Ottawa / AFP Largely driven by housing, Canadian consumer prices rose 1.5 percent in June over a year ago, the same rate recorded in May, the Canadian government reported on Saturday. The pace fell short of analyst forecasts, which had predicted a rise in the consumer price index of 1.7 percent. Housing prices were up 1.6 percent after rising …

  Istanbul / AFP Turkey pushed on Saturday with a sweeping crackdown against suspects accused of taking part in the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, extending police powers to hold people in detention and shuttering over 1,000 private schools. A week after renegade soldiers tried to oust him with guns, tanks and F16s, Erdogan’s government has rounded up …

  Chennai / AFP India on Saturday stepped up a major search operation for an air force plane that disappeared over the Bay of Bengal the day before with 29 people on board, as the defence minister headed to the region. The AN-32 military transport plane was on a routine flight from the southern city of Chennai to Port Blair, capital …