Politics

  ISTANBUL / AP The European Union’s envoy to Turkey has resigned less than a year into the job, according to his office. The EU delegation in Ankara confirmed that Hansjoerg Haber was leaving his post, without giving any reason. Turkey was Haber’s first assignment as a German diplomat, between 1993 and 1996. He returned as European Union ambassador to ...

  YANGON / AP An official says a military helicopter has crashed in the jungle in northern Myanmar, killing three officers on board. The aircraft went down Tuesday in the jungle near Daik U town in Bago division, some 150 kilometers (120 miles) northeast of Yangon. Khin Lay Si, an official in the Daik U administration office, says the rescue ...

  Jerusalem / AFP Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a long-dormant Arab peace initiative with the Palestinians that he has spoken of reviving must be changed before Israel can support it. Netanyahu made the comments to members of his Likud party, Israeli media reported, after facing pressure from right-wing members of his cabinet over his recent comments on the Arab ...

  Dhaka / AFP Bangladeshi clerics said they have issued a fatwa against the killings of minorities and secular campaigners in the mainly Muslim country, where police have arrested over 10,000 people in a crackdown on militancy. Nearly 50 people have been killed over the last three years in a wave of gruesome attacks targeting Hindus, Christians, Sufi Muslims and ...

  Manila / AFP Philippine authorities on Tuesday confirmed that extremist guerrillas had beheaded a second Canadian hostage, as they defended their inability to save him despite months of pursuit. ” We strongly condemn the brutal and senseless murder of MrRobert Hall, a Canadian national, after being held captive by the Abu Sayyaf group in Sulu for the past nine ...

  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 ...