Politics

  Vienna / AFP Austria’s government was licking its wounds on Monday after the anti-immigration far-right triumphed in presidential elections, in a debacle of historic proportions for a cosy political establishment seen as out of touch and ineffectual. According to preliminary results, Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party (FPOe) came a clear first with 36 percent of the vote in ...

  Aden / AFP Yemeni troops have recaptured a key port city from Al-Qaeda militants who controlled it for a year, in what a Saudi-led coalition hailed on Monday as a major victory that saw more than 800 extremists killed. The assault on the southeastern city of Mukalla, home to some 200,000 people, was part of a wider counter-offensive against ...

  HANNOVER / AP President Barack Obama on Monday announced the deployment to Syria of an additional 250 US special operations forces to assist local troops who are trying to dislodge IS extremists, significantly broadening the American presence in the war-torn country. The move will bring the number of personnel to roughly 300, up from about 50 special operations forces ...

  Kabul/ AFP Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Monday implored Pakistan to battle the Taliban instead of trying to bring them to peace talks, in a new hardline stance after a brazen insurgent attack killed at least 64 people. The assault last Tuesday on a security services office in the heart of Kabul appeared to be the deadliest on the Afghan ...

  Istanbul / AFP The Kurdish rebel PKK movement is ready to step up its fight against Turkey in response to Ankara’s blistering military campaign, its leader warned in a BBC interview released on Monday. Since the collapse of a two-year ceasefire with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) last year, Turkish government forces have been carrying out operations against the ...

  El Fasher / AFP Tucked between palm trees and verdant lawns in the centre of Darfur’s El Fasher, the palace of the restive Sudanese region’s last sultan has become a rare focus of pride, 100 years after his death. Silver swords, antique rifles, richly coloured robes and even the throne from which autocrat Sultan Ali Dinar ruled Darfur’s vast ...

  Kuwait City / AFP Yemen’s warring parties held a fifth day of peace talks in Kuwait on Monday after the UN envoy said “significant differences” still separate them. A UN spokesman said the talks between the government and the Shiite Houthi rebels had resumed after extensive discussions of security, political and humanitarian issues on Sunday. “Significant differences in the ...

  Vienna / AFP Austria’s anti-immigration far-right triumphed on Sunday in the first round of presidential elections, dealing a wake-up call to Vienna’s cosy political establishment two years before the next scheduled general election. Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party (FPOe) won 36.7% of the vote, projections showed, with candidates from the two governing parties failing to even make it ...

  Aleppo / AFP Rebel and regime bombardment in Syria’s Aleppo on Sunday killed at least 14 civilians, emergency workers and a monitor said, on the third day of renewed violence in the battered city. Rebel rocket fire on government-held parts of the northern city killed six civilians, including a woman and two children, said the Syrian Observatory for Human ...

  Kirkuk / AFP Kurdish peshmerga forces and Turkmen Shiite paramilitaries were Sunday engaged in clashes that have killed at least nine people in a flashpoint town during the past 24 hours, officials said. Tuz Khurmatu, part of a swathe of territory claimed by both Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region and Baghdad, has been divided between Turkmen and Kurds since fighting ...