International

An Iraqi security official says a suicide bomber has targeted a security checkpoint in the western province of Anbar, killing six people.   Maj. Gen. Qasem al-Dulaimi tells The Associated Press the attacker drove a booby-trapped vehicle into a joint security checkpoint managed by the Iraqi army and the Popular Mobilization Forces at the southern entrance of the town of ...

Russia will flex its military muscles and hold the biggest war games since the Cold War era next month, including almost 300,000 troops and 1,000 aircraft, the defence ministry said Tuesday, leading NATO to warn of a “more assertive Russia”. The Vostok-2018, or East 18, exercises simulating large-scale warfare, which the Kremlin called “justified”, will be carried out from September ...

US President Donald Trump has warned that his policies will be “violently” overturned if the Democrats win November’s mid-term elections. He told Evangelical leaders that the vote was a “referendum” on freedom of speech and religion, and that these were threatened by “violent people”.   He appealed to conservative Christian groups for help, saying they were one vote away from ...

Thailand’s military junta announced Tuesday it will ease some restrictions on political parties to let them conduct basic functions and prepare for elections set for early next year, but campaigning will still be forbidden. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said after a junta meeting that the new rules would allow political parties to hold meetings, make adjustments to regulations, appoint managers ...

An Australian government MP has revealed she will not contest the next election, condemning the parliament’s “bullying and intimidation” of women. Julia Banks branded a party coup that ousted Malcolm Turnbull as PM last week as “the final straw” in her decision.   In a withering statement, Ms Banks took aim at the “scourge of cultural and gender bias” in ...

Mexico City, Aug 29 : About 300 sea turtles have died on Mexico’s southern Pacific coast after they were trapped in an abandoned illegal fishing net. The office for environmental protection says the Olive Ridley turtles drowned after getting caught in the net. The office said in a statement Tuesday that the endangered turtles were badly decomposed when found in ...

UN human rights experts believe war crimes may have been committed by all parties to the conflict in Yemen. In their first such report, they allege Yemeni government forces, the Saudi-led coalition backing them, and the rebel Houthi movement have made little effort to minimise civilian casualties.   They point to the bombing and shelling of schools, hospitals and markets, ...

Police in the Indonesian part of Borneo island have arrested more than a dozen people suspected of starting forest fires that have killed four people in the past month. West Kalimantan police chief Didi Haryono said Tuesday that two of the 27 people wanted by police died in blazes they started to clear land for planting. He said 14 people ...

Rival protests over a murder in the east German city of Chemnitz have ended with several people injured as objects were hurled by both sides, police say. Far-right activists had gathered in the centre for a second day as a Syrian and an Iraqi remained under arrest on suspicion of Sunday’s deadly stabbing.   Anti-Nazi activists rallied just metres away, ...

Malcolm Turnbull has said he will quit Australia’s parliament on Friday following his ouster as prime minister by party rivals, local media report. Mr Turnbull was replaced by Scott Morrison last week in a bid to end infighting that had crippled the centre-right government.   The ousted leader said Australians would be “appalled” by recent events.   His departure will ...