France launches air strikes in Syria

French target was Islamic State training camp

France has carried out its first air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria. French planes destroyed a training camp in the eastern town of Deir al-Zour, President Francois Hollande said on Sunday. A coalition led by the United States has been carrying out air strikes against IS in Syria and Iraq for more than a year. France, like the UK, has previously confined its air strikes against the Islamic State group to Iraqi airspace.

Seventeen drown after boat sinks off Turkish coast

Seventeen refugees attempting to reach Greece by boat from Turkey have drowned after their boat sank off Turkey. The victims, all thought to be Syrians, included five women and five children. Another 20 people on the boat’s deck, who were wearing life jackets, survived. Around 300,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in Greece so far this year, most of them moving on to try to reach other European Union countries.

China pledges $2 billion to help poor countries

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that Beijing will establish an assistance fund with an initial pledge of $2 billion to help developing countries implement a global sustainable development agenda over the next 15 years. “China will continue to increase investment in the least developed countries, aiming to increase its total to $12 billion by 2030,” Xi told a sustainable development summit of world leaders at the United Nations.

Volkswagen had been warned about cheating in 2007

Volkswagen’s own staff and one of its suppliers warned the company years ago about software designed to thwart emissions tests, two German newspapers reported on Sunday, as the automaker tries to uncover how long its executives knew about the cheating. The world’s biggest automaker is in the midst of the biggest scandal in its 78-year history, after having acknowledged that it installed software in diesel engines that was designed to hide their true emissions of toxic gasses.

Clashes in Central Africa kill 20

More than 20 people have been killed and around 100 injured in clashes in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. Violence erupted on Saturday after the murder of a motorcycle-taxi driver in a Muslim-majority neighbourhood. The central neighbourhood was the epicentre of unprecedented killings between Christians and Muslims in Bangui in late 2013 and early 2014.