MANILA, philippines (AFP) — Communist guerrillas killed three Philippine soldiers in the first fatal clash since a newly-elected president offered to restart stalled peace talks, the military said Sunday, May 15. The soldiers were on the central island of Negros on Saturday investigating reports that New People’s Army guerrillas were extorting money from villagers when they clashed with about ten rebels, leaving three soldiers dead and two wounded, a military report said. The violence comes just […]
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IS bombs kill 47 Yemen police in former Qaeda bastion
by Fawaz al-Haidari ADEN , Yemen (AFP) — A suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State group and a second blast killed 47 police Sunday in the Yemeni port of Mukalla where a year of Al-Qaeda rule ended last month, medics said. It was the second attack in days claimed by IS in the city of 200,000 people that was recaptured by government forces from the rival jihadists of Al-Qaeda with US backing. The suicide […]
Syria Qaeda kills 19 civilians from Assad’s Alawite sect
BEIRUT , Lebanon (AFP) — Al-Qaeda fighters and their allies shot dead 19 civilians from President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority in their own homes after seizing their village in central Syria, a monitor said Friday. Other villagers were kidnapped following the assault in which eight pro-regime militiamen were killed trying to defend Al-Zara in Hama province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. “During the attack, they entered houses and opened fire on families, killing […]
Turkey visa deal unravels as Erdogan defies EU on key condition
by Fulya OZERKAN ANKARA , Turkey (AFP) — A deal to grant Turks visa-free travel to most of the European Union was hanging by a thread Thursday after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defiantly vowed Ankara would not fulfil a key condition set by Brussels. With alarm growing over the deal’s future, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker bluntly told Erdogan that Turks would only enjoy travel to the passport-free Schengen area if all conditions were met […]
Hezbollah announces death of top military commander in Syria
BEIRUT , Lebanon (AFP) — Hezbollah on Friday announced the death of its military commander in Syria, Mustafa Badreddine. “He said a few months ago, ‘I will not come back from Syria, unless a martyr or carrying the flag of victory’. He is the top commander Mustafa Badreddine. And he came back today as a martyr,” the Shiite movement said in a statement carried by the Al-Manar TV channel. Hezbollah, along with Iran, is […]
Storms kill at least 33 in Bangladesh
DHAKA , Bangladesh (AFP) — Fierce tropical storms wreaked havoc across Bangladesh on Thursday, killing more than 30 people, with police attributing many of the deaths to lightning strikes. The death toll from the 10 worst-hit districts stood at 33, police told AFP, with reports of an unconfirmed number of casualties in more remote regions. The northwest of the country was the worst hit, with at least 19 people killed in Pabna, Rajshahi, Sirajganj and […]
IS releases video of ‘citizen executions’ in Iraq
BAGHDAD , Iraq (AFP) — The Islamic State group has released a video showing five alleged “spies” being shot dead in Iraq by young men from a crowd assembled for the execution. The 12-minute video released on social media on Wednesday mimics a participatory television show, in which members of the public are interviewed and invited to take part. Produced by the group’s branch in Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital, the video […]
Qaeda suicide bombers kill 13 troops near Yemen’s Mukalla
ADEN , Yemen (AFP) — Al-Qaeda militants, including three suicide bombers who blew up vehicles, killed at least 13 Yemeni government troops outside the southeastern port city of Mukalla on Thursday, a military official said. Several soldiers were also wounded in the attack on the eastern outskirts of the Hadramawt provincial capital, which the army recaptured from Al-Qaeda last month, ending a year of jihadist rule, the official said. One suicide bomber rammed a vehicle […]
Yemen Qaeda hits army with 3 suicide bombings: military
ADEN , Yemen (AFP) — Al-Qaeda militants, including three suicide bombers who blew up vehicles, attacked Yemeni government troops outside the southeastern port city of Mukalla on Thursday, a military official said. Several soldiers were killed or wounded in the assault on the eastern outskirts of the city, which government troops recaptured from Al-Qaeda last month ending a year of jihadist rule, the official said. faw/ak/kir © 1994-2016 Agence France-Presse
Cricketer in Bangladesh beaten to death with stump
DHAKA , Bangladesh (AFP) — A teenage cricketer in Bangladesh was allegedly killed by a stump-wielding batsman after he taunted the umpire over a no-ball delivery, police said Thursday. Sixteen-year-old Babul Shikdar was wicketkeeping during a neighborhood match with friends in the capital Dhaka on Wednesday when the batsman was given out, local police chief Bhuiyan Mahboob Hasan said. Shikdar suggested that the umpire might again favour the batsman, by declaring the bowler’s delivery a […]
Security tight in Bangladesh for strike over Islamist’s hanging
DHAKA , Bangladesh (AFP) — Bangladesh Thursday deployed thousands of police in the capital to prevent violence, after the main Islamist party called a nationwide strike to protest against its leader’s execution for warcrimes. Jamaat-e-Islami party president Motiur Rahman Nizami was hanged late on Tuesday following his conviction for the massacre of intellectuals during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. Clashes erupted in the northwest and the south of the country on Wednesday, with […]
British ‘barbarians’ need manners lesson, says China paper in rudeness row
BEIJING , China (AFP) — The British media is riddled with “barbarians” who would benefit from a lesson in manners from China’s ancient civilization, a state-run newspaper said Thursday after Queen Elizabeth II called some Chinese officials “very rude”. In a rare diplomatic gaffe, the British monarch was caught on camera at a Buckingham Palace garden party making unguarded comments about a state visit last year by President Xi Jinping that drummed up billions in […]
