Politics

  London / Bloomberg Sadiq Khan of Britain’s main opposition Labour Party took over as London’s first Muslim mayor on Saturday, facing down critics who used his religion against him by vowing to “represent every single community” in the capital. Khan’s election is a challenge to the rise of anti-Muslim rhetoric by right-wing politicians including French National Front leader Marine ...

  Srinagar / AFP Hundreds of villagers clashed with police in restive Indian-administered Kashmir on Saturday after three armed militants were killed in an early morning gunbattle with government forces, the army and witnesses said. Soldiers and special operations officers cordoned off Panzgam village, about 35 kilometres (22 miles) south of the main city of Srinagar, before dawn after receiving a ...

  BEIJING / AP China’s navy is searching for 17 sailors after their fishing boat collided with another vessel. The official China News Service said on Saturday that two other sailors have been rescued by another fishing boat following the pre-dawn crash. Three navy ships operating in the East China Sea off the coast of Zhejiang province were diverted to ...

  Beijing / AFP Sanctions that have pinched North Korea’s health care system should be eased, a group of Nobel laureates said on Saturday, after a rare visit to the nuclear armed state that coincided with its ruling party congress. Embargoes on the flow of goods into the isolated country have squeezed the quality of medical care and research, they ...

  WASHINGTON / AP Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s derision of his political opponents draws hearty boos of support at rallies. That he castigates as many Republicans as Democrats is another sign of the fractures within the GOP. Trump shrugs off the high-profile Republicans who have stated they aren’t voting for him, among them former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ...

  PARIS / AP The most unpopular president in France’s modern history, Francois Hollande, is preparing the ground for a potential re-election bid. His leftist base is in open revolt, protesting youth are clashing with police nearly every night, and France is in a six-month state of emergency — yet he is on a new mission to convince the French ...

  Aleppo / AFP Displaced families returned home and schools reopened in rebel-held districts of Syria’s Aleppo on Saturday after a temporary truce was extended for 72 hours in the battleground northern city. Residents trickled back into eastern areas of Aleppo, encouraged by a halt in the deadly violence that hit last month, an AFP reporter said. More than 300 civilians ...

  Kathmandu / AFP Nepal has recalled its ambassador to India and cancelled an upcoming visit by its president to New Delhi, officials said on Saturday, further straining ties between the two neighbours after months of tension. Deep Kumar Upadhyay was recalled to Kathmandu late Friday after allegedly siding with the Nepali Congress opposition in supporting a threat by the Maoist ...

  Rabat / AFP A Moroccan court sentenced the younger brother of suspected Paris attacks ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud to two years in prison on charges including justifying terrorism, state media reported. According to his lawyer, Yassine Abaaoud was unaware of the activities of his brother, who was killed in a French police raid just days after the November 13 attacks ...

  Washington / AFP The Pentagon acknowledged for the first time that it has deployed US troops to Yemen since the country’s collapse last year to bolster government and Arab coalition forces battling Al-Qaeda. Spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said the US military has also stepped up air strikes against fighters with Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). A “very ...