Millions starving in Yemen’s “forgotten war”

The UN has warned that an entire generation could suffer from starvation as the conflict between the Saudi Arabian-led coalition and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels continues.

For the last 18 months, the Saudi coalition has been fighting the rebels who toppled the former president Hadi’s regime last year. 10,000 civilians have already been killed, while 21 million people are dependent on aid for survival. However, only 30% of their needs have been met, as the Saudi coalition has been blocking aid shipments into the country, according to the UN. The conflict has been labelled the “forgotten war” by Amnesty International, as much of the world doesn’t know or care about it, as it hasn’t featured much in the news.

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Dozens dead and injured in massacre at police training centre in Pakistan

Cadets at a police training centre in Quetta, Pakistan, were attacked by suicide bomb-wielding terrorists in an attack last Monday night that killed 61 and injured 117. Three gunmen entered the building and began shooting and taking hostages at a time when most cadets were asleep. The attack and the security operation that ended it lasted several hours.

At the time of the attack, about 700 cadets were at the centre, and over 200 of them were rescued in the rescue operation. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack online, releasing a photo of the three purported attackers, but the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terrorist group has also claimed responsibility. They are an al-Qaeda-linked militant group that has targeted the country’s Shiite Muslim minority in recent years.

China’s “Big Brother” plans leaked

An official policy document has been leaked that reveals how the Chinese authorities plan to give ratings to each Chinese citizen based on political, social and legal ‘credits’. The ruling Communist Party hopes that by doing so, they will foster a culture of “sincerity” and encourage good behaviour within a “harmonious socialist society”. The ratings will be generated from online data about Chinese citizens and companies that will be stored in a single place.

Those with good scores would be rewarded while those with a low score would be punished and denied basic freedoms such as bank loans or be barred from travelling abroad. China’s biggest matchmaking service, Baihe, has promised to promote clients with good credit scores, giving them prominent spots on the company’s website. As The Independent reports, supporters of the plan believe it will tackle a culture of bribery and fraud rife in China’s poorly regulated market economy. More cynical observers are calling it China’s “Big Brother”, a further attempt to control people’s private lives.

Woman carried foetus for almost four decades

A 73-year-old Algerian woman was recently found to have been carrying an unborn foetus in her body for 35 years. The calcified foetus was discovered outside the womb of the woman after she complained of pain in her stomach and was then sent for a routine scan in Skikda, Algeria. The foetus weighed 4.4lbs and had died seven months into its prenatal development.