Aden /Â AFP A possible US drone strike killed seven suspected Al-Qaeda operatives in central Yemen, a security official said. The official said a missile fired by what was “probably an American drone” hit an apartment building in the Al-Wadi area of Marib province, east of the capital Sanaa, killing seven people late Sunday. The United States, which rarely acknowledges ...
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Tunis Libya meet discusses power struggle, extremist threat
Tunis /Â AFP Libyan politicians began on Monday two days of UN-brokered talks in Tunis to discuss power struggles and extremist threats that are undermining stability in the oil-rich country. The members of the Libyan Political Dialogue signed in December 2015 a political agreement that established the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA). But nine months on, the GNA led ...
Read More »N Korea test-fires 3 ballistic missiles: Seoul
Seoul / AFP North Korea test-fired three ballistic missiles into the sea on Monday, South Korea said, in a new show of force as world leaders meet at the G20 summit in China. The missiles were fired into the Sea of Japan (East Sea) from the North’s Hwangju county at around 0300 GMT, a spokesman for Seoul’s defence ministry ...
Read More »Twin Taliban suicide blasts in Kabul kill 24, wound 91
Kabul / AFP At least 24 people were killed and 91 wounded on Monday in a Taliban double suicide bombing in central Kabul during late afternoon rush hour, the latest assault on the Afghan capital. The carnage near the defence ministry came as the Taliban ramp up their nationwide summer offensive against the US-backed government. The two bombers on ...
Read More »Hong Kong anti-China activists celebrate vote poll victory
Hong Kong /Â AFP A new generation of young Hong Kong politicians advocating a break from Beijing became lawmakers for the first time on Monday in a result likely to rattle China. It was the biggest poll since mass pro-democracy rallies in 2014 failed to win concessions on political reform, leading to the emergence of a slew of new parties ...
Read More »Syria peace talks intrude as G20 tackles global economy
Hangzhou / AFP G20 leaders met on Monday under pressure to reboot the world economy, but a stumbling push for a Syria ceasefire and Asia’s heated territorial disputes intruded on the summit in Hangzhou. There had been hopes of a breakthrough in stemming the Syria conflict after the US said it was close to a deal with Russia. But frantic ...
Read More »Merkel under fire as anti-migrant party wins
Berlin / AFP German Chancellor Angela Merkel came under fresh fire over her open-door refugee policy on Monday after her party suffered a humiliating defeat against an upstart anti-migrant populist party in her home state. The right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party clinched almost 21 percent in its first bid for seats in the regional parliament of Mecklenburg-Western ...
Read More »Russia launches major military drills set to rattle Ukraine
Moscow / AFP Russia on Monday launched large-scale military drills on Ukraine’s eastern border and around the Crimean peninsula, in the latest exercises set to rattle Kiev and the West. The defence ministry said 12,500 servicemen are taking part in the drills across its southern military region, which encompasses Russia’s volatile North Caucasus and the annexed Crimea region. The ...
Read More »Siege warfare, suffering as US, Russia bicker over Syria
Hangzhou /Â AFP The US said on Sunday it had not yet struck a hoped-for deal with Russia on stemming the violence in Syria’s brutal civil war, blaming Moscow for backtracking on issues it thought were settled. President Barack Obama said earlier that the two sides were “working around the clock” on the sidelines of a summit in China, but ...
Read More »US will help bring Turkey coup plotters to justice: Obama
Hangzhou /Â AFP The United States is committed to bringing the perpetrators of the attempted coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to justice, President Barack Obama said on Sunday. Ankara accuses US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen of being behind the July uprising. At talks with Erdogan on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Obama said: “We will make sure that ...
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