conducting intense talks with Russia for a ceasefire in Syria’s Aleppo and to allow humanitarian aid into the war-ravaged city, President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman said on Thursday. Ibrahim Kalin also told a news conference in Ankara that Syrian government forces were carrying out crimes against humanity and war crimes in the city. (Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz and Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by David Dolan; Editing […]

BAGHDAD Iraq’s parliament speaker called on Thursday for a government inquiry into air strikes on a western border town which killed around 60 people, mostly civilians. Hospital sources and local parliamentarians said three air strikes killed dozens of civilians, including 12 women and 19 children on Wednesday in a market district of the Islamic State-held town of Qaim, close to the border with Syria. A spokesman for […]

Chicago politicians will have one more reason to look over their shoulders in 2017. The city’s history of political corruption and high crime rates have long made it fertile territory for investigative reporting. Next year, investigative nonprofit ProPublica plans to capitalize on that opportunity by colonizing the city with its first regional expansion. ProPublica plans to open the expansion in 2017 and is recruiting an experienced, Chicago-based […]

By Ju-min Park and Jack Kim | SEOUL SEOUL South Korea’s parliament introduced a bill on Thursday to impeach President Park Geun-hye, setting the stage for a historic vote to oust the embattled leader engulfed in an influence-peddling scandal. Parliament is expected to vote on Friday in favour of impeachment, although the Constitutional Court must decide whether to uphold the motion, a process that could take up […]

MOSCOW Russia and the United States are close to reaching an understanding on Syria’s Aleppo, the Interfax news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Thursday. “In the past several days an intensive document exchange on the situation in Aleppo has taken place,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying. “We are close to reaching an understanding, but I want to warn against high expectations,” […]

By Jack Kim and Ju-min Park | SEOUL SEOUL If South Korean President Park Geun-hye is impeached in parliament on Friday, she faces an uphill court battle to overturn the motion, experts say, even though the judges were all appointed by her and her conservative predecessor. An impeachment vote appears likely, and the nine-judge Constitutional Court would have up to six months to uphold or overturn it. […]

By Anthony Boadle | BRASILIA BRASILIA Brazil’s Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned an injunction that ordered the indicted head of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, to step down, voting to allow him to continue in the post but not in the presidential line of succession. The 6-3 ruling defuses a clash between the top court and the Senate that threatened to derail spending cuts at the centre of […]

By Hamid Shalizi and Josh Smith | KABUL KABUL Afghan and American officials are increasingly worried that any deepening of ties between Russia and Taliban militants fighting to topple the government in Kabul could complicate an already precarious security situation. Russian officials have denied they provide aid to the insurgents, who are contesting large swathes of territory and inflicting heavy casualties, and say their limited contacts are […]

News stories are released on weekdays. 2 hours ago Vatican confirms ban on homosexual candidates for priesthood The Vatican has confirmed that homosexual men should not be ordained to the priesthood. In a new instruction for the training of seminarians, entitled The Gift of the Priestly Vocation, the Congregation for the Clergy says that the Church “cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those […]

 This article by David Haggith was published first on The Great Recession Blog:    I risked losing my fellow anti-establishment readers in September by suggesting Trump may be an establishment Trojan horse. After seeing Trump choose Pence as VP and a Goldman Sachs exec as campaign finance manager, I was concerned the establishment knew a citizen’s revolt was brewing and made sure that even the road to revolt led back to […]

By Lisa Barrington and Tom Perry | BEIRUT BEIRUT Syrian rebels in besieged eastern Aleppo called on Wednesday for an immediate five-day ceasefire and the evacuation of civilians and wounded, but gave no indication they were ready to withdraw as demanded by Damascus and Moscow. The Syrian army and allied forces have made rapid gains against insurgents in the past two weeks and look closer than ever […]

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