Politics

  MANILA / AP At least nine people were killed on Tuesday in a gunbattle between Philippine forces and suspected Abu Sayyaf militants on a central resort island, far from the extremists’ southern jungle bases and in a region where the U.S. government has warned that the gunmen may be plotting kidnappings, officials said. Military officials said at least five ...

  BERLIN / AP Ercan Karakoyun looks twice over his shoulder when he leaves his Berlin home to make sure nobody is following him. Karakoyun is a follower of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames for an attempted military coup in Turkey last summer. The 37-year-old, who is the public face of the Gulen movement ...

  GENEVA / AP The UN refugee agency on Monday took the rare step of urging European Union members to suspend returns of asylum-seekers to their partner, Hungary, faulting its new policy of systematically placing migrants in containers and expelling any migrants not holding the proper papers. UNHCR says that since a tough new law took effect on March 28, ...

  CAIRO / AP Egyptian Christians were burying their dead on Monday after IS suicide bombers killed at least 45 people in attacks on Palm Sunday services in two cities, as a state of emergency went into effect amid fears of further violence. At least 17 people were killed at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Alexandria, the historic seat of Christendom ...

  Bloomberg Western powers are weighing new sanctions on Russia and Syria for a deadly chemical attack last week, as leaders seek to present a united front ahead of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to Moscow. “The game has now been changed and it’s important that message should be heard from the Americans to the Russians,” British Foreign Secretary ...

  TANTA / AP Bombs exploded at two Coptic churches in different cities in northern Egypt as worshippers were celebrating Palm Sunday, killing at least 43 people and wounding about 100 in an assault claimed by the IS group. The blasts came at the start of Holy Week leading up to Easter, and just weeks before Pope Francis is due ...

  WASHINGTON / AP Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says the US missile strikes against a Syrian air base in retaliation for a chemical weapon attack carries a message for any nation operating outside of international norms. He didn’t specify North Korea, but the context was clear enough. “If you violate international agreements, if you fail to live up to ...

  SRINAGAR / AP Security forces in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir opened fire on Sunday on crowds of people who attacked polling stations where voting for a by-election was taking place, killing five and injuring at least a dozen, officials said. Protesters tried to snatch or damage electronic voting machines in at least a dozen places in the districts ...

  BEIRUT / AP Turkey described the US missile attack on an air base as a “cosmetic intervention” unless it removes President Bashar Assad from power, while the Syrian leader’s strong ally Iran called on Saturday for the formation of an international fact-finding committee to investigate the chemical weapons attack in a northern Syrian town that killed scores of people ...

  STOCKHOLM / AP The suspect in Stockholm’s deadly truck attack is a 39-year-old native of Uzbekistan who had been on authorities’ radar previously, Swedish officials said on Saturday. The prime minister urged citizens to “get through this” and strolled through the streets of the capital to chat with residents. Swedes flew flags at half-staff on Saturday to commemorate the ...