Politics

  Washington / AFP Hillary Clinton captured the mostly symbolic Democratic primary in the US capital, the final vote of the 2016 presidential primaries, as the race shifts to her showdown with Republican rival Donald Trump. Clinton won nearly 79 percent of the vote against 21 percent for Bernie Sanders, with nearly all votes counted, according to US networks. It ...

  Beijing / AFP US President Barack Obama was to meet the Dalai Lama at the White House on Wednesday, a move condemned by China which portrays the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader as a dangerous separatist. Obama has met the Dalai Lama several times before and calls the monk “a good friend,” but the pair will—as usual—talk behind closed doors ...

  Brussels / AFP NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday demanded that Russia withdraw its forces and military hardware from Ukraine and halt its support for pro-Moscow separatists battling Kiev. “Russia needs to stop supporting the militants and withdraw its forces and military equipment from Ukrainian territory,” Stoltenberg said after a meeting of NATO defence ministers with their Ukrainian counterpart ...

  Washington / AFP CIA lawyers sought guarantees the US spy agency would never be prosecuted for torturing suspects after the September 11, 2001 attacks, while other staff warned the program was an impending “train wreck,” documents showed. The correspondence provides a new glimpse into tussles within the CIA as it implemented its notorious “enhanced interrogation” techniques aimed at thwarting ...

  Seoul/ AFP North Korea may have produced an additinal six or more nuclear weapons over the past 18 months, possibly bringing its total arsenal to more than 21 bombs, a US think tank said. The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) based the estimates on the amounts of weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium the North is believed ...

  Pretoria / AFP A sobbing Oscar Pistorius walked hesitantly on his stumps around court Wednesday in a dramatic demonstration of his disability ahead of his sentencing for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Wearing shorts, the double-amputee removed his prosthetic limbs at the request of his lawyer Barry Roux as he made a final plea for Pistorius, who faces 15 ...

  Tokyo / AFP A Chinese spy ship entered Japan’s territorial waters on Wednesday, Tokyo officials said, less than a week after another of the rival’s naval vessels sailed near islands at the centre of a sovereignty dispute. Concerns over China’s rising military presence in Asian waters have sparked concerns in Japan, which administers islands in the East China Sea ...

  Geneva / AFP The number of unaccompanied children making the notoriously dangerous Mediterranean crossing aboard unseaworthy boats has more than doubled this year, the UN children’s agency said in a new report on Tuesday. Entitled “Danger every step of the way”, the UNICEF report said nine out of every 10 children arriving in Italy were unaccompanied minors, noting that more ...

  Thessaloniki / AFP Greek police on Tuesday cleared two more improvised migrant camps near its border with Macedonia, moving occupants to state-run facilities, officials said. Police in Greece’s second largest city Thessaloniki said the operation was ongoing in the makeshift camps, which had formed around a highway motel and a nearby petrol station. Many of the migrants are from ...

  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 ...