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Hundreds of baton-wielding police in Myanmar have broken up a demonstration by students who say a new law stifles academic freedom. A BBC Burmese reporter at the scene said dozens of protesters were injured and at least 30 people arrested. The clashes took place in Letpadan, 140km (90 miles) north of Yangon. The BBC’s correspondent in Myanmar (also known as ...

A senior US diplomat has warned of a “dangerous” gulf emerging between US and European defence spending. Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the United Nations, has appealed to European governments to spend more. She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that cuts to defence budgets in Europe were “concerning”. Prime Minister David Cameron said the UK already met the ...

Under a twinkling chandelier in a gilded room at the Irish embassy in London, Binti Ali Kiza walked slowly to the podium. She looked nervous and cold, despite the blanket over her shoulders and the woollen cap on her head, but her voice was firm as she said: “This is the voice of a grassroots woman.” The Kenyan activist had ...

A suicide bomber in a tricycle taxi blew himself up outside a busy today fish market and killed at least 10 people in Maiduguri, the biggest city in northeastern Nigeria, according to witnesses and a security officer. “I saw many dead bodies lying on the ground, many dead, and several others badly injured,” said fish seller Idi Idrisa. People are ...

Islamic State militants have begun destroying the ruins of the ancient city of Hatra, Kurdish sources in northern Iraq say. Hatra was founded in the days of the Parthian Empire over 2,000 years ago and is a Unesco world heritage site. Earlier this week, IS militants began bulldozing the nearby ruins of the Assyrian city of Nimrud. IS, which controls large ...

An Egyptian man has been executed for pushing a teenager from a building, the first time that Egypt has enacted any of the death sentences given to hundreds of people accused of taking part in the unrest that followed the removal of Mohamed Morsi as president in 2013. Mahmoud Ramadan was hanged for his role in the murder of a young Morsi ...

Former senior official Su Rong has been expelled from the Chinese Communist Party for corruption and faces prosecution, said the country’s top anti-corruption body. Mr Su was a vice-chairman of China’s parliamentary advisory body. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said he had used his position to obtain “large bribes”. State media had announced in June 2014 that the ...

NASA is sending astronaut Scott Kelly to live on the International Space Station for a year. That’s the longest any U.S. astronaut has spent in space and twice as long as crew members usually stay on the space station. A year is a long time to stay anyplace. But staying a year in space has some special challenges. There’s what ...

 The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs has said it prevented aGreenpeace India activist from boarding a flight to Britain in January, where she was scheduled to brief members of Parliament on the effect of mining on indigenous communities in central India, because her visit was “prejudicial to the national interest” and would hurt India’s image abroad. Priya Pillai, an activist ...

France and Germany believe the ceasefire in Ukraine is “generally” being observed, a statement from the French presidency says. But the countries’ leaders, who helped broker the truce, said some “local incidents” must be “quickly” resolved. Shelling has continued around the besieged town of Debaltseve. However, fighting in the area is reported to have lowered in intensity since the ceasefire ...