AP, Ankara
Turkey’s Interior Ministry says police have detained 412 suspected Kurdish militants in a security sweep.
The ministry said in a statement Thursday that the suspects were rounded up in police operations in 21 provinces late on Wednesday. In addition, the statement said 131 Islamic State group suspects were detained in operations in 13 provinces in the past week.
Rebel court sentences Yemen journalist
to death
AFP, Sanaa
A Yemeni court in the rebel-held capital has sentenced a veteran journalist to death on charges of spying for neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the press union and rebel media said on Thursday. Since March 2015, oil-rich Saudi Arabia has been leading a deadly military intervention against the rebels and their allies in the kingdom’s impoverished neighbour.
Abbas seeks steps to end Palestinian split
AP, Ramallah
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he will take “unprecedented steps” to end the political division between his West Bank-based autonomy government and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. The Islamic militant group Hamas seized Gaza from Abbas in 2007. The rivals failed to reconcile. A unity government set up by Abbas in 2014 never got off the ground in Gaza.
Former Australian FM criticises Trump
AP, Sydney
A former Australian foreign affairs minister has dubbed Donald Trump the most “psychologically ill-equipped president” in American history, and called on Australia to distance itself from the United States in favor of forging closer ties with China.
Gareth Evans, who served as Australia’s foreign minister from 1988 to 1996, urged Australia to become more independent, back away from its longtime reliance on the U.S. and instead recognize China as a “global rule-maker.”
