Politics

  BAGHDAD / AP A suicide car bomber from the IS group attacked Iraqi special forces in Mosul on Saturday, setting off heavy fighting in the northern city. The early morning attack in the Qadisiya neighborhood, which the troops entered a day earlier, was followed by a barrage of gunfire, mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades, Iraqi officers said. Fighting was also ...

  Kabul / AFP Four people were killed on Saturday in a huge explosion inside the largest US military base in Afghanistan, NATO said, with local authorities blaming a suicide attacker in a major breach of security. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing inside the heavily fortified Bagram Airfield, north of the capital Kabul, which left 14 others wounded ...

  Yangon /AFP Myanmar’s military said its troops killed six people and lost two soldiers in clashes with attackers in Rakhine state on Saturday, in the latest flare-up of violence in the crisis-hit region. Northern Rakhine, which is home to the Muslim Rohingya minority and borders Bangladesh, has been under military lockdown ever since surprise raids on border posts left ...

  Nicosia / AFP Five days of UN-sponsored talks on ending the decades-old division of Cyprus have adjourned without a breakthrough but negotiators vowed on Saturday to press on even as prospects fade for a deal this year. The much-heralded talks between Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot leaders in the Swiss resort of Mont Pelerin were supposed to produce a map of ...

  Yangon/ AFP An Asian news network on Saturday called for the release of two Myanmar media executives jailed for alleged defamation, the latest case to highlight limits on free speech under the country’s new democratic government. The CEO of Eleven Media Group and a chief editor of a newspaper it publishes were detained by police on Friday over a ...

  New York /AFP Demonstrators took to the streets of Miami, New York, Portland and other US cities for a third straight night of nationwide protests to oppose Donald Trump’s election as president. People gathered in New York’s Washington Square neighborhood in lower Manhattan on Friday, some carrying enormous red balloons and placards with hearts and the words “peace and ...

  Addis Ababa /AFP Authorities have arrested more than 11,000 people since Ethiopia declared a state of emergency in early October amid violent protests, state TV said on Saturday. Ethiopia has been in political crisis for around a year with frequent outbreaks of violence as authorities have brutally cracked down on anti-government demonstrators. “Some 11,607 individuals have so far been ...

  The Hague/ AFP The Dutch national prosecutor said on Saturday that two Rwandans living in the Netherlands accused of participating in the country’s 1994 genocide would be extradited to their homeland. “Two Rwandan residents of the Netherlands, a 40-year-old from Voorburg and a 57-year-old from Leusden, will be extradited to Rwanda today,” the prosecutor said in a statement. Rwanda had ...

  Seoul / AFP Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children joined one of the largest anti-government protests ever seen in Seoul on Saturday, demanding South Korean President Park Geun-Hye’s resignation over a snowballing corruption scandal. Police put the turnout at 260,000, while organisers said one million people took to the streets for what was the third in a series ...

  The Hague / AFP The main Paris attacks suspect, Salah Abdeslam, has become even more radicalised since being imprisoned for his presumed role in the slaughter of 130 people a year ago, his former lawyer has said. “He’s got a beard, he’s become a true fundamentalist whereas before he was a kid wearing Nike trainers,” Belgian lawyer Sven Mary ...