Politics

  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 ...

  Islamabad / AFP A Pakistani court trying former military ruler Pervez Musharraf over a deadly raid on Islamabad’s radical Red Mosque passed an order on Saturday confiscating his property, a lawyer said. Former president Musharraf, who left Pakistan for Dubai in March for what was described as urgent medical treatment, is facing a string of court cases connected to ...

  Manila / AFP Rodrigo Duterte shot dead a justice department employee and ordered the murder of opponents, a former death squad member told parliament Thursday, in explosive allegations against the Philippine president. The self-described assassin testified under oath that he and a group of policemen and ex-communist rebels killed about 1,000 people between 1988 and 2013 on Duterte’s orders ...

  Geneva / AFP Twenty trucks loaded with desperately needed aid for eastern Aleppo have crossed into a buffer zone between Turkey and Syria, a high-level UN official said on Thursday. “The 20 trucks… have passed over the Turkish border, they are in the buffer zone between the Turkish and Syrian border,” Jan Egeland, head of the United Nations humanitarian ...

  Denpasar / AFP An explosion on a speedboat in Bali left two foreigners dead and 18 other tourists injured Thursday, sparking dramatic scenes as rescuers rushed to haul stunned and bloodied holidaymakers off the vessel. Dazed passengers, many covered in cuts and bruises, were taken to medical centres on the Indonesian holiday island after the blast, with TV footage showing ...

  The Hague / AFP The new prosecutor for a special tribunal set up to try crimes arising out of the late 1990s Kosovo conflict pledged on Thursday there would be “no unnecessary delays” in bringing charges. As court officials gave their first ever press conference, David Schwendiman vowed he would investigate cases “without fear or favour” but stressed “there ...

  Aleppo / AFP At a rundown park near the frontlines in the Syrian city of Aleppo, a fragile truce has brought out visitors to see the last animal left at a makeshift zoo — “Happy” the monkey. The 22- year-old hamadryas baboon has been a much-loved attraction at Sabil park in the western portion of the city for years. But ...

  Slavyansk / AFP The German and French foreign ministers made their first visit to Ukraine’s war-torn east on Thursday, saying they wanted to push a new bid for peace after a recent surge in violence. Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault visited the Donetsk region and viewed a bridge destroyed in fighting between separatist and government forces ...

  Brussels / AFP European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Thursday he opposed his predecessor Jose Manuel Barroso’s decision to work for Goldman Sachs because of the firm’s role in the global financial crisis. Barroso’s appointment in July as a non-executive chairman and advisor at the US investment bank has caused a furore in the European Union, with French ...