GLOBAL SNAPSHOT

Civil staff sacked

ISTANBUL: Turkish authorities have expelled more than 3900 people from the civil service, military and gendarmerie, in what appears to be the latest large-scale purge related to last year’s failed coup. Those expelled included prison guards, academics, clerks and employees of the religious affairs ministry, all of whom were suspected of links to “terrorist organisations and structures presenting a threat to national security”, the government said.

EU tough on split

BRUSSELS: European Union leaders have endorsed stiff divorce terms for Britain and warned Britons to have “no illusions” about swiftly securing a new relationship to keep their access to EU markets. At a Brussels summit with the 27 leaders, there was a flash of the cross-Channel acrimony which some fear could wreck any deal when officials accused London of cynically vetoing some EU spending and demanded it back down or face disrupting the start of talks next month.

Rallies against Putin

MOSCOW: Several hundred Russians have lined up in central Moscow under the gaze of riot police to hand over handwritten appeals for President Vladimir Putin to quit, as similar protests took place in other cities. Mr Putin, who has dominated Russian politics for 17 years, has not said whether he would run in presidential elections in March 2018. But the 64-year-old politician is widely expected to do so.

PM makes a return

ROME: Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was expected to be comfortably re-elected leader of Italy’s ruling Democratic Party, setting him up for a showdown with the populist Five Star Movement (M5S) in general elections. The PD primaries are taking place today. An Ipsos poll published Friday by the Corriere della Sera newspaper predicted a 75 per cent landslide for Renzi, who was once seen as the brightest star in Italian politics – until a defeat in a constitutional referendum in December.

Plane hits hillside

CARAMBOLA: A Cuban military plane crashed into a hillside Saturday in the western province of Artemisa, killing eight troops on board. Cuba’s military said in a statement that the Soviet-made AN-26 took off from the Playa Baracoa airport outside Havana at 6.38am and crashed outside the town of Candelaria about 40 miles (65km) away. A special commission will investigate the cause of the crash.