Politics

  BRUSSELS / AP Brussels remains on high alert with increased security after a weekend sweep which left three in jail facing terrorism charges. The MIVB metro system says a half dozen subway stations have reduced entry on request from authorities but all subway lines were running during the morning rush hour on Monday. On Saturday, authorities charged three men with ...

  London / AFP British lawmakers prepared to pay tribute to a slain MP in a rare show of unity on Monday as the EU referendum campaign entered its final stretch with rival camps vying to seize the momentum. Politicians will return to parliament, which had been in recess, for a special sitting to pay tribute to Jo Cox, a ...

  Luxembourg / AFP EU foreign ministers on Monday agreed to boost the bloc’s anti-people smuggling operation in the Mediterranean to include training of the Libyan coastguard and enforcing a UN arms embargo. Ministers also agreed to extend Operation Sophia’s mandate by one year, a statement said, as the European Union tries to stem a flood of migrants from North ...

  Oaxaca / AFP Unknown gunmen opened fire as police and teachers clashed in southern Mexico during a protest that left six people dead and more than 100 injured, authorities said. The violence erupted as police threw tear gas at the protesters to end a week-long barricade that was blocking a road in Asuncion Nochixtlan, a town in Oaxaca state, ...

  Nairobi / AFP A quiet protest movement is spreading in Burundi’s schools where hundreds of students have been suspended in recent weeks for defacing pictures of President Pierre Nkurunziza in textbooks. Scribbling on the presidential portraits contained in government-issue study guides is seen as an act of silent resistance against a regime that clings to power despite more than ...

  Washington / AFP Exasperated US diplomats are in open revolt over Barack Obama’s Syria policy, but radical change is unlikely in the twilight of his presidency. More than 280,000 people have been killed. Millions more have fled their homes. A relentless drumbeat of cluster bombs, barrel bombs, chemical bombs, murder, rape and torture has turned swaths of Syria to dust. ...

  Jakarta / AFP Flash flooding and landslides in Indonesia have killed 31 and left more than two dozen missing, an official said on Sunday, with mud avalanches burying people inside their homes. Torrential rain since Saturday has triggered serious flooding across Central Java, with thousands of homes inundated, said disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. “Initial data… shows the ...

  Japan / AFP Thousands of demonstrators rallied on the Japanese island of Okinawa on Sunday against the heavy US military presence and violent crimes by American personnel that have angered residents for decades. Protesters, which organisers expected to number more than 50,000, gathered in the prefectural capital Naha, infuriated with the United States after a former Marine employed as ...

  Manila / AFP Two US aircraft carriers have started exercises in the Philippine Sea, defence officials said on Sunday, as Washington’s close ally Manila faces growing pressure from Beijing in the South China Sea. The US Pacific Command said the USS John C Stennis and USS Ronald Reagan, among the world’s largest warships, began conducting air defense drills, sea ...

  Sydney / AFP Three years after being ousted from power following a tumultuous period of infighting in which two prime ministers were deposed, Australia’s opposition Labor said on Sunday it was ready to return to Canberra ahead of national elections. The July 2 poll is tipped to be a tight race, and could see the ruling Liberal-National coalition become ...