Politics

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 ...

  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 ...

  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 ...

  Hangzhou / 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 ...

  Hangzhou / 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 ...

  Dhaka / AFP Bangladesh has executed a tycoon and top financier for the largest radical party for war crimes, dealing a major blow to its ambitions in the troubled Muslim-majority country. Mir Quasem Ali, a key leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, was hanged late Saturday after being convicted by a controversial war crimes tribunal of murder and abduction during the 1971 independence ...

  Ankara / AFP Turkish warplanes have destroyed 10 Kurdish rebel positions in the restive southeast as Ankara steps up its fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), state media reported on Sunday. Jets bombed four PKK targets in the Cukurca district of the southeastern province of Hakkari close to northern Iraq on Saturday evening, security sources told state-run Anadolu ...

  Kandahar / AFP At least 35 people were killed on Sunday when a bus collided with a fuel tanker and burst into flames in southern Afghanistan, in the latest road accident in the war-torn country. Many of the victims, including women and children, were burned beyond recognition in the accident in Zabul province, one of the areas worst hit by ...

  Schwerin / AFP Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party braced for a backlash at state polls on Sunday, while anti-migrant populists are poised for major gains a year after the German leader opened the borders to refugees. Around 1.33 million voters are electing a new regional parliament for the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which is also home to Merkel’s constituency Stralsund. ...

  Bloomberg Chinese President Xi Jinping urged world leaders to avoid “empty talk” and confront sluggish economic growth and rising protectionism as their summit opened on Sunday in the scenic city of Hangzhou. Xi welcomed Group of 20 presidents and prime ministers with a handshake, and an extended clasp with Barack Obama, as both men smiled despite protocol stumbles around ...