Uganda ends Kony hunt without him
BANGUI, Central African Republic — Uganda began withdrawing its entire contingent of 1,500 soldiers from the Central African Republic this week, effectively ending the hunt for the warlord Joseph Kony and his guerrilla group, the Lord’s Resistance Army.
On Tuesday, the United States military is also set to officially end its mission to capture or kill Mr. Kony, whose fighting force has dwindled to about 100 soldiers from a peak of 3,000.
The 150 American soldiers in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Uganda will start a monthslong process of sending home equipment and turning over their bases to the host nations or the United Nations.
Migration crackdown
CANBERRA, Australia — Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull tightened Australian citizenship rules in a further crackdown on immigration as his government seeks to boost its flagging popularity.
Applicants will have to wait four years before applying for citizenship instead of one currently, prove a higher degree of proficiency in English and pass a citizenship test to show they have “Australian values” and can integrate into society, Mr. Turnbull said Thursday.
New Zealand announced Wednesday that it is introducing tougher requirements for skilled overseas workers as it tries to control immigration numbers that have hit an all-time high.
Jakarta gov. loses race
JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Christian governor of Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, lost a bitterly contested race on Wednesday that was widely seen as a test of religious and ethnic tolerance in the world’s most populous Muslimmajority nation.
At one point last year, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama held a double-digit lead in the polls, but his candidacy was hobbled by a criminal trial in which he was accused of blasphemy against Islam.
Turkey arrests dozens
ISTANBUL — Dozens of members of Turkey’s political opposition were arrested in dawn raids on Wednesday, as a crackdown began on those questioning the legitimacy of a referendum on Sunday to expand the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In a separate development Wednesday, Turkey’s electoral commission rejected an appeal by the opposition to annul the entire referendum.
Also in the world ...
A video has emerged that appears to show members of the Egyptian military shooting at least three unarmed detainees to death at point-blank range in the Sinai Peninsula and staging the killings to look as if they had happened in combat. ... An Iranian panel charged with vetting candidates approved the country’s incumbent president and five challengers, but disqualified former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from running in next month’s presidential election, state TV reported. ... China on Thursday launched its first unmanned cargo spacecraft on a mission to dock with the country’s space station. ... Gunmen killed the leader of Mexico’s leftist Democratic Revolution Party, Demetrio Saldivar, in the southern state of Guerrero, authorities said.