Politics

  Washington / AFP The White House is considering lifting a decades-old arms embargo against Vietnam in time for President Barack Obama’s visit to the booming Southeast Asian nation this month. As both countries warily eye China’s military build-up in the disputed South China Sea, officials said Obama is weighing an end to the Cold War-era ban on lethal weapons ...

  DEVESELU / AP A US missile defense site in Romania aimed at protecting Europe from ballistic missile threats becomes operational on Thursday, angering Russia which opposes having the advanced military system in its former area of influence. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is due to speak at a ceremony later attended by US, NATO and Romanian officials to mark the ...

  Manila / AFP Philippine communist rebel leader Jose Maria Sison has expressed hopes of ending nearly three decades in exile under the new presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, a potentially explosive homecoming opposed by senior military figures. Sison, now 77, fled to Europe soon after peace talks failed in 1987 and has stayed abroad since, while one of Asia’s longest-running ...

  Paris / AFP France’s already unpopular Socialist government faces a no-confidence vote Thursday after it bypassed parliament and forced through a labour reform bill that has led to two months of demonstrations. The government said it would resort to the controversial move in the face of fierce opposition from within President Francois Hollande’s own party that was set to ...

  Brasília / AFP Brazil’s Senate on Wednesday launched a pivotal debate on the future of President Dilma Rousseff, who faces likely suspension and an impeachment trial that could end 13 years of leftist rule in Latin America’s biggest country. Even allies of Rousseff, 68, said she had no chance of surviving the vote, expected later in the day after ...

Rio De Janeiro / AP Like Brazil itself, Dayse Lima’s family is deeply split over the political firestorm threatening to force President Dilma Rousseff from power. Lima, a 54-year-old government worker and staunch Rousseff supporter, got so angry at her son Gustavo for bashing the president that she stopped speaking to him. Gustavo, a 27-year-old energy analyst who lived with ...

  Manila / AFP After proposing a jet-ski mission to defend remote islands against China, daring the United States to sever ties and joking about burning Singapore’s flag, Rodrigo Duterte is set for a wild foreign policy ride as the next Philippine president. The firebrand politician stormed to victory in national elections this week using an incendiary brand of populism ...

  New Delhi / AFP India will seek to extradite indebted tycoon Vijay Mallya, the country’s finance minister said on Wednesday, after Britain turned down its request to deport him. Arun Jaitley told parliament that Britain had refused to deport Mallya, who left India owing $1.34 billion, because he entered the country on a valid passport, even though it was ...

  Juba / AFP The freed son of a former Pakistani premier reunited with his family in a shower of rose petals in Lahore on Wednesday, three years after he was kidnapped then taken to Afghanistan. Ali Haider Gilani, son of Yousaf Raza Gilani, was rescued during a counter-terror raid by US and Afghan forces in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday. Crowds ...

  London / AFP Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said on Wednesday that he did not want an apology from Prime Minister David Cameron for calling his country “fantastically corrupt”, but said Britain could return assets stolen by officials who fled to London. “I am not going to demand any apology from anybody. What I am demanding is the return of ...