Politics

  Yerevan / AFP Two ethnic Armenian soldiers have been killed in a new upsurge in fighting between Azerbaijani forces and separatists from the breakaway region of Nagorny Karabakh, the separatist statelet said on Tuesday. “On the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Karabakh forces, the enemy violated a ceasefire 80 times using all types of artillery and armoured vehicles,” ...

  Banjul / AFP A Gambian court denied bail to 37 opposition activists accused of rioting, illegal protest and other offences and ordered their lawyers to present a written bail application on Thursday, lawyers said. After Monday’s hearing in the High Court in Banjul, the secretary general of the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP), Ousainou Darboe, and 31 others ...

  Madrid / AFP Spanish parties restarted coalition negotiations on Tuesday in a surprise, eleventh-hour move just as the deadline to form a government draws to a close and fresh elections threaten. The negotiations kicked off again after Compromis—a small, regional grouping involved in coalition talks—submitted a last-ditch proposal for a government that includes measures to fight corruption and poverty. ...

Hanoi / AFP Communist Vietnam has blocked a motley crew of independent candidates from running for its rubber-stamp parliament, according to official results released Tuesday, a move activists said highlights its empty gestures towards democracy. In an unprecedented showing this year more than 100 independent candidates — including dissidents, a taxi driver and a pop star — tried to run ...

  Chernobyl / AFP Ukrainians held candlelit vigils on Tuesday to mark 30 years since the world’s worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl spewed radiation across Europe and left several thousand people dead or dying. Church bells rang and mourners lit candles and laid flowers at the site’s memorial as the clock turned 1.23 am—the exact moment when the plant’s reactor number ...

  Hanover / AFP US President Barack Obama made an impassioned plea for European unity in the face of rising populism and scepticismon Monday, warning this was a “defining moment” for the continent. “A strong and united Europe is a necessity for the world,” Obama said in the German city of Hanover, in a landmark speech that carried the tone ...

  BRUSSELS / ap The Brussels subway station where 16 people were killed by a suicide bomber has reopened just over a month after the attacks. Security remains high across the underground network, which was hit during the March 22 peak morning travel period. The opening of the Maelbeek station early Monday brought the Belgian capital’s underground network back up ...

  Warsaw / AFP Three former Polish presidents and other prominent former leaders are accusing the right-wing government of demolishing the country’s democracy and its international standing. They are also urging lawmakers to disregard what they call the “draconian” new legislation the government is proposing. The appeal on Monday on the front page of the GazetaWyborcza daily was signed by former ...

  Rome / AFP NATO is three months away from launching patrols off Libya as part of a plan to stop migrants arriving in Italy, Italian Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti said in an interview published on Monday. Pinotti told daily La Stampa that Rome was expecting its allies to approve the plan at a summit of NATO leaders in Warsaw ...

  Washington / AFP Ted Cruz and John Kasich have decided to join forces to try to deny frontrunner Donald Trump their Republican Party’s presidential nomination, their campaigns said. The sudden alliance revealed in short statements arose due to the pressing timing of their party’s presidential primary season: Trump, a wealthy property developer and reality television star, has pushed close ...