Politics

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 ...

Brussels / AFP A series of explosions ripped through Brussels airport and a metro train on Tuesday, killing around 35 people and injuring more than 200 in the latest attacks to rock Europe. Security was tightened across the jittery continent and transport links paralysed after the bombings that Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel branded “blind, violent and cowardly”. “This is ...

BRUSSELS / AFP A series of explosions ripped through Brussels airport and a metro train on Tuesday, killing around 35 people and injuring more than 200 in the latest attacks to rock Europe. Security was tightened across the jittery continent and transport links paralysed after the bombings that Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel branded “blind, violent and cowardly”. “This is ...

Naypyidaw / AFP Aung San Suu Kyi was nominated as a cabinet minister in Myanmar’s civilian government on Tuesday, giving the democracy champion a formal position despite being blocked from the presidency in a nation ruled for decades by the military. The Nobel laureate, who has vowed to rule above the next president Htin Kyaw, was named first in a ...

Geneva / AFP The UN refugee agency on Tuesday harshly criticised an EU-Turkey deal on curbing the influx of migrants to Greece, saying reception centres had become “detention facilities”, and suspended some activities in the country. “Under the new provisions, these sites have now become detention facilities”, the UNHCR said in a statement. “Accordingly, and in line with our policy ...

Brussels / AFP The US and Cuban presidents expressed hope for the improving relationship between their nations even as they underscored deep differences over human rights and governance, in an extraordinary news conference punctuated by Raul Castro’s critique of the American social safety net and an awkward miscue on a closing handshake. “After more than five very difficult decades, the ...

Kunduz / AP The new commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan apologized on Tuesday to the people of Kunduz for the deadly attack on a hospital in the city last year that killed 42 people. US Army Gen. John Nicholson traveled to the northern city to meet local leaders and relatives of those who died in the Oct. ...