Politics

Damascus / AFP The United Nations prepared to deliver aid to thousands of besieged civilians in Syria on Monday as a fragile ceasefire entered its third day largely intact despite accusations of violations. UN humanitarian coordinator Yacoub El Hillo said the world body hoped to take advantage of the first major truce in five years of conflict to distribute supplies ...

Mogadishu / AFP At least 30 people have been killed in twin bomb attacks claimed by Shebab extremists at a busy restaurant in the Somali city of Baidoa, the regional governor said on Monday. “The official number of the dead has reached 30 people—all of them civilians—and 61 others have been wounded, 15 of them seriously,” Abdurashid Abdulahi, governor of ...

Narobi / AFP The UN said on Monday it will send a team of human rights investigators to Burundi to look into allegations of widespread violations committed during the country’s 10-month long crisis. The three investigators are due to visit Burundi for a week from March 1, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a ...

Rawalpindi / AFP Thousands protested in Pakistani cities on Monday against the execution of a man hailed by hardlines as a hero for killing a provincial governor who was seeking reform of the blasphemy law. Protests against the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri were held in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and several smaller cities, with demonstrators burning tyres and chanting slogans. But ...

Tehran / AFP Iranian hardliners suffered another election setback on Monday with two leading conservatives ejected from the top clerical body, handing another victory to moderate President Hassan Rouhani whose reformist allies made gains. The public’s rejection of ayatollahs Mohammad Yazdi and Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi when picking the powerful Assembly of Experts came as final results were also awaited for ...

Bloomberg Hillary Clinton scored a dominating victory over Bernie Sanders in South Carolina’s Democratic primary with the overwhelming support of black voters, helping solidify her path to the party’s nomination heading into Tuesday’s 11-state round of contests that represent the biggest prize of the 2016 primary campaign. “Tomorrow, this campaign goes national,’’ Clinton said in her victory speech in Columbia. ...

Los Angeles / afp Three people were stabbed, one of them critically, and 13 others were arrested in California when a Ku Klux Klan (KKK) rally erupted into clashes with counter-protesters, witnesses and police said. Around midday, half a dozen members of the white hate group, whose ranks still number several thousand in the United States, arrived at the protest ...

Dublin / AFP Ireland waited for the final results on Sunday of an election that has left the eurozone country in limbo, ejecting Prime Minister Enda Kenny’s governing coalition but offering no clear alternative. First results from Friday’s vote indicated Kenny’s Fine Gael party and its junior partner, Labour, will no longer have a parliamentary majority—but neither will any other ...

Athens / AFP Some 6,500 people were stuck at the Idomeni camp on Greece’s northern border with Macedonia after four Balkan countries announced a daily cap on migrant arrivals. The build-up began in earnest last week after Macedonia started refusing entry to Afghans and imposed stricter document controls on Syrians and Iraqis, slowing the passage of migrants and refugees to ...

Damascus / AFP Key players in Syria’s war traded accusations on Sunday over violations of the first major ceasefire in the five-year conflict, but the truce remained largely intact on its second day. Aid groups hope to use the lull in fighting that has claimed 270,000 lives and displaced more than half the population to deliver desperately needed supplies. A ...