News of the Day From Around the World
The U.N. refugee agency pulled out staff Tuesday from facilities on Lesbos and other Greek islands being used to detain refugees and migrants as an international deal with Turkey came under further strain.
Under the deal, detained migrants and refugees will be sent back to Turkey, which in return will receive additional EU financial aid and join an EU resettlement program for Syrians and others fleeing war.
The United Nations said Tuesday that it has closed a military liaison office in the disputed Western Sahara after Morocco gave the U.N. observers there 72 hours to leave to protest remarks by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Morocco annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, in 1975 and fought a local independence movement called the Polisario Front until the U.N.-brokered a cease-fire in 1991.
U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the Dakhla liaison office was closed Monday and the three military observers stationed there were relocated to the U.N. site in Awsard.
3 Arrests in Turkey: A Turkish state-run agency says authorities detained three men, including two foreigners, suspected of planning another attack in Istanbul.
Security forces also captured 10 men suspected of being linked to the Islamic State group in southern Turkey.
Niger’s president has cruised to an easy re-election while his main opponent remains in France seeking medical treatment after being jailed for several months.
The electoral commission in Niamey released results Tuesday showing that President Mahamadou Issoufou received more than 92 percent of the runoff vote.
China’s consumption of coal, a major contributor to climate change and the country’s horrific air pollution, is worsening a severe water shortage in the northern part of the country, Greenpeace said Tuesday.
China’s coal-fired power plants consume more water where water is scarce than plants in any other country, according to the report.
A decades-long drought in northern China is worsening, and the central and local governments are grappling with massive desertification.