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An international convoy has cut short its mission to Syria's rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta after delivering desperately needed aid as the regime pounded the region, killing dozens as it seized more ground. At least 68 civilians were killed Monday, a monitor said, while dozens of United Nations trucks reached the main town of Douma, the first aid convoy to arrive since a bloody Russian-backed assault began more than two weeks ago. The government blocked medical supplies from the enclave rocked by an ongoing bombardment that has sparked outrage but little action from the West. The 46 aid trucks arrived after fresh air strikes hit the shrinking rebel-held zone and regime troops rapidly advanced, leaving them in control of 40 percent of the region. An AFP reporter in Douma said warplanes were flying overhead and explosions could be heard even as the aid was being unloaded. Source :- yahoonews

The Italian election was a rejection of traditional left and right parties in both the north and south of the country -- but for different reasons, experts said. The far-right League party conquered the north, worried about the rise in immigration, while the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) took the south where concerns about the economy dominate. "In the south, the Five Star vote was a protest of a part of the country that feels neglected as the economic recovery is only being felt in the north," said Roberto D'Alimonte, politics professor at Rome's Luiss university. "We can't be surprised that southern regions, where youth unemployment has spiked and traditional parties have failed to resolve the problem, voted massively in favour of a movement that expresses resentment and anger." Disillusionment had already made itself felt in a constitutional referendum in 2016 in which southern Italy voted massively against both the proposed reform and t...

Myanmar's "ethnic cleansing" of Rohingya Muslims is continuing, a senior U.N. human rights official said on Tuesday, more than six months after insurgent attacks sparked a security response that has driven nearly 700,000 people into Bangladesh. Andrew Gilmour, the U.N. assistant secretary-general for human rights, made the comment after a four-day visit to the Cox's Bazar district in neighboring Bangladesh, where he met people who have fled from Myanmar recently. "I don't think we can draw any other conclusion from what I have seen and heard in Cox's Bazar," Gilmour said in a statement. After Rohingya insurgents attacked 30 police posts and an army base on Aug. 25, Myanmar soldiers and police swept through villages in what the government says was a legitimate operation to root out "terrorists". Source :- yahoonews

Myanmar's "ethnic cleansing" of Rohingya Muslims is continuing, a senior U.N. human rights official said on Tuesday, more than six months after insurgent attacks sparked a security response that has driven nearly 700,000 people into Bangladesh. Andrew Gilmour, the U.N. assistant secretary-general for human rights, made the comment after a four-day visit to the Cox's Bazar district in neighboring Bangladesh, where he met people who have fled from Myanmar recently. "I don't think we can draw any other conclusion from what I have seen and heard in Cox's Bazar," Gilmour said in a statement. After Rohingya insurgents attacked 30 police posts and an army base on Aug. 25, Myanmar soldiers and police swept through villages in what the government says was a legitimate operation to root out "terrorists". Rohingya who sought shelter in Bangladesh have reported rape, killings and arson by security forces. The United Nations and United States...

Taiwan will look to its domestic arms industry as well as foreign suppliers to respond to China's continuing military buildup, but has no interest in engaging in an arms race with its cross-strait rival, the defense ministry said Tuesday. The remarks from spokesman Chen Chung-ji came a day after China announced an 8.1 percent rise in its military budget for this year to 1.1 trillion yuan ($173 billion), the world's second largest after the United States. "Taiwan has no intention of getting involved in an arms race with China, or with neighboring countries," Chen told reporters at a briefing. "However, we expect to strengthen our capabilities in self-developing arms, including locally built vessels and aircraft, or even information and communication warfare," Chen said. China regards Taiwan as Chinese territory to be eventually brought under its control, by force if necessary. Under China-imposed diplomatic isolation, Taiwan has few avenues for p...

Myanmar is continuing its "ethnic cleansing" of the Rohingya with a "campaign of terror and forced starvation" in Rakhine state, a UN human rights envoy said on Tuesday, six months after a military crackdown sparked a mass exodus of the Muslim minority. Some 700,000 Rohingya have fled over the border to Bangladesh since violence erupted in August, taking with them horrifying testimony of murder, rape and arson by soldiers and vigilante mobs. While the majority of those refugees fled Myanmar last year, Rohingya continue to stream across the border by the hundreds every week. "The ethnic cleansing of Rohingya from Myanmar continues. I don't think we can draw any other conclusion from what I have seen and heard in Cox's Bazar," UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour said after speaking to newly-arrived Rohingya in Bangladesh's crowded refugee camps. Source :- yahoonews

The leader of Malaysia's biggest pro-democracy group said on Tuesday she will stand for parliament in a general election under the banner of an opposition alliance aiming to throw Prime Minister Najib Razak out of office. Maria Chin Abdullah is chairwoman of the activist group Bersih, which means "clean" in the Malay language, and which has for years led anti-government protests against Najib who has been dogged by a scandal over huge losses at a state fund. Her support for the opposition in a general election that must be held by August is likely to bolster the Pakatan Harapan opposition alliance, led by former premier Mahathir Mohamad, especially among urban voters frustrated with Najib's rule. "The system has not worked for us. We have to try new strategies and entering parliament is just one of them,” Maria, 62, she told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur. Source :- yahoonews

South Korean presidential envoys have met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang in the highest-level talks between the rivals in years. The meeting extends a temporary lull in tensions brought by the North's outreach to the South during the recently concluded Pyeongchang Olympics, where North Korean officials expressed Kim's desire for a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and willingness to open dialogue with the United States. Reviving meaningful dialogue with the North is critical for the policies of Moon, who insists Seoul should be in the "driver's seat" in international efforts to deal with the North Korean nuclear problem. However, experts say it could be difficult for the South to arrange a summit with the North coming off a year in which Pyongyang test-fired dozens of missiles and conducted its most powerful nuclear test. Source :- yahoonews

The head of scandal-hit Japanese steelmaker Kobe Steel announced his resignation on Tuesday after the firm submitted false strength and quality data for products shipped to hundreds of clients worldwide. Hiroya Kawasaki's resignation was a new blow to the reputation of Japan Inc after similar quality-control scandals hit industrial titans ranging from carmaker Nissan to Mitsubishi Materials. Following a deep and prolonged bow in apology, Kawasaki told reporters: "As I think it's best to go ahead quickly with reforms under new members, I ... will step down from president on April 1 this year." "We have caused trouble to many people. As soon as we can, we would like as many people as possible to think that Kobe Steel has changed," added Kawasaki, who had been in the job since 2013. "I'm really sorry." The firm has not yet named a successor but pledged to hold a board meeting "in the near future" to select someone to turn the ship around...

Global carmakers are showing off a mix of low-emission electric vehicles and high-end sports cars at the Geneva International Motor Show. Many of the new offerings display the battery-electric and autonomous technology carmakers say they need to meet tough emissions standards and cope with an expected shift to cars as a service to be ordered rather owned. Mercedes-Benz rolled out its EQA concept car, a compact battery electric vehicle with a virtual radiator that changes appearance depending on the selected driving program. Volkswagen's I.D. Vizzion large electric sedan was shown in an autonomous version without a steering wheel. Big horsepower and fossil fuels remained very much in evidence however. Source :- yahoonews

South Korean prosecutors have called former President Lee Myung-bak to appear for questioning over allegations he took bribes when in office, a prosecutor said on Tuesday in the latest top-level political corruption scandal to rock the country. Prosecutors last month sought a 30-year jail term for former President Park Geun-hye, Lee's successor, who was ousted last year amid an influence-peddling scandal and is standing trial on charges of bribery, abuse of power and coercion. Lee was asked to present himself for questioning on March 14, the senior prosecutor said. "We must question (Lee) to reveal the truth", the prosecutor told reporters. "We expect him to show up since we gave sufficient time for him to prepare for the questioning". Lee has denied any wrongdoing, calling the investigation into the bribery allegations, summoning his family and confidants and raiding their homes and offices, politically motivated. Source :- yahoonews

In March 1968, a student revolt crushed by Poland's baton-wielding police was used as a pretext for an anti-Semitic purge by the communist regime. It began when the communists banned the 19th-century play "Forefathers' Eve" by poet Adam Mickiewicz claiming it had anti-Russian elements. Two students who contested the ban were expelled from the University of Warsaw, prompting their peers to stage a demonstration on March 8. Backed by other civil groups, particularly workers unhappy with daily life under communism, the pro-democracy protests spread to other cities. The regime used the student revolt as an excuse to unleash an anti-Semitic campaign that was rooted in a settling of scores inside the Communist Party, which was split into two camps. Source :- yahoonews

On the 50th anniversary of a brutal anti-Semitic campaign in Poland, the country faces a diplomatic crisis with Israel over a controversial new Holocaust law. In 1968, partly to settle disputes inside the ruling Communist Party, the Polish government stripped many Jews of party membership -- and thus jobs -- prompting around 12,000 to leave the country. Today, Poland's conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) has been accused of trying to deny the Holocaust after introducing a law notably intended to prevent people from describing Nazi death camps in German-occupied Poland as Polish. "It's not the same today," said Adam Michnik, a prominent communist-era dissident who is now editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's leading liberal newspaper. "There are certainly similarities. Once again there's a growing image of a Poland besieged by enemies and the enemies are the Jews who want to do us harm," he told AFP. Source :- yahoonews

A significant fall in child marriages in South Asia has reduced the rate of marriage for girls globally, the U.N. children's agency said Tuesday. More educational opportunities for young girls, government investments in adolescent girls and strong advocacy about the illegality of child marriage saw 25 million fewer child marriages in the last decade. UNICEF says progress in India helped reduced the risk of a girl in South Asia marrying before her 18th birthday to about 30 percent from nearly 50 percent. Some 650 million women living today were married as children. A girl forced to marry young is less likely to finish school and more likely to be abused and suffer pregnancy complications, said Anju Malhotra, UNICEF's principal gender adviser. Such marriages also are more likely to perpetuate poverty. Source :- yahoonews

The Kremlin said on Tuesday it was ready to cooperate if Britain asks it for help investigating an incident involving a former Russian double agent who fell ill after exposure to an unknown substance. Sergei Skripal, once a colonel in Russia's GRU military intelligence service, was critically ill in hospital on Tuesday after he was exposed to an unidentified substance in southern England. "Nobody has approached us with such a request," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters, when asked if the British authorities had been in touch seeking help. "Moscow is always open for cooperation." When asked to respond to British media speculation that Russia had poisoned Skripal, Peskov said: "It didn't take them long." Calling the incident "a tragic situation," he said the Kremlin did not have information about what had happened. Source :- yahoonews

Only an impartial investigation in Syria by an international commission can determine if allegations about the use of chemical weapons are true, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. Asked about the possibility that the United States could launch strikes on Syria over allegations that forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had used chemicals weapons, Peskov said the Kremlin hoped that nothing would be done that breaches international law. Source :- yahoonews

Turkey, Russia and Iran will hold a summit in April to discuss Syria and potential steps in the region, the spokesman for the Turkish foreign ministry said on Tuesday. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hami Aksoy also told a news conference Ankara would tell U.S. authorities during meetings on March 8-9 that it expected Washington to take concrete steps on retrieving weapons provided to the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia. Aksoy said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will visit Russia between March 12 and 14, and later meet with his U.S. counterpart Rex Tillerson in Washington on March 19. Aksoy said Cavusoglu would also discuss during a visit to Germany the extradition of former Syrian Kurdish leader Saleh Muslim, who was released by a Czech court last week despite a Turkish extradition request. Source :- yahoonews

British counter-terrorism police are helping the investigation of what caused the illness of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, Britain's top counter-terrorism officer said on Tuesday. The 66-year-old former spy and a 33-year-old woman who was known to him were found unconscious on a bench in a shopping center on Sunday in the English city of Salisbury after exposure to what police said was an unknown substance. "It's a very unusual case and the critical thing is to get to the bottom of what's caused these illnesses as quickly as possible," Rowley told BBC radio. "If necessary we will bring we will bring that investigation into the counter-terrorism network. We're doing all the things you would expect us to do, we're speaking to witnesses, we're taking forensic samples at the scene, we're doing toxicology work and that will help us to get to an answer. I can't say any more at this stage," Rowley said. Source :- yahoonews

Turkey will set up camps to settle 170,000 people in nine locations near Syria's Idlib, and in the area Ankara controls by further east in northern Syria, Turkish diplomatic sources said. Turkey and its Syrian rebel allies, which six weeks ago launched an operation in the Afrin region targeting the Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters, also control a swathe of land further east in Syria that stretching from the area around Azaz to the Euphrates river, which was taken during its "Euphrates Shield" operation that ended in early in 2017. (Corrects second paragraph to show Turkey launched operation in Afrin, not Idlib) (Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz; Writing by Ece Toksabay; Editing by David Dolan. Source :- yahoonews

The French government is proposing a law that would say anyone under 15 cannot consent to sex, after widespread shock at two cases involving 11-year-old girls. It would be the first such law in France, which currently does not have a rule saying a child under a certain age is considered incapable of consenting to sex. The government's women's affairs office said Tuesday that it has decided to set the threshold at 15 in a bill to be presented to parliament later this month. Earlier, officials had discussed setting it at 13. President Emmanuel Macron, among others, argued for it to be older. In two recent legal cases, adult men were accused of having sex with 11-year-old girls who were considered consenting under French law. Source :- yahoonews