Politics

  Gaza City / AFP Palestinian movement Hamas has thanked Turkey for its efforts on behalf of Gazans in a weekend reconciliation deal with Israel but urged it to increase pressure for an end to a decade-old blockade. In its first reaction to the agreement, Hamas expressed its “thanks and gratitude to Turkish President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan” and the Turkish ...

  Madrid / AFP Spain’s ruling conservatives made a fresh push on Monday to form a government and unblock months of political paralysis after emerging stronger from another inconclusive general election. The Popular Party (PP) was the big winner of Sunday’s elections, the second in six months, which played out against a background of turbulence from Britain’s shock vote to leave ...

  Bangkok / AFP Activists on Monday urged Britain to hand over details of the multi-million-dollar sale to Thailand of fake bomb detectors that led to the detention of scores of innocent people. British fraudster Gary Bolton was jailed in 2013 for making millions selling the GT200—which he billed as a “magic wand” able to detect tiny particles of explosives ...

  France / AFP Voters in western France gave the go-ahead on Sunday to a controversial airport development that has been at the centre of a years-long battle between environmental activists and the government. The local referendum on the new Nantes Atlantique airport passed with a 55 percent majority, ending a 50 year argument that saw the government’s environment advisers ...

  London / AFP Britain’s opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn insisted he would not give up his job in a Labour Party revolt over his handling of the EU referendum campaign, as the aftershocks from the “Leave” vote reverberate around the country. Eleven members of the veteran socialist’s top team resigned Sunday, blaming him for failing to rally the party’s core working-class ...

  Manila / AFP Incoming Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on Monday hit out at “stupid” human rights campaigners, as he defended his imminent war on crime and emphasised the death penalty was for retribution. Duterte gave a lengthy speech in his southern hometown of Davao to outline his vision for the nation once he takes office on Thursday, with a ...

  LAKE ISABELLA / AP Firefighters advanced on a wildfire in central California that has claimed two lives and destroyed 200 homes. Federal fire officials said containment on the 68-square-mile blaze increased from 10 percent to 40 percent. Some 2,000 firefighters were battling the blaze, which destroyed many homes belonging to retirees on fixed incomes with few other possessions. “Most people ...

  SAN FRANCISCO / AP Ten people suffered stab wounds and other injuries after members of a white nationalist group that planned to rally outside the California state Capitol building in Sacramento clashed with a larger group of counter protesters, authorities said. The fight broke out when about 30 members of the Traditionalist Worker Party gathering to rally around noon Sunday ...

  Al-Qaa / AFP A string of suicide bombings early on Monday killed at least five people in a Lebanese village near the volatile border with war-ravaged Syria. The attack came just hours after the IS group on Sunday claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb that killed seven soldiers on Jordan’s border with Syria. Monday’s deadly blasts struck Al-Qaa, a predominantly ...

  AMMAN / AP The extremist IS group claimed responsibility for last week’s deadly suicide attack on a Jordanian army post on the Syrian border, posting a video online on Monday it said shows the car bomb blast. The video, which was posted on the Facebook page of the IS news agency Amaq, shows a vehicle kicking up dust as it ...