Politics

Manila / AFP Militants fighting in the name of the IS group are escalating attacks in the southern Philippines, analysts said, deepening fears for the volatile region after its main Muslim rebel group failed to seal a peace pact. Gunmen who have pledged allegiance to the extremists controlling vast swathes of Iraq and Syria have instigated a series of deadly ...

Islamabad / AFP A top Pakistani official has said for the first time publicly that the Afghan Taliban’s leadership enjoys a safe haven inside his country, which Islamabad uses as a “lever” to pressure the group into talks with Kabul. The admission by Pakistan’s foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz comes after years of official denials by Islamabad that it offers ...

Bloomberg Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump emerged from Super Tuesday as the odds-on favourites to capture their parties’ presidential nominations, setting up a White House showdown between a longtime political stalwart and an electoral novice whose candidacy has rocked the Republican party. The pair each won seven states on their way to commanding victories yesterday, as Clinton used ...

Tukey / AFP Turkey on Wednesday denied claims that it was blocking NATO vessels deployed in the Aegean Sea from launching a mission to help stop the flow of migrants from Turkish shores to EU territory. “Turkey has been the mastermind” of the proposed mission— details of which have been held up by discord between Turkey and Greece—foreign ministry spokesman ...

Calais / AFP French demolition workers set about razing makeshift shelters in the “Jungle” migrant camp for a third day Wednesday under close watch of dozens of police officers equipped with water cannon. The destruction of the southern half of the sprawling shantytown in the northern port city of Calais, where thousands of migrants and refugees have gathered in the ...

Manila / AP A Philippine official said on Wednesday that he recently spotted five suspected Chinese coast guard and navy ships at a disputed atoll in the South China Sea and fears Beijing will take control of another area frequented by Filipino, Vietnamese and Malaysian fishermen. Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon Jr., who heads a Philippine-claimed region in the disputed Spratly Islands, ...

Yangon / AFP Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya continue to languish in “dreadful conditions” with children dying because they are refused healthcare, the UN has warned, adding that the Muslim minority risked being forgotten in the afterglow of recent elections. The comments were made by a senior UN official following a visit to western Rakhine state, where the Rohingya have been targeted ...

BAGHDAD / AP Iraqi officials hailed on Wednesday the progress achieved by government troops on the second day of a military operation aimed at dislodging IS militants from a key area north of the capital, Baghdad. On Tuesday, Iraqi troops, backed by aerial support and paramilitary forces, launched a new push to retake a sprawling desert area outside the central ...

Irbid / AP Seven men killed in armed clashes with Jordanian special forces had ties to the IS extremist group and had planned attacks on military and civilian targets in the kingdom, the country’s intelligence service said on Wednesday. The deadly confrontations, sparked by an arrest raid, took place late Tuesday in the northern city of Irbid. The men killed ...

Beirut / AFP More than 1,700 civilians have been killed by Russian air strikes in Syria since Moscow’s air campaign began five months ago, a monitoring group said on Wednesday. “Since September 30, Russian air strikes have killed 4,408 people including 1,733 civilians,” the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The civilian toll included 429 children and 250 women. ...