Politics

Jerusalem / AFP Israel is razing Palestinian homes and other buildings constructed with international aid at an “alarming” rate, the UN says, with more demolitions so far this year than in all of 2015. In total 121 structures funded partly or fully by international donors were demolished in the occupied West Bank between January 1 and March 2, overtaking the ...

Seoul / AFP South Korea on Tuesday accused North Korea of hacking the smartphones of government officials, and unveiled new sanctions on Pyongyang over its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said the North had stolen phone numbers and texts from the phones of dozens of key officials between late February and early March. ...

Kabul / AP Six months after fleeing a Taliban assault on her city, the owner of an Afghan radio station devoted to women’s rights is back home and returning to the airwaves. Zarghona Hassan is a lifelong activist and the founder of a radio station in Kunduz that until last year reached hundreds of thousands of listeners across northern Afghanistan, ...

Washington / AFP Voters in four US states headed to the polls on Tuesday to confirm or rein in Donald Trump’s status as clear Republican frontrunner in primary contests that Democrat Hillary Clinton hopes will further solidify her lead over Bernie Sanders. As the race for the White House heats up, the spotlight shifts to Michigan and Mississippi, where both ...

JERUSALEM / AP Israel on Tuesday refuted a White House claim that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “surprised” the Obama administration by cancelling a planned visit to Washington, saying that the White House knew Netanyahu was considering not coming. Netanyahu had been expected to visit later in March on a trip coinciding with a major pro-Israel group’s annual summit, but his ...

CANBERRA/ AP The US Air Force will continue to fly daily missions over the South China Sea despite a buildup of Chinese surface-to-air missiles and fighter jets in the contested region, with both nations’ militaries in discussions to avoid any miscalculations, a top US general said on Tuesday. Gen. Lori Robinson, the commander of the Pacific Air Forces, also urged ...

Tehran / AFP Iran conducted multiple ballistic missile tests on Tuesday in an exercise to demonstrate “deterrent power,” a move that comes in defiance of US sanctions imposed over its missile programme in January. The announcement by the official IRNA said the tests showed the country’s “all-out readiness to confront threats” against its territorial integrity. State television a short time ...

Kuala Lumpur / AFP Investigators probing what happened to flight MH370 said Tuesday the cause of the plane’s disappearance remained a mystery as the second anniversary passed with devastated next-of-kin still grasping for answers. The Malaysia-led international team of aviation experts set up to investigate issued an annual progress report but the brief statement had no new insights on what ...

Flint / AFP With the Democratic presidential nomination in sight, Hillary Clinton sought to repel sharp attacks from party rival Bernie Sanders, while training some fire on Republican frontrunner Donald Trump. “Donald Trump’s bigotry, his bullying, his bluster are not going to wear well on the American people,” Clinton said in a sometimes testy debate with Sanders sponsored by CNN ...

London / AFP Brussels is to propose centralising claims for asylum in the European Union as it struggles to address Europe’s biggest migration crisis since World War II, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. The European Commission will make the proposal as part of a radical overhaul of its refugee policy to be announced at a summit of EU leaders ...