Politics

  Kenya / AFP Eritrea claimed on Thursday to have killed “more than 200” Ethiopians in a battle last week, one of the fiercest border clashes since a 1998-2000 war, while giving no mention of its own casualties. Each side blames the other for starting the two-day battle which broke out on Sunday, saying also that their rival suffered the most ...

  Taiwan / AFP An American man fatally stabbed himself with a pair of scissors in a Taiwan courtroom on Thursday during his sentencing on drug possession charges, raising questions over security failings. The man, named as 41-year-old Tyrel Martin Marhanka, is thought to have hidden the dismantled scissors inside a magazine to get past a metal detecting door, Changhua district ...

  ST. PETERSBURG / AP EU Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker warned Russia on Thursday that the 28-nation bloc will only lift its sanctions if the Kremlin fully implements a Ukraine peace deal. “The next step is clear, full implementation of the agreement—no more, no less,” Juncker told Russia’s main economic forum in Saint Petersburg ahead of a meeting with President ...

  Seoul / AFP South Korea said on Thursday it would resume salvage operations on the Sewol ferry next week, but underlined the enormous challenges posed by raising the vessel that sank in 2014 with massive loss of life. The Sewol was carrying 476 people when it went down off the southwestern island of Jindo, leaving 304—mostly school children—dead in ...

  Seoul / AFP South Korea on Thursday kicked off a live-fire naval exercise near its disputed sea border with North Korea — a move likely to fan already elevated military tensions with Pyongyang. The three-day exercise in the Yellow Sea is aimed at practising responses to simulated incursions by North Korean vessels and aircraft, the South’s navy said in ...

  Beijing / AFP China criticised US President Barack Obama on Thursday for hosting the Dalai Lama at the White House, despite efforts to avoid irking Beijing by holding the meeting off-camera and out of the public eye. Obama carried out what has become a political rite in Washington, spiriting the exiled Tibetan religious leader into the White House through ...

  Manila / AFP Incoming Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte will resume stalled peace talks with communist rebels next month, negotiators said, a step towards ending one of Asia’s longest insurgencies that has killed tens of thousands of people. The long-running talks collapsed in 2013, but Duterte had made a campaign pledge to revive the negotiations aimed at bringing a swift ...

  Washington / AFP Senate Democrats claimed a small victory early Thursday, forcing the US upper house to consider legislation to help keep guns out of the hands of terrorism suspects. The move, which could break a years-long logjam on gun control, follows demands for action after the weekend massacre of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Florida. Democrats ...

  Fallujah / AFP The IS group battled Iraqi forces and held civilians hostage on Wednesday to defend its bastion of Fallujah, where three weeks of fighting has forced tens of thousands from their homes. Security forces have retaken significant parts of southern Fallujah over the past two weeks and are now attacking the extremists in the Jbeil neighbourhood, officers said. ...

  HYDERABAD / AFP The southern Indian state of Telangana has declared a “high alert” for polio after an active strain of the virus was found in samples of sewage water in the state capital. RajeshwarTiwari, Telangana’s top health official, said on Wednesday that a vaccination drive will be launched next week after tests revealed the Type-2 polio virus in ...