Politics

  Ramallah / AFP A Palestinian court on Thursday suspended municipal elections set for October 8 following disputes between the rival Fatah and Hamas movements over candidate lists, jeopardising the first vote since 2006 to involve both parties. The decision was made by the high court in Ramallah in the West Bank, where Fatah is in power. It was not ...

  Kandahar /AFP The Taliban stormed into Tarin Kot on Thursday, triggering heavy fighting around government buildings as panicked residents scrambled to flee the capital of southern Uruzgan province, the latest city to be targeted by insurgents. Pitched battles prompted urgent calls from officials for reinforcements and air support, after the militants toppled security posts on the outskirts to breach ...

  The Hague/ AFP A Dutch MP caused on a storm Thursday after he refused to shake hands with Benjamin Netanyahu during the Israeli Prime Minister’s visit to parliament. On the second and final day of a trip to The Netherlands, Netanyahu met Wednesday with top Dutch politicians at the parliament building in The Hague. But as the Israeli leader ...

  Beirut / AFP Beijing came under pressure at an Asian summit on Wednesday over its “illegal” island-building in the South China Sea, after the Philippines produced photos it said showed fresh construction activity at a flashpoint shoal. Any artificial island at Scarborough Shoal could be a game-changer in China’s quest to control the South China Sea and raises the risk ...

  Strasbourg / AFP Turkey’s foreign minister on Wednesday pledged cooperation with the top European rights watchdog to ensure the effort to bring the leaders of July’s failed coup to justice is clear and straightforward. “We (will) cooperate with the Council of Europe to make this process very transparent,” said Mevlut Cavusoglu, after meeting in Strasbourg with the group’s head ...

  Tbilisi / AFP NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday said ex-Soviet Georgia has moved closer to membership, in a show of support for the tiny Caucasus nation despite fierce opposition from Russia. “You are continuing to strengthen your democracy and civic institutions and this has helped Georgia to move closer to NATO,” Stoltenberg told a news conference after ...

  El Fasher /AFP President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday declared that peace had returned to Sudan’s war-torn Darfur despite a deadlock in African Union-brokered ceasefire talks and persistent fighting that has driven thousands from their homes this year. Bashir made the declaration in the North Darfur state capital El Fasher at a ceremony attended by Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin ...

  Sittwe / AFP People forced from their homes by religious violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state gathered on Wednesday to meet former UN chief Kofi Annan, as the envoy toured displacement camps during his peace mission. Annan has been asked by the leader of Myanmar’s new government, Aung San Suu Kyi, to head a commission tasked with trying to heal ...

  Geneva /AFP More than 100 countries pledged on Wednesday to clear unexploded cluster munitions used in conflict zones worldwide by 2030, a new step in the unfinished battle to prevent deaths by the weapons. Parties to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions set their first target date for clearing the explosives which are estimated to have killed and maimed ...

  Hong Kong/ AFP US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden sought shelter among Hong Kong refugees after he leaked a huge trove of secret documents in the southern Chinese city, reports said on Wednesday. The former intelligence contractor had quit his job with the National Security Agency and travelled to Hong Kong in May 2013 where he initiated one of the ...