Politics

  Brussels / AFP A man with a fake suicide belt was arrested after a bomb scare at a shopping centre triggered a major anti-terror operation in central Brussels on Tuesday, federal prosecutors said. Belgium remains on a high state of alert after IS-claimed bomb attacks in March left 32 dead at the airport and on the metro. Tuesday’s incident ...

  Washington / AFP Venezuela asked the Organization of American States (OAS) to cancel a Thursday meeting on the country’s economic and political crisis in which its possible suspension could be discussed. In a letter to OAS General Secretary Luis Almagro, Venezuelan Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez asked the 34-country organization to scrap a session of its permanent council in Washington requested ...

  Kabul / AFP A busload of Nepali security guards were among 23 people killed in a string of bombings across Afghanistan on Monday, days after Washington expanded the US military’s authority to strike the insurgents. The Taliban claimed the first attack which killed 14 Nepali security guards working for the Canadian Embassy in Kabul in a massive blast that left ...

ISLAMABAD / AP Pakistan and Afghanistan held talks on Monday in Islamabad on last week’s deadly border clashes that killed two Afghan border guards and a Pakistani officer. A statement after the meeting said both nations emphasized the need to create a mechanism for consulting one another on border issues. The two neighbors last week traded several bouts of deadly ...

  Kenya / AFP Five Kenyan policemen were killed on Monday when suspected radical Shabaab fighters attacked their convoy in the far northeast of the country, the local governor said. The police vehicle exploded into flames after it was hit by a suspected rocket-propelled grenade as it provided security for a bus near the remote Kenyan town of Elwak, on ...

  Jakarta / AFP Indonesia on Monday defended opening fire on Chinese sailors as an action aimed at stopping illegal fishing, after the latest confrontation between the nations in the South China Sea. Beijing has protested strongly over clash near Indonesia’s Natuna Islands, saying one Chinese fisherman was injured. The Indonesian navy said that seven sailors and a Chinese-flagged vessel ...

  Geneva / AFP Widespread and ongoing violations against Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority, including denial of citizenship, forced labour and sexual violence, could amount to crimes against humanity, the United Nations warned on Monday. In a report on the human rights situation for minorities in Myanmar, the UN human rights office said it had found “a pattern of gross violations ...

  Cambodia / AFP Cambodia said on Monday it would deport 13 Taiwanese nationals arrested on fraud charges to mainland China, as Taipei said its emissaries had been prevented from meeting with the suspects. The imminent deportations come at a time of increased tensions between Taiwan and mainland China, with Taipei accusing Beijing of “abducting” citizens from countries that do ...

  WASHINGTON / AP Democrats get their long-sought votes on gun control a week after the massacre in Orlando, Florida, but election-year politics and the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) dim any prospects for changes in the nation’s laws. The Senate was to vote on Monday night on four measures — two sponsored by Republicans, two by Democrats. All are ...

  Vienna / AFP Austria’s highest court began a public hearing on Monday on a legal challenge to May’s presidential election brought by the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), whose candidate only narrowly lost. The Constitutional Court’s open session was due to last four days and hear 90 witnesses. It aims to rule before the scheduled swearing-in of the election winner, Alexander ...