Politics

  Brasília / AFP The final witnesses in the defense of suspended Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff testified late Saturday in her senate impeachment trial, days before a vote that could permanently remove her from power. Rousseff, 68, is accused of taking illegal state loans to help bridge budget shortfalls and mask the true state of the economy during her 2014 reelection ...

  Beirut / AFP Turkish shelling and air strikes killed at least 40 Syrians on Sunday, a monitor said, in the first significant civilian casualties in Turkey’s intensifying campaign in northern Syria. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said the army had killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” in air strikes as part of its unprecedented operation inside Syria. The bombardments came after Ankara ...

  Abuja / AFP Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said on Sunday that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau is “wounded”, in his first comments on military claims that the extremist leader was injured in an attack. Nigeria’s armed forces said on Tuesday that Shekau had been wounded in an air strike on Boko Haram’s forest stronghold, but released no further statement ...

  Cairo / AFP Egyptian authorities on Sunday released a renowned human rights lawyer arrested after protests against President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s decision to hand over two islands to Saudi Arabia. Malek Adly had been held in pre-trial detention since being arrested by plainclothes police on May 5. His defence team confirmed his release. “The case has not been referred ...

  Riyadh /AFP Yemen’s exiled government has said it welcomes in principle a US-backed plan to resume peace talks with Iran-backed rebels on the basis of forming a unity government. At a meeting in Riyadh, the cabinet gave an “initial welcoming to the ideas that came out of the meeting in Jeddah,” which included US Secretary of State John Kerry, ...

  Berlin / AFP Germany expects up to 300,000 asylum seekers to arrive this year, less than one-third of the total during 2015’s record influx, the Federal Office for Migrants and Refugees (BAMF) said on Sunday. BAMF chief Frank-Juergen Weise told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that Germany’s healthy economy and improvements to refugee services meant that the country was ...

  Yangon / AFP Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi faces what could be the toughest test of her leadership yet when she opens a major ethnic peace conference Wednesday aimed at ending wars that have blighted the country since its independence. The five-day talks will bring hundreds of ethnic minority rebel leaders to the capital, along with military top brass ...

  Brasília / AFP Angry quarrels erupted at suspended Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment trial, while her key ally, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, faced corruption charges on a day of turmoil for Latin America’s largest country. Day two of Rousseff’s Senate trial in the capital Brasilia began with shouting matches that forced Supreme Court Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski to ...

  Bogota / AFP Colombia’s defense minister insisted the historic ceasefire with FARC rebels will not end the country’s commitment to fight crime, as a judge issued arrest warrants for leaders of another group also pushing for a peace deal. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos ordered a definitive ceasefire with the Marxist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), ...

  United Nations / AFP The UN Security Council strongly condemned North Korea for test-firing ballistic missiles and agreed to take “significant measures” in response the latest series of launches. The 15-member council issued the toughly-worded condemnation in a unanimous statement drafted by the United States and backed by China, Pyongyang’s main ally. Council members agreed to “continue to closely ...