Six In The Morning

Afghan conflict: US investigates Kunduz hospital bombing

 

BBC

President Barack Obama says the US has launched a “full investigation” into air strikes that killed 19 people at an MSF-run Afghan hospital on Saturday.

The US military says a strike targeting Taliban in the northern city of Kunduz may have caused “collateral damage”.

Offering his “deepest condolences”, Mr Obama said he expected a “full accounting of the facts” and would then make a definitive judgement.

At least 12 MSF staff members and seven patients were killed in the incident.

The UN called the strikes “inexcusable and possibly even criminal”, with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling for a thorough and impartial investigation.

Syria crisis: Let’s welcome Russia’s entry into this war

 In the second part of his series, our respected commentator says Vladimir Putin’s military intervention could hasten the war’s end

  PATRICK COCKBURN Saturday 3 October 2015 21:31 BST



Russia’s military intervention in Syria, although further internationalising the conflict, does however present opportunities, as well as complications. There are no simple solutions to this terrible war which has destroyed Syria. Out of a population of 22 million, four million Syrians are refugees abroad and seven million have been displaced inside the country.

I was recently in Kurdish-controlled north-east Syria, where the bomb-shattered ruins of Kobani look like pictures of Stalingrad after the battle. But equally significant is the fact that even in towns and villages from which Islamic State (Isis) has been driven, and where houses are largely undamaged, people are too terrified to return.

   VW Tsunami: Falsified Emissions Push Company to Limits

 Volkswagen is struggling to come to terms with the vast emissions scandal of its own making. Lawsuits, official inquiries, a potential ratings downgrade: The company is facing myriad risks. The ultimate price tag could be in the tens of billions.

 By Dietmar Hawranek, Christoph Pauly and Barbara Schmid

Tuesday saw the first piece of good news in quite some time for Volkswagen. The company’s board of directors was meeting, under the leadership of freshly installed CEO Matthias Müller, and developers were reporting on how they planned to equip 11 million vehicles with law-abiding emissions filtering systems.

That task is VW’s most pressing as it seeks to confront the vast emissions scandal of its own making. Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority has given Volkswagen a deadline of Oct. 7 for submitting plans as to how it proposes to solve its emissions problem.

In Burkina Faso, all eyes on how post-coup leaders handle the old guard

For those who want to bolster democracy, the arrest of Gen. Gilbert Diendere and disarmament of the presidential guard are key to untangling 27 years of former President Compaore’s regime.

   By Julia Steers, Contributor

OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO – Rene Kabore was serving food at a street-side cafe nearly two weeks ago when four members of Burkina Faso’s presidential guard burst in.

A coup attempt was getting under way in the capital, and the elite force, known as the RSP, was accusing him of building a barricade that blocked the street.

“They said to him, ‘Boy, we won’t kill you but we will make you suffer’,” says Jean Baptiste Djiguemde, the cafe owner, as Mr. Kabore protested his innocence.

 Israel bars Palestinians from Jerusalem Old City after attacks

 

 By Jean-Luc Renaudie

Jerusalem (AFP) – Israel took the rare and drastic step of barring Palestinians from Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday as tensions mounted following attacks that killed two Israelis and wounded a child.

The restrictions will be in place for two days, with only Israelis, tourists, residents of the area, business owners and students allowed, police said.

Worship at the sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound will be restricted to Old City residents and Arab Israelis, and limited to men aged 50 and above. There will be no age restrictions on women. They will be allowed to enter through one specific gate.

This chart proves that the United States has failed at protecting its citizens from guns

 

Updated by Dylan Matthews and Javier Zarracina

Everyone knows that gun deaths are way more common in the USthan in other developed countries. But the sheer scale of the discrepancy is hard to wrap your head around. The above chart illustrates the gap by showing how many lives would be saved, every year, if the US had the overall gun death rate of a peer country like the UK or Sweden, rather than the massive rate of gun homicides, suicides, and accidents we currently endure.

Reducing the US gun death rate to European levels would be very, very difficult. But gun researchers have found a strong correlation between the number of guns in a country and its rate of gun death, and Australia’s had some success in reducing gun deaths by confiscating and destroying guns. Of course, whether reforms that dramatic could ever pass in the US is another question entirely.