Politics

United Nations / AP The United Nations has retracted a statement saying Canada will resume contributing funds to the UN relief agency that aids and protects Palestinian refugees. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that the UN statement on the meeting of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau welcoming the restart of funding for UNRWA was an early draft ...

Khartoum / AFP Sudan warned on Thursday it could shut its border with South Sudan just weeks after reopening crossings, accusing Juba of backing insurgents battling Khartoum. South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011 under a peace deal that ended a 22-year civil war, but Juba and Khartoum have traded allegations the other is supporting rebels on their territory, ...

Bloomberg Large anti-government protests broke out in Brazil as President Dilma Rousseff’s bid to salvage her government by naming Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as chief of staff appeared to backfire. Only hours after Rousseff on Wednesday afternoon said she was bringing Lula to the government for his merit and not to shield him from a corruption probe, Federal Judge ...

Bloomberg The last time President Obama had a high court seat to fill, in 2010, Republicans singled out Federal Appeals Court judge Merrick Garland as their preferred choice. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, an influential GOP voice on judicial nominations, said publicly at the time that he’d gone so far as to recommend Garland to the president as “a consensus nominee” ...

Brussels / AFP European Union leaders began a difficult summit on Thursday to push for a crucial agreement with Turkey to curb the continent’s massive migration crisis despite threats by Cyprus to quash the deal. The proposed plan, which would make Turkey a central pillar of the divided EU’s response to the crisis, has been hailed by German Chancellor Angela ...

Rome / AFP Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has warned Western powers Libya could spiral out of control if they try to intervene militarily in the conflict-wracked North African state. Speaking in a rare interview, the military-backed ruler of one of the region’s biggest powers said the West and its allies should instead concentrate on strengthening the army of ...

Ankara / AFP German diplomatic missions and a school in Turkey were closed on Thursday for security reasons, the German consulate in Istanbul said, less than a week after a suicide car bomb attack in the capital. The measure concerns the German embassy in Ankara as well as the consulate and German school in Istanbul, it said on its website. ...

LONDON / AP A handful of UK lawmakers have warned US President Barack Obama not to intervene in the debate about whether Britain should remain in the European Union. In an open letter on Thursday, five lawmakers and Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-EU UKIP party, argue that interfering in the debate would mark an “unfortunate milestone” in Obama’s presidency. ...

Washington / AFP US President Barack Obama signed an order implementing UN-backed sanctions on North Korea after a nuclear test and missile launch this year, as Pyongyang promised reprisals. The White House said Obama had signed an executive order targeting the volatile hermit state’s energy, financial and shipping assets. The measures were agreed to at the United Nations in response ...

Ankara / AFP A radical Kurdish group with ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party on Thursday claimed responsibility for the suicide car bomb attack that killed 35 people in Ankara last weekend. The claim by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) came as Germany closed diplomatic missions and a school in Turkey Thursday over security concerns. In a statement on ...