Politics

  Brussels / AFP Britain leaving the European Union would strip the bloc of a nuclear-armed global player and prove “disastrous” for its presence on the world stage, analysts say. The timing could hardly be worse, as the EU struggles with its biggest migration crisis since World War II and the continent facing a growing threat from terrorism fuelled by conflict ...

  BEIJING / AP A small explosion at a check-in area of Shanghai’s Pudong airport injured three people on Sunday, Chinese authorities said. The blast at China’s second-busiest airport occurred around 2:20 p.m. and appeared to have been caused by some sort of homemade explosive, the airport’s management said on its verified microblog account. It said the three injured people ...

  Seoul / AFP A salvage firm on Sunday began a difficult and costly operation to raise a sunken South Korean ferry which capsized at sea more than two years ago in a disaster that shocked and enraged the country. The Sewol was carrying 476 people when it sank off the southwestern island of Jindo in April 2014, with the ...

  Bloomberg Donald Trump returned to the combative form that helped him win the US Republican presidential nomination, slamming Democrats, calling for his party to unite behind him, and responding to Mitt Romney’s suggestion that his election could lead to “trickle-down racism.” At a rallyin Tampa, Florida, the presumptive Republican nominee termed himself “the least racist person that you have ...

  Bolivia / AFP Bolivia has arrested five people for allegedly coaching a boy to pretend he was President Evo Morales’ son, and paying his family, in a soap opera-style scandal that has riveted the country, officials said on Saturday. “The boy was told his entire education would be paid for, that he would be given a plot of land, ...

  Manila / AFP Philippine leader Benigno Aquino called on his countrymen on Sunday to fight attempts to take away their freedoms as he prepared to hand over power to president-elect Rodrigo Duterte, who has vowed to kill tens of thousands of criminals. Duterte won last month’s elections in a landslide largely on a pledge to suppress what he said ...

  Guatemala City / AFP Two former top Guatemalan cabinet ministers were arrested on corruption charges stemming from their tenure in the government of jailed ex-president Otto Perez, the Central American country’s attorney general said. They are alleged to have used their positions to illegally raise money that then was spent on lavish birthday gifts for Perez. The gifts allegedly ...

  Bloomberg Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri endorsed the Afghan Taliban guerrillas, a move that may boost the group’s insurgency in Afghanistan after President Barack Obama approved the expansion of the US military’s role in the war-plagued nation. Al-Zawahiri announced that he would “extend my pledge of allegiance” in a 14-minute online audio recording, Reuters reported on Saturday. “We’re still waiting ...

  Washington / AFP The coalition fighting the IS group in Syria may have accidentally hit allied rebels during an air strike at the end of last month, a US military spokesman said on Saturday. Coalition forces carried out three air strikes against tactical IS units and vehicles near Ma’ra on May 28, Centcom spokesman Colonel Patrick Ryder said in ...

  Dhaka / AFP Bangladesh police have arrested an additional 2,000 suspected criminals including militants in an ongoing crackdown on extremists following a spate of gruesome murders, an officer said on Sunday. More than 3,000 people, including suspected ordinary criminals with existing warrants against them, were arrested on Saturday after police launched a controversial anti-militant drive across the Muslim-majority nation. ...