Politics

  SEOUL / AP Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday that he won’t run for South Korea’s presidency, a surprise announcement that removes a key figure from the scramble to replace impeached President Park Geun-hye and further stirs the country’s already tumultuous politics. The withdrawal of Ban, who had been considered the only major conservative contender, boosts liberal ...

  DHAKA / AP Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh are worried about a government proposal to relocate them to a low-lying island deemed not ready for people to live there. The proposal briefly posted on a government website last week said a committee including representatives of the border guards and other agencies would prepare a list of hundreds of thousands of ...

  Ukraine / AP Freezing and nerve-shattered residents of an eastern Ukraine town battered by an upsurge in fighting between troops and Russia-backed rebels flocked to a humanitarian aid center on Wednesday to receive food and warm up. Heavy shelling of government-held Avdiivka, just north of the rebel stronghold city of Donetsk, began over the weekend and persisted into early ...

  WASHINGTON / AP In an extraordinary public showdown, President Donald Trump fired the acting attorney general of the United States after she publicly questioned the constitutionality of his refugee and immigration ban and refused to defend it in court. The clash Monday night between Trump and Sally Yates, a career prosecutor and Democratic appointee, laid bare the growing discord and ...

  CAIRO / AP The local affiliate of the IS group in Egypt’s restive northern Sinai Peninsula says its fighters have killed and wounded 20 Egyptian soldiers in four days of fighting south of the city of el-Arish. In a statement released early Tuesday and posted on a pro-IS group website, the group said the fighting also resulted in the ...

  TEHRAN / AP Iran’s foreign minister is refusing to confirm that the country conducted a missile test, saying Iran’s missile program is not part of a 2015 landmark nuclear deal between his country and world powers. The White House said Monday it is studying the details of an Iranian ballistic missile test. Iran is the subject of a United ...

  GENEVA / AP UNICEF is appealing for $3.3 billion this year to help millions of children worldwide facing conflict, malnutrition and other humanitarian emergencies. The UN children’s agency says more than 40 percent of the appeal would provide funds for children either displaced within Syria or who have fled abroad to escape the country’s nearly six-year war. UNICEF said ...

  BEIRUT / AP The World Food Program says it has resumed food airdrops to the besieged Syrian city of Deir al-Zour. The U.N. agency said on Tuesday it was using a new drop zone after IS group militants took control of the primary zone two weeks ago. The extremist group laid siege Deir al-Zour in 2015, trapping Syrian government ...

  AVDIIVKA / AP Fighting between government troops and Russia-backed separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine escalated on Tuesday, killing at least seven people overnight, injuring many more and briefly trapping 200 coalminers underground, the warring sides reported. Rebels in Donetsk said an electricity sub-station was damaged in shelling, cutting power to the Zasyadko coal mine in Donetsk and trapping more ...

  MANILA / AP The United States is not building any weapons depot anywhere in the Philippines, the US ambassador said Tuesday, denying the basis on which President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to abrogate a 2014 defense pact that allows US forces to temporarily base in local camps. Ambassador Sung Kim said that nothing is being planned now that even closely ...