Politics

  Goma / AFP About 30 civilians have been killed in a massacre in an area of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that has been shaken by violence since 2014, the army said on Sunday. Suspected rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a partly radical armed group of Ugandan origin, killed “about 30 people” in the town of Beni on ...

  Bangkok / AFP Thai police discovered unexploded bombs in three top tourist destinations over the weekend as they searched for clues to a wave of blasts that rocked resort areas and killed four last week. No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing spree, which hit seven southern provinces on Thursday and Friday and left dozens wounded, including European tourists. ...

  Beirut / AFP The IS group has freed hundreds of civilians used by the extremists as human shields while retreating in northern Syria, US-backed forces and a monitor said on Saturday. A source from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which pushed IS out of the city of Manbij this week with the aid of US-led air strikes, said that ...

  United Nations / AFP The UN Security Council has authorized the deployment of a robust force of 4,000 troops to South Sudan after heavy fighting set back efforts to end the country’s devastating war. The council adopted a US-drafted resolution that also threatened to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan if the government blocks the deployment. Eleven countries in ...

  Hua Hin / AFP Thai authorities on Saturday hunted for culprits behind a wave of bombings targeting popular holiday destinations, as businesses braced for the economic fallout from the attacks on the crucial tourism industry. The kingdom was on edge after 11 small bombs and a series of suspected arson attacks exploded across five southern provinces on Thursday night and ...

  Arbil / AFP The nephew of the governor of a key province where Iraqi forces are battling the IS group has been gunned down in the country’s north, officials said on Saturday. The shooting in Iraqi Kurdish regional capital Arbil came just hours after Nowfal Al Aqoub, the governor of Nineveh, made controversial remarks about children being fathered by IS ...

  Islamabad / AFP Six crew members of a Pakistani government helicopter which crash-landed in Afghanistan’s volatile east have been released, an official said on Saturday, after they were taken hostage by the Afghan Taliban. The crew “was released in an inter-tribe exchange on the Pakistan-Afghan border (and) arrived in Islamabad today,” foreign ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria said in a statement. ...

  Aden / AFP Iran-backed rebels convened Yemen’s parliament on Saturday in defiance of the internationally recognised government, prompting condemnation from President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi. The session in rebel-held Sanaa was the first in almost two years, and comes after the Houthis rejected a UN peace plan and appointed a council to run the country. Parliamentary sources said 91 lawmakers in ...

  Brussels / AFP Doctors in Syria’s Aleppo made a heart-wrenching plea on Thursday for the US to help civilians in the city, hit by fresh fighting despite a promised Russian aid window. A longtime ally of the regime in Damascus, Russia has provided air cover for pro-government forces for nearly a year, including in the escalating battle for Aleppo. ...

  Kandahar / AFP Fighting raged on Thursday in Helmand after Afghanistan rushed military reinforcements to beat back Taliban insurgents advancing on the besieged capital of the southern poppy-growing province, as officials downplayed fears the city could fall. Afghan forces fought back insurgents after they stormed Nawa district, just south of Lashkar Gah city, late on Wednesday, raising alarm that ...