Politics

  Istanbul / AFP Turkey on Wednesday pointed the finger of blame at IS extremists after a triple suicide bombing and gun attack at Istanbul’s main international airport killed at least 41 people, including foreigners. Witnesses described scenes of terror and panic on Tuesday evening as the attackers opened fire and then blew themselves up at the entrance to the ...

  Sydney / AFP A firebomb attack outside an Australian mosque while worshippers were at prayer was condemned on Wednesday by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, with one Islamic leader calling it a “hate crime”. No one was injured in Tuesday night’s blast which destroyed a car parked outside a mosque and Islamic college in the Perth suburb of Thornlie. “It ...

  Beirut / AFP US-backed rebels advanced on a key IS group supply line between Syria and Iraq overnight, seizing a small airbase near the border, a monitor said on Wednesday. The New Syrian Army said the operation—launched on Tuesday—is aimed at the severing the supply line through the Albu Kamal crossing that links areas under IS control in eastern ...

  Washington, / AFP South Korea, Japan and the United States held an unprecedented trilateral missile defence exercise, aimed at countering the growing threat from nuclear-armed North Korea which denounced it as a “military provocation.” The drill in waters off Hawaii came less than a week after North Korea flight-tested a powerful new medium-range ballistic missile that leader Kim Jong-Un ...

  Seoul/ AFP A high-profile South Korean politician and presidential hopeful resigned as the head of his new opposition party that has been rocked by a bribery scandal. Ahn Cheol-Soo, a former IT software tycoon, stepped down as co-leader of the People’s Party, amid allegations that its members received tens of thousand of dollars in kickbacks from two local companies ...

  Phnom Penh / AFP Prime Minister Hun Sen, accused of intensifying a crackdown on dissent before Cambodia’s 2018 election, threatened on Wednesday to jail an opposition leader who has refused to come forward over an alleged sex scandal. Political tensions have risen in recent months, with rights groups accusing Hun Sen’s government of arresting scores of critics and tying ...

London / AFP Britain’s two main political parties were in Brexit turmoil on Tuesday as the race to succeed Prime Minister David Cameron began in earnest and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn faced a no-confidence vote from Labour MPs. Five days after the shock vote for Britain to leave the EU, the two parties that have dominated Westminster for nearly a ...

  Washington / AFP The United States has complained to Russia about a mounting campaign of harassment and intimidation of American diplomats and their families in Moscow, the State Department said. Among those to raise objections, US Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin in March, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said. “Over the ...

  Moscow / AFP Russian authorities have launched their first criminal case against a rights activist for failing to comply with Moscow’s controversial “foreign agent” law, the activist said on Tuesday. Valentina Cherevatenko, who runs two women’s rights NGOs in the southern Rostov region, could face up to two years in prison if she is charged under legislation which critics ...

  Bloomberg Driven from its stronghold in northeastern Nigeria, the militant group Boko Haram is targeting the world’s least developed country: Niger. The Nigeria-based militants stepped up attacks in southeastern Niger this month, raiding villages for food and cattle and attacking the town of Bosso, near Lake Chad, to steal weapons. A looting spree in villages near the lake on ...