Politics

  Skopje / AFP Macedonia’s former and possible next prime minister Nikola Gruevski says his party is preparing to stand in an early election next month despite a boycott by his opponents and international disapproval. Gruevski, who had stepped down in January after 10 years in power to make way for the vote, said that the troubled Balkan country could ...

  Uganda / AP Uganda’s main opposition leader has been charged with treason and jailed in a remote area in the country’s northeast, a judiciary spokesman said on Saturday. KizzaBesigye was handed charges late Friday stemming from his public attacks on the legitimacy of President YoweriMuseveni, who won a disputed election in February, said Solomon Muyita. Besigye, a qualified physician, ...

  Paris / AFP Frontline climate diplomats will seek to translate good intentions into concrete action in Bonn on Monday when they gather for the first time since hammering through a historic deal in December. “Our challenge is now to operationalize the Paris Agreement,” France and Morocco—currently co-chairs of the negotiating process—said in a briefing note. After two decades of ...

Aleppo, Syria / AFP The truce in Syria’s battleground city Aleppo expired on Thursday with no new last-minute extension, as a besieged town near the capital prepared to receive its first humanitarian aid in four years. World powers are to meet in Vienna next week to try to push faltering peace talks towards ending a five-year conflict that has killed ...

  Badhdad / AP A twin suicide bombing hit a police station in Baghdad’s westernmost suburb on Thursday, killing at least five policemen a day after a wave of attacks by the IS group killed nearly a hundred people in the Iraqi capital. The IS-claimed bombings were the deadliest in Baghdad this year, coming at a time of turmoil and deadlock ...

  Badhdad / AFP The IS group has released a video showing five alleged “spies” being shot dead in Iraq by young men from a crowd assembled for the execution. The 12-minute video released on social media on Wednesday mimics a participatory television show, in which members of the public are interviewed and invited to take part. Produced by the group’s ...

  Kuwait City / AFP Yemen’s government and Iran-backed rebels have discussed the crucial issues of military withdrawals, the handover of weapons and the restoration of state institutions during peace talks, the UN said on Thursday. Negotiators on Wednesday also debated the logistical details of a release of prisoners and detainees announced a day earlier, UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed ...

  Röszke, Hungary / AFP On the Serbian side of Hungary’s razor-topped border fence, the smell of burning rubbish hangs in the air, clothes hang on trees and the wait to get into the European Union goes on. “We go to those trees over there,” said Amir, 17, one of a seven-strong Afghan family including two children and an exhausted ...

  Ankara, Turkey / AFP Turkey on Thursday recalled its ambassador to Bangladesh for consultations after strongly protesting the execution in the country of a top extremist leader, the state-run Anatolia news agency said. Motiur Rahman Nizami, leader of the Jamaat-E-Islami party, was hanged at a Dhaka jail late Tuesday for the massacre of intellectuals during the 1971 independence war with ...

  BRASILIA / AFP Brazil’s Senate voted on Thursday to impeach President Dilma Rousseff after a months-long fight that laid raw the country’s fury over corruption and economic decay, hurling Latin America’s largest country into political turmoil just months before it hosts the Summer Olympics. Rousseff’s enraged backers called the move a coup d’etat and threatened wide-scale protests and strikes. Her ...