DHAKA: Tens of thousands of troops were to be deployed across Bangladesh Thursday in a bid to contain deadly political violence ahead of elections which are being boycotted by the opposition. With Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina determined that the Jan 5 general election goes ahead despite claims that it will be a farce, troops are being sent to nearly every corner of the country at the end of its deadliest year for political violence since independence. The deployments are expected to further infuriate the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party which called for a mass march in the capital Dhaka beginning on Dec 29 in a bid to scupper the polls.

BANGKOK: Thai security forces fired tear gas Thursday at anti-government protesters who stormed a stadium in the capital to try to prevent political parties registering for upcoming elections. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has faced weeks of mass street rallies seeking to curb her family’s political dominance and install an unelected “people’s council” to oversee electoral reforms. The protests have left five people dead and more than 200 wounded in street violence, although tensions had abated since several days of clashes between police and demonstrators in early December.

ANKARA: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan saw President Abdullah Gul late Wednesday amid expectations he was about to reshuffle his cabinet following the resignation of three ministers amid a high-level graft scandal. Gul said Tuesday that Erdogan was preparing to replace several of his ministers. On Wednesday, Turkey’s interior, economy and environmentministers quit the government, with the latter also calling on Erdogan to step down.

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Friday claimed moral victory in the adoption of the UN resolution that calls for making drone operations compliant with the international law. “UN General Assembly resolutions do not have enforcement mechanism. The only body which can enforce its decisions is the UN Security Council and that also only for decisions adopted under Chapter VII,” Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said at the weekly media briefing. She was speaking about the resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly on Wednesday that urged the member states to ensure that counter-terrorism measures, including the use of drones, complied with their obligations under the international law.

JUBA: The United States and other foreign powers stepped up pressure on South Sudan’s feuding ethnic factions to settle their differences, as Washington dispatched an envoy to the violence-wracked region. US Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday he was sending a special envoy to encourage talks between opposing factions in the world’s newest country, which has erupted into brutal fighting with a mounting death toll. “Now is the time for South Sudan’s leaders to rein in armed groups under their control, immediately cease attacks on civilians, and end the chain of retributive violence between different ethnic and political groups,” Kerry said, as he announced plans to dispatch Ambassador Donald Booth, his special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, to the region.