Istanbul /Â AFP A car bomb on Sunday hit the Turkish city of Gaziantep, a major refugee hub near the Syrian border, killing at least two policemen and wounding 22 other people, with the country on edge after a succession of militant attacks. In a separate attack in the province of Mardin to the east, three Turkish soldiers died in ...
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Iraq declares emergency after Green Zone breach
Bloomberg Iraq declared a state of emergency in Baghdad after supporters of Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr breached Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone and stormed parliament to protest against corruption and the country’s political paralysis. Mobile-phone video footage broadcast on Iraqi televisions showed hundreds of Al Sadr’s supporters inside the legislature on Saturday. Al-Sadr earlier accused lawmakers of sectarianism in ...
Read More »10 Indonesian hostages freed in Philippines
Zamboanga / AFP Ten Indonesian sailors held hostage by Abu Sayyaf militants were freed in the southern Philippines on Sunday, officials said, less than a week after the gunmen beheaded a Canadian captive. Unknown men delivered the 10 tugboat crewmen outside the home of provincial governor Abdusakur Tan Jnr on the remote island of Jolo during a heavy midday ...
Read More »Car bombings kill 33 in Iraq
BAGHDAD / AP Militants on Sunday unleashed dual car bomb attacks in southern Iraq, killing at least 33 people and wounding dozens, officials said, at a time when the country’s government is struggling with mounting public unrest in the capital over delays in promised reform plans. A police officer said two parked explosives-laden cars were detonated within minutes of ...
Read More »Ukraine accuses separatists of violating Easter armistice
MOSCOW/ AP The Ukrainian government says one soldier has been killed and several troops wounded in the country’s east in what seems to be a violation of a recently brokered armistice. Both sides in the deadly conflict between government forces and Russia-backed separatists had agreed to observe a cease-fire with the start of the Orthodox Easter and May Day ...
Read More »Brussels Airport departure hall reopens after attacks
BRUSSELS /Â AP The Brussels Airport is reopening its departure hall for the first time since deadly extremist attacks on March 22. The airport had already resumed some flights but passengers had been using a temporary check-in tent because of extensive damage to the departure hall from the twin suicide bombings that killed 16 people. Passengers on select flights will ...
Read More »French far-right father-daughter feud disrupts tradition
PARIS/ AP Jean-Marie Le Pen, a founder and the decades-long leader of France’s far-right National Front, declared Sunday that his daughter, the party president who has expelled him, will lose next year’s presidential race if she fails to unify the party. The bitter division between the 87-year-old and his daughter Marine Le Pen, 47, played out Sunday with the ...
Read More »4 die in attack on Aden top cop
Aden / AFP Four Yemeni guards were killed in a bombing that targeted the convoy of Aden’s police chief, officials said, the second such attack on him in the southern city this week. A bomb-laden car in Aden’s Mansura district exploded as General Shallal Shayae’s convoy passed, damaging military vehicles and prompting clashes between his guards and Al-Qaeda suspects ...
Read More »Refugee influx spurs German justice to tackle Syrian war crimes
Berlin / AFP Germany will on Tuesday start its first war crimes trial over atrocities in Syria, as a mass refugee influx brings not only witnesses and victims but also suspects into the country. Aria L., a 21-year-old German national and suspected extremist, posted on Facebook photos of himself posing next to two decapitated heads in Syria—and his case ...
Read More »Trump backers yell foul over loss at Arizona GOP
PHOENIX / AFP Texas Sen. Ted Cruz pulled out a strategic victory at the Arizona Republican Party convention, nailing down a large majority of delegates to the national convention amid cheating accusations from backers of businessman Donald Trump. The Cruz slate won virtually all of the 28 at-large national delegates and roughly split the 27 delegates selected by congressional ...
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