HARARE – Attackers in China’s restive Xinjiang region have crashed two cars into shoppers at a market, killing 31 people, Chinese media reports say. They also threw explosives during the attack in the regional capital Urumqi. More than 90 people were injured, the state-run Xinhua news agency said. The Ministry of Public Security called it…
HARARE – Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has signed multi-billion dollar, 30-year gas deal with China. The deal between Russia’s Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has been 10 years in the making. No official price has been given but it estimated to be worth over $400bn. Russia has been keen to find an alternative…
MOSCOW – Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has ordered troops near Ukraine’s border to withdraw, the Kremlin says. Units in the Rostov, Belgorod and Bryansk regions should return to their permanent bases, a statement said. Russia has made similar statements in the past, only for Nato to report no change. Correspondents say the removal of some…
ISTANBUL – As a crowd milled around with downcast eyes outside a coal mine in western Turkey on Wednesday, a miner dashed their hopes that his co-workers still stuck inside would make it out alive. There are 200 of them trapped in the shaft about two-thirds of a mile — or 1 kilometer — underground,…
KIEV – Pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s two eastern regions are holding “self-rule” referendums – a move condemned by the Ukrainian government and the West. BBC correspondents at polling stations report chaotic scenes, no voting booths in places and no electoral register. Self-proclaimed leaders in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are going ahead with the vote…
BANGKOK – A Thai court has ordered Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and several cabinet ministers to step down. The Constitutional Court ruled that Ms Yingluck acted illegally when she transferred her national security head. The ruling follows months of political deadlock. Anti-government protesters have been trying to oust Ms Yingluck since November 2013. The remaining…
WASHINGTON – The US says it considers the abduction of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls by Islamist militants “an outrage” and is offering help to try to rescue them. White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Barack Obama was being briefed as his national security team was monitoring developments. Earlier, a video emerged of the…
BAGHDAD – There is heavy security across Iraq as the country votes in its first parliamentary elections since US troops withdrew three years ago. Polling began at 07:00 local time (04:00 GMT) and closes at 18:00. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is hoping to win a third term in office amid a growing insurgency in the…
CAIRO – A judge in Egypt has sentenced 683 people – including Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie – to death in a mass trial, lawyers say. Mr Badie and the 682 other supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi faced charges relating to an attack on a police station last year. The same court also reversed…
TOKYO — US President Barack Obama said on Thursday he was poised to impose new sanctions on Moscow if it does not act fast to end an armed stand-off in Ukraine, but there was a first, tentative sign that pro-Russian separatists were ceding ground. Moscow also flexed its economic muscles in its worst stand-off with…
