Politics

  Kuala Lumpur / AFP Malaysia on Saturday received 68 Syrian refugees including 31 children out of a total of 3,000 it hopes to allow into the predominantly Muslim country with hundreds more expected soon. Last December, the Southeast Asian country accepted the first batch of 11 Syrian migrants who had relatives in Malaysia. Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi said ...

  Tehran /AFP Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged newly-elected lawmakers on Saturday to resist “schemes” from the West as parliamentarians met in Tehran for the first time since elections finished in April. “The turbulent state of the region and the world and the international adventurism of oppressors and their vassals have confronted the Islamic Iran with conditions more ...

  Beirut / AFP US-backed Syrian fighters and Iraqi forces on Thursday pursued twin assaults against the IS group, but experts warned the battles will be drawn out. The offensives on key regions of IS-held territory are the two most significant ground efforts against the extremists since they formed a self-styled “caliphate” in 2014. In Syria, an alliance backed by ...

  Paris / AFP France and Egypt will hire two private firms to help in the hunt for the black boxes from the EgyptAir plane that crashed last week on route from from Paris to Cairo, the French foreign ministry has said. ‘We are in talks with two private companies… in coordination with the Egyptian authorities,’ a ministry spokesman said, ...

  BAGHDAD / AP Iraq’s prime minister appealed on Thursday to Iraqis to postpone weekly Friday protests so that security forces can focus on a key military operation aimed at retaking the city of Fallujah from the IS group. For months, anti-government protesters, mainly followers of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada Al Sadr, have been holding protests every Friday outside Baghdad’s heavily ...

  Ise-Shima / AFP Turkey must uphold its side of a deal made with the European Union over stemming the flow of migrants, a top EU official said on Thursday, warning ‘threats’ against the bloc will not work. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Ankara must ease strict anti-terror laws if it wants its citizens to enjoy visa-free travel on ...

  Ise-Shima / AFP The Taliban is unlikely to come to the table for peace talks with the government of Afghanistan ‘anytime soon’, despite the organisation’s new leadership, US President Barack Obama said on Thursday. Obama told reporters in Japan, where he is meeting with other leaders of the Group of Seven nations, that he expected the extremist movement to ...

  Hasakeh / AFP Before extremists seized his hometown and turned his school into a prison, Syrian teenager Ahmad Mohammad never imagined he would be excited about sitting his final exams. After a long wait, the 17-year-old and around 650 other teenagers were bussed into the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakeh this month to finally try to obtain their school ...

  Geneva / AFP Syria was the most dangerous place for health care workers to operate last year, ahead of other conflict zones like the Palestinian territories, and Yemen, the World Health Organization said on Thursday. For the first time, the UN health agency provided comprehensive statistics on attacks on health care facilities and other violence directed at health workers ...

  Ise, Japan / AP Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is urging fellow leaders of the Group of Seven advanced economies to avert another global crisis by acting to rescue the faltering global recovery. Abe and his counterparts got down to business on Thursday after strolling through the grounds of Ise (Ee-say) Shrine, a tranquil, densely forested landmark that is ...