Politics

Seoul / AFP South Korean activists on Monday launched tens of thousands of anti-Pyongyang leaflets into North Korea for the second time in three days, amid heightened military tensions on the divided peninsula. The conservative activists, including many North Korean defectors, used gas-filled balloons to float 100,000 leaflets criticising North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un over the heavily militarised border. Some ...

Bloomberg Rebels who control the Yemeni capital Sanaa have released nine Saudis in exchange for 109 Yemenis, the Riyadh-led coalition fighting them said on Monday, in the latest sign of tensions easing before peace talks. “Nine Saudi prisoners have been recovered and 109 Yemenis who were arrested in the military operations zone” near the border have been handed over, the ...

Damascus / AFP Syrian forces strengthened their hold on Palmyra on Monday and pushed forward against the IS extremist group after dealing it a major blow by retaking the ancient city. Antiquities director Maamoun Abdulkarim said that with UNESCO’s approval the treasured monuments damaged or destroyed by the extremists could be restored in five years. Government troops and allied militia, ...

WASHINGTON / AP Bernie Sanders scored three wins in Western caucus contests, giving a powerful psychological boost to his supporters but doing little to move him closer to securing the Democratic nomination. While results in Washington, Alaska and Hawaii barely dented Hillary Clinton’s significant delegate lead, Sanders’ wins underscored her persistent vulnerabilities within her own party, particularly with young voters ...

Lahore / AFP At least 56 people were killed and more than 200 injured when an apparent suicide bomb ripped through the parking lot of a crowded park in the Pakistani city of Lahore where Christians were celebrating Easter on Sunday, officials said. Dozens of ambulances were seen racing to the park, situated near the centre of the city of ...

Brussels / AFP Belgians gathered on Sunday in solidarity and defiance in central Brussels to remember victims of the country’s worst-ever terror attacks as prosecutors charged a second man over a foiled attack in France. As mourners gathered at a square which has been transformed into a shrine to the victims of Tuesday’s attacks on the airport and the metro ...

Kuala Lumpur / AFP Leaders from across Malaysia’s political spectrum said on Sunday they plan to present a petition to the country’s Islamic royalty seeking the removal of scandal-plagued Prime Minister Najib Razak over a corruption crisis. The highly unusual grouping of heavyweights from the ruling party, the opposition and civil society groups was formed in early March, when it ...

Damascus / AP Syrian government forces backed by Russian airstrikes drove IS fighters from Palmyra on Sunday, ending the group’s reign of terror over a town whose famed 2,000-year-old ruins once drew tens of thousands of visitors each year. Government forces had been on the offensive for nearly three weeks to try to retake the central town, known among Syrians ...

Jerusalem / AP Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the military on Sunday following uproar over footage of a soldier lethally shooting a Palestinian attacker who had already been shot and subdued. Netanyahu said the incident in question does not reflect the military’s conduct, and that criticism of the armed forces as a whole over the incident is “outrageous and ...

Dhaka / AFP Four Bangladeshis have been killed in gunfights between rival groups in the war-torn Libyan city of Benghazi, a minister said on Sunday. State minister for foreign affairs Shahriar Alam said he did not yet have full details on the dead. Alam said embassy officials had received three bodies and they were being stored in a hospital in ...