Politics

  SEOUL / AP The American-led UN command on Saturday dismissed as unsubstantiated accusations from North Korea that US troops at a border village tried to provoke its frontline troops with “disgusting acts.” A North Korean military statement warned US soldiers to stop what it called “hooliganism” at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom or they’ll meet a “dog’s death ...

  Ukraine / AFP Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed in fresh fighting between government forces and pro-Russian rebels in the east even as a new truce took effect, Kiev said on Saturday. “As a result of hostilities, over the past 24 hours two Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and four others wounded,” Ukraine’s military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists. The ...

  Mexico / AFP There were no tears and their faces were hardened by 19 months of grief and anger as the parents of 43 Mexican students who vanished in 2014 marched in the capital. Less than two years ago, they would have been surrounded by tens of thousands of people as they protested against President Enrique Pena Nieto’s handling of ...

BEIRUT / AP A wave of nighttime airstrikes hit a hospital in Syria supported by Doctors Without Borders and nearby buildings in the rebel-held part of the contested city of Aleppo, killing at least 38 people as the UN envoy for Syria appealed early Thursday on the US and Russia to help revive the peace talks and a cease-fire, which ...

  Paris / AFP A highly contested EU deal with Turkey may not be ideal, but it is the only solution to stem the migration crisis, the bloc’s Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Christos Stylianides said on Thursday. The deal in which Turkey agrees to take back certain migrants fleeing to Greece in exchange for visa-free travel in the EU has angered member ...

  BRUSSELS / AP Turkey’s crackdown on the media and reported human rights abuses are pushing the country further away from Europe even as it hopes to join the European Union, a senior EU official said on Thursday. European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans told EU lawmakers that “the distance between us and Turkey is not decreasing, it is increasing.” “If ...

  Rome / AFP Italy and Austria were set for showdown talks on Thursday as Italian politicians and media reacted furiously to Vienna’s new anti-migrant measures that could close the border between the two countries. Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka, who has vigorously defended the controversial package which was driven by a surge of the far right, was due in ...

  Aden / AFP A suicide bomber targeted the police chief of Yemen’s second city Aden on Thursday in the latest attack against senior officials in the base of the Saudi-backed government, a security official said. The bombing came after loyalist forces backed by a Saudi-led military coalition seized the key southeastern port city of Mukalla and the nearby airport ...

  Jerusalem / AFP Growing safety fears surrounding Israel’s largest but ageing atomic research centre have provoked fresh questions over its future and a dilemma over the secrecy of the country’s alleged nuclear arsenal. Israel, believed to be the Middle East’s sole nuclear power, has long refused to confirm or deny that it has such weapons. The Haaretz newspaper reported ...

  ATLANTA / AP Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s claim that Hillary Clinton is playing “the woman’s card” has drawn intense backlash, from the Democratic front-runner herself as well as tens of thousands of critics on social media. “If fighting for women’s health care and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the ‘woman card,’ then deal me in,” ...