Politics

Geneva / AFP No foreign power should be permitted to interfere in the ongoing Syrian peace talks in Geneva, the lead government negotiator said, denying that high-level US-Russian meetings in Moscow will impact the process. “When we say that the dialogue must be between Syrians, without outside intervention, this also applies to the Russians and Americans,” Bashar Al Jaafari said. ...

Aden / AFP A US air strike on an Al Qaeda training camp in southeastern Yemen killed at least 40 militants, a provincial official and a tribal source said on Wednesday. Another 25 militants were wounded in the Tuesday strike on the camp in Hajr, west of the Hadramawt provincial capital Mukalla, the provincial official said. The Pentagon had spoken ...

Beirut / AFP Three suspected IS members arrested in Turkey were planning attacks on Germany’s diplomatic missions or schools in the country, which were closed last week over a terror threat, Turkish media reported on Wednesday. The three men—a Turk, an Iraqi and a Syrian—were arrested in Istanbul on Tuesday by police acting on information from both Turkey’s and Germany’s ...

Naypyidaw / AFP Taiwan on Wednesday gave its first ever international press tour of a disputed island in the South China Sea to boost its claim, less than two months after a visit by its leader sparked protests from rival claimants. Taiping is the largest island in the Spratlys chain and is administered by Taiwan, which sees it as part ...

Seoul / AFP North Korea threatened a “miserable end” for South Korea’s president and her American allies on Wednesday, in its latest colourfully worded attack. Pyongyang declared it would wage a “retaliatory battle of justice” against Park Geun-hye, with its artillery units standing ready to turn her office into a “sea of flames and ashes”. “What the DPRK warns is ...

Brussels / AFP Two suicide bombers who struck Brussels were identified on Wednesday as brothers linked to the prime suspect in the November 13 Paris attacks, as a manhunt for a third assailant in Belgium’s bloodiest terror assault gained pace. A day after the triple blasts that killed some 35 people and left around 250 injured, in an operation claimed ...

Sydney / AFP Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Wednesday that Europe had “allowed security to slip”, as he questioned the EU’s Schengen passport-free zone in the wake of the Brussels attacks. Turnbull’s comments came as Belgium’s neighbours France, Germany and the Netherlands tightened border security after some 35 people were killed in Belgium’s worst extremist assault. Security at ...

Paris / AFP France’s prime minister on Wednesday said there was an “urgent need” to tighten controls on the European Union’s external borders after deadly bombings in Brussels claimed by the IS group. “There is an urgent need to strengthen the external borders of the European Union,” Manuel Valls told French radio. Heightened vigilance was required to stop people crossing ...

Brussels / Bloomberg Brussels Airport will remain closed on Wednesday as terrorism investigators sift through the site seeking evidence in the twin bombing attacks a day ago that killed at least 31 people. “Because the forensic investigation is still under way, we currently have no access to the building,” the airport said in a statement on its website. “It is ...

Moscow / AFP Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday called for Europe to drop its “geopolitical games” and unite behind efforts to fight terrorism, a day after attacks in Brussels killed around 30 people. “I really hope that Europeans, in the face of the terrible threat of terrorism that occurred yesterday in Brussels, will put aside their geopolitical games ...