Politics

Kiev / AFP One Ukrainian soldier was killed in clashes between pro-Russian rebels and government forces in the war-torn east, Ukraine’s military said Sunday. Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said the situation along the frontline was “insecure”, accusing the rebels of violating a shaky truce agreement over the past 24 hours. He said the soldier had died in a sniper ...

Bloomberg Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was re- elected for a fifth term, extending his 30-year rule over the East African nation in polls marked by opposition arrests and international concern over the vote’s credibility. The former guerrilla commander won 60.75 percent of Thursday’s vote, renewing his mandate to govern the continent’s biggest coffee exporter as it plans oil production in ...

Rohtak / Afp Ten people have died in caste protests which triggered widespread arson and looting in a north Indian state, police said on Sunday, as New Delhi faced a water crisis after mobs shut down a key supply. Thousands of troops with shoot-on-sight orders were deployed on Saturday in Haryana state, a day after week-long protests turned violent with ...

Beirut / AFP Double car bomb attacks killed at least 57 people in Syria’s central city of Homs on Sunday as international efforts to bring about a ceasefire in the war-torn country floundered. More than 100 people were injured in the twin bomb attacks in the Al-Zahraa district, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor. Syrian state ...

Ankara / AFP Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has defended his country’s fight against Kurdish fighters in Syria as “legitimate defence”, after international powers urged Ankara to rein in its cross-border bombardments. Turkey has been shelling targets in northern Syria for the past week in a bid to stem the advances of a Kurdish-led coalition that has seized territory in ...

Beirut / AFP Moscow pledged to continue backing the Syrian government in its fight against “terrorism”, dashing hopes for a ceasefire the opposition said it would only back if the regime and its supporters hold fire. World powers have been pushing for a so-called cessation of hostilities to pave the way for renewed negotiations aimed at ending Syria’s war nearly ...

Amman / AFP US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday that a provisional agreement had been reached with Russia on the terms of a ceasefire in Syria. Kerry told reporters in the Jordanian capital Amman that he had spoken with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov again on Sunday on the terms of a ceasefire agreed by world powers earlier ...

Athens / AFP In its new mission in the Aegean to help Europe tackle its worst migration crisis in 60 years, NATO is wading into one of the world’s most contested seas. The Aegean has claimed the lives of hundreds of migrants in the past year, including scores of children. It has also been a habitual source of tension between ...

Columbia / AP After a week of bitter attacks, Republicans face off in South Carolina’s presidential primary, a contest that could determine Donald Trump’s strength as a front-runner and help clarify whether a more mainstream politician will ever emerge to challenge him. Democrats are holding a caucus on Saturday in Nevada, the first test for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders ...

Washington / Bloomberg President Barack Obama and thousands of other mourners paid respects to the late Justice Antonin Scalia as his flag-draped casket lay in the US Supreme Court’s ceremonial hallway. Pallbearers carried Scalia’s casket up the court’s marble staircase into the building as his somber, and in some cases tearful, former colleagues waited along with family members, former law ...