Politics

  Kiev / AP Seventeen people died when a makeshift home for elderly people outside the Ukrainian capital Kiev caught fire in the early hours of Sunday, the latest tragedy to shake the conflict-riven country. The fire tore through the two-storey shelter for the elderly which is in the village of Litochky, located some 50 kilometres (31 miles) north of ...

  Caracas / AFP Venezuelan officials and opposition foes have held separate secret meetings in the Dominican Republic with a group of ex-world leaders seeking a way out of political crisis, officials said, as an ex-military reserve leader was shot dead. Representatives of both sides of Venezuela’s political standoff met former Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, former Dominican ...

Vienna / AFP Austria’s far-right is probing “countless” cases of fraud in last week’s presidential election that saw its candidate lose by a narrow margin, the party chief was quoted as saying on Sunday. “We are going to get the countless indications (of irregularities) looked at by an independent, neutral body and then decide” whether to challenge the result, Freedom ...

  WASHINGTON / AP It started with Mexicans being publicly accused by presidential candidate Donald Trump of being criminals and rapists. It escalated to ejections, to sucker punches, to pepper spray. And now violence and strife seems to be a commonplace occurrence out on the campaign trail. As the 2016 presidential campaign turns toward the rapidly diversifying West, it has ...

  Tokyo / AFP US forces in Okinawa are to be put under night-time curfew for a month following the suspected rape and murder of a woman by a former US marine, officials said on Saturday. The announcement, part of a one-month “period of unity and mourning” comes after US President Barack Obama expressed his “deepest regrets” over the killing. ...

  Sydney / AFP Violence erupted in Australia’s second biggest city on Saturday after two opposing immigration rallies clashed in the streets, with police arresting seven people. Victoria state police condemned the behaviour of both anti-racism and anti-immigration demonstrators involved in the melees in the Melbourne suburb of Coburg. Hundreds of police attempted to keep the groups apart, and were ...

  HIROSHIMA / AP The survivors of the world’s first atomic bomb attack are used to hearing grand vows to rid the world of nuclear weapons. They just don’t usually come directly from the leader of the country that dropped the bomb on them in the first place. On Saturday, a day after Barack Obama left, there was gratitude — ...

NAGOYA / AP Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is sharing a push by the Group of Seven advanced industrial nations to promote inclusive growth across the globe in meetings with leaders of seven developing countries. The bilateral summit meetings with leaders of Bangladesh, Chad, Indonesia, Laos, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka and Vietnam in this central Japanese city on Saturday ...

  Paris / AFP Engaged in a fierce tug of war with unions and some of his own party over labour reforms, France’s embattled Prime Minister Manuel Valls has staked his political career on staring down the crisis. Valls finds himself in a devilish position, says Frederic Dabi of polling firm IFOP. “If he withdraws the law, he will no ...

Seoul / AFP North Korea on Saturday warned South Korea of “merciless retaliatory strikes”, a day after the South fired warning shots at North Korean boats near their disputed sea border. The North’s military General Staff said from now on it would open fire without warning at any South Korean ships if they intrude “even 0.001 millimetres” into disputed waters ...