Politics

Lesbos / AFP Pope Francis received an emotional welcome on Saturday on the Greek island of Lesbos during a visit aimed at showing solidarity with migrants fleeing war and poverty, a small group of whom he hopes to bring back to the Vatican. The pontiff’s landmark visit comes amid controvery over a deal last month to end Europe’s refugee crisis ...

Binghamton / AFP What do a New York lawyer, a business owner who calls himself a left-leaning Republican and a construction worker who elected Barack Obama have in common? They’re voting for Donald Trump. None of them live on the breadline. They share surprisingly varied opinions. Yet they are profoundly frustrated—with the economy, with career politicians and with perceptions of ...

  Kumamoto / AFP Scores of people were feared buried alive on Saturday after two powerful quakes hit southern Japan a day apart, killing at least 32 people, and as a forecast storm threatened more devastating landslides. Homes, roads and railway lines were swept away when huge hillsides collapsed, as thousands of tonnes of mud was dislodged by the thunderous ...

Havana / AFP Cuba’s communist party gathers on Saturday for a rare party congress less than a month after US President Barack Obama’s historic visit, but Cubans eager for change are likely to be disappointed. Held every five years, party congresses normally are the main political event in a one-party system like Cuba’s that brooks no dissent. The last one in ...

  Brussels / AFP Brussels airport will fully re-open in June, its chief executive said, after suffering extensive damage when two suicide bombers blew themselves up in the departures hall last month killing 16. “We will be 100 percent operational again in June,” Brussels airport chief executive Arnaud Feist told Belgian newspaper Le Soir published Saturday. “But it will be a ...

Bloomberg The US is urging Russia to help halt an offensive by President Bashar Al Assad’s forces on rebel-held Aleppo, once the most populous city in Syria, warning that it’s putting an almost seven-week cease-fire under increasing strain. The Obama administration expressed its strong concerns to Russia, which committed to not participate in any attacks on groups which are adhering ...

  Tehran / AFP The European Union’s top diplomat Federica Mogherini arrived in Tehran on Saturday on her first visit since a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers came into force as tensions surface over its implementation. Mogherini, who was the lead negotiator for the six powers who struck the deal, was accompanied by other top EU officials. She ...

  KABUL / AFP Officials say Afghan forces have repelled a Taliban assault on the northern city of Kunduz, which the insurgents had briefly seized last year. Gen. Qasim Jangalbagh, the provincial police chief, said on Saturday that security in Kunduz city has improved and that the Taliban were defeated in other parts of Kunduz province. Abdul Wasay Basil, spokesman for ...

Baghdad / AFP A group of Iraqi lawmakers said they would not take part in a Saturday parliament session to select a replacement for the speaker, apparently leaving it without the necessary quorum. Iraq was on course to have two rival claimants to the speakership, further increasing chaos in parliament, which has already seen a vote to sack speaker Salim Al ...

  United Nations / AFP The UN Security Council strongly condemned North Korea’s test-firing of a missile on Friday, saying that the launch violated UN resolutions even if it was a failure. The council demanded that North Korea refrain from further actions in violation of resolutions barring Pyongyang from developing ballistic missile technology. In a unanimous statement, the council said ...