Politics

DAKAR / AP The United Nations mission in Congo says it has received allegations of sexual abuse by Tanzanian peacekeepers based in northeast Congo. The statementsaid a response team has been dispatched to investigate Mavivi village where there is initial evidence of sex with minors and transactional sex, as well as paternity claims. It added that Tanzanian and Congolese authorities ...

Vietnam / AFP Lawmakers in communist Vietnam approved a top police general for the role of president on Saturday, making the head of a controversial domestic security force one of the country’s most high profile politicians. Tran Dai Quang won 91.5 percent of the votes during a ballot at the rubber stamp parliament early Saturday, having been nominated by party ...

Johannesburg / AFP A South African anti-apartheid veteran who was jailed with Nelson Mandela has urged beleaguered President Jacob Zuma to step down after a damning ruling found him in violation of the constitution. In an open letter seen Saturday, Ahmed Kathrada, 86, joined a growing chorus of leading figures calling for Zuma to leave office. The criticism comes after ...

Obock / AFP Under a scorching sun, refugees who fled Yemen’s war struggle on in a camp on Djibouti’s rocky shores, a year after Saudi-backed air strikes began devastating their homeland. Over 2,000 Yemenis have made the Markazi camp their home, fleeing the Arabian Peninsula to Djibouti across the narrow Bab Al Mandeb straits—the “Gate of Tears” in Arabic—the key ...

Istanbul / AFP Turkish authorities on Saturday raced to set up reception centres to process Syrian and other migrants two days ahead of the implementation of a hugely controversial deal with the EU for them to be sent back from Greece to Turkish soil. Turkey is due to start receiving migrants who crossed the Aegean Sea for EU member Greece ...

Bloomberg President Barack Obama said he was concerned that crackdowns against the press by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could lead his nation down a “troubling” path. The comments, which represented a rare pointed critique of the leader of a NATO ally, came the day after Turkish security officials clashed with protesters and reporters before Erdogan delivered a speech in ...

Bloomberg The Argentine government is asking China to revise a nuclear reactor accord signed by the previous administration as it seeks uranium providers from the US ahead of resuming output, two people with knowledge of the situation said. China is open to amending dam and nuclear energy contracts that it signed with the previous Argentine government administration, La Nacion reported. ...

Bloomberg President Barack Obama said recent statements by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump about letting South Korea and Japan have their own nuclear arsenals demonstrate he doesn’t know much about foreign policy “or the world generally.” Trump has suggested he’d be willing to overturn decades of US security policy by considering withdrawing US troops from Japan and South Korea if ...

United Nations / AFP The UN Security Council unanimously backed a resolution that lays the groundwork for deploying a UN police presence in Burundi to help quell nearly a year of violence. Drafted by France, the resolution tasks UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with drawing up within 15 days a list of options for the proposed police force, in consultation with ...

Bloomberg Azerbaijan stepped up attacks against Armenians in a disputed region of South Caucasus on Saturday, using artillery, tanks and air raids. One child was killed and two others wounded. The attacks, targeting civilian areas and military units across the contact line of Nagorno-Karabakh, came in response to Armenian shelling of Azeri areas, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said on its website. ...