Politics

  Berlin / AFP The father of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian refugee boy whose body washed ashore on a Turkish beach a year ago, on Thursday denounced the world’s failure to stop the bloodshed in his home country. “The politicians said after the deaths in my family: Never again!” the bereaved father, Abdullah Kurdi, 41, told Germany’s Bild daily. “Everyone ...

  Karkamis / AFP Turkish military experts on Thursday cleared mines from the area of the Syrian town of Jarabulus captured from extremists last week, using controlled explosions that sent clouds of dust and smoke into the sky, an AFP photographer said. Pro-Ankara Syrian rebels, backed by Turkish aviation and tanks, took Jarabulus from IS fighters in a lightning operation and ...

  Istanbul / AFP On Sunday, Nadim Fawzi Jouriyeh participated in a ceremony in Amman, Jordan, to mark the United States hitting its target of taking in 10,000 Syrian refugees in a year-old resettlement program. On Wednesday, the 47-year-old former construction worker and his family were walking grocery aisles, stocking up on roasted chicken, milk and lemons for their new ...

  Naypyidaw / AFP Delegates from one of Myanmar’s most heavily armed ethnic groups stormed out of peace talks on Thursday in an early blow to a landmark gathering aimed at ushering in a new era of peace. The five-day conference in the capital Naypyidaw has been hailed as the best chance in a generation for Myanmar to end wars ...

  Geneva / AFP The UN Syria envoy on Thursday criticised Damascus’ “strategy” of forced evacuation from Daraya following a brutal four-year government siege, warning that other besieged towns could follow. Staffan de Mistura told reporters in Geneva that there were “indications that after Daraya we may have other Darayas,” adding that “there is clearly a strategy at the moment to ...

  Beirut / AFP Demonstrators crowded the streets on Thursday in a test of strength between Venezuela’s government and opponents seeking a referendum to remove President Nicolas Maduro, raising fears of violence. Thousands of protesters dressed in white marched in the east of the capital, waving signs reading “Change now” in what the opposition dubbed “The Taking of Caracas.” A rival ...

  PRAGUE / AP The Czech Republic’s counter-intelligence agency says there’s a threat of a potential attack by radicals on Czech territory. The agency, known as BIS, says in its annual report published on Thursday that such a threat comes from militants linked to the IS group and also from the Nusra Front, Al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria. The announcement comes ...

  Luxembourg / AFP EU President Donald Tusk insisted on Thursday there would be no talks with Britain before London triggers the divorce process, saying he wants to “protect the interests” of the bloc’s remaining members. Tusk added that in the wake of the Brexit vote, the 27 EU leaders who are meeting without Britain in Slovakia on September 16 ...

  Rawalpindi /AFP Pakistan’s military on Thursday admitted for the first time that the IS group had a presence in the country but said it had apprehended hundreds of its militants and prevented them from carrying out major attacks. The army’s spokesman Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa said forces had foiled planned attacks by IS on foreign embassies and Islamabad airport, ...

  Singapore / AFP Malaysia on Thursday reported its first suspected case of Zika, a 58-year-old woman believed to have contracted it in neighbouring Singapore where more than 100 cases have been confirmed. The Malaysian woman had made a brief trip in late August to visit her daughter, who has already been confirmed as having the Zika virus, Malaysia’s health ...