Politics

  San Sebastian / AFP Spain’s Basque country and Galicia went to the polls on Sunday in regional elections that may help unblock the long-lasting national political paralysis. The country is stuck in limbo, run by a government without full powers following two inconclusive elections which the conservative Popular Party (PP) won without an absolute majority, and which have seen ...

  Peshawar / AFP Afghan security forces have killed one of the top Pakistani Taliban commanders along with at least 10 other militants in a border area operation, sources said on Sunday. Raeas Khan, also known as Azam Khan Tariq, had a 20 million rupee ($190,740) bounty on his head and was the fourth-highest ranking commander in the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). ...

  Los Angeles / AFP Authorities have arrested a Turkish-born man suspected of shooting five people dead, including a teenaged cancer survivor, at a shopping mall in the US state of Washington. Police named the suspect as Arcan Cetin, a 20-year-old resident of the nearby town of Oak Harbor, saying he was arrested late Saturday about 24 hours after the killings. ...

  Goma / AFP Thirteen people died when a panic-stricken crowd stampeded in a troubled town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday, local officials said. “The incident happened when a drunken soldier in civilian clothes fired four shots from his gun, causing panic,” the mayor of Beni, Jean Edmond Nyonyi, said. “Eight people drowned when they threw themselves in ...

  Nairobi / AFP South Sudan’s rebel leader issued a call for renewed war with the government this weekend, declaring the collapse of an internationally-backed peace deal. Former vice president Riek Machar is in exile in Khartoum where he fled following fighting in the South Sudanese capital Juba in July. In a statement received by AFP on Sunday, Machar said he ...

  Nicosia / AFP Cypriot leaders meeting UN chief Ban Ki-moon in New York on Sunday hope to gain a “road map” leading to an agreement by the end of 2016 for reunifying the island, Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci said. “We expect tomorrow’s meeting to draw up a road map pointing us to the way to the long-expected final resolution” ...

  Aleppo / AFP Syrian and Russian warplanes pounded rebel-held east Aleppo on Sunday ahead of a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the worst surge in violence to hit the devastated city in years. Overnight, residents and a monitor reported heavy air raids on the besieged east of the city, which Syria’s army has pledged to retake. Washington and its ...

  Ankara / AFP President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey could join a US-led operation in Syria to retake the IS group’s stronghold of Raqa only if Kurdish fighters are not involved, a newspaper reported Sunday. US support for Kurdish forces in Syria is a sore point for Ankara, which considers such fighters to be “terrorists” linked to the Kurdish ...

  BAGHDAD / AP A suicide bomber in Iraq killed at least seven people who were setting up tents on Sunday ahead of a major Shiite religious observance next month, officials said. The bomber struck as residents of Baghdad’s western Eskan neighborhood were preparing for Ashoura, which commemorates the 7th century death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, ...

  NEW DELHI / AP India’s prime minister said on Sunday that his country will ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change early next month. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government will ratify the agreement Oct. 2, coinciding with the birth anniversary of India’s independence leader Mohandas Gandhi. Modi made the announcement at a meeting of his Bharatiya Janata Party’s ...