Politics

  Seoul / AFP Ban Ki-moon arrived in South Korea on Wednesday for a six-day visit that has fuelled speculation the UN chief is lining up a tilt at the presidency of his home country. Ban’s schedule involves a number of international gatherings, including a peace forum in the southern island of Jeju where he arrived late afternoon on a ...

  Beijing / AFP The disputed rocks and reefs of the South China Sea are more than an ocean away from the landlocked African nation of Niger. But that has not stopped the strife-ridden, largely desert country of 17 million people adding its voice to a growing diplomatic chorus that Beijing says supports its rejection of an international tribunal hearing ...

  BAGHDAD / AP Even as Iraq slowly claws back territory from the IS group, faith in the government is crumbling among many, particularly the country’s Shiites, angered by political disarray and the continual pounding of the capital, Baghdad, by militants’ bombings. Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi triumphantly announced the beginning of operations to retake the IS-held city Fallujah, promising over ...

  BAGHDAD / AFP Iraqi officials say clashes between government forces and the IS group outside the city of Fallujah have briefly subsided. The Iraqi troops are engaged in the second day of a large-scale military operation to drive the militants out from their stronghold west of Baghdad. In nearby Garma, Mayor Ahmed Al Halbosi says engineering teams are clearing ...

  Tripoli / AFP Libyan coastguards said they detained 550 people trying to reach Europe illegally by boat on Tuesday, the second time in three days they have intercepted migrants in the same area. “Coastguards in the west who were patrolling off the Zawiya refinery on Tuesday intercepted four large inflatables carrying around 550 illegal migrants,” navy spokesman Colonel Ayoub ...

  Sanaa / AFP A bomb hit a university campus in the rebel-held Yemeni capital Sanaa killing two people at an event commemorating the country’s 1990 unification, a security official said. Several people were also seriously wounded, the official said, adding that death toll was likely to rise. The event was organised by the Houthi Shiite rebels who have controlled ...

  Beirut / AFP Washington and Moscow scrambled to salvage Syria’s shaky ceasefire on Tuesday as the country reeled from extremist bombings that killed more than 160 people in President Bashar Al Assad’s coastal heartland. A regime offensive outside the capital has severely strained an already fragile nationwide ceasefire between the regime and non-jihadist rebels intended to pave the way ...

  Ankara / AFP Turkey’s incoming Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Tuesday unveiled his new cabinet line-up two days after being given a mandate by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with most key ministers keeping their jobs but the EU minister switched. The new cabinet is packed with Erdogan loyalists following the resignation of outgoing premier Ahmet Davutoglu, but contained fewer ...

  Idomeni / AFP Hundreds of Greek police on Tuesday began clearing the squalid Idomeni camp, a migrant flashpoint on the Macedonia border where thousands of people have been camped out for more than three months. The overcrowded camp packed with desperate refugees and migrants has become a potent symbol of the human suffering and chaos as Europe struggles to ...

  Jakarta / AFP Indonesia must use forensic experts to help with exhuming suspected mass graves from 1960s anti-communist massacres to preserve crucial evidence and identify victims, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged on Tuesday. The rights group said it had written to the government about the matter after authorities announced this month they would form a team to investigate what ...