Politics

  MOSCOW / AP Claims by President Donald Trump that his phones were wiretapped by his predecessor, Barack Obama, during the 2016 election campaign are a purely domestic matter for the United States, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday. The claim came amid revelations about contacts between Trump aides and Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., both ...

  MANILA / AP A retired Philippine police officer testified on Monday that President Rodrigo Duterte and his men were linked to nearly 200 killings that the officer and a “death squad” carried out when Duterte was mayor of a southern city. Arturo Lascanas outlined at a Senate inquiry some of the key killings he and others allegedly staged “with ...

  BERLIN / AP Germany’s government on Monday condemned remarks by Turkey’s president accusing officials of “Nazi practices,” days after a local authority prevented a Turkish minister from addressing a rally there. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statements “absolutely unacceptable.” “Germany cannot be outmatched regarding the rule of law, tolerance and liberalism,” he ...

  KUALA LUMPUR / AP Malaysia said on Sunday that its expulsion of North Korea’s ambassador was intended to warn Pyongyang that it cannot manipulate the investigation into the killing of the North Korean leader’s half brother. The government on Saturday gave Ambassador Kang Chol 48 hours to leave the country after he refused to apologize for his strong accusations ...

  KENT / AP Police in a Seattle suburb say they are seeking a white gunman after an Indian Sikh man reported he was shot in the arm and told to “go back to your own country.” India’s foreign minister said on Twitter early Sunday that the victim is identified as Deep Rai and that he told police he was ...

  BENGHAZI / AP Libyan armed forces based in the east launched more airstrikes against militias that seized oil terminals a day earlier, a spokesman said, accusing troops from the country’s rival west of launching a war. Three strikes hit vehicles and targets in the area around the al-Sidra and Ras Lanuf terminals, where at least nine soldiers were killed ...

  DUBAI / AP Bahrain on Sunday approved a constitutional change allowing military courts to try civilians, the kingdom’s latest rollback on reforms made after its 2011 Arab Spring protests that likely will stoke an ongoing government crackdown on dissent. Activists warn the amendment will allow an undeclared state of martial law on the island near Saudi Arabia that’s home ...

  BEIRUT / AP A UN humanitarian agency says some 66,000 people have been displaced in five months of fighting in Syria’s crowded northern battlefield. Turkish, Syrian government, Syrian opposition, and autonomous Kurdish-led forces have all been jostling for territory formerly held by the IS group near the Turkish-Syrian frontier, as preparations are being made to attack the extremists’ de ...

  SRINAGAR / AP Anti-India protests erupted in Indian-controlled Kashmir following a fierce gunbattle in which two rebels and a counterinsurgency policeman were killed, police said Sunday. Government forces, acting on a tip, encircled a civilian home in the southern Tral area overnight, said police chief S.P. Vaid. He said fighting erupted after militants hurled grenades and fired automatic rifles ...

  BAGHDAD / AP Iraqi troops encountered the “heaviest” clashes yet with IS group fighters Sunday in western Mosul since the start of the new push more than two weeks ago, according to a senior commander. Maj. Gen. Haider al-Maturi of the Federal Police Commandos Division told The Associated Press that IS militants dispatched at least six suicide car bombs, ...