Politics

  RICHMOND / AFP Four former Iraqi detainees who say they were tortured at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison are asking a federal appeals court to revive their lawsuit. A three-judge panel of the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in the case on Thursday in Richmond, Virginia. The former detainees sued CACI Premier Technology Inc., an ...

  BRUSSELS / AP The European Union has decided with immediate effect to allow Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway to keep border controls in place for up to six months to deal with the migrant influx. EU headquarters said in a statement on Thursday that the controls should be “targeted and limited in scope, frequency, location and time, to what ...

  BRUSSELS / AP Germany’s foreign minister says “the ball is in Turkey’s court” as the Turkish government and the European Union face off over conditions for Turkish citizens to be granted visa-free travel to Europe. The visa waiver is one of the incentives offered by the EU for Turkey to stop migrants leaving for Europe and take back those who ...

  Washington / AFP The White House is considering lifting a decades-old arms embargo against Vietnam in time for President Barack Obama’s visit to the booming Southeast Asian nation this month. As both countries warily eye China’s military build-up in the disputed South China Sea, officials said Obama is weighing an end to the Cold War-era ban on lethal weapons ...

  DEVESELU / AP A US missile defense site in Romania aimed at protecting Europe from ballistic missile threats becomes operational on Thursday, angering Russia which opposes having the advanced military system in its former area of influence. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is due to speak at a ceremony later attended by US, NATO and Romanian officials to mark the ...

  Manila / AFP Philippine communist rebel leader Jose Maria Sison has expressed hopes of ending nearly three decades in exile under the new presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, a potentially explosive homecoming opposed by senior military figures. Sison, now 77, fled to Europe soon after peace talks failed in 1987 and has stayed abroad since, while one of Asia’s longest-running ...

  Paris / AFP France’s already unpopular Socialist government faces a no-confidence vote Thursday after it bypassed parliament and forced through a labour reform bill that has led to two months of demonstrations. The government said it would resort to the controversial move in the face of fierce opposition from within President Francois Hollande’s own party that was set to ...

  Brasília / AFP Brazil’s Senate on Wednesday launched a pivotal debate on the future of President Dilma Rousseff, who faces likely suspension and an impeachment trial that could end 13 years of leftist rule in Latin America’s biggest country. Even allies of Rousseff, 68, said she had no chance of surviving the vote, expected later in the day after ...

Rio De Janeiro / AP Like Brazil itself, Dayse Lima’s family is deeply split over the political firestorm threatening to force President Dilma Rousseff from power. Lima, a 54-year-old government worker and staunch Rousseff supporter, got so angry at her son Gustavo for bashing the president that she stopped speaking to him. Gustavo, a 27-year-old energy analyst who lived with ...

  Manila / AFP After proposing a jet-ski mission to defend remote islands against China, daring the United States to sever ties and joking about burning Singapore’s flag, Rodrigo Duterte is set for a wild foreign policy ride as the next Philippine president. The firebrand politician stormed to victory in national elections this week using an incendiary brand of populism ...