Politics

  Multan / AFP The brother of a murdered Pakistani celebrity said Sunday he is “not embarrassed” to have killed her, as Qandeel Baloch’s death reignited polarising calls for action against the “epidemic” of honour killings. The strangling of Baloch, judged as infamous by many in deeply conservative Muslim Pakistan for selfies and videos that by Western standards would appear ...

  ISTANBUL / Reuters Forces loyal to Turkey’s government fought on Saturday to crush the last remnants of a military coup attempt which collapsed after crowds answered President Tayyip Erdogan’s call to take to the streets and dozens of rebels abandoned their tanks. One hundred and sixty-one people were killed, including many civilians, after a faction of the armed forces ...

  London / AFP A section of the Turkish military, the second-largest army in NATO after the US’, caught the world off guard on Friday by staging an attempted coup. The move stunned Turkey observers, who believed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party had brought the secular-minded army to heel. Acting army chief General Umit ...

  WASHINGTON / AFP US President Barack Obama was huddling with top national security advisers in the White House Situation Room on Saturday to address the destabilizing coup attempt in Turkey. The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to have repelled the plot, but the situation remained fraught and tensions between Washington and Ankara appeared to be growing. In a ...

  Nice, France / AFP The IS group claimed responsibility on Saturday for the truck massacre in Nice which France said was “a new kind of attack,” as it faced hard questions over security failures. In a statement via its Amaq news service, IS said one of its “soldiers” carried out Thursday night’s attack “in response to calls to target ...

  Ulan Bator, Mongolia / AFP Tokyo raised pressure on Beijing at an Asia-Europe summit Saturday to respect an international tribunal’s ruling that dismissed its claims to much of the South China Sea. At a retreat outside the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the assembled leaders that the rule of law was “a universal principle that ...

Moscow / AFP US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov said on Friday they had agreed on “concrete steps” to salvage a failing truce and tackle extremist groups in Syria but refrained from laying out their deal. The top diplomats emerged from 12-hour marathon talks saying they agreed on the way forward, but Kerry stressed that ...

  Muzaffarbad / AFP A Pakistani social media celebrity whose selfies polarised the deeply conservative Muslim country has been murdered by her brother in a suspected honour killing, officials said Saturday, prompting shock and revulsion. Qandeel Baloch, praised by many of the country’s youth for her willingness to break social taboos but condemned by conservatives, was strangled near the city ...

  Srinagar / AFP Police seized tens of thousands of newspapers in Indian-controlled Kashmir early Saturday and detained printing press workers, ramping up an information blackout after a week of unrest left 39 dead, officials and media outlets said. Teams of officers swooped on major newspaper offices in the restive region overnight, seizing printing plates in an attempt to curb ...

  London / AFP British Prime Minister Theresa May completed a major overhaul of the government on Thursday, promoting leading Brexit campaigners and stunning observers by picking gaffe-prone Boris Johnson as her top diplomat. After six years as interior minister under David Cameron, May took office on Wednesday signalling her intention to start with a clean slate — before ruthlessly ejecting ...