Politics

  NEW DELHI / AP India’s top court on Wednesday ordered four senior leaders of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party to stand trial over a 1992 attack on an ancient mosque that sparked Hindu-Muslim violence that killed thousands. A lower court had earlier dropped conspiracy charges against the four in a case that has languished in India’s sluggish ...

  Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Theresa May called for an early election on June 8, seeking a personal mandate and parliamentary backing to take her through Brexit talks. The pound surged. The Conservatives have a 21-point lead, according to a recent poll and May — who became prime minister without an election — is betting she can extend the slim ...

  TOKYO / AP The US will not relent until it achieves its objective of ensuring the Korean Peninsula is free of nuclear weapons, Vice President Mike Pence said on Tuesday while visiting Japan. After meetings with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other leaders, Pence told reporters that President Donald Trump was confident that economic and diplomatic pressure has a ...

  RIYADH / AP The Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen says one of its helicopters has crashed in eastern Yemen, killing 12 Saudi officers. The coalition says the crash took place in the eastern province of Marib on Tuesday and that it’s investigating the circumstances. It happened as US Defense Secretary James Mattis arrived in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, ...

  BELGRADE / AP Russian and Serbian officials say Serbia is seeking a Russian air-defense system in addition to fighter jets and battle tanks. Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has said he negotiated the purchase of the S-300 anti-aircraft rockets during his recent talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Although Serbia claims it wants to be part of the European ...

  Bloomberg Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in a referendum to increase his powers as opposition parties contested the result. With 98 percent of ballots counted, Turks approved the most radical constitutional overhaul since the republic was founded 93 years ago by 51.3 percent to 48.7 percent, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency. Erdogan will have authority ...

  BEIRUT / AP More than 3,000 Syrians are expected to be evacuated on Sunday from four areas as part of a population transfer that was briefly stalled the day before by a deadly blast that killed scores of people, most of them government supporters. The United Nations is not overseeing the transfer deal, which involves residents of the pro-government ...

  AP President Donald Trump asserted on Sunday that China was working with the United States on “the North Korea problem,” and his vice president told American and South Korea service members that the North’s latest “provocation,” a failed missile launch shortly before his arrival in Seoul, laid bare the risks they face. While the North did not conduct a ...

  BEIRUT / AP Syrian TV said at least 39 people were killed on Saturday in an explosion that hit near buses carrying people evacuated from a besieged area of government loyalists. A war monitor put the death toll at 24 in the area controlled by opposition fighters. The explosion was caused by a car bomb, according to Syrian TV ...

  Bloomberg An Iraqi military officer says IS militants have launched a gas attack in a newly-liberated area in western Mosul. The officer with the anti-terrorism forces said on Saturday that the attack occurred the night before in the al-Abar neighborhood, when IS fired a rocked loaded with chlorine. He said seven soldiers suffered breathing problems and were treated in ...