Aleppo bombed as Syrian army begins 'calm' plan elsewhere

By John Davison BEIRUT (Reuters) - Nearly 30 air strikes hit rebel-held areas of Aleppo on Saturday as a temporary "calm" declared by Syria’s military took effect around Damascus and in the northwest. It was the ninth day of deadly bombardments in Aleppo, which has borne the brunt of increased fighting that has all but destroyed a February ceasefire and killed nearly 250 people in the northern city since April 22, a monitoring group said. The Syrian army announced a "regime of calm", or lull in fighting, late on Friday, which Damascus said was designed to salvage the wider ceasefire.

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  Aleppo mourns Syrian doctor killed in air strike

  AFP
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  Aleppo: A key Syrian battleground

  AFP

Survivors sought after 17 killed in Kenya building collapse

Kenyan rescuers scrambled Saturday to free survivors including a woman and child detected trapped in a collapsed building in Nairobi, amid torrential storms that have left 17 people dead. President Uhuru Kenyatta visited the ruins of the six-storey building, where 10 people perished after concrete floors collapsed down on top of each other during torrential rainstorms on Friday. "Ten bodies have been recovered, and we have 80 people who have been treated and discharged from hospital," Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery told reporters amid the crumbled wreckage of the building in the Kenyan capital.

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  3 die in Kenya building collapse, Red Cross says

  CNN
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  Rescuers dig for trapped residents after Nairobi building collapse kills seven

  Reuters

Voters' dilemma: What happens if it's Hillary vs. Trump?

Justin Schoville accomplished a rare feat for a protester at a Trump event: He managed to get himself thrown out – three times – just before Donald Trump’s maiden foreign policy address at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington on Wednesday. Recommended: What do you know about Donald Trump? “I can’t in good conscience give my support to Hillary Clinton.

China lays out firm conditions for improved ties with Japan

China laid out firm conditions Saturday for improved ties with Japan, telling Tokyo's visiting foreign minister that there could be "no ambiguity or vacillation" in meeting Beijing's demands over historical interpretation, relations with Taiwan and other key matters. Beijing portrayed the visit by Fumio Kishida as an act of outreach to an angry China, as the two sides try to repair relations bedeviled by disputes over territory, history and competition for influence in East Asia. Relations have gone through "twists and turns in recent years due to reasons best known by Japan," Wang said, adding that China desires "healthy and stable relations" with its neighbor and key economic partner.

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  China Seeks Japan Ties Based on Cooperation, Not Confrontation

  Bloomberg
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  Russia, China in agreement on North Korea, South China Sea

  Associated Press

Astronomers find a tailless comet, first of its kind

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Astronomers have found a first-of-its-kind tailless comet whose composition may offer clues into long-standing questions about the solar system's formation and evolution, according to research published on Friday in the journal Science Advances. The so-called "Manx" comet, named after a breed of cats without tails, was made of rocky materials that are normally found near Earth. Most comets are made of ice and other frozen compounds and were formed in solar system's frigid far reaches.

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  Newly discovered comet has no tail

  Washington Post
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  Strange Manx comet is time capsule from the early solar system

  New Scientist

Parents of boy who vanished in 1997 charged with murder

The parents of a Hawaii boy who has been missing for nearly 20 years have been charged with murder after authorities reopened the case and re-evaluated the evidence. The boy's parents have long been suspects in the 1997 disappearance of then 6-year-old Peter Kema Jr., known as "Peter Boy," but prosecutors said there hadn't been enough evidence to charge them until now. Peter Kema Sr. had told authorities he took his son to Oahu and gave him to a longtime family friend.

Cellphone in missing Florida teens case to be reviewed by Apple

If Apple retrieves anything from the water-damaged phone that relates to the day the boys disappeared - including photos, texts and social media posts - the data will be given to a judge, who will decide if it is evidence and whether it may be shared with the families, according to a report by WPLG television in Miami. The agreement puts to rest, for now, a row between the families of Austin Stephanos, 14, who owned the iPhone 6, and his friend Perry Cohen, also 14, who borrowed it to communicate with his family the day they disappeared in July 2015 off the Atlantic Coast of South Florida, according to the report. Cohen's family wanted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to treat the phone as evidence in an open missing persons case, but the agency instead on returning it to Stephanos' family, the station reported.

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  Pilot may have spotted one of 2 missing teen fishermen days after disappearance

  Fox News
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  Video shows missing teens in boat

  USA Today

Rouhani allies win Iran parliament elections

Reformist and moderate Iranian politicians allied with President Hassan Rouhani won a big victory in second round parliamentary elections and capped a remarkable comeback Saturday after years of isolation. It was also an implicit public vote of confidence in Rouhani, who won a landslide election victory in 2013 and went on to clinch a historic deal with world powers over Tehran's nuclear programme that lifted sanctions. Almost a quarter of parliament's seats were at stake in run-offs Friday in what was a showdown between reformists and conservatives seeking to influence the country's future.

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  Iran moderates eye more gains in run-off parliamentary election

  Reuters
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  Iran Elections: Moderate Bloc Advances In Runoff, State Media Says

  International Business Times

When It Comes to College Costs, Middle-Class Kids Are Still Screwed

The study by researchers at Vanderbilt University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Institute for Research in Higher Education found that since 2008, overall college affordability has fallen 45 states, owing in part to slashed state spending on higher education in the years during and since the Great Recession. As a result, low- and middle-income earners in certain states now must spend as much as 76 percent of their annual income to pay a student’s tuition and expenses at a four-year public school, according to the study, The 2016 College Affordability Diagnosis. Meanwhile, financial aid doesn’t go as far as it did before, access to it has tightened, and a working student would need to work so many hours to pay the bills—and probably is already facing pressure to support him or herself, or a family—that college would take a backseat to finding a job, the study says.

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  Solving Education’s $1.5 Billion Problem

  Getting Smart
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  Yes, you can haggle with your college over financial aid

  CNN Money

Iraqi protesters breach Green Zone, storm parliament

Hundreds of protesters climbed over the blast walls surrounding Baghdad's highly-fortified Green Zone for the first time on Saturday and stormed into parliament, carrying Iraqi flags and chanting against the government. The breach marked a major escalation in the country's political crisis following months of anti-government protests, sit-ins and demonstrations by supporters of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The Green Zone is home to most ministries and foreign embassies and has long been the focus of al-Sadr's criticism of the government.

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  Sadr followers storm into Baghdad's Green Zone, political crisis deepens

  Reuters
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  Who Is Muqtada Al-Sadr? Supporters Of Iraqi Shiite Cleric Rush Green Zone As Baghdad Protest Heats Up

  International Business Times