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Paris / AFP Rising sea levels driven by climate change could upend the lives of more than 13 million Americans by the end of the century, according to a study released Monday. If global warming lifts oceans 1.8 metres (six feet) by 2100, as some scientists forecast in worst-case scenarios, 13.1 million people living in US coastal areas will become ...

Bloomberg Russia said its forces have started leaving Syria after President Vladimir Putin ordered the military withdrawal in a surprise move that puts pressure on the regime of Bashar Al Assad and opposition groups to reach a peace deal at talks in Geneva. The first group of planes, including Su-34 bombers, have returned to bases in Russia, the Defense Ministry ...

Dushanbe / AFP Russia and fragile ex-Soviet ally Tajikistan have begun large-scale military drills close to the Central Asian state’s restless border with Afghanistan, a Tajik military official confirmed Tuesday. A spokesman for Tajikistan’s defence ministry said the drills involving around 50,000 Tajik troops and 2,000 Russian troops, including paratroopers flown in from Russia. “The manoeuvres involve around a thousand ...

Idomeni / AFP Some 700 refugees and migrants were being held in Macedonia on Tuesday after they managed to slip across the border from Greece, a frontier that has been shut for a week. Dozens of others who failed to cross were returning to the overflowing Idomeni camp on the Greek side, where some 14,000 people are stuck in increasing ...

Naypyidaw / AFP Myanmar’s lawmakers on Tuesday elected a close aide and longtime friend of Aung San Suu Kyi to become the first civilian president in decades, a historic moment for the formerly junta-run nation. Htin Kyaw, 69, hailed his elevation to the top post as “Suu Kyi’s victory”, a clear nod to her plan that he serve as a ...

London / AFP Kurdish rebel leader Cemil Bayik warned Turkey to expect payback for the deadly clashes that have raged following the collapse of a fragile truce, in an interview published in Britain’s Times daily on Tuesday. Bayik, one of the leaders of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said to expect fighting “everywhere” and insisted its guerillas were justified ...

United Nations / AFP UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon angrily told Morocco’s foreign minister that protests organized in Rabat against his remarks on Western Sahara were disrespectful. Ban “expressed his deep disappointment and anger regarding the demonstration that was mobilized on Sunday, which targeted him in person,” said a UN statement released after his meeting with Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar in ...

Geneva / AFP UN investigators welcomed a “significant decrease” in violence in Syria on the fifth anniversary of the start of the brutal conflict on Tuesday, saying they finally glimpsed hope of an end to the war. “Now, for the first time, there is hope of an end in sight,” said Paulo Pinheiro, head of the UN Commission of Inquiry ...

Seoul / AFP North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered an upcoming nuclear warhead test and multiple ballistic missile launches, escalating Pyongyang’s face-off with the international community just days after being slapped with tough UN sanctions. The order came after Kim monitored what was described as the successful simulated test of the warhead re-entry technology required for a long-range nuclear ...

Bloomberg Malaysia is reviewing plans to bar foreign political donations after Prime Minister Najib Razak became embroiled in a scandal over a $681 million contribution that ended up in his personal bank account. A Malaysian committee working on a framework to regulate political funding also determined that anonymous donations should not exceed 1,000 ringgit ($242) and contributions must be held ...