Politics

  Istanbul /AFP Turkey is heading to a referendum on granting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan new powers as early as next spring, ratcheting up tensions amid a crackdown on dissent and pro-Kurdish politicians, analysts say. The courts have arrested over 35,000 people under a state of emergency imposed in the wake of the failed July 15 coup aimed at unseating ...

  Karbala / AP A rare suicide bombing in an oasis town south of Baghdad killed eight people on Monday, Iraqi officials said, an attack claimed by the IS group. The attack in Ain al-Tamer, which also wounded at least six people, involved multiple suicide bombers, some of whom may have been killed by security forces before they could blow themselves ...

  Istanbul / AP Turkey on Monday closed a border crossing with Syria in the southeastern province of Kilis after violent clashes in the Syrian town of Azaz, a local official said. “The border gate remains open only for ambulances,” the official said. Turkish media reported that the closure of the Oncupinar border crossing, which faces Bab al-Salama inside Syria, was ...

  Ramallah / AFP Palestinian leaders on Monday denounced an Israeli bill to legalise several thousand Jewish homes in the occupied West Bank, vowing to take up the issue at the UN Security Council. They also sharply criticised a separate bill that would limit the volume of calls to prayers at mosques in Israel and Jerusalem, a measure government watchdogs ...

  Muscat /AFP US Secretary of State John Kerry held talks on Monday with officials in Oman on efforts to end Yemen’s 19-month conflict, state media in Muscat said. Kerry and Oman’s Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi discussed the “peaceful and humanitarian role played by the sultanate in Yemen,” ONA state news agency reported. Kerry is also expected to meet ...

  Arbid / AFP The IS group drone hovered in the sky over the advancing Iraqi forces before dropping a grenade, the extremists’ latest move to weaponise small off-the-shelf aircraft. Down below, the grenade exploded on the roof of a building where Iraqi police forces were sheltering as they advanced some 10 kilometres (six miles) south of Mosul, the last ...

  Islamabad/AFP The Pakistani military accused India on Monday of killing seven soldiers in cross-border fire in disputed Kashmir, in what appeared to be an unusually high toll after months of surging tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours. “Seven soldiers embraced shahadat (martyrdom) at the Line of Control (LoC) in Bhimber sector in a crossfire LOC violation by Indian troops late ...

  New York /AFP President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to move aggressively on a conservative agenda in filling Supreme Court vacancies, cracking down on immigration and cutting taxes, but also sought to reassure worried Americans they have nothing to fear from his presidency. Setting aside the strident tone of his campaign, the 70-year-old assumed a gentler manner in his first ...

  Sofia/ AFP EU member Bulgaria headed on Monday into fresh political turbulence after a former airforce commander seen as more sympathetic to Russia triumphed in presidential elections, prompting Prime Minister Boyko Borisov to quit. In his victory speech, Rumen Radev reiterated his opposition to EU sanctions on Russia and praised new US President-elect Donald Trump for “seeking more dialogue” with ...

  Beijing/ AFP Chinese President Xi Jinping and US president-elect Donald Trump agreed on Monday to meet “at an early date” to discuss the relationship between their two powers, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said on Monday. In a telephone call, Xi told Trump—who frequently savaged Beijing on the campaign trail and threatened to impose a 45-percent tariff on Chinese-made goods—that the ...