Politics

  Jalalabad / AFP Afghan and Pakistani forces clashed in an escalation of tensions between the neighbouring countries, killing at least three people and forcing the closure of the main border crossing, officials said on Tuesday. The fighting erupted along the Torkham border on Sunday night and continued erratically over the next two days, apparently after Afghan forces objected to ...

  ORLANDO / AP As thousands in Orlando turned out to mourn 49 people killed inside a nightclub, federal investigators examined possible motives for the gunman who committed the worst mass shooting in modern US history. The White House and the FBI said 29-year-old Omar Mateen, an American born Muslim, appears to be a “homegrown extremist” who had touted support ...

  Ciudad Victoria / AFP Police killed eight gunmen who attacked them on a road in northern Mexico and they seized six high-caliber rifles and a grenade launcher after the shootout, authorities said. The federal officers were on patrol on a road in the town of San Fernando, in the violence-plagued state of Tamaulipas, when armed civilians arrived in two ...

  TIRANA/ AP German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called on the Albanian political forces to pass a judicial reform package, considered fundamental to convince the European Union launch membership negotiations. Steinmeier, who is to visit Tirana on Tuesday, was quoted by the Albanian Mapo daily newspaper as calling on all political forces “to take over overall state responsibility and ...

  PRISTINA / AP The Kosovo government has amended a draft law to prolong the European Union rule of law mission, known as EULEX, for two years. A statement received on Tuesday said the previous evening the Cabinet met to amend a draft law on prolonging of the EULEX mandate after a letter. The Cabinet acted after President Hashim Thaci ...

  Magnanville / AFP A man claiming allegiance to the IS group killed a French policeman and his partner, investigators said on Tuesday, in what authorities blasted as an “appalling terrorist act.” President Francois Hollande held a top-level security meeting after the overnight attack, which took place as France was on high alert for the Euro 2016 football championships. Sources ...

  Seoul / AFP Strong waves forced the suspension of an operation to lift a South Korean ferry that sank in 2014 in a disaster that shocked and enraged the country, a spokesman said on Tuesday. The Sewol was carrying 476 people when it sank off the southwestern island of Jindo in April 2014, with the loss of 304 lives—most ...

  Brussels / AFP The EU’s top court on Tuesday backed Britain’s right to limit child benefits to European migrants, a hot-button issue in Britain’s referendum on its future in the European Union next week. The decision comes as a series of opinion polls show a growing lead for the campaign for a “Brexit,” despite Prime Minister David Cameron’s appeals ...

  BAMAKO / AP A Chinese peacekeeper killed while serving with the UN mission in Mali has been given a hero’s funeral in his home province. The ashes of 29-year-old first sergeant Shen Liangliang were interred on Tuesday in a cemetery for national heroes in his native Henan. State media reports said thousands of people lined the streets along the ...

  Geneva / AFP   The UN’s human rights chief voiced alarm on Monday at the increasing detention of migrants in Europe, including unaccompanied children, amid widespread anti-migrant rhetoric across the continent. As Europe faces its biggest migration crisis since the aftermath of World War II, UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said he had sent staff members to assess ...