Politics

  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 ...

  PYONGYANG / AP North Korea paraded its intercontinental ballistic missiles in a massive military display in central Pyongyang on Saturday, with ruler Kim Jong Un looking on with delight as his nation flaunted its increasingly sophisticated military hardware amid rising regional tensions. Kim did not speak during the annual parade, which celebrates the 1912 birthday of his late grandfather ...

  Bloomberg US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov vented disagreements after hours of talks in Moscow while signaling that neither side is giving up on improving relations soured by Russian hacking and deepening differences over Syria. Tillerson’s first trip to Russia as the top US diplomat was so freighted with tension that the Kremlin ...

  BEIRUT / AP A misdirected airstrike by the US-led coalition earlier this week killed 18 allied fighters battling the IS group in northern Syria, the US military said on Thursday. US Central Command said coalition aircraft were given the wrong coordinates by their partner forces, the predominantly-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, for a strike intended to target IS militants south ...

  CAIRO / AP At least 97 African migrants are missing and believed drowned after their Europe-bound boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea on Thursday, the Libyan coast guard said. Spokesman Ayoub Gassim said 23 migrants were rescued around 6 miles (10 kilometers) off the Libyan coast after authorities received a distress call. Fifteen women and five children are among ...

  Bloomberg President Vladimir Putin began talks with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the Kremlin after pushing back against demands that Russia abandon Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad over a chemical-weapons attack. Putin is meeting with Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the Kremlin after the two top diplomats held talks on Wednesday in Moscow, presidential spokesman ...