Greater Middle East
Advance for autocracy in Turkey
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's referendum granting himself sweeping powers took place in an atmosphere of terror, with opposition leaders silenced and detained.
Syria
Syria: ‘population transfer’ or sectarian cleansing?
Western media refer to “evacuation” and “population transfer” of besieged Syrian towns, euphemisms that mask the sectarian and genocidal element of the regime strategy.
North America
Michigan doctor charged with FGM
A Michigan physician was charged in federal cour for performing female genital mutilation on girls as young as six—a practice labelled a form of torture by the United Nations.
North America
Hunger strike at Tacoma ICE detention center
At least 750 female detainees have joined in a hunger strike to protest harsh conditions at ICE's privately contracted 1,500-bed Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Wash.
Afghanistan
US uses largest conventional bomb in Afghanistan
The US dropped its most powerful non-nuclear weapon, the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, on an area of eastern Afghanistan said to be controlled by ISIS militants.
Syria
Spain: court begins hearings on Syria war crimes
Hearings began in Spain on potential war crimes committed by Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria, in a case brought by a Spanish national whose brother was tortured to death.
The Caucasus
Chechnya: concentration camps for gays?
Alarming reports are emerging that Chechyna has opened “the first concentration camp for homosexuals since Hitler,” following a “gay purge” in the southern Russian republic. (Photo: Human Rights Campaign via Twitter)
The Caucasus
Alania re-emerges from history, Georgia pist
The vote over the name change from South Ossetia to Alania reveals how the autonomist aspirations of the Ossetians (however legitimate) have been exploited in the Great Game. (Map: Wikipedia)
Greater Middle East
Egypt: state of emergency after ISIS attack on Copts
Egyptian authorities declared a three-month state of emergency after twin ISIS bombings killed 43 at two Coptic churches in the Nile Delta on Palm Sunday.
North Africa
Tunisia: DJ gets prison for offending public morality
A Tunisian court sentenced British DJ Dax J to a year in prison for "offending public morality" after the artist played a remix of the Muslim call to prayer in a nightclub.
Syria
Syria: gas attacks, air-strikes and hypocrisy
Trump, whose own air-strikes have killed hundreds, decides he must bomb an Assad air-base to retaliate for a gas attack—while the “anti-war” left is undisturbed by the gas attack.
The Andes
Colombia in mourning after Niño-linked disaster
Colombia is mourning after the tragic landslide in Mocoa, capital of Putumayo region—the latest disaster to hit the Andes as a result of this year's "abnormal" El Niño.