Politics

  Los Angeles / AFP A California man was sentenced to 32 months in prison for conspiring to skirt US sanctions against Syria by sending tactical military equipment to extremists in the war-torn country. Amin Al Baroudi, 50, a Syrian-born naturalized US citizen, pleaded guilty in January to purchasing tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of tactical equipment, including night …

Mogadishu / AFP Shabaab extremists in Somalia have publicly executed four men they accused of spying, including one they claimed helped kill their supreme leader in a US drone strike, the Al-Qaeda-linked group and local sources said on Saturday. The executions took place on Friday evening in a village in the Bay region in the centre of the country, the …

  Tripoli / AFP Forces allied with Libya’s unity government said on Saturday they had recaptured the port in the extremist stronghold of Sirte from IS group fighters who are now surrounded inside the city. The fall of Sirte, the hometown of ousted dictator Moamer Kadhafi, would be a major setback to the extremists who have also lost territory in …

  Johannesburg/ AFP Disgraced South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius will appear in court on Monday for a sentencing hearing set to send him back to jail for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp three years ago. The double-amputee killed Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, in the early hours of Valentine’s Day 2013, saying he mistook her for an intruder …

  DHAKA/ AP Authorities have rounded up about 1,600 criminal suspects, including a few dozen believed to be radicals, in a nationwide crackdown aimed at halting a wave of brutal attacks on minorities and activists in Bangladesh, police said on Saturday. The attacks — including two Hindus in the last week — have alarmed the international community and raised questions …

  BAGHDAD / AP Two suicide attacks in and outside the Iraqi capital killed at least 27 people and wounded dozens on Thursday, officials said. The deadliest attack took place in a commercial area of a majority Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad. At least 15 civilians were killed and 35 wounded, police said. Another suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into an …

  Ankara / AFP Turkey’s prime minister ruled out talks with the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) after a spate of attacks blamed on the militants killed at least 17 people this week. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the outlawed group had made a bid for dialogue after almost a year of renewed violence that ended a two-and-a-half year truce, …

  ANKARA / AP Turkey’s state-run news agency said US-led coalition airstrikes and Turkish artillery fire against IS group targets in Syria have killed 18 militants. Anadolu Agency, quoting unnamed security officials, said on Thursday that the IS targets were attacked after Turkish authorities on Wednesday determined that the extremist group was preparing to strike Turkey from northern Syria. It …

  Aleppo / AFP Syrian rebels have reopened a vital supply line by capturing two villages from the IS extremist group as it came under pressure on a range of fronts in Syria and Iraq. IS has controlled large areas of both countries since declaring its self-styled “caliphate” in 2014 but is losing territory in the face of separate assaults. In …

  Paris / AFP France deployed special forces in northern Syria to advise the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighting the IS group, a defence ministry official said on Thursday. “The offensive at Manbij is clearly being backed by a certain number of states including France. It’s the usual support —it’s advisory,” the official said, without giving further details on the …