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…
MOSCOW – Russia will respond if its interests in Ukraine are attacked, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said, drawing a parallel with the 2008 Georgian war. Speaking to Russian state TV channel RT, Mr Lavrov also accused the US of “running the show” in Ukraine. It was “quite telling” that Kiev had re-launched its “anti-terrorist”…
SEOUL – The confirmed death toll from the South Korean ferry that capsized last week has passed 100, as divers recovered more bodies from the sunken hull. A total of 104 people are now known to have died, but another 198 are missing, presumed trapped inside the vessel. The ferry tipped over and sank within…
SEOUL – Bad weather, murky water and strong currents are hampering the search for survivors of the South Korean ferry disaster. Emergency services are still searching for 287 people missing after a ship carrying 475 people sank. Officials say 179 people have been rescued. Most of the passengers were pupils at the same high school….
