Politics

Dhaka/ AFP Some 20 million poor Bangladeshis are still drinking water contaminated with arsenic, two decades after the potentially deadly toxin was discovered in the supply, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday. A new report from the rights group said Bangladesh had failed to take the basic steps needed to tackle the problem which kills an estimated 43,000 Bangladeshis every ...

Matagis / AFP Azerbaijani and Armenian forces on Wednesday said they were largely observing a truce that halted four days of clashes which claimed scores of lives in the worst outbreak of violence in decades over the disputed NagornyKarabakh region. “The ceasefire was largely observed overnight along the Karabakh frontline,” the Armenia-backed separatist defence ministry in Karabakh said in a ...

Moscow / AFP Ukrainian military pilot Nadiya Savchenko, convicted over the killing of two Russian journalists, began a hunger strike without water on Wednesday to demand her return to Ukraine, her lawyer said. Lawyer Mark Feigin wrote on Twitter that Savchenko had started a “dry” hunger strike—refusing both food and water—on Wednesday morning, after posting a letter from her demanding ...

Romania / AFP Two workers from an Israeli intelligence company have been arrested in Romania for trying to intimidate the head of the national anti-corruption agency and hacking e-mails, officials said on Wednesday. An arrest warrant was issued on Sunday for Belgian David Geclowitz and Israeli-born Ron Weiner, who holds a French passport. Both work for Israeli firm Black Cube. ...

Brussels / AFP The European Union launched a drive on Wednesday to overhaul the EU’s asylum rules to more fairly share responsibility for an unprecedented influx of migrants despite resistance within the 28-nation bloc. The European Commission, the EU executive, unveiled options to reform the rules two days after Greece began to expel migrants to Turkey under a controversial deal ...

Tokyo / AFP US military bases remain essential to Japan’s security, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in an interview on Wednesday, as he brushed off comments by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump that Tokyo should be left to defend itself. Japan’s alliance with Washington has been the bedrock of its defence since the end of World War II, and the ...

Brazil / AFP Brazilian President DilmaRousseff’s battle to cling to power enters a crucial phase on Wednesday as lawmakers hear a motion on whether there are grounds to impeach her. A congressional committee has wrapped up its preliminary sessions and will now hear lawmaker JovairArantes present his recommendation on whether congress should vote to open an impeachment trial. He is ...

Iraq / AP Fighting between Iraqi forces and militants affiliated with the IS group close to Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, has displaced over 2,000 people in the past week. On one recent night, around a hundred people arrived on the outskirts of the town of Makhmour, in Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region, having fled violence. The journey ended in ...

India / AFP A special court in India has sentenced 47 policemen to life in prison for killing a group of Sikh pilgrims in 1991 whom they had claimed were militants, a prosecutor said on Tuesday. The officers were convicted of shooting dead the pilgrims to try and earn promotions in Uttar Pradesh state which at the time was hit ...

Ankara / AFP German Chancellor Angela Merkel will next week inaugurate a new centre for Syrian refugees in the southeastern Turkish city of Kilis built with EU funds, Turkey’s prime minister said on Tuesday. “We are going to inaugurate a school and a hospital built in Kilis thanks to EU financing with European leaders led by Mrs Merkel,” said Turkish ...