Politics

  Bangkok / AFP A Pakistani man suspected of starting a devastating factory fire in Karachi four years ago that killed 255 people has been arrested in Bangkok, Thai police said on Saturday. Abdul Rehman, 46, was detained at a hotel in the red light district Nana area of the capital on Friday evening, said Thailand’s Interpol chief. “Thai Interpol …

  Seoul/ AFP Hundreds of thousands of protestors marched in Seoul for the sixth-straight week on Saturday to demand the ouster and arrest of scandal-hit President Park Geun-Hye ahead of an impeachment vote in parliament. Organisers claimed a turnout of more than one million for the candlelight rally in the South Korean capital, while police put the number at just …

  Kabul / AFP US President-elect Donald Trump has assured Afghanistan’s leader in a phone call that his administration stands ready to up support to the country if necessary, a Kabul statement said. “If Afghanistan needs more security assistance, his administration, after assessing the needs, will focus on providing more security support,” the statement released by President Ashraf Ghani’s office read. …

  Colombo / AFP Police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse thousands of opposition-backed protestors outside parliament on Saturday as law makers debated the annual budget. Demonstrators led by loyalists of former president Mahinda Rajapakse held up traffic and blocked the main access to the parliament complex for several hours in the capital. Opposition lawmaker Ranjith Soysa said protesters …

  Maungdaw / AFP Malaysia accused Myanmar of engaging in the “ethnic cleansing” of its Rohingya minority on Saturday, as former UN chief Kofi Annan visited a burned out village in strife-torn Rakhine state. Tens of thousands of Muslim Rohingya have fled their homes since a bloody crackdown by the Myanmar army in the western state of Rakhine sparked by a …

  Bangkok / AFP A prominent Thai dissident was arrested under the country’s draconian royal defamation law on Saturday for sharing a BBC Thai profile of the new King Maha Vajiralongkorn on Facebook, supporters said. Thailand’s monarchy is protected from any criticism inside the kingdom by a harsh lese majeste law, use of which has skyrocketed since the military seized …

  Banjul / AFP Opposition candidate Adama Barrow hailed a “new Gambia” after he pulled off a stunning presidential election victory, putting an end to the 22-year rule of Yahya Jammeh. Jammeh—who has been frequently accused over the years of suppressing his opponents—conceded defeat on television, accepting that Gambians had “decided that I should take the backseat”. Official results earlier showed …

  New York / AFP More than 350 US universities are urging President-elect Donald Trump to change his mind and keep a program that lets hundreds of thousands of undocumented young people study and avoid deportation. Nicknamed “Dreamers,” they are the estimated 1.2 million young people who were brought to the United States illegally as children, grew up without US residency …

  Sydney / AFP Australia’s parliament was hit by a second day of protests by anti-offshore detention centre activists on Thursday with two people abseiling down the building to unfurl a banner reading “close the bloody camps now”. While the pair scaled Parliament House a dozen others waded into a forecourt pond and added red dye to symbolise blood while …

  London / AFP Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto on Thursday said that for more than three years it has faced an investigation by top US financial regulator SEC over a writedown of Mozambique assets. “In response to press reports regarding a US Securities Exchange Commission investigation, Rio Tinto confirms that it is cooperating with inquiries from the relevant authorities relating …