Politics

  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 ...

  Phoenix /AFP White House hopeful Donald Trump issued a stern anti-immigration warning after visiting Mexico, saying people who cross into the United States illegally would never obtain legal status. It was one in a series of stark declarations that framed a sweeping plan to crack down on illegal immigration following his more measured tone earlier in the day, when ...

  Hanoi / AFP Three Russian fraudsters, including one who tried to escape prison using a spoon and a toothbrush to dig a tunnel, have been jailed in Vietnam for using fake ATM cards to steal $13,400. The men, aged between 30 and 43, were detained last October pending trial when one of them made a last-ditch attempt to flee. ...

  Beirut / AFP Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff was stripped of the country’s presidency on Wednesday in a Senate impeachment vote ending 13 years of leftist rule in Latin America’s biggest economy. Rousseff, 68, was convicted by 61 of the 81 senators of illegally manipulating the national budget. The vote, passing the needed two-thirds majority, meant she was immediately removed from office. ...

  Srinagar / AFP A teenager was shot dead in Indian-administered Kashmir on Wednesday as thousands of protesters engaged in fresh clashes with security forces after weeks of deadly violence, police and witnesses said. Paramilitary troops fired live rounds as residents demonstrated against an earlier raid by soldiers searching for protest leaders in the northern village of Nadihal, a police ...

  Manila / AFP Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Wednesday he planned to meet a fugitive Muslim rebel wanted over a deadly siege, promising to ignore an arrest order in an effort to forge peace. The announcement was the latest dramatic attempt by the firebrand leader to end decades-long insurgencies with Muslim and communist rebels that have claimed more ...