Jakarta / AFP Indonesia’s defence minister said on Thursday suspected communists killed in 1960s military-backed massacres “deserved to die”, as a backlash mounts against efforts to resolve one of the darkest chapters in the country’s history. Hardline ex-general Ryamizard Ryacudu made the comments to a gathering of former military figures and nationalist groups convened in response to moves by ...

  Manila / AFP The leader of the Philippines’ communist insurgency said on Thursday he expects to end nearly 30 years in exile by returning from Europe to Manila as early as next month. While running for office last month, Rodrigo Duterte, now the newly elected president, said Jose Maria Sison, the rebel leader and Communist Party of the Philippines ...

  DUSHANBE / AP Officials from China’s traditionally Muslim region of Xinjiang say they will not interfere with fasting and other standard religious activities during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The officials said at a news conference on Thursday that restaurants will be allowed to keep their own hours and activities in mosques and homes will be legally protected. ...

  Paris / AFP France will accept 400 refugees per month from Greece as part of the EU relocation deal it signed last year, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Thursday. “This week, as part of the relocation, 97 additional refugees have arrived in France coming from Greece and Italy,” Cazeneuve said in a statement, adding that another 253 were ...

  Washington / AP The US-led coalition fighting the IS group in Syria is trying to strangle it by cutting off a key supply route from Turkey. The Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led alliance, has just launched an offensive to capture the strategic northern town of Manbij with the help of coalition air strikes, 18 of them in the past ...

  Ahmedabad / AFP An Indian court convicted two dozen Hindus on Thursday over a massacre during religious riots 14 years ago when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chief minister of Gujarat state. Sixty-nine Muslims were hacked and burnt to death as they sheltered at a residential complex in the city of Ahmedabad, in one of the single worst massacres ...

  Mogadishu / AFP An attack on a Mogadishu hotel by extremist gunmen has ended with at least 10 dead, Somalia’s security minister said on Thursday. Somali security forces had been battling the Shabaab fighters holed up inside the building since Wednesday evening when the assault began with a car bomb that tore the front off the six-storey Ambassador Hotel. ...

  Kuala Lumpur / AFP Families of six Malaysia Airlines crew members who were killed when flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine nearly two years ago filed a lawsuit on Thursday blaming the carrier for the tragedy. The suit accuses the airline of negligence and breach of contract and is believed to be the first filed against the company ...

I don’t know whether a President Donald Trump would be able to destroy U.S. democracy by crushing the institutions that share power with the executive. I tend to agree with Brian Beutler that the institutions Trump might go after would fight back effectively — though I’m not eager to test that proposition. Nonetheless, I think Trump is dangerous to democracy ...

  Adam Minter Indonesia is drowning in plastic trash. Bottles pollute its beaches, bags congest its waterways and instant-noodle cups overflow its garbage bins. It’s only getting worse: By 2019, Indonesia will generate about 5 percent more trash than it did in 2014, and about 15 percent of that will be plastic. Fixing this problem has become a priority for ...