Politics

  Dhaka / AFP Hundreds of Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh after fleeing violence in neighbouring Myanmar, community leaders said on Tuesday, many with horrific tales of troops killing and burning villages. Bangladesh says it has prevented hundreds more from crossing into the country, despite pleas from the United Nations to open its border after up to 30,000 Rohingya were displaced ...

  Washington / AFP Donald Trump said the United States would signal its withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact on his first day in the White House, one of six immediate steps aimed at “putting America first.” The Republican billionaire—who for 10 days has been sounding out cabinet picks at his Trump Tower offices in New York—made the pledge ...

  Guatemala City / AFP Foreign ministers from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico have vowed to “defend” migrants from those countries who live in the United States, amid uncertainty following Donald Trump’s election. The US president-elect vowed to crack down on immigration during the bitter presidential campaign, promising to build a wall along the US-Mexico border and deport millions of ...

  Buenos Aires / AFP A Pacific-wide trade deal would be “meaningless” without the United States, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as Donald Trump vowed to abandon the agreement on his first day in office. The future of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been thrown into serious doubt after the US president-elect repeated a pledge to make withdrawing from the ...

  MANILA / AFP Philippine-US military ties are still “robust” despite threats by President Rodrigo Duterte to sever defence relations between the two allies, Manila’s military spokesman said on Tuesday. Brigadier General Restituto Padilla gave the assurance following the latest meeting of the two countries’ senior military officials to discuss defence cooperation up to 2017. Duterte last month announced a “separation” ...

Phnom Penh / AFP Cambodia’s opposition MPs ended a six-month boycott of parliament Tuesday, following months of legal and political pressure from strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen. Lawmakers from the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) pulled out of parliamentary sessions in May after some MPs, including its deputy leader Kem Sokha, were slapped with legal cases by the government. With ...

  Moscow / AFP Russia has accused Ukraine of abducting two Russian servicemen on the annexed Crimea peninsula, but Kiev said it had merely detained two Ukrainian army deserters. In a statement carried late Monday by local news agencies, the Russian defence ministry said servicemen Maxim Odintsov and Alexander Baranov were “illegally detained and removed from Crimea by Ukrainian security ...

  Aleppo / AFP Syrian regime forces advanced quickly in rebel-held areas of Aleppo on Monday, pressing a new offensive in defiance of international concern over the fate of the city and its residents. More than 100 civilians have been killed in the east since the regime’s latest offensive began on Tuesday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights ...

  Damascus / AFP US President Barack Obama said he is “not optimistic” about Syria’s future, as the UN warned time is running out to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe in Aleppo which has been pounded by air strikes for nearly a week. Government forces launched a ferocious assault last Tuesday to recapture eastern Aleppo, killing 115 civilians so far. In ...

  Sanaa / AFP A 48-hour ceasefire ended on Monday in Yemen after failing to stem violence across the country, with both sides blaming each other for deadly “violations” of the US-backed truce. The ceasefire, aimed at ending the chaos and bloodshed that has gripped Yemen since March 2015, came into effect on Saturday following the intervention of US Secretary ...