Politics

  Sydney / AFP Investigators were on Tuesday examining two more pieces of debris for clues to the fate of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, along with marine life found on two other items which “almost certainly” came from the lost jet. The latest two pieces—one found in South Africa and another on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius—were brought to ...

  BEIRUT / AP Fighting intensified on Tuesday in northern and central Syria as government forces sought to repel rebel advances on a government stronghold. A chief opposition negotiator meanwhile said the conditions on the ground were not conducive to political talks. Rebels and activists reported fighting in rural parts of northern Latakia province, a government stronghold, one day after ...

  London / AFP A replica of one of the most iconic monuments destroyed by IS extremists in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra was being unveiled in London’s Trafalgar Square on Tuesday. The six-metre-tall scale recreation of the Triumphal Arch is made of Egyptian marble and was carved in the northern Italian region of Tuscany using precision digital technology ...

  Bloomberg Dilma Rousseff’s presidency is hanging by a thread after Brazil’s lower house of Congress voted in favor of her impeachment, a decision that’s likely to cheer investors just as it threatens to bring down the curtain on 13 years of leftist rule. The opposition garnered 367 votes, 25 more than the two-thirds majority it needed to send the ...

  NEW YORK / AFP US presidential hopefuls launched a final campaign swing through New York on Monday on the eve of the state’s most decisive primary in decades as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump lead the polls and their rivals fight to catch up. Registered Democrats and Republicans go to the polls in the country’s fourth most populous state ...

  Moscow / AP The powerful chief of Russia’s equivalent to the FBI on Monday called for sweeping new rights restrictions, including curbing Internet freedoms and making it illegal to question Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. The head of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin backed a radical crackdown citing the need to counteract the “destructive” influence of the United ...

  Tripoli / AFP Libya’s parliament was set on Monday for a crucial confidence vote on a new unity government, as Britain’s Philip Hammond became the latest top diplomat to land in Tripoli in support of the UN-backed administration. Hammond flew into Tripoli on a surprise trip, hot on the heels of visits last week by the foreign ministers of ...

  MINAMIASO / AP US airlifts were delivering water, bread, ready-to-eat food and other emergency supplies on Monday to a remote area of southern Japan stricken by two powerful earthquakes, as local rescuers searched for 10 people still reported missing. Authorities said at least 42 people died and more than 1,000 were injured in the quakes on Thursday and early ...

  Beijing / AFP Beijing landed a military plane on a disputed South China Sea reef it has built up into an artificial island, officials said on Monday, in the first confirmation of such a flight. An air force plane landed on Fiery Cross reef in the Spratlys archipelago on Sunday to evacuate sick workers, a news report posted online ...

Baghdad / AFP US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter visited Baghdad on Monday for talks on stepping up the fight against the IS group in Iraq, where the US has deployed troops to fight the extremists. Carter’s visit comes after a week of political turmoil that has been a setback for Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi, and the US defence ...