Region

LUOYANG: Fifty years after Mao Zedong unleashed the decade-long Cultural Revolution to reassert his authority and revive his radical communist agenda, the spirit of modern China’s founder still exerts a powerful pull. Millions of people were persecuted, publicly humiliated, beaten or killed during the upheaval, as zealous factionalism metastasized countrywide, tearing apart Chinese society at […]

Egyptian courts have handed out jail sentences on the weekend to 152 people for taking part in unlicensed anti-government protests, judicial officials and lawyers said on Sunday. The rulings were issued on Saturday by separate courts, with a first group of 51 people sentenced to two years in jail and later in the evening 151 […]

SYDNEY: Australian police have charged five men suspected of planning to travel to Syria to join Islamic State via a journey that would start in a small motor boat taking them to Indonesia and the Philippines. The men, aged between 21 and 31, were charged on Saturday with preparing to enter a foreign country “for […]

BEIJING: China’s defense ministry criticized a U.S. report assessing its island-building efforts in the South China Sea, saying it “hyped up” China’s so-called military threat. The U.S. Defense Department’s annual report on China’s military activities had “wilfully distorted China’s national defense policy,” said ministry spokesman Yang Yujun, adding that the U.S. was too suspicious. China […]

SYDNEY: Australian police have charged five men suspected of planning to travel to Syria to join Islamic State via a journey that would start in a small motor boat taking them to Indonesia and the Philippines. The men, aged between 21 and 31, were charged on Saturday with preparing to enter a foreign country “for […]

NOVOSASITLI: Four years ago, Saadu Sharapudinov was a wanted man in Russia. A member of an outlawed Islamist group, he was hiding in the forests of the North Caucasus, dodging patrols by paramilitary police and plotting a holy war against Moscow. Then his fortunes took a dramatic turn. Sharapudinov, 38, told Reuters that in December […]

KABUL: The Afghan government is expected to finalize a peace deal with a notorious militant insurgent group within days, marking a breakthrough in attempts to end the 15-year war, an official and a representative of the group said on Saturday. Ataul Rahman Saleem, deputy head of Kabul’s High Peace Council, told The Associated Press that […]

ATHENS: The number of migrants arriving in Greece plunged nearly 90 percent in April following a controversial EU-Turkey deal to stem their influx to Europe, the International Organization for Migration said. Last month 3,360 migrants and refugees landed on the Greek islands, compared with 26,971 in March — an 88-percent drop, IOM data showed this […]

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin on Friday warned that Russia would consider measures to “end threats” from US anti-missile systems in Europe but said Moscow would not engage in a new arms race. “Now that these anti-missile elements have been installed, we will be forced to consider putting an end to the threats emerging in relation […]

MANILA: The police force in Manila is so underfunded that officers say they have to buy their own bullets and it is not uncommon for funeral service cars to give cops a lift along to murder scenes because they have no vehicles of their own. Enter Rodrigo Duterte, who won this week’s presidential election in […]