english news

Much-anticipated monsoon may not solve India’s drought crisis

INDIA   –  India’s killer heatwave is leaving the country reeling from the worst drought in decades and a rural population struggling to survive. Relief is due with the arrival of the monsoon in mid-June, and because of the impending La Nina weather pattern, the forecast is for above-average rainfall.

However WaterAid India’s Head of Policy, Nitya Jacob, says groundwater levels are so depleted that even if a good monsoon comes in June — and meteorologists predict there will be one that ends the drought it won’t be enough. “Even if the monsoon is good, it cannot compensate,” Jacob told CNN. Central Water Commission data shows that India’s major reservoirs are 79% empty, and 75% of India’s basins are holding less water than the 10-year average. CNN Meteorologist, Michael Guy, says this is usually the hottest time for the subcontinent, but this year has seen an unprecedented spike in temperatures.India is currently in their summer or pre-monsoon season, which lasts from April to late May, or early June,” says Guy. “This year we’ve seen temperatures range from the lower 40s to as high as 47˚C or 116˚Fahrenheit. .(CNN.COM/photo:cnn.com)…[+]

Australia’s most wanted ISIS recruiter ‘killed in airstrike’

AUSTRALIA –  An Australian ISIS recruiter who called on his countrymen to “start attacking before they attack you” has died in a U.S. airstrike.

Neil Prakash was the country’s “most prominent” ISIS recruiter and its “highest value target,” according to Australian Attorney General George Brandis. “He was the individual more than any other who had been actively inspiring and inciting domestic terrorism attacks within Australia,” Brandis said in an interview with CNN affiliate Sky News. Prakash was killed on April 29 in Mosul, Iraq by a U.S. airstrike, Brandis said in a statement. (CNN.COM/photo: www.theguardian.com)…[+]

Crime is down in US schools

USA – The latest report on school crime says overall, schools are safer, with declines in violent crime, bullying and harassment because of sexual orientation.

But the assessment by the National Center for Education Statistics and the Justice Department says 3 percent of students ages 12 to 18 said they were victims of crimes at school in 2014.  About 1.3 million students were suspended for at least one full school day for alcohol violations, violence or weapons possession. Middle school students were more likely to be bullied than high school or elementary school students, said the report, released Wednesday by the National Center for Education Statistics and the Justice Department. On college campuses, the number of sexual attacks more than doubled from 2001 to 2013. “There’s really no way to say whether those increases reflect an increase in actual forcible sex crimes or just that more people are coming forward and reporting them,” said Lauren Musu-Gillette, an author of the report. Overall, the report showed progress, said Peggy G. Carr, acting NCES commissioner.

(wilx)…[+]

Brazil blocks WhatsApp

BRAZIL   –   A regional judge on Monday ordered all telephone operators in Brazil to block WhatsApp, the popular messaging app owned by Facebook, for failing to turn over data as part of an ongoing drug trafficking investigation.

Starting yesterday the app ceased to function, a move that was sure to frustrate and anger Brazilians who use the messaging and free-calling functions regularly. According to the Sergipe state tribunal’s website, the app will be blocked for 72 hours. Jan Koum, CEO and co-founder of the messaging service, posted a statement on his Facebook page in response to the blocking: .(CNN.COM/photo: www.huffingtonpost.com)…[+]

Windows 10 adoption slows to a crawl

USA – When Microsoft launched Windows 10 last year, the company made no bones about its intention for the OS to replace all previous versions. It only took a few months for the release to speed past 120 million installs — but it seems that adoption has slowed since then.

New data released by NetMarketShare suggests that Windows 10 is struggling to keep pace as it continues to expand its user base. As of April 2016, some 14.35 percent of computers use Windows 10 as a primary OS, according to a report from Beta News.

That figure sounds good for an OS that launched last year, but it’s the month-on-month progress that Microsoft might find more troubling. From January to February of this year, its market share jumped almost one percent; between March to April this had dropped to just 0.2 percent, reflecting a broad decline in pace.(digitaltrend)…[+]

Cruise ship from Miami arrives in Havana

CUBA – As passengers cheered, Carnival Corp.’s Fathom Adonia arrived at Havana harbor on Monday morning, officially reestablishing the U.S. cruise business in Cuba.

The voyage of the Adonia, with about 600 passengers aboard, was the first trip from a U.S. port directly to Cuba in more than 50 years, and the importance of the historic trip wasn’t lost on anyone.

Aboard the ship, cruise passengers waved Cuban and American flags. In the Old Havana terminals, Cuban flags and banners from Havantur, the official tourism agency, were draped along the second-floor balcony as a crowd of officials, port workers and media welcomed the ship. First to step on Cuban soil was Carnival’s chief legal counsel, Arnie Pérez and his wife, Carmen.(miamiherald)…[+]

Young Somali woman sets herself alight in Australian detention

AUSTRALIA   –  A 21-year-old Somali asylum seeker has set herself on fire at an Australian offshore processing center on the pacific island of Nauru, less than a week after refugee advocates say she was forcibly sent back there.

The woman, named by refugee advocates as Hodan Yasin, is currently in a critical condition, according to Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton. She has been transferred to Australia for medical treatment. On Sunday, another refugee, named as Omid, died in an Australian hospital after setting himself alight on Nauru two days earlier in the presence of United Nations officials. Critics say the self-immolations reflect the desperation of refugees living under Australia’s controversial immigration policy. Asylum seekers who arrive on Australian shores by boat are told they will never settle in the country, and are transferred to remote processing centers on the pacific islands on Nauru and Papua New Guinea. (CNN.COM/photo:www.abc.net.au)…[+]

Miracle as baby girl rescued after 80 hours in rubble of Kenyan building

KENYA –   A baby girl has been rescued after 80 hours trapped in the rubble of a collapsed residential building in the Kenyan capital, in what emergency workers are hailing as a miracle.

The infant was pulled alive from the debris yesterday , the Kenya Red Cross said in a statement. “(The) guys were saying it’s a miracle for the baby girl to have been in there without a scratch,” said Bonny Odhiambo, a Red Cross EMT who led the team involved in the rescue. The baby, later identified as 6-month-old Dealeryn Saisi Wasike, has been reunited with her father, according to a statement from the Red Cross. Odhiambo said the infant was discovered by a military search and rescue team using specialized equipment that detected breathing beneath the rubble..(CNN.COM/photo:cnn.com)…[+]

Brazil blocks WhatsApp

BRAZIL   –   A regional judge on Monday ordered all telephone operators in Brazil to block WhatsApp, the popular messaging app owned by Facebook, for failing to turn over data as part of an ongoing drug trafficking investigation.

Starting yesterday the app ceased to function, a move that was sure to frustrate and anger Brazilians who use the messaging and free-calling functions regularly. According to the Sergipe state tribunal’s website, the app will be blocked for 72 hours. Jan Koum, CEO and co-founder of the messaging service, posted a statement on his Facebook page in response to the blocking: “Yet again millions of innocent Brazilians are being punished because a court wants WhatsApp to turn over information we repeatedly said we don’t have,” it said. (CNN.COM/photo: www.huffingtonpost.com)…[+]

5 years ago the U.S. killed Osama bin Laden. Did it matter?

U.S   –   Five years after U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden at his Pakistani compound, more groups of violent Islamic extremists threaten global security than at any time in history.

Terrorist attacks stretching from Paris and Brussels to Istanbul and the skies over the Sinai Peninsula speak to the virulent reach of ISIS, while intelligence officials and analysts say al Qaeda affiliates are poised for a resurgence in the coming year and may pose the greater long-term danger. President Barack Obama and key members of his inner circle spoke to CNN’s Peter Bergen about the raid that killed the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks for the “Anderson Cooper 360°” special yesterday: “‘We got him’: President Obama, Bin Laden and the Future of the War on Terror.” Bergen’s exclusive interview marks the first time Obama has sat down with a journalist in the Situation Room. Bin Laden’s death in 2011, nearly a decade after his al Qaeda organization launched the attacks of September 11, 2001, sent an unmistakable message that the U.S. (CNN.COM/photo:www.Reuters.com)…[+]