May, 2016

• 24 May

  US, Russia scramble to save Syria truce

  

    Beirut / AFP Washington and Moscow scrambled to salvage Syria’s shaky ceasefire on Tuesday as the country reeled from extremist bombings that killed more than 160 people in President Bashar Al Assad’s coastal heartland. A regime offensive outside the capital has severely strained an already fragile nationwide ceasefire between the regime and non-jihadist rebels intended to pave the way ...

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• 24 May

  Pro-Erdogan PM unveils new cabinet lineup

    Ankara / AFP Turkey’s incoming Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Tuesday unveiled his new cabinet line-up two days after being given a mandate by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with most key ministers keeping their jobs but the EU minister switched. The new cabinet is packed with Erdogan loyalists following the resignation of outgoing premier Ahmet Davutoglu, but contained fewer ...

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• 24 May

  Evacuation of squalid Idomeni migrant camp begins

  

    Idomeni / AFP Hundreds of Greek police on Tuesday began clearing the squalid Idomeni camp, a migrant flashpoint on the Macedonia border where thousands of people have been camped out for more than three months. The overcrowded camp packed with desperate refugees and migrants has become a potent symbol of the human suffering and chaos as Europe struggles to ...

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• 24 May

  Indonesia urged to take care in mass grave probe

    Jakarta / AFP Indonesia must use forensic experts to help with exhuming suspected mass graves from 1960s anti-communist massacres to preserve crucial evidence and identify victims, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged on Tuesday. The rights group said it had written to the government about the matter after authorities announced this month they would form a team to investigate what ...

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• 24 May

  Obama’s Hiroshima visit to steal G7 talks thunder

  

    Tokyo/ AFP The lacklustre global economy should take centre stage as world leaders gather in Japan this week, but with no agreement likely on igniting growth, Barack Obama’s visit to the atomic-bombed city of Hiroshima looks set to capture the limelight. A gathering Chinese slowdown, weak oil prices and the looming threat of Britain’s exit from the European Union ...

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• 24 May

  7 Ukrainian soldiers killed in war-torn east

    Kiev / AP Seven Ukrainian soldiers have died in the war-torn east over the past 24 hours, the biggest casualty toll in a single day this year, Kiev said on Tuesday. The latest violence came as the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine called for the implementation of a peace deal in the separatist east during late-night talks ...

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• 24 May

  Palestinian PM turns down Netanyahu’s direct talks offer

    Ramallah / AFP Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah on Tuesday dismissed an Israeli proposal for direct negotiations instead of a French multilateral peace initiative, calling it an attempt to “buy time”. Hamdallah made the comments as he met French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who held talks in Israel and the Palestinian territories this week to push Paris’s peace initiative. ...

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• 24 May

  Obama to Vietnam: Embrace human rights

  

    Hanoi / AFP US President Barack Obama told communist Vietnam on Tuesday that basic human rights would not jeopardise its stability, in an impassioned appeal for the one-party state to abandon authoritarianism. In a sweeping speech, which harked back to the bloody war that defined both nations but also looked to the future, Obama said that “upholding rights is ...

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• 24 May

  Maldives ex-president says granted UK refugee status

    London / AFP Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed said he has been granted refugee status in Britain, after being toppled from power and jailed in a “slide towards authoritarianism” that has forced him into exile. Nasheed, the country’s first democratically elected leader, was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment on controversial terrorism charges last year, but was allowed to travel ...

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• 24 May

  Corruption scandal throws Brazil’s interim government into disarray

  

  Brasília /AFP Acting Brazilian president Michel Temer’s government faced its first major crisis when a key minister stepped aside following a leaked recording in which he appears to discuss using Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment to derail a huge corruption probe. Planning Minister Romero Juca said in a hurried appearance before television cameras that he would step aside from Tuesday. Although he ...

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