Politics

  AWEIL / AFP South Sudan’s government is challenging a new report by a U.S.-based watchdog group that says the country’s leaders have amassed wealth abroad amid a conflict in which tens of thousands have been killed. A spokesman for President Salva Kiir says the allegations by The Sentry report “can only jeopardize the pursuit of peace and stability in my ...

  Moscow / AFP Russians went to the polls Sunday in parliamentary polls, with parties loyal to President Vladimir Putin set to maintain their dominance despite the longest economic crisis of his rule. The nationwide election follows a tumultuous few years that have seen the country seize the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine, plunge into its worst standoff with the West since ...

  Slavyansk / AFP Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Syrian rebels on Saturday of using a fragile ceasefire to regroup, as diplomatic tensions between Moscow and Washington simmered over a lack of humanitarian aid access. Fresh shelling and clashes were reported overnight in some areas of the war-torn country, but the US-Russia brokered truce which took effect on Monday appeared ...

  Washington / AFP After years of fuelling conspiracy theories, Republican White House nominee Donald Trump admitted that President Barack Obama is an American as he tried to neutralize damaging charges of racism. But he also stepped up attacks against his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, accusing her of initiating the doubts about Obama and later raising the specter of violence ...

  Porlamar / AFP The Non-Aligned Movement opens a summit on Saturday in Venezuela, seeking relevance in a post-Cold War world as the crisis-torn host country seeks to lessen its growing isolation. Leaders from the 120-nation group will gather for two days on the Caribbean island of Margarita, where Venezuela will take over the movement’s rotating presidency from Iran. Venezuela, ...

  WASHINGTON / AP President Barack Obama will review military strategy against the IS group, press nations to admit more refugees and review progress around the world, despite new challenges, when he makes his final appearance at the UN General Assembly session in New York next week, the White House said. On the sidelines of the session, Obama has scheduled ...

United Nations / AFP A young Iraqi woman who survived rape and abuse as a sex slave of IS extremists became a UN goodwill ambassador for the dignity of survivors of human trafficking. Nadia Murad Basee Taha, a 23-year-old Yazidi woman, called for justice for the victims of the extremist group and argued that the 2014 attack on the Yazidis ...

  Istanbul / AFP Turkish police have detained more than 20 IS suspects, including a Syrian man believed to be organising an attack in Istanbul, a local newspaper reported on Saturday. Police arrested the man, identified as Ali al-Aggal and codenamed Azzov, believed to be the IS group’s organiser of Turkey attacks, in an operation in the Turkish capital Ankara, Haber-Turk ...

  Niamey / AFP Thirty-eight Boko Haram fighters have been killed during military search operations carried out by Niger and Chad troops in the Diffa region of southeast Niger this week, an official said. Two soldiers were lightly wounded in the action and “on the enemy side; 38 terrorists killed,” Niger defence ministry spokesman Moustapha Ledru said on state television. ...

  New Delhi / AFP A massive leak of secret technical data on Scorpene-class submarines did not originate in India but in France, Delhi’s naval chief said on Saturday, pointing to initial probe findings. Some 22,400 pages of classified documents detailing the combat capabilities of the subs made by French defence contractor DCNS for the Indian navy were leaked to an ...