Politics

  New Delhi / AFP Chinese dissident Lu Jinghua said Thursday New Delhi cancelled her visa to travel to India to meet the Dalai Lama, just days after another Chinese activist was blocked after protest from Beijing. Lu, who fled China following the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, said she had been granted a tourist visa to travel from her ...

  Vienna/ AFP The Austrian parliament voted on Wednesday on adopting some of Europe’s toughest asylum laws, as the country’s political leaders struggle to halt the surging far-right which triumphed in a weekend presidential poll. The hotly-disputed bill would let the government declare a “state of emergency” over the migrant crisis and reject most asylum-seekers, including from war-torn countries like ...

  BEIRUT / AP Militants from the IS group seized five villages from Syrian rebels close to the Turkish border on Wednesday, further weakening the rebels’ foothold in the Aleppo area. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a network of activists monitoring the Syria conflict, said the extremist group took five villages in Azaz district, north of Aleppo, where ...

  SYDNEY/ AFP Sudanese refugee Aliir Aliir will complete an extraordinary journey when he makes his debut for the Sydney Swans against Brisbane on Sunday in Australian Rules football. The 21-year-old Aliir was born in a Kenyan refugee camp to parents who fled war-torn Sudan and arrived in Australia as a small child. He played soccer and basketball before taking ...

  Berlin / AFP Germany announced on Wednesday it is replacing the head of its foreign intelligence service, which has been rocked by revelations it helped the US National Security Agency spy on European targets. Gerhard Schindler, 63, will take early retirement from July 1, leaving the reins of the BND service to Bruno Kahl, a trained lawyer and currently high-ranking ...

  SEOUL / AP Facing mounting international pressure over its nuclear and missile ambitions, North Korea has set a date for its biggest political convention in decades next week that is expected to bolster young dictator Kim Jong un’s grip on power. The ruling Workers’ Party, led by Kim, will open its 7th congress in Pyongyang on May 6, the ...

  Tehran / AFP Nearly a quarter of Iran’s parliamentary seats are at stake on Friday in an election in which reformists want to consolidate their recent comeback and minimise the clout of hardline lawmakers. The second round run-offs were triggered because no candidate in 68 constituencies managed to win 25 percent of votes cast in the initial nationwide ballot on ...

  Washington / AFP President Barack Obama’s challenge that Europe unite and shoulder more of the burden for its own security might soon be answered, in part, by a military mission off the Libyan coast. “Europe has sometimes been complacent about its own defense.” That was the staggeringly blunt criticism from Obama on Monday in Hanover, the last stop on ...

  SANAA / AP Forces loyal to Yemen’s internationally recognized government have retaken the southern coastal city of Mukalla, driving out Al Qaida militants a year after they captured it, security officials said on Tuesday. The Yemeni forces entered the city late on Monday, following days of heavy airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition fighting on the side of President Abed ...

  Aleppo / AFP Air strikes on rebel-held areas of Syria’s second city Aleppo and a town to its west killed at least 19 people on Tuesday, emergency workers said. The strikes came after rebel shelling killed at least 19 civilians in government-held districts of Aleppo on Monday and are the latest in a surge of violence in and around ...