Politics

  Zagreb / AFP A former Serb paramilitary commander, extradited from Australia last year, will go on trial in Croatia on Tuesday charged with the torture and murder of civilians and prisoners of war in the 1990s. Dragan Vasiljkovic — or ‘Captain Dragan’ — was handed over by Canberra after almost a decade-long legal battle, becoming the first suspected war criminal ...

  Yangon / AFP At least eight people have been killed and thousands displaced by clashes in southeast Myanmar, rebels and border forces said on Monday, violence that threatens to undercut the new government’s push for peace. Fighting broke out this month between government troops and an ethnic rebel splinter group known as the DKBA in Karen state, near the border ...

  AFP India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi on Monday summoned top security advisers to thrash out a response to a deadly raid on a Kashmir army base blamed on militants from Pakistan, amid calls for tough action against the nuclear-armed nation. Modi has vowed to punish those behind the attack in which gunmen hurling grenades stormed a base, killing 17 ...

  AFP The spread of superbugs that are resistant to all known drug treatments could spark a global financial crisis on the level of the 2008 meltdown or worse, a World Bank-led study warned on Monday. Antimicrobial resistance is on the rise, and in the future, many infectious diseases will once again be untreatable, forcing more people into poverty and ...

  Beirut / AFP Syria’s ceasefire was hanging by a thread on Sunday, after tensions escalated between Moscow and Washington over a US-led coalition air strike that killed dozens of Syrian soldiers battling extremists. The truce saw violence drop across Syria for several days after it came into force Monday, but fighting has since erupted on several fronts and besieged ...

  Dubai / Reuters Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Tehran supports any move to stabilise the global oil market and lift prices, the Iranian oil ministry news agency SHANA quoted him as saying on Sunday. “Instability and falling oil prices are harmful to all countries, especially oil producers,” Rouhani was quoted as saying by SHANA. “Tehran welcomes any move aimed ...

  Benghazi / AFP Forces loyal to Libya’s UN-backed unity government launched an offensive on Sunday aimed at retaking key eastern oil ports seized last week by fighters from a rival administration. The Tripoli-based Government of National Accord has struggled to assert its authority over the country since the GNA was formed in December last year. Oil is Libya’s key ...

  Washington / AFP Syrian children love playgrounds like kids all over the world but in rebel-held towns near Damascus swing sets are made of spent rockets and jungle gyms are tucked underground. Eastern Ghouta, a besieged opposition stronghold east of Damascus, has been battered by regime air strikes and shelling since Syria’s conflict erupted more than five years ago. ...

  Srinagar / AFP Militants armed with guns and grenades killed 17 soldiers in a raid on Sunday on an army base in Indian-administered Kashmir, the worst such attack for more than a decade in the disputed Himalayan region. The rebels broke into the base near the town of Uri before dawn and lobbed the grenades at tents and barracks ...

  Peshawar / AFP The death toll from a Taliban suicide bomb attack on a mosque in northwest tribal Pakistan has risen to 36, including eight children, officials said on Sunday. The Friday attack targeted a mosque in the Mohmand tribal district bordering Afghanistan where the army has been fighting Taliban militants. “We have now compiled a list of victims ...