• YPG’s foreign mercenaries add to complexities of Syria’s war

    The presence in the YPG of mercenaries from the US, the UK and several other EU countries raises the spectre of Daesh-type militancy, experts warn. BABA UMAR 30 JAN 2018 SOURCE: TRT WORLD Donning combat fatigues and a hat, the unnamed foreign mercenary spoke in a US accent with a banner of the SDF, a militant group dominated by the YPG, in the background. “We are all ready to go and fight.

  • Palestinians react with fury at the Arab League’s resolution on Jerusalem

    A two-page resolution of 22 Arab states “condemns” US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but many Palestinians see it out of sync with the outrage in the streets. BABA UMAR 11 DEC 2017 SOURCE: TRT WORLD Long on rhetoric and short on punitive actions: Palestinians have slammed an Arab League resolution that counters US President.

  • The human and financial cost of India’s demonetisation

    It has been over 80 days since India changed from hard cash to a virtual economy. Yet the dramatic move has been deadly for some and many are still struggling with the digital future. BABA UMAR 9 NOV 2017 SOURCE: TRT WORLD NEW DELHI – The first thing rickshaw driver Satish asks when a new passenger boards his cart is whether or not the passenger will be paying in cash. Satish,.

  • Timeline: The Russian Revolution

    The revolution in 1917 saw Russia’s last Tsar, Nicholas II, relinquish his throne, and power go to the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin. The revolution created the communist state of Soviet Russia. BABA UMAR 7 NOV 2017 SOURCE: TRT WORLD In 1917, a band of revolutionaries ousted the Tsarist Empire in what became known as the Great October Revolution. The world was never the same again. Here’s.

  • The Russian Revolution, 100 years on

    The Bolsheviks had a battery of powerful leaders but the most notable were Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov – Lenin as he is better known – Joseph Stalin, and for a time Leon Trotsky. BABA UMAR 6 NOV 2017 Source: TRT WORLD One hundred years ago, the Bolsheviks and their supporters came to power in Russia in what would become a turning point in history. Russia’s absolutist Tsar had already.

  • Militia bosses used sexual violence as ‘war tactic’ in CAR

    Commanders of Muslim Seleka and the largely Christian anti-balaka militias used rape and sexual slavery as a war tactic, rights group Human Rights Watch says in a new report. BABA UMAR 5 OCT 2017 Source: TRT WORLD Commanders of armed groups fighting the five-year-old civil war in the Central African Republic (or CAR) have used sexual violence and torture as a weapon of war, Human Rights Watch.

  • The debris of war will test Syria’s reconstruction efforts

    The bombing of housing units and infrastructure has left millions of tonnes of debris, complicating post-war rebuilding plans. BABA UMAR 5 OCT 2017 Source: TRT World Istanbul –  When 27-year-old Muhammad Alkhalaf remembers his home city of Aleppo, he sees the historic market, with sunlight gaping through its old roof, the jubilant crowd occupying its festooned shops and the.

  • HRW: Myanmar army executed dozens of Rohingya in August revenge attacks

    Human Rights Watch says military sexually assaulted and shot Rohingya Muslims on August 27, in revenge for rebel attacks on an army base. BABA UMAR 4 OCT 2017 Source: TRT World Myanmar’s army “summarily executed” dozens of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State after the rebels targeted an army base, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday, an incident that may have sparked the mass.

  • How did North Korea get a hydrogen bomb, if that’s what it was

    Pyongyang’s quest for nuclear weapons has its roots in the post-WWII history of the Korean Peninsula, and especially a war that has never ended. BABA UMAR 8 SEP 2017 Source: TRT World On Sunday, September 3, 2017, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK – North Korea) staked its claim to join a very exclusive and very dangerous club, states with hydrogen bombs. The nuclear.

  • ‘Independence for Catalonia is just a threat to blackmail Spain’

    Spain has warned Catalans against holding a referendum vote in September this year. Alfons López Tena – a former Catalan MP – has grown disillusioned with the independence movement as he believes it’s been stuck in a “quagmire of wishful thinking.” BABA UMAR 29 MAR 2017 Source: TRT World In early March, Artur Mas was found guilty of disobeying the Spanish constitutional court.