INTERNATIONAL

Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission said 22 people were executed by federal police during a confrontation on a ranch in the western state of Michoacan last year. The commission had investigated the clash, which took place at a ranch in the town of Tanhuato in May 2015. A total of 42 suspected members of a drug cartel died in the ...

A 42-year-old man has been arrested in Dubai and held without charge for three weeks after sharing a charity post on his Facebook page. Scott Richards, who holds both British and Australian citizenship, promoted a charity drive to buy blankets and tarpaulins for refugees in Afghanistan. Strict new laws prohibit the operation of any charity not registered in the United ...

US Olympic swimmers in Rio de Janeiro invented a story about a robbery in an effort to disguise a dispute over a damaged petrol station door, police sources have told the BBC. One of the athletes broke the door to the bathroom and a row ensued when attendants asked the Americans to pay for the damage, they said. After security ...

Nearly 18,000 people died in government custody in Syria in 2011-15, an Amnesty International report says, alleging beatings and rape in prisons. Amnesty says its document includes interviews with 65 “torture survivors”, who have described appalling abuse in jails and detention centres. The human rights group urges the world community to pressure Damascus to end the use of torture. The ...

A group of 13 North Koreans who defected from China to South Korea earlier this year have been released from custody, officials say. Seoul’s Unification Ministry said 12 women and one man had begun the process of resettlement in South Korea. They defected in April from a Pyongyang-run restaurant, with Seoul calling the size of the group “unprecedented”. But the ...

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said initial evidence suggests the shooting of a black man by police in Milwaukee was justified. The killing of Sylville Smith in a predominantly African-American part of the city on Saturday led to protests. “We have to obey the laws or we don’t have a country,” Mr Trump told Fox News after visiting ...

Russia’s defence ministry says it has used a base in western Iran to carry out air strikes in Syria. Tupolev-22M3 long-range bombers and Sukhoi-34 strike fighters took off from Hamedan on Tuesday, a statement said. Targets were hit in Aleppo, Idlib and Deir al-Zour provinces, it added. Local groups said 27 civilians had died. It is reportedly the first time ...

An air strike has hit a hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in northern Yemen, killing at least 11 people, the medical charity says. Another 19 people were injured in the attack in Abs, in Hajjah province, believed to have been carried out by the Saudi-led coalition which is backing Yemen’s government in its fight against Houthi rebels. The ...

The US says it has sent 15 Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United Arab Emirates – the largest single transfer during President Barack Obama’s administration. The Pentagon says the transfer of 12 Yemeni nationals and three Afghans brings the total number of prisoners down to 61 at the US facility in Cuba. Most of inmates have been held without charge ...

A series of coordinated blasts across Thailand has targeted tourist towns leaving four dead and many injured, with reports of more explosions. In the popular resort town of Hua Hin four bombs exploded over the past 24 hours. Several blasts also hit the island of Phuket on Friday. No group has said it carried out the attacks, but suspicion is ...