Politics

  Ankara/ AFP Turkish police on Tuesday detained a former advisor to the main opposition party leader over alleged links to the group led by the US-based Islamic preacher blamed for the July failed coup, state media reported. Fatih Gursul was a former science, technology and communications advisor to the secular main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, ...

Brussels /AFP South Korea’s scandal-hit President Park Geun-Hye said on Tuesday she would accept the result of a looming and possibly lengthy impeachment process, but defied pressure to resign immediately. An opposition-sponsored impeachment motion is almost certain to be adopted by the national assembly on Friday, with some 30 rebel MPs from Park’s Saenuri party saying they will vote in ...

Dhaka / AFP More than 20,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh in recent weeks to escape a bloody crackdown by the army in neighbouring Myanmar, humanitarian officials said on Tuesday. Bangladesh has stepped up patrols on the border to try to stem the tide of refugees since an eruption of unrest in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine in early October. ...

  Rome / AFP Prime Minister Matteo Renzi voted on Sunday in a constitutional referendum that has put his future on the line, divided Italy and raised fears of political and economic turmoil across Europe. Renzi, who has vowed to quit if he loses, was counting on a last-minute turnaround in voter sentiment to win backing for his proposals to ...

  Kiev / AFP Five Ukrainian police were killed by friendly fire in a tragic accident in which officers mistook colleagues for burglars, officials said on Sunday. Three burglars initially escaped the crime scene amid a gunfight between different security forces, although they were later detained. “Last night a devastating tragedy took place that killed five police officers,” Anton Gerashchenko, a ...

  Colombo / AFP A gunman shot dead three women, including a council leader, as they were leaving a restaurant in a small Finnish town on Saturday night, police said. Investigators cited by the SST news agency on Sunday said the municipal council head and two local journalists were killed in the town of Imatra by a man armed with ...

  Oakland / AFP Fire crews in California worked into the night Saturday sifting through the remains of a warehouse gutted by a blaze during a rave party, with officials saying they fear the death toll could reach 40. Relatives of dozens of people missing in the Friday night blaze in Oakland near San Francisco continued their anxious wait for news. ...

  Kuala Lumpur / AFP Aung San Suu Kyi must step in to prevent the “genocide” of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, Malaysia’s prime minister said on Sunday as he mocked the Nobel laureate for her inaction. Addressing a 5,000-strong rally in Kuala Lumpur, Najib Razak said the Myanmar government must stop the bloody crackdown in its far west that has ...

  Santiago De Cuba / AFP Fidel Castro’s ashes were buried alongside national heroes in the cradle of his revolution on Sunday, as Cuba opens a new era without the communist leader who ruled the island for decades. Capping a week of tributes and mass rallies, Castro was laid to rest near the mausoleum of 19th century independence icon Jose Marti ...

  Aleppo / AFP Fierce fighting shook east Aleppo on Sunday as Syrian government forces pressed an assault that has seen them retake control of more than half of the former rebel stronghold. President Bashar al-Assad’s army is nearly three weeks into an operation to recapture all of Syria’s second city, divided between regime and rebel forces since 2012. Tens of ...