Politics

  Aleppo / AFP Syrian troops strengthened their hold over Aleppo after retaking full control of the city, as residents anxious to return to their homes moved through its ruined streets. The army announced on Thursday it had recaptured the former rebel stronghold of east Aleppo following a landmark evacuation deal that saw thousands of opposition fighters and residents bussed ...

  Brussels / AFP A high-level commission that oversees Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers will meet in Vienna on January 10 to address a complaint by Teheran about the renewing of sanctions by the United States. The meeting was called on Saturday by the European Union’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who coordinates follow-up of the nuclear deal for ...

  Aleppo / AFP More than 4,000 fighters left rebel-held areas of Aleppo, the Red Cross said on Thursday, in the “last stages” of an evacuation clearing the way for Syria’s army to retake the city. A week into the rebel withdrawal from the east of Syria’s second city, the evacuation of fighters and civilians from the one-time opposition stronghold ...

  United Nations / AFP The UN General Assembly agreed to set up a panel to gather evidence on war crimes in Syria, taking a first step towards prosecuting those responsible for atrocities in the nearly six-year war. A resolution on establishing the investigative mechanism was adopted in the 193-nation assembly by a vote of 105 to 15, with 52 ...

  Moscow/ AFP Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called for the country to reinforce its military nuclear potential and praised the army’s performance in its Syria campaign. In a speech that recapped military activities in 2016, Putin said the army’s preparedness has “considerably increased” and called for continued improvement that would ensure it can “neutralise any military threat”. “We ...

  Moscow / AFP Russia’s defence minister on Thursday accused the British army of using Russian insignia to designate the enemy during training, a method he said was employed by Nazi Germany during World War II. Minister Sergei Shoigu said that British troops at the Salisbury Plain training facility “have started to use Russian-made tanks and uniforms of the Russian ...

  Lubumbashi / AFP Soldiers sealed part of DR Congo’s second city and carried out mass arrests of young men on Thursday, residents said, as talks to defuse the country’s explosive political crisis were set to continue. Protests and deadly clashes have erupted in the vast country over President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to step down at the end of his ...

  Istanbul/ AFP Turkey on Thursday vowed to press on with the fight against “terror”, a day after 14 Turkish soldiers were killed by extremists in an intensifying battle for a flashpoint Syrian town, Ankara’s biggest loss of its Syria campaign so far. The soldiers were killed in a succession of attacks by IS extremists around the town of Al-Bab ...

  Aleppo / AFP German authorities came under fire on Thursday after it emerged that the prime suspect in Berlin’s deadly truck attack, a rejected Tunisian asylum seeker, was known as a potentially dangerous extremist. Prosecutors have issued a Europe-wide wanted notice for 24-year-old Anis Amri, offering a 100,000-euro ($104,000) reward for information leading to his arrest and warning he ...

  London / AFP Populists across Europe have seized on the truck attack in Berlin as a way to criticise Germany’s immigration policy but key players have held back on jumping to conclusions as the investigation continues. Former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage, a key ally of US President-elect Donald Trump in Europe, said the attack which killed ...