Politics

  Reykjavik / AFP Iceland began voting in a presidential election Saturday, two months after the Panama Papers scandal tainted part of the political elite, with newcomer Gudni Johannesson seen clinching an easy victory. Polling stations opened at 0900 GMT, with 245,000 Icelanders eligible to cast ballots. Polls were to close at 2200 GMT, with the first results expected shortly ...

  London / AFP Millions of Britons voted on Thursday in a bitterly-fought, knife-edge referendum that could tear up the island nation’s EU membership and spark the greatest emergency of the bloc’s 60-year history. A record 46.5 million voters registered to decide Britain’s future in the 28-nation European Union, which was born out of a determination to unite in lasting peace ...

  ANKARA / AFP Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested Turkey could hold a referendum over whether to continue its long-stalled accession process to join the European Union. Angrily lashing out at the bloc’s treatment of Ankara, Erdogan said Turkey could hold a referendum along the lines of the plebescite in Britain, where voters are deciding Thursday whether to ...

  Paris / AFP Paris was on high alert for more street clashes on Thursday as unions prepared another march against labour market reforms in a three-month protest campaign which has been marred by violence. The march is to take place after the another round of bitter negotiations in which the embattled Socialist government tried to ban the protest over security ...

Nigeria / AFP Three Australians, a New Zealander and a South African have been kidnapped along with two locals in Nigeria’s southeast after their vehicle was attacked, officials said on Thursday. The hold-up, in which the driver was shot dead, happened in the Akpabuyo district near the capital of Cross River state, Calabar, at about 7 am (0600 GMT) on Wednesday, ...

  Washington / AFP US Democrats failed to force Congress to vote on gun safety legislation following the Orlando nightclub massacre as Republican leaders adjourned the House early on Thursday after a dramatic overnight sit-in by Democrats. The scenes on the House floor, unprecedented in recent history, began after Democrats took over the chamber’s proceedings for most of the day, ...

CHICAGO / AP Powerful storms packing multiple tornadoes swept through parts of the Midwest on Wednesday night, damaging homes and a gas station in central Illinois and sending tens of thousands of soccer fans seeking shelter during the Copa America semifinal in Chicago. Chuck Schoop, emergency manager for Livingston County in central Illinois, said a tornado destroyed the canopy of ...

  TOKYO / AP There will be no Fourth of July fireworks for American troops in Japan this year due to restrictions imposed after a former US Marine was accused of murdering and raping a woman on Okinawa. The US Navy in Japan said Thursday that it had canceled planned annual Independence Day fireworks at its bases as part of ...

  NEW YORK / AP Facing questions about meager fundraising, slipping poll numbers and campaign instability, Donald Trump is tending to business — in Scotland. In his first international trip since becoming the presumptive Republican nominee, Trump plans to check on a pair of his championship golf resorts. Some Republicans worry that the billionaire’s attention is divided between his businesses ...

  Seoul/ AP Leader Kim Jong-Un threatened US military bases across the Pacific after North Korea’s test of a powerful new missile triggered emergency UN Security Council talks late Wednesday on curbing Pyongyang’s nuclear programme. Kim, who personally monitored Wednesday’s Musudan missile test, applauded a “great event” that significantly bolstered the North’s pre-emptive nuclear attack capability, the official KCNA news ...