Politics

  Islamabad / AFP Human Rights Watch on Monday accused Pakistan’s police of routinely carrying out extra-judicial killings, torture and arbitrary arrests, and called on Islamabad to implement urgent reforms of its under-resourced forces. The findings were contained in a new report based on interviews with more than 30 police officers and 50 victims or witnesses of abuse across three ...

  Riyadh / AFP The Saudi-led coalition fighting in support of Yemen’s government would prefer a broad political settlement to a ceasefire, its spokesman said on Monday. “I think now it’s not a question of talking about a ceasefire,” Major General Ahmed Assiri said. Late on Sunday a Houthi rebel leader, Saleh Al Sammad, proposed a truce on the country’s ...

Istanbul / AFP Three members of the Turkish security forces were killed and seven others wounded on Monday in a roadside bombing by Kurdish militants in southeastern Turkey, media reported. The bomb planted by rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) exploded on a highway in Mardin province when a vehicle carrying members of the security forces passed by, ...

  Geneva/ AFP Italians were up in arms on Monday after the southern Swiss canton of Ticino voted for a measure that would force employers to prioritise local residents over commuters living in Italy. The text, entitled “Ours first”, was put to a popular vote by the populist right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP), and was accepted Sunday by 58 percent ...

  TOKYO/ AFP Japan’s top government spoke- sman warned China on Monday against expanding its military activity to the skies over disputed East China Sea islands after eight Chinese warplanes flew near the area over the weekend. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that Japan scrambled at least one fighter jet after the planes passed over the Miyako Strait on ...

  Washington / AFP The lengthy US presidential campaign is careening towards a 90-minute on Monday showdown, with Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump squaring off in their first televised debate as they sit nearly neck and neck in the polls. The event, which is expected to be watched — and parsed — by tens of millions of Americans, ...

  Baku / AFP Azerbaijanis went to the polls on Monday in a controversial referendum on handing extra powers to long-serving President Ilham Aliyev, with opposition and rights groups criticising the proposed constitutional changes as undemocratic. The amendments would extend the president’s term in office from five to seven years, and create a powerful new first vice-president position and several ...

  Calais / AFP French President Francois Hollande said on Monday the sprawling “Jungle” migrant camp in Calais would be dismantled by the end of this year under a plan to spread asylum seekers around the country. “I have come to Calais to confirm the decision that I took with the government… to dismantle (the camp) definitively, entirely and rapidly, that ...

  Cartagena / AFP Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the leader of the FARC rebels, Timoleon “Timochenko” Jimenez, are due to sign a historic peace deal on Monday to end a five-decade war. The former enemies will sign the accord at 5:00 pm (2200 GMT) at a ceremony in the colourful colonial city of Cartagena on the Caribbean coast, ...

  The Hague / AFP In a blow to Australia, an international arbitration court agreed on Monday to take up a decade-long maritime border dispute between East Timor and Canberra which cuts through lucrative oil and gas fields in the Timor Sea. The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) “held that it was competent to continue with the conciliation process” initiated by ...