BEIRUT (AP) – With international diplomacy in tatters and the U.S. focused on its election, the Syrian government and its Russian allies are seizing the moment to wage an all-out campaign to recapture Aleppo, unleashing the most destructive bombing of the past five years and pushing into the center of the Old City.
Desperate residents describe horrific scenes in Syria’s largest city and onetime commercial center, with hospitals and underground shelters hit by indiscriminate airstrikes that the U.N. said may amount to a war crime. Debris covers streets lined with bombed-out buildings, trapping people in their neighborhoods and hindering rescue workers.
NEW YORK (AP) – The showdown between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was the most-watched presidential debate ever with 84 million viewers. The Nielsen company said the viewership, over 13 different networks, toppled a record that had stood for 36 years.
The previous record for presidential debate viewership was the 80.6 million people who saw the only debate in 1980 between incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter and his Republican challenger Ronald Reagan. At the time of the Carter-Reagan debate, the U.S. population was 226 million. Now, it is 324 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. No debate since then had exceeded 70 million viewers.
CARTAGENA, Colombia (AP) – The contrast couldn’t be more dramatic as Colombia’s president and the head of its largest guerrilla movement were putting their signatures on a historic peace deal when a 6-year-old boy was killed when he chased a soccer ball into a field and stepped on a land mine left behind during the half-century conflict.
Even as this nation celebrates the end of hostilities with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the harsh reality that fueled the long conflict is settling in. From the security challenges posed by surging coca crops and dangerous criminal gangs to the difficult task of removing land mines and reintegrating guerrillas blamed for numerous atrocities, the work ahead is daunting.