Politics

  Manila / AFP A pilot of a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight accidentally pressed a hijack alarm, triggering a major security response at Manila airport on Tuesday, authorities said. Police isolated and surrounded the Saudia flight after it landed on Tuesday afternoon just after one of its pilots released a distress signal indicating a hijack incident was underway, the Philippine ...

  New York / AFP Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton met Egypt’s president in New York as the two US presidential candidates tried to bolster their diplomatic credentials at the United Nations. Democratic standard-bearer Clinton said last week that she would meet Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, along with leaders from Japan and Ukraine on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. ...

  Abuja / AFP Two suspected Boko Haram attacks in northeast Nigeria have left up to 14 people dead and three soldiers wounded, the army and local residents said. On Monday afternoon, six people were killed in an ambush of a commercial convoy escorted by the military in the Sanda district of Borno state. “Suspected elements of the remnants of ...

  Amman / AFP Jordanians voted on Tuesday in an election that could see opposition Islamists re-emerge as a major parliamentary force in the key Western ally. The focus will be on turnout and the performance of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political arm of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood. Experts expect the party to clinch around 20 seats in the ...

  Aleppo / AFP The United Nations suspended all humanitarian convoys in Syria on Tuesday following a deadly air strike on aid trucks, as fighting intensified after the regime declared an end to a week-long truce. Both Syria and Russia denied they were behind the raid on the convoy near northern city Aleppo, which the Red Cross said killed “around ...

  Geneva / AFP Fatalities among migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe could outstrip last year’s total even though total numbers fell in the first nine months of this year, the UN said on Tuesday. “The number of refugees and migrants reaching European shores this year passed the 300,000 mark today,” William Spindler, spokesman for the UN refugee agency ...

  Geneva / AFP Burundi’s government is behind systematic human rights violations, including executions and torture, UN investigators said on Tuesday, warning of possible crimes against humanity and the looming risk of “genocide”. “Gross human rights violations have and are taking place, committed primarily by state agents and those linked to them,” the investigators concluded in a report, adding that ...

  STOCKHOLM / AFP At least 20 countries are expected to formally join the Paris Agreement on climate change this week, greatly improving the pact’s chances of coming into force just a year after it was negotiated in the French capital, UN officials say. That’s considered a blistering pace in the world of international diplomacy, reflecting a sense of urgency in ...

  Damascus / AFP Syria’s armed forces said on Monday that a week-long ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia was over, blaming rebels for the failure of the truce. US Secretary of State John Kerry said meanwhile that the terms had not been met for a key aspect of the deal — US-Russia cooperation against extremists in Syria. ...

  Paris / AFP Western governments need to tackle a growing anti-migrant backlash by helping newcomers integrate faster, the OECD said, following a sharp increase in immigration to its member states. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, a grouping of mostly developed economies, said around 4.8 million people migrated to member countries in 2015 — up 10 percent in ...