Politics

  Yangon / AFP Myanmar’s Rohingya may be victims of crimes against humanity, the UN’s rights agency said Tuesday, as former UN chief Kofi Annan arrived in the country for a visit that will include a trip to northern Rakhine. The army has carried out a bloody crackdown in Rakhine, and thousands of the Muslim minority have flooded over the ...

  Kuala Lumpur / AFP Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak will take part in a rare rally to protest a bloody crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, an official from his office said on Tuesday. The gathering, which will take place in an yet-to-be announced location on Sunday, will involve politicians, NGOs and “all concerned with the issue” the official ...

  Banjul / AFP Gambia’s president once said he would govern the country for a billion years if God willed it. But voters may deliver an upset on Thursday after years of economic hardship that have pushed thousands of young people to attempt the perilous Mediterranean crossing to Europe. Yahya Jammeh will face the biggest challenge to his 22-year rule ...

  Geneva / AFP Up to 16,000 civilians have fled strife-torn parts of eastern Aleppo as the rebels lost all of the northern neighbourhoods of their stronghold, the UN said on Tuesday, describing the situation as “chilling”. “The intensity of attacks on eastern Aleppo neighbourhoods over the past few days has forced thousands of civilians to flee to other parts of ...

  Aden / AFP Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi accused Shiite rebels and their allies on Tuesday of dashing hopes for peace after they unveiled a new government in areas under their control. Hadi said that Monday’s formation by the Iran-backed rebels of a government of national salvation showed their determination to “spread chaos and destruction” and “destroys any chance ...

Madrid / AFP Amnesty International on Tuesday denounced conditions for migrants arriving in Spain’s overseas territories of Melilla and Ceuta, where they said asylum rights were not always respected. After interviewing some 50 people in both north African enclaves that neighbour Morocco, the group said migrants who arrived there had at times experienced police abuse. Ceuta and Melilla are favoured ...

  Ramallah / AFP Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah re-elected him party head on Tuesday as the movement opened its first congress since 2009 with talk mounting of who will eventually succeed the 81-year-old. Abbas was re-elected by consensus, party spokesman Mahmud Abu al-Hija said, and was due to address the congress at 6:00 pm . Some 1,400 delegates were attending. ...

  Istanbul / AFP Turkish prosecutors have demanded multiple life sentences for almost 50 alleged plotters in the failed July coup charged with conspiring to assassinate President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at an Aegean holiday resort, state media said on Tuesday. Erdogan, who was staying at a hotel in the upmarket Marmaris resort with his family on the night of the July ...

  Baghdad / AFP The Mosul battle in Iraq has seen the IS group increasingly resort to weaponised drones, which Western governments fear could lead to a new type of attack at home. France issued an internal note to its security forces last week warning that “this threat is to be taken into account nationwide” and ordering any drone be treated ...

  WEST PALM BEACH / AP Throngs of Cubans began streaming to Havana’s iconic Revolution Square to pay tribute to Fidel Castro on Monday, kicking off an emotional, week-long farewell to the divisive Cold War titan. Mourners, many of whom had lined up before dawn, began filling the square as soon as it opened with a salvo of 21 cannon ...