Politics

  Berlin / AFP The bloody carnage at a Berlin Christmas market, with a Pakistani or Afghan asylum-seeker as the chief suspect, immediately emboldened right-wing populist critics of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s liberal refugee policy. Merkel has been under fire over her decision in September last year to let in tens of thousands fleeing war and poverty from mostly war-torn countries ...

  Washington / AFP China has returned a US underwater probe it seized in the South China Sea, the Pentagon confirmed after Beijing’s capture of the craft sparked a dispute between the two powers. The Chinese navy handed over the drone near where it was seized, the Pentagon said, repeating US condemnation of Beijing’s actions in what it says are ...

  Tokyo / AFP Japan’s Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday in favour of the central government in its bid to relocate a US airbase on Okinawa, dealing a significant blow to the plan’s opponents led by the island’s governor. The Japanese and US governments want the base in the middle of a crowded city moved to a sparsely populated area ...

  Aleppo / AFP Several thousand people left the rebel enclave of Aleppo on Monday, raising hope for many others still stranded as Russia eased its objections to sending UN observers to oversee the evacuations. Brokered by rivals Turkey and Russia, the complex deal will eventually see President Bashar al-Assad’s forces exert full control over Syria’s battered second city. Early ...

  Khazir / AFP Mobile phones, cartons of cigarettes and fresh mutton are all on sale inside a camp for Iraqi civilians displaced in the battle to recapture Mosul —if they have the money. In the Khazir camp, buyers trudge in the mud, skidding around in flimsy shoes and examining improvised market stalls on the ground between tents that shelter ...

  Amman / AFP Jordanian police said on Monday they found suicide belts and other explosives in the hideout of suspected IS group extremists behind an attack that killed 10 people, including a Canadian tourist. Another 34 people were wounded in Sunday’s shooting spree, including a second Canadian. Four gunmen were shot dead by police during the course of a ...

  Beijing / AFP China on Monday rejected US President-elect Donald Trump’s claim that it had “stolen” an American research drone, as state media said his diplomatic inexperience could spark a confrontation between the two nations. Beijing’s seizure of the marine probe in international waters in the South China Sea raised already heightened tensions between the world’s two largest military powers. ...

  Warsaw / AFP Polish President Andrzej Duda scrambled on Monday to defuse a political crisis as opposition lawmakers occupied parliament for a fourth day of anti-government protest. The governing rightwing Law and Justice party (PiS) appeared to offer some compromise on controversial proposals to restrict media access in parliament, but a row over a budget vote deemed “illegal” by the ...

  Oslo / AFP Norway and China announced on Monday the resumption of diplomatic relations, six years after Beijing froze ties with Oslo over the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to a Chinese dissident. The announcement means talks can now resume on a free trade pact between mineral-rich Norway and China, the world’s second-biggest economy. Diplomatic relations—and the trade talks—were ...

  Yangon / AFP Malaysia’s top diplomat turned the screws on Aung San Suu Kyi at emergency talks in Myanmar on Monday, warning that an army crackdown on the Rohingya minority could spark a regional migrant crisis. More than 27,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled northwestern Myanmar for Bangladesh since the start of November to escape a military counter-insurgency operation. Myanmar’s army ...