Politics

  Islamabad / AP Afghan and international forces freed the kidnapped son of a former Pakistani prime minister during a raid on an Al-Qaeda cell in Afghanistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan said Tuesday, three years after he was kidnapped in a hail of bullets. Ali Haider Gilani, son of Yousaf Raza Gilani, was “released from the terrorists” during the raid in ...

  Jerusalem / AFP Israeli authorities have refused to renew the travel documents of a leader of a campaign to boycott the Jewish state, officials said on Tuesday. Omar Barghouti is one of the most prominent campaigners in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which campaigns for a global boycott of Israel until, amongst other demands, the country withdraws ...

  Pyongyang / AFP North Korea’s first ruling party congress for nearly 40 years formally endorsed leader Kim Jong-un’s policy of expanding the country’s nuclear arsenal, as South Korea on Monday dismissed his proposals for military talks and improved ties. The congress, which opened on Friday, has largely been seen as an elaborate coronation for the 33-year-old Kim, securing his status ...

  Tehran / AP Iran test-fired another ballistic missile, the latest in a spate of tests following the implementation of the nuclear deal with world powers earlier this year, according to a report Monday by the country’s semi-official Tasnim news agency. The test-firing of the missile, with a range of 2,000 kilometers, or 1,250 miles, was carried out two weeks ...

  KIGALI / AP A Rwandan government official says at least 49 people have been killed by landslides in the country’s north following heavy rains on Saturday and Sunday. Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs Minister Seraphine Mukantabana told The Associated Press Monday that torrential rains in the area about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the capital, Kigali, had destroyed several ...

  Aden / AFP Yemen’s president has criticised what he called the “unacceptable” expulsion from Aden of hundreds of people originating from the north, after loyalists drove Iran-backed rebels out of the southern city. “The individual acts of expelling citizens of Taez and other cities (from Aden) is unacceptable,” President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi said late Sunday, quoted by the official ...

  JAFFA / AFP An Israeli soldier went on trial before a military court on Monday, charged with manslaughter after he was caught on video fatally shooting a wounded Palestinian attacker in the West Bank two months ago. The rare case of an active serviceman being charged has polarized Israel, with defense officials criticizing the soldier’s conduct and large segments of ...

  Brussels / AFP Belgium on Monday began the trial of seven alleged extremists accused of links to the terror cell behind the Paris and Brussels attacks. The men were arrested after a deadly raid in the Belgian town of Verviers in January 2015 which exposed an alleged plan to kill police officers. A further nine people who are still ...

  Manila / AFP Anti-establishment firebrand Rodrigo Duterte was heading on Monday for a huge win the Philippine presidential elections, according to a poll monitor, after an incendiary campaign dominated by his profanity-laced threats to kill criminals. Duterte, the longtime mayor of the southern city of Davao, had hypnotised millions with his vows of brutal but quick solutions to the nation’s ...

  BUCHAREST / AP Romania’s defense minister says three Afghan citizens have been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of two Romanian soldiers and the injury of a third. Defense Minister Mihnea Motoc said on Monday that the Romanians were training Afghan police officers on Saturday morning near Kandahar when two men wearing Afghan police uniforms who were “probably ...