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World in brief: Monday May 2 2016

UN urges return of peacekeepers

WESTERN SAHARA: The UN security council called on Friday for the urgent return of the UN’s peacekeeping mission in the territory, which was recently expelled by occupying Morocco.

The resolution was passed by 10-2 with three abstentions with Morocco’s ally France opposing and the US ostensibly neutral.

Morocco and Mauritania annexed the former Spanish colony in 1975. The ensuing liberation war by the Polisario Front ended in 1991.

Diplomat endorses nuke test deal

NORTH KOREA: China’s UN ambassador and outgoing UN security council president Liu Jieyi has endorsed Pyongyang’s recent offer to halt nuclear arms tests if the US ends regular military exercises with South Korea.

Mr Liu said late on Friday that any proposal “that will contribute to denuclearisation — to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula — should be studied very carefully.”

Three held over fatal stabbing

BANGLADESH: Police arrested three men yesterday, including the head of a Muslim school, in connection with the fatal stabbing of a Hindu tailor that was claimed by Islamic State.

The headteacher had sued victim Nikhil Joarder four years ago for allegedly making derogatory comments about the prophet Mohammed.

The other suspects were a local leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party and a supporter of its main ally the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

Workers burn buses after wages held

SAUDI ARABIA: Workers at Saudi Binladin Group (sic) torched nine of the firm’s buses on Saturday night in anger at job cuts and non-payment of wages.

Thousands of migrant workers have been protesting in Mecca and Jeddah for weeks, some saying they have not been paid for six months.

The company was founded in 1931 by Mohammed bin Laden, father of late al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Eurovision PLO flag ban criticised

PALESTINE: Palestine Liberation Organisation chief Saeb Erekat slammed a Eurovision Song Contest ban on the Palestinian flag on Saturday.

Mr Erekat told European Broadcasting Union (EBU) president Jean-Paul Philippot the decision was “biased and unacceptable.”

The EBU published a list of banned flags last week, including those of Kosovo and Islamic State, but later removed it and said flags of an “offensive, discriminatory, unsuitable, political or religious nature” were banned.

Car bomb kills two police in Gaziantep

TURKEY: A car bomb struck the entrance of a police station in the southern city of Gaziantep yesterday, killing two police officers and wounding 22 other people.

May Day demonstrations in the city were cancelled due to security concerns.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but Islamic State has killed 18 people in nearby Kilis since January in repeated shelling from across the Syrian border.

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