Tokyo / AP Japan’s defence minister travelled to Okinawa to lodge a formal protest with the commander of the US military base there on Saturday after the arrest of a base employee linked to the suspicious death of a local woman. Gen Nakatani’s visit to the island comes just days before a high-profile trip to Japan by US President Barack ...

  New York / AFP Donald Trump’s inflammatory presidential campaign and the prospect of the brash-talking tycoon actually becoming commander-in-chief has left progressive Americans obsessing about one thing: moving to Canada. Stars from Cher to Lena Dunham have declared their intention to head north if the former reality star, famous for insulting Muslims and Mexicans, and under the microscope for ...

United Nations / AFP UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed former Irish President Mary Robinson and Kenyan diplomat Macharia Kamau as special envoys for El Nino and climate. The El Nino weather phenomenon, which occurs every two to seven years, affects rainfall patterns and causes both drought and flooding. Its effects can be seen in places like Sudan, where the ...

  Istanbul / AFP Global leaders and key NGOs gather in Istanbul on Monday for an unprecedented UN-backed summit aimed at transforming the world’s response to humanitarian crises, despite scepticism the talks will have little impact. With an estimated 60 million people displaced around the world and conflict and climate change posing a growing risk, there is widespread agreement among ...

Bangladesh / AFP Cyclone Roanu struck the Bangladesh coast on Saturday killing six people and forcing hundreds of thousands more to flee their homes as the storm unleashed strong winds and heavy downpours. Authorities took more than 500,000 people into shelters as the cyclone made landfall just after noon local time (0600 GMT), packing winds as strong as 88 kilometres (54 ...

BEIJING / AP Chinese state media say a strong storm that hammered a southern city has left at least eight people dead and four missing. The official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday that all deaths and the missing people were reported in the city of Xinyi, which was hit the hardest by Friday’s storm. The Xinyi government says it is the ...

  Cairo / AFP Smoke was detected inside an EgyptAir plane shortly before it plunged into the Mediterranean with 66 people on board, investigators said on Saturday, offering clues but no answers about why it crashed. The Airbus A320 had been flying from Paris to Cairo early Thursday when it plummeted and turned full circle before vanishing from radar screens, ...

  Sydney / AFP Families of victims of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over Ukraine in 2014, are suing President Vladimir Putin and Russia for Aus$10 million each in the European Court of Human Rights, The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Saturday. The compensation claim was filed with the Strasbourg-based court by Sydney legal firm LHD Lawyers ...

  Colombo / AFP Foreign aid began arriving in Sri Lanka on Saturday, bringing help to half a million people who have been driven from their homes by heavy rains and landslides that have killed at least 71. The heaviest rains in a quarter of a century have pounded Sri Lanka since last weekend, triggering huge landslides that have buried some ...

Amid hedgerows of computer screens in the joint operations center that runs the war against the IS, Marine Brig. Gen. Bill Mullen explains the complex assault that drove the extremist fighters last week from the strategic town of Rutbah at the western edge of Anbar province. The battle showed how the campaign against the IS, which has had a slow ...