Politics

  Johannesburg/ AFP Disgraced South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius will appear in court on Monday for a sentencing hearing set to send him back to jail for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp three years ago. The double-amputee killed Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, in the early hours of Valentine’s Day 2013, saying he mistook her for an intruder ...

  DHAKA/ AP Authorities have rounded up about 1,600 criminal suspects, including a few dozen believed to be radicals, in a nationwide crackdown aimed at halting a wave of brutal attacks on minorities and activists in Bangladesh, police said on Saturday. The attacks — including two Hindus in the last week — have alarmed the international community and raised questions ...

  BAGHDAD / AP Two suicide attacks in and outside the Iraqi capital killed at least 27 people and wounded dozens on Thursday, officials said. The deadliest attack took place in a commercial area of a majority Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad. At least 15 civilians were killed and 35 wounded, police said. Another suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into an ...

  Ankara / AFP Turkey’s prime minister ruled out talks with the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) after a spate of attacks blamed on the militants killed at least 17 people this week. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the outlawed group had made a bid for dialogue after almost a year of renewed violence that ended a two-and-a-half year truce, ...

  ANKARA / AP Turkey’s state-run news agency said US-led coalition airstrikes and Turkish artillery fire against IS group targets in Syria have killed 18 militants. Anadolu Agency, quoting unnamed security officials, said on Thursday that the IS targets were attacked after Turkish authorities on Wednesday determined that the extremist group was preparing to strike Turkey from northern Syria. It ...

  Aleppo / AFP Syrian rebels have reopened a vital supply line by capturing two villages from the IS extremist group as it came under pressure on a range of fronts in Syria and Iraq. IS has controlled large areas of both countries since declaring its self-styled “caliphate” in 2014 but is losing territory in the face of separate assaults. In ...

  Paris / AFP France deployed special forces in northern Syria to advise the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighting the IS group, a defence ministry official said on Thursday. “The offensive at Manbij is clearly being backed by a certain number of states including France. It’s the usual support —it’s advisory,” the official said, without giving further details on the ...

  London / AFP Brexit campaigners accused the government of trying to rig the EU referendum and threatened legal action on Thursday as former London mayor Boris Johnson squared up for the campaign’s first TV debate. British MPs prepared to approve emergency legislation to extend voter registration—a move that has infuriated the “Leave” camp because many late requests have been from ...

  Tokyo / AFP A Chinese naval ship sailed into waters surrounding disputed East China Sea islands for the first time early Thursday, prompting Tokyo to summon the Chinese ambassador to protest, the Japanese government said. Russian naval ships were also seen in the area around the same time. A Chinese naval vessel entered waters surrounding the Tokyo-administered isles, called ...

  Washington / AFP Hillary Clinton savored history as the first woman to claim the US presidential nomination for a major party, taking stock before a bruising war for the White House against Donald Trump. Eight years after she was defeated by Barack Obama, Clinton declared a historic milestone for women on the biggest night of her more than three-decade ...