Politics

  Kigali / AFP In a major step toward curbing global warming, world envoys reached an agreement on Saturday to phase out potent greenhouse gases used in refrigerators and air conditioners. Under the amendment to the 1987 Montreal Protocol on protecting the ozone layer, rich countries are to take action sooner than developing nations. The agreement was greeted by applause ...

  Mogadishu / AFP A week of violent clashes between rival forces in northern Somalia has killed 11 people and forced more than 50,000 to flee, the UN humanitarian agency said on Saturday. Tensions between the rival regions of Puntland and Galmudug soared last month after Galmudug said 13 of its soldiers were killed in a misdirected US airstrike which ...

  Warsaw / AFP The family of Poland’s former president Lech Kaczynski, who died in a 2010 plane crash, has agreed to his exhumation as part of a new inquiry into the accident, his twin brother said on Saturday. “I have agreed with the prosecutor’s decision on the exhumations. The remains of my brother… will be among the first, if ...

  Manila / AFP At least one person was killed and three were missing as the Philippines faces what could be “the most damaging” storm this year in the approaching Typhoon Sarika, officials said on Saturday. A man was found dead on the seashore while three fishermen were reported missing in the eastern island of Catanduanes as Sarika, packing maximum ...

  Moscow, / AFP The Kremlin on Saturday slammed Washington for its “unprecedented” threats against Moscow over an alleged series of cyber attacks and vowed to respond. Last week, Washington formally accused the Russian government of trying to “interfere” in the 2016 White House race through cyber attacks on American political institutions. And on Friday, US Vice President Joe Biden ...

  Washington / AFP Donald Trump rejected claims of women accusing him of sexual misconduct, and portrayed himself as the victim of a “smear campaign” orchestrated by the media and established politicians. President Barack Obama warned meanwhile that America’s very democracy is at stake in the November 8 election because of the Republican presidential candidate. As Trump spoke at a ...

  Lausanne / AFP Pessimistic envoys from the United States, Russia and Syria’s neighbours met on Saturday in Switzerland as Secretary of State John Kerry tried to revive hopes of a ceasefire for the war-torn country. The talks marked Kerry’s first encounter with his Russian opposite number Sergei Lavrov since a US and Russian-sponsored truce collapsed last month amid a ferocious ...

  Lucknow/ AFP A stampede at a religious gathering in northern India killed 19 people on Saturday as thousands of devotees of a controversial guru tried to cross a bridge at once, police said. The followers of Jai Gurudev, a leader of a local religious sect, had gathered in Varanasi, a Hindu holy town in Uttar Pradesh state, when the deadly ...

  Baghdad / AFP A suicide bomber attacked a Shiite-majority area of north Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 32 people and wounding more than two dozen, security and medical officials said. The bomber struck in the Shaab area of the Iraqi capital, targeting either a funeral tent or one at which Shiite Muslims distribute food and drinks on the occasion ...

  Tripoli / AFP Libya’s UN-backed unity government suffered a blow in its Tripoli base when a rival seized key offices in the capital and proclaimed the reinstatement of the former administration. The Government of National Accord (GNA) is the centrepiece of Western hopes to stem an upsurge of extremism in the North African nation and halt people trafficking across ...