Politics

  Rio De Janeiro / AFP Brazil’s top prosecutor has asked the Supreme Court to open a probe into alleged obstruction of justice by President Dilma Rousseff, Brazilian media reported, in a potentially explosive twist to the country’s political crisis. According to reports in the Globo, Folha de Sao Paulo and Estadao dailies, chief prosecutor Rodrigo Janot has requested authority to ...

Moscow / AFP Russia’s defence minister said on Wednesday that Moscow will set up three new divisions in the west and south of the country by the end of the year to counter NATO forces close to its border. “The defence ministry is taking a range of measures with the aim of countering the build-up of NATO forces in close proximity ...

  Harare / AFP Drought-hit Zimbabwe has invited local farmers and private game rangers to buy wild animals as it destocks national game reserves to save fauna from starvation, the wildlife authority said Wednesday. Parks and wildlife authority spokeswoman Caroline Washaya said it has asked individuals and private game keepers to step in and buy wild animals “in the light ...

  London / AFP The Scottish National Party heads into regional elections on Thursday hoping to strengthen its clout and secure a mandate to demand independence if Britain leaves the European Union. Victory in the vote could allow the SNP to consolidate a historic triumph in general elections in May 2015, when it swept 56 out of Scotland’s 59 seats ...

  Moscow / AFP Desperate efforts to salvage Syria’s ceasefire shifted to Moscow on Tuesday as the country’s battered second city of Aleppo came under fresh fire that killed at least four people. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was due to hold talks with UN envoy Staffan de Mistura in the Russian capital in a last-ditch bid to rescue peace negotiations that ...

  Kuwait City / AFP The UN envoy has met delegates of Yemen’s warring parties separately in a bid to restart peace negotiations after a protest walkout by the government, the United Nations said on Tuesday. The government delegation quit on Sunday in protest at the rebels’ seizure of one of the few loyalist army bases in the northern mountains in ...

  TEHRAN / AP Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has rallied for more freedom of speech in his country, saying government critics should not be imprisoned. Rouhani says that “critics should not be detained, critics should not be sent to jail.” He spoke at the annual Tehran International Book Fair on Tuesday. The remarks, which underscored Rouhani’s 2013 election promises of ...

  Yangon / AP A major fire on Tuesday damaged or destroyed the homes of nearly 450 Rohingya Muslim families living in a camp for people displaced by 2012 communal fighting in western Myanmar. The charred remains of wooden shelters and twisted metal roofs were visible through a thick haze of smoke after the fire broke out in the early ...

  Brussels / AFP The EU is set to give conditional approval on Wednesday for Turks to gain visa-free access to the Schengen zone, sources said, meeting a key demand by Ankara to keep a migrant crisis deal alive. The European Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation EU, will say Turkey must still meet further measures to access the ...

  SHATI REFUGEE CAMP / AP Each day, millions of gallons of raw sewage pour into the Gaza Strip’s Mediterranean beachfront, spewing out of a metal pipe and turning miles of once-scenic coastline into a stagnant dead zone. The sewage has damaged Gaza’s limited fresh water supplies, decimated fishing zones, and after years of neglect, is now floating northward and ...