Region

PARIS: French police took to the streets in about 60 cities Wednesday to denounce the hatred and violence they say has been repeatedly directed at them during protests against the government’s labor reforms. In some places they faced counter-protesters, who said the police themselves were instigating the violence. In Paris, a few hundred police officers […]

ALMATY: Kazakhstan detained several vocal opponents of land reform who planned to take part in Saturday protests, activists said on Wednesday, in an apparent attempt to preemptively derail the rallies. Challenging the authority of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has run the Central Asian nation since 1989, hundreds of people have protested in several cities over […]

BANGKOK: Thai officials on Wednesday denied that one of two ethnic Uighur Muslims from China accused of involvement in a deadly bombing in Thailand last year was beaten in custody. Twenty people were killed and more than 120 wounded in the bombing on Aug. 17 at a Hindu shrine and tourist attraction in Bangkok. Five […]

EU states virtually ignored a European Commission target for them to take in some 20,000 asylum seekers from Greece and Italy by mid-May, the bloc’s executive said on Wednesday, renewing a call for more action. In a regular report on its emergency relocation scheme, which aims to move refugees from the Mediterranean frontline to the […]

MALE: Maldives, a staunch supporter of Saudi Arabia, has severed ties with Iran, saying the Islamic Republic’s policy in the Middle East is detrimental to peace and security for the Indian Ocean archipelago, its Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia in January cut ties with Iran over the storming of the Saudi embassy in […]

ANKARA: Turkey’s ruling party will meet on Thursday to announce a candidate to replace outgoing Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu who is stepping down after a power struggle with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reports said. According to initial indications, Transport Minister Binali Yildirim, a close ally of Erdogan, has emerged as the clear favourite to replace […]

KABUL: Afghanistan signed a draft agreement on Wednesday with the Hezb-e-Islami militant group in a move the government hopes could lead to a full peace accord with one of the most notorious warlords in the insurgency. Hezb-e-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is a veteran of decades of Afghan war and rights groups have accused his group […]

BALASORE: In its efforts to have a full-fledged and multi-layered Ballistic Missile Defence system, India successfully test-fired its indigenously developed supersonic interceptor missile on Sunday capable of destroying any incoming hostile ballistic missile from a test range of Orissa coast, according to The Hindu. “The test was conducted to validate various parameters of the interceptor […]

KABUL: Tens of thousands of Afghanistan’s ethnic Hazaras marched on Monday through downtown Kabul, demanding the government reroute a planned power line through their poverty-stricken province so they can get more access to electricity. The massive protest reflected widespread dismay with the administration of President Ashraf Ghani. Concerns that the protest could turn violent prompted […]

RIO DE JANEIRO: To the people who benefited most from the long, recently truncated rule of Brazil’s leftist Workers Party, the look of the successor government could not be more disheartening. Whereas cabinet posts over the past 13 years were often filled by women and blacks, new Interim President Michel Temer last week presented a […]