Manila / AFP Rodrigo Duterte shot dead a justice department employee and ordered the murder of opponents, a former death squad member told parliament Thursday, in explosive allegations against the Philippine president. The self-described assassin testified under oath that he and a group of policemen and ex-communist rebels killed about 1,000 people between 1988 and 2013 on Duterte’s orders …

  Geneva / AFP Twenty trucks loaded with desperately needed aid for eastern Aleppo have crossed into a buffer zone between Turkey and Syria, a high-level UN official said on Thursday. “The 20 trucks… have passed over the Turkish border, they are in the buffer zone between the Turkish and Syrian border,” Jan Egeland, head of the United Nations humanitarian …

  Denpasar / AFP An explosion on a speedboat in Bali left two foreigners dead and 18 other tourists injured Thursday, sparking dramatic scenes as rescuers rushed to haul stunned and bloodied holidaymakers off the vessel. Dazed passengers, many covered in cuts and bruises, were taken to medical centres on the Indonesian holiday island after the blast, with TV footage showing …