INTERNATIONAL

In the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan last year, Roge Agujero’s family went back to the plot of land near the sea where their house once stood. “We did not see anything, not even a single post,” he said. The ferocious storm had obliterated the building where more than a dozen of Agujero’s family members lived, one of thousands of ...

President Vladimir Putin has warned Russians of hard times and urged self-reliance, in his annual state of the nation address to parliament. Speaking to both chambers in the Kremlin, Mr Putin accused Western governments of seeking to raise a new iron curtain around Russia. Russia has been hard-hit by falling oil prices and by Western sanctions imposed over its role ...

Iran has conducted air strikes against Islamic State (IS) targets in eastern Iraq during recent days, a Pentagon spokesman says. Rear Adm John Kirby said the US, which has conducted its own air strikes in Iraq, was not co-ordinating with Iran. A senior Iranian military official also dismissed talk of co-operation between the two countries. A US-led coalition has launched ...

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has replaced his interior minister and police chief following a massacre by Islamist group al-Shabab. The president asked Kenyans to unite, and said: “We will not flinch in war against terrorists.” Kenya’s police chief David Kimaiyo stood down, while Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku was dismissed. Earlier, al-Shabab killed 36 quarry workers in the north-eastern Mandera ...

Lebanese security forces have detained a wife and son of Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi near the border with Syria, the army says. The pair, whose names were not given, were picked up by military intelligence after entering Lebanon 10 days ago. The al-Safir newspaper reported that Baghdadi’s wife was being questioned at the Lebanese defence ministry. In ...

Gunmen have killed some 36 quarry workers near the north Kenyan town of Mandera, aid workers and officials say. The attackers separated Muslims from non-Muslims and shot the Christians dead, residents said. Earlier, one person was killed in a bar popular with non-Muslims in a neighbouring district. Islamist militants from the Somalia-based al-Shabab group killed 28 people in an attack ...

Hong Kong police have clashed with pro-democracy activists trying to surround government offices, in some of the worst unrest in two months of protests. Protesters fought police armed with pepper spray and batons on roads around the camp in the Admiralty district. Police say 40 people have been arrested and a number of officers were injured. The protesters want the ...

The white police officer who fatally shot unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in the US town of Ferguson has resigned, his lawyer says. Darren Wilson, who had been on administrative leave since the killing, told a newspaper he did not want to put the lives of police colleagues at risk. Resigning was, he said, the “hardest thing” he had ever ...

The president of Nigeria has vowed “to leave no stone unturned” in tracking down the perpetrators of a mosque attack that killed at least 81 people. Goodluck Jonathan urged the nation “to confront the common enemy” after the gun and bomb attack during Friday’s prayers in the northern city of Kano. Hundreds of people were injured in an attack which ...

French President Francois Hollande is to arrive in Guinea, becoming the first Western leader to visit a nation hit hard by the deadly Ebola virus. He will deliver “a message of solidarity” to Guinea, where more than 1,200 have died of Ebola. France has pledged 100m euros (£79m; $125m) to help tackle the disease by opening several care centres in ...