Politics

  Washington / AFP US authorities and Internet giants are boosting attempts to counter the IS group’s online propaganda, though it is unclear how effective these efforts are in hampering the extremists’ public-relations machine. With calls to holy war and highly produced videos of IS fighters in battle or killing captives, the IS group has long used the Internet and ...

  Jeddah / AFP US Secretary of State John Kerry held talks in Saudi Arabia on Sunday to secure its support ahead of a potential showdown with Russia at talks on the Syrian conflict. After his Saudi meetings, Kerry was due to fly to Vienna which this week will host the international contact groups engaged in efforts to halt fighting ...

  LAREDO / AP A charter bus headed to a casino crashed in far South Texas, killing eight people and injuring about 40 in a one-vehicle rollover, officials said. Webb County spokesman Larry Sanchez said seven people died at the scene on US Highway 83 north of Laredo, the Laredo Morning Times reported. An eighth person died later at a ...

  Proschim / AP German police said on Sunday they arrested 120 people following violent clashes between environmental activists and security personnel at anti-coal demonstrations in the east of the country. A police spokeswoman said the clashes occurred on Saturday in Lausitz when around 300 demonstrators forced their way into the Schwarze Pumpe coal-fired power station belonging to Swedish state-owned ...

Sydney / AFP Five young men face life behind bars after they were charged with terrorism offences over a plan to sail to Indonesia to join extremist groups in Syria, Australian police said. The men, aged in their twenties and early thirties and whose passports had been cancelled, included notorious Australian Islamic preacher Musa Cerantonio, who was detained in the ...

  Karang/ AFP Senegal and The Gambia will hold talks on Sunday aimed at ending a three-month border blockade that has created shortages of essential daily items on both sides of the frontier. Gambian authorities slapped a hundred-fold hike on fees for trucks entering its territory—which is completely surrounded by Senegal—without warning in February, infuriating Senegalese drivers who are now ...

Port-au-Prince / AFP The UN Security Council expressed “deep disappointment” with electoral gridlock in Haiti, a day in which the country had been slated to inaugurate a new president but did not due to an indefinitely postponed vote. Haiti’s presidential election has been repeatedly postponed, with the most recent vote, scheduled for April 24, never materializing and officials setting no ...

  Beirut / AFP Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah on Saturday blamed extremists for killing its top military commander in Syria and vowed to keep fighting to defend President Bashar Al Assad’s regime. The movement has deployed thousands of fighters in Syria where Mustafa Badreddine had led its intervention in support of Assad’s forces, which are also backed by Russia and ...

  NEW DELHI / AP A court in India’s capital ruled Saturday that there’s enough evidence in a stalking and sexual harassment case for former UN climate chief Rajendra Pachauri to stand trial. Judge Shivani Chauhan announced that the next hearing in the case will be on July 11, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. Police filed charges against ...

  New Delhi / AFP Gunmen shot dead two journalists in 24 hours in separate incidents in eastern India, police and local reports said on Saturday, the latest media killing in Asia’s deadliest country for reporters. Rajdeo Ranjan, the local bureau chief for Hindi-language daily Hindustan, was travelling on his motorcycle late Friday in Bihar state when a group of ...