Kunduz / AFP Afghan forces were conducting clearing operations in Kunduz early on Tuesday, warning that Taliban militants were hiding in civilian homes after an hours-long assault on the city repelled with the help of NATO air support. Helicopters hovered over the strategic provincial capital and special forces were stationed in the main square, but with fighting still in the ...

  Washington / AFP Donald Trump’s presidential hopes suffered a punishing new setback as authorities clamped down on his charitable foundation, while Hillary Clinton seized the offensive to brand him an unscrupulous businessman. With just five weeks to go before the November 8 election, Trump is seeking to climb out of one of the darkest periods of his White House campaign ...

  Berlin / AFP WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange vowed on Tuesday to publish new “significant” documents related to the US presidential elections ahead of the November 8 vote, as the online leaking platform celebrated its 10th birthday in defiant mood. Taking aim at critics accusing him and his organisation of manipulation, Assange pledged he would not be muzzled as he sought ...

  Yangon / AFP Myanmar on Tuesday scrapped a law used by the former military government to silence political activists, which threatened jail for anyone who endangered public morality or execution for damaging telephone lines. The Emergency Provisions Act, passed in 1950 after Myanmar won independence from Britain, became the military’s weapon of choice to silence dissent during its half ...

  London / AFP Ten countries accounting for 2.5 percent of world GDP are hosting more than half the world’s refugees, Amnesty International said on Tuesday as it slammed what it called the selfishness of wealthy nations. In a report on the plight faced by the world’s 21 million refugees, the London-based human rights body lamented that countries immediately neighbouring crisis ...

  Strasbourg / AFP The European Parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly backed the ratification of the Paris climate deal, in a vote attended by UN chief Ban Ki-moon that paves the way for the landmark pact to come into force globally. The vote of 610 for, 38 against and 31 abstentions puts the European Union on track to hand over its ...

  Bloomberg The airline industry’s plan to ease its impact on global warming hinges on fuels made from vegetable oil, corn and household garbage. The hitch: nobody has ever been able to produce the stuff in the volumes needed. JetBlue Airways Corp., United Continental Holdings Inc. and Richard Branson’s Virgin Group Ltd. have begun blending eco-friendly substitutes into traditional jet ...

  Bloomberg Comair Ltd. rose to a 14-month high after the South African airline’s budget unit signed a codeshare agreement with Etihad Airways for routes between Johannesburg and coastal cities including Cape Town and Durban. Comair gained as much as 8.8 percent to 4.20 rand, the highest since July 2015, and traded 6.2 percent higher in Johannesburg. About 75,000 shares ...

  Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co.’s tentative labour agreement with its pilots, reached after more than four years of negotiations, may be in danger now that Delta Air Lines has a pending deal that would pay its aviators more. The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association is seeking to reopen some sections of an accord reached Aug. 29 and has requested a meeting ...

  Bloomberg A Russian airline entrepreneur wants to join the space race, challenging Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin LLC with a plan to launch commercial rockets. S7 Group, the owner of Russia’s S7 Airlines, agreed to buy the floating rocket platform Sea Launch from a group of investors and aims to restore its operations ...