White House bars some news organisations from briefing
WASHINGTON – The White House has excluded several major US news organisations, including some it has openly criticised, from an off-camera briefing held by the White House press secretary on…
Islamic State car bomb kills more than 50 in northwest Syria
BEIRUT/ISTANBUL – An Islamic State car bomb has killed more than 50 people in a Syrian village held by rebels, a war monitor said, a day after the jihadist group…
South African police break up anti-immigrant protests
PRETORIA – South African police have fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets to disperse rival marches by hundreds of protesters in Pretoria, after mobs looted stores this week…
China overtakes US, France as Germany’s biggest trading partner
BERLIN – China for the first time became Germany’s most important trading partner in 2016, overtaking the United States, which fell back to third place behind France, data showed on…
Malaysia says VX nerve agent was used in murder of Kim Jong Nam
KUALA LUMPUR – The estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was killed with a highly toxic chemical weapon known as VX nerve agent, Malaysian police said today,…
Pentagon plan to defeat Islamic State to look beyond Iraq, Syria
WASHINGTON – A Pentagon-led plan to defeat Islamic State, due in draft form by Monday, will look beyond Iraq and Syria to include the threat from jihadists around the world…
Canada’s Trudeau pressured to tackle problem of asylum-seekers
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has come under increasing pressure to deal with asylum seekers illegally crossing into Canada from the United States to avoid a crackdown by the administration…
Indonesia to raise prospect of joint patrols with Australia in S.China Sea – report
Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo will discuss the prospect of joint patrols with Australia in the South China Sea when he meets his counterpart Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the weekend.…
Bomb kills at least 10 in shopping district in Pakistan’s Lahore
A bomb blast in an upscale shopping centre in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore has killed at least 10 people, a provincial government spokesman said, the latest attack in a…
French police clash with youths at protest rally, arrest eight
PARIS – Hundreds of French high-school students have staged an unauthorised anti-police rally, blocking the entrances to a dozen schools in Paris in the latest in a series of protests…
