WORLD

Berlin, Germany | AFP | The fall of Aleppo has unleashed a mixture of outrage and impotence in the West, in which fury at the relentless carnage has mingled with guilt over the failure to stop it. Even the European public — who marched in the millions over the siege …

Madrid, Spain | AFP |  A Spanish university chancellor who’s institution developed a system to catch plagiarists was forced to quit his post on a national education commission on Thursday — having been accused of plagiarism. Head of the King Juan Carlos University in Madrid since 2013, Fernando Suarez has …

Washington, United States | AFP |  Groundwater resources could be depleted in the next few decades in dry areas of the world where people use lots of water for drinking and irrigating crops, researchers said Thursday. The research was presented at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in …

Ottawa, Canada | AFP | Once the world’s top producer of asbestos, Canada said Thursday it will ban the heat-resistant fibrous mineral that is woven into building and other materials but which has been found to cause cancer. In a statement, government ministers of health, science and the environment said …

Washington, United States | AFP | The massive hack affecting a billion Yahoo users shows how seemingly innocuous bits of data gleaned from cyber attacks can be exploited for profit — and potentially for espionage and information warfare. The latest breach disclosed Wednesday is the largest on record and comes …

Washington, United States | AFP |  Facebook announced Thursday it was offering a tool allowing users to report fake news, a move aimed at stemming a wave of misinformation which some claim influenced the 2016 US election. “We believe in giving people a voice and that we cannot become arbiters …

UN divided over South Sudan mission renewal United Nations, United States | AFP |  The United States on Thursday was locked in difficult negotiations on South Sudan, with African countries, Russia and China balking at a draft resolution on the UN peacekeeping mission’s mandate in the war-torn country, diplomats said. …

Trump rejects Russia hacking plot as Putin direct role reported Washington, United States | AFP | US President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday again rejected the CIA’s conclusion that Russia manipulated the US election, as the hacking scandal expanded into a hefty foreign policy challenge just five weeks before he takes …

Washington, United States | AFP | New satellite imagery shows China has apparently installed “significant” defensive weapons on a series of artificial islands it built in the South China Sea, a US-based think tank said Wednesday. Beijing has created seven islets in the Spratly Islands in recent years, built up …

New York, United States | AFP |  Vladimir Putin was the world’s most powerful person for a fourth straight year in 2016, with US president-elect Donald Trump in second place, Forbes magazine said Wednesday in its annual rankings. “Russia’s president has exerted his country’s influence in nearly every corner of …