Politics

  Caracas / AFP Public outrage over sweeping new emergency powers decreed this week by President Nicolas Maduro was expected to spill onto the streets of Venezuela on Wednesday, with planned nationwide protests marking a new lowpoint in his unpopular rule. The demonstrations mark the strongest challenge yet to Maduro’s controversial declaration of a state of emergency. Opposition-led marches in ...

  Hong Kong / AFP Hong Kong protesters angry at a visit by a top Beijing official shouted pro-democracy slogans on Wednesday but were kept well away from a mission seen as an attempt to bridge the city’s growing political divide. The three-day trip by Zhang Dejiang, who chairs China’s communist-controlled legislature, is the first by such a senior official ...

  Vienna / AFP Senior envoys from world and regional powers gathered once again in Vienna on Tuesday in an effort to salvage stumbling efforts to halt Syria’s civil war. US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov—diplomacy’s odd couple, at loggerheads over much else in the world—are chairing the meeting, which began shortly after 0700 GMT. ...

  SYDNEY / AP A teenager was arrested on Tuesday after Australian police alleged he had been planning to launch a terrorist attack in Sydney. The 18-year-old was expected to be charged with planning a terrorist attack, the Australian Federal Police said. They said another charge — preparing to enter a foreign country to engage in hostile activities — was ...

  Kathmandu / AFP Nepal on Tuesday released a British tourist arrested for allegedly joining a protest against the country’s new constitution, days after a Canadian’s visa was revoked over his political tweets. Hundreds of demonstrators from ethnic minorities have been protesting in Kathmandu since Sunday, calling for changes to the divisive new charter which they say leaves them politically ...

  BAGHDAD / AP A car bomb ripped through an outdoor market in a Shiite-dominated Baghdad neighborhood on Tuesday, killing at least 39 people, officials said, the latest in a wave of deadly militant attacks far from the front lines in the country’s north and west where Iraqi forces are battling the IS group. No one immediately claimed responsibility for ...

  Ankara / AP The Turkish parliament on Tuesday began debating a hugely controversial bill that would strip dozens of deputies of their parliamentary immunity and which pro-Kurdish deputies say is directly aimed at driving them out of the legislature. The debates, which could prove fiery, are to begin at around midday GMT in the main chamber, with a final vote ...

  Seoul / AFP South Korea’s defence ministry said on Tuesday it was pushing to scrap nearly all existing exemptions to mandatory military service, citing a shortfall in the number of conscripts. Some 28,000 able-bodied men are exempted every year, either because of the nature of their academic studies, or because they opt to serve their time in the police ...

  Washington / AFP The State Department has urged Americans to avoid all travel to North Korea, warning that US citizens making the trip risk long and “unduly harsh” imprisonment if they fall foul of laws in the hermit state. At least 14 US citizens have been detained by Pyongyang over the past decade, according to Washington. “The State Department ...

  Hopkinsville / AFP Presidential primaries in Oregon and Kentucky on Tuesday were likely to avail Hillary Clinton a chance to bolster her almost insurmountable delegate lead over Democratic rival Bernie Sanders, who has vowed to slog on despite long odds. Sanders is gunning for victory in the Bluegrass State, building on his win last week in neighboring West Virginia ...