Politics

  MANILA / AFP The Philippine coast guard pressed its search on Tuesday for 18 crewmen from a cargo ship that sank at the height of Typhoon Nock-Ten, which struck the country on Christmas Day. Coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said 14 other crewmen have been rescued and one died after the M/V Starlite Atlantic sank off Mabini town in Batangas ...

  Istanbul / AFP Almost 30 Turkish police went on trial in Istanbul on Tuesday charged with involvement in the July 15 coup, the city’s first trial of alleged putschists in the massive crackdown that followed the failed bid to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. With some 41,000 coup suspects under arrest in a state of emergency, the nationwide trials ...

  Ankara / AFP A Turkish court has put a broadcast ban on reporting of the investigation into last week’s murder of the Russian ambassador to Ankara Andrei Karlov, state media said on Tuesday. A Turkish policeman opened fire on Karlov while he was delivering a speech at the opening of a photography exhibition, in an assassination that stunned Russia and ...

  Baghdad / AFP IS group fighters “summarily executed” 13 civilians after villagers rose up against them at the start of the Iraqi army’s offensive to retake Mosul, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. The killings took place in the villages of Al-Hud and Al-Lazzagah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Mosul on October 17, the day government forces launched ...

  Jerusalem / AFP Israel could advance plans this week for thousands more settlement homes in annexed east Jerusalem in defiance of a landmark UN resolution demanding an end to such activity. It would mark the first such approvals since Friday’s UN Security Council vote demanding a halt to Israeli settlement building in Palestinian territory. The resolution, which passed after the ...

  Taipei / AFP Taiwan’s defence minister warned on Tuesday that enemy threats were growing daily after China’s aircraft carrier and a flotilla of other warships passed south of the island in an exercise as tensions rise. After sailing south of Taiwan itself, the Liaoning and five other warships on Monday passed the Taiwan-administered Dongsha Islands in the South China ...

  Seoul / AFP South Korea’s ruling conservative party officially split Tuesday over the impeachment of scandal-hit President Park Geun-Hye, threatening to complicate presidential elections that could be held as soon as March. A group of 29 lawmakers left the ruling Saenuri Party, arguing that its leadership refuses to embrace reforms despite the political crisis fuelled by the corruption scandal that ...

  Seoul / AFP North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un is planning a “prime time” nuclear weapons push in 2017 to take advantage of leadership transitions in South Korea and the United States, a high-ranking defector said on Tuesday. In his first press conference since fleeing his post as North Korea’s deputy ambassador to Britain in August, Thae Yong-Ho said Kim ...

  Istanbul / AFP Turkey on Monday said it wanted international air support for its army’s assault on the extremist-held Syrian town of Al Bab where the military is facing tough resistance from IS extremists. Turkish forces have for weeks joined pro-Ankara Syrian rebels in fierce fighting for Al Bab, taking increasing casualties as they approach closer to the centre. Turkey ...

Goma / AFP Attacks in villages and fighting between militias killed at least 35 people over the Christmas weekend in North Kivu, a majority Christian area in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The bloodshed began in Eringeti—a town 55 kilometres (35 miles) north of the regional hub Beni, which for two years has been hit by massacres killing hundreds, many of ...