Politics

Istanbul / AFP Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Saturday insisted the United States was Turkey’s “strategic partner, not our enemy” despite Ankara’s anger at Washington for failing to extradite Fethullah Gulen, whom it blames for last month’s failed coup. “There can be ups and downs in the two countries’ relations (but) we need to remove elements that harm our relations,” Yildirim ...

  California / AFP Weary firefighters on Thursday battled a raging inferno that was threatening the homes of more than 82,000 people in southern California and sent flaming “firenadoes” tearing across the brush. Nearly 1,600 firefighters were fighting the giant blaze, but had only contained four percent of it, according to a fire service official. Dramatic local TV news footage ...

  Jerusalem / AFP Israel’s hardline defence minister Avigdor Lieberman has a new “carrot and stick” policy for the West Bank that will penalise the hometowns of Palestinian attackers while rewarding others, his ministry said on Thursday. Under the policy, Palestinian families, villages and towns that are linked to attackers will face extra punitive measures, while those that are not will ...

  Hanoi / AFP Two senior communist officials were shot dead by a colleague at their offices in northern Vietnam, state media reported on Thursday, a rare high profile gun homicide in the country. Northern Yen Bai province’s most senior official, party chief Pham Duy Cuong and head of the provincial people’s council Ngo Ngoc Tuan, were gunned down by a ...

  Ankara/ AFP Eastern Turkey was rocked by two deadly bombings against police as Kurdish guerrillas launched a new campaign of attacks targeting areas that are not predominantly Kurdish. The car bombings—less than 12 hours apart—killed at least 10 people in total and injured over 200, officials said Thursday, blaming the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The rebels, who have been ...

  Khartoum / AFP UN chief Ban Ki-moon has expressed disappointment over the failure of talks between the Sudanese government and rebels on a ceasefire in Darfur and two other conflict zones. The talks on a cessation of hostilities in Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan were held in Addis Ababa last week after three prominent rebel groups signed a roadmap ...

Tokyo / AFP Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday as her country’s new civilian authorities seeks to cement ties with Beijing—long the former military junta’s protector. The five-day visit—with the suspension of a giant Beijing-backed dam project set to dominate talks—is Suu Kyi’s first major foreign trip since her government took ...

  Ankara / AFP Turkey on Wednesday began freeing the first of some 38,000 prisoners not linked to the failed coup who are to be released in a move aimed at relieving pressure on prisons overcrowded with putsch suspects. The parole decision came as Turkey presses on with the biggest purge in its modern history after the July 15 bid ...

  Ramallah / AFP Israeli troops arrested the Hamas representative on the organising committee for October Palestinian municipal elections on Wednesday, the radical movement said. Hamas condemned what it called an “attempt to influence” the outcome of the elections, the first in the Palestinian territories since 2012. “We condemn the arrest of Sheikh Hussein Abu Kweik,” a Hamas statement said, adding ...

  Sri Nagar / AFP Suspected militants killed two soldiers and one police officer in an ambush on a convoy overnight in Indian-administrated Kashmir, an official in the troubled region said on Wednesday. An unknown number of gunmen opened fire on the two army trucks and a police car travelling through Baramulla district, 60 kilometres (37 miles) west of the region’s ...