Manila / AFP Philippine president-elect Rodrigo Duterte takes office this week looking to end the domination of “Imperial Manila” with a radical shift to federalism that he says is vital to fighting poverty and ending a deadly Muslim separatist insurgency. Duterte, who won last month’s elections in a landslide, has vowed to have the constitution rewritten to achieve his bold ...

  Nuku’alofa/ AFP Rescuers launched an air and sea search on Tuesday for a boat missing in Pacific waters off Tonga carrying 11 people, including up to five children. Tongan police said the boat set off from the capital Nuku’alofa with another vessel on Monday afternoon and was due to arrive overnight in Fonoifua island, about 90 kilometres (55 miles) ...

  Lebanon / AFP Lebanese troops raided makeshift refugee camps near a predominantly Christian village on the border with Syria on Tuesday a day after two waves of suicide attacks. But Interior Minister Nuhad Mashnuq said the attackers who carried out Monday’s violence had come from inside Syria, not refugee settlements nearby. “We are worried that there are more terrorists, so ...

  Moscow / AFP Russian President Vladimir Putin is to hold his first phone call with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan since Ankara downed one of Moscow’s warplanes in Syria, the Kremlin said Tuesday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the conversation would take place on Wednesday at the “initiative of the Russian side” after the Turkish strongman sent a letter ...

  Tehran / AFP Eleven Kurdish rebels and three of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards were killed in clashes near the Iraqi border, the Fars news agency reported on Tuesday. “A group of 11 counter-revolutionaries linked to the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), who were attempting to infiltrate the country were immediately detected… and were eliminated after 10 days of ...

  Baghdad / AFP An Iraqi court has dealt a blow to Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi’s efforts to replace a cabinet dominated by entrenched political parties, invalidating the session that approved new ministers. But it also settled the issue of whether parliament speaker Salim Al Juburi retains his job—a question that had resulted in two rival claimants to the ...

  Baghdad / AFP A suicide bomber detonated explosives at a Sunni mosque near Baghdad where worshippers were gathered for prayers, killing at least nine people, officials said on Tuesday. The attack on the mosque in Abu Ghraib, which also wounded at least 28 people, took place during evening prayers on Monday as Muslims mark the holy fasting month of ...

  Iraq / AFP When her five-year-old son asked her to kill him because he was too hungry, Umm Issam knew she would never come back to Fallujah if she was able to leave. Iraqi forces on Sunday wrapped up operations in Fallujah and declared the area free of extremists of the IS group after a month-long operation. The government ...

  New Delhi / AFP Bangladesh police have charged seven people including a senior opposition official over the murder of an Italian aid worker last September, an officer said on Tuesday. The killing near the capital’s diplomatic zone was the first in a wave of attacks to be claimed by the IS group, and was followed days later by the ...

  Gaza City / AFP Palestinian movement Hamas has thanked Turkey for its efforts on behalf of Gazans in a weekend reconciliation deal with Israel but urged it to increase pressure for an end to a decade-old blockade. In its first reaction to the agreement, Hamas expressed its “thanks and gratitude to Turkish President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan” and the Turkish ...