Politics

  ISTANBUL / AP Turkish officials say 26 people have been detained following a car bomb attack, which killed two people in the southeast of the country. The car bomb exploded near the lodgings of judges and prosecutors in the mainly Kurdish town of Viransehir in Sanliurfa province, bordering Syria. Footage from the scene showed a heavily damaged building and ...

  MUNICH / AP UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says that the US decision to block a former Palestinian prime minister from leading the UN political mission in Libya was “a serious mistake.” Washington blocked the proposed appointment of Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Authority’s prime minister from 2007 to 2013, a week ago. It said it was acting to support its ...

  MUNICH / AP Vice President Mike Pence vowed on Saturday that the United States will “hold Russia accountable” even as President Donald Trump searches for new common ground with Moscow at the start of his presidency. Pence, in an address to the Munich Security Conference, also offered assurances to European allies that the US “strongly supports” NATO. He said ...

  Bloomberg Russia is testing NATO’s willingness to respond to provocation ahead of an expected meeting between President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump, according to Estonian Defense Minister Margus Tsahkna. Russia’s build-up of forces and violations of international law, including in Ukraine, show the need for members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to increase spending on ...

  MOSCOW / AP Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has reacted angrily to comments of US Secretary of Defense James Mattis who on Wednesday spoke of the need to negotiate with Russia “from a position of strength. The statement came just hours before Gen. Joe Dunford and Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the US and Russian Chiefs of Staff, were to hold ...

  BRUSSELS / AP Germany has signed a series of agreements with its NATO partners to jointly buy transport aircraft and submarines and develop new weapons. Details of the agreements seen by The Associated Press Thursday show Germany aims to buy eight Airbus A330 transport planes along with the Netherlands and Luxembourg if Norway and Belgium also sign up. NATO ...

  NICOSIA / AP The leader of ethnically divided Cyprus’ breakaway Turkish Cypriots has walked out of a meeting with the Greek Cypriot president amid ongoing reunification talks. It’s unclear why Mustafa Akinci left Thursday’s meeting with Nicos Anastasiades and what this means to the months-long peace process. Tensions have been high this week following strong Turkish Cypriot protests against ...

  YANGON / AP Myanmar’s national security adviser says the military has ended its four-month counterinsurgency operation in troubled Rakhine state, where it had been accused of rape, torture and other abuses against Muslim Rohingya minority residents. A statement issued on Thursday by the office of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi quoted newly appointed national security adviser Thaung Tan ...

  WASHINGTON / AP David Friedman, the firebrand attorney President Donald Trump picked to be his ambassador to Israel, faces a rocky confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after Trump signaled a dramatic shift in strategy for pursuing peace in the Middle East. Friedman’s hearing, scheduled for Thursday, already promised to be contentious. The son of an Orthodox ...

  KUALA LUMPUR / AP Malaysian authorities on Thursday announced the second and third arrests in the death of the North Korean leader’s half brother, whose apparent assassination this week unleashed tales of spectacular intrigue: a pair of women assailants, a broad-daylight killing and a dictator-sibling out for blood. But investigators were still piecing together details of the case, which ...