Politics

  BRUSSELS / AP Belgian air traffic controllers continued strike action on Wednesday, forcing the cancellation of flights at Brussels airport as it struggles to get back up to capacity after the March 22 suicide bombings. Belgian flag carrier Brussels Airlines said that around 50 of its flights to and from the main international Zaventem airport were canceled. The strike action ...

Baghdad / AFP Dozens of Iraqi lawmakers held an overnight sit-in at parliament to protest efforts by powerful political blocs to maintain control of key government posts, MPs said on Wednesday. The demonstration followed Tuesday’s postponement of a vote on a new lineup for the cabinet, which Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi has said should include technocrats instead of the ...

  Ukraine / AFP Ukraine’s bickering parliament resumed horse-trading on Wednesday over the makeup of a new pro-EU government headed by the chamber’s speaker VolodymyrGroysman that could be voted on the following day. A senior member of President Petro Poroshenko’s party said that “according to my information, all the agreements have been reached and no further questions remain.” “We will ...

Sudan / AFP Among the sprawling thatch huts of Darfur’s Zamzam Camp for displaced civilians, there is little feeling a referendum on administrative status might remedy years of suffering caused by the conflict. The vote on whether Sudan’s restive west should unite its five states into a single region has been touted by Khartoum as proof of stability returning to ...

Bloomberg President Barack Obama assembles on Wednesday his top national security officials at the CIA to discuss options to increase pressure on the IS in Syria. With each additional step, he risks drawing the US further into the conflict he has spent five years trying to avoid. The meeting of the National Security Council Principals Committee brings together some of ...

  Bloomberg Talks to end Syria’s brutal five-year conflict were to resume in Geneva Wednesday, although the negotiations were likely to be overshadowed by a surge of violence that threatened a fragile truce. Adding more tension, Syrians began voting in government-controlled areas in a parliamentary election which is not recognised by the United Nations or by President Bashar al-Assad’s main ...

  THESSALONIKI / AP New clashes have broken out between Macedonian police and stranded refugees and other migrants trying to scale a fence on Greece’s border with the country. Greek authorities say Macedonian police fired tear gas and stun grenades to deter a group of about 30 people from trying to get over the razor-wire fence using blankets. No injuries ...

DAMASCUS / AP Syrians in government-controlled areas headed to polling stations on Wednesday to elect a new 250-member parliament that is expected to serve as a rubber stamp for President Bashar Assad. Voters began turning up shortly after the stations opened at 7 a.m. Around 3,500 government-approved candidates are competing after more than 7,000 others dropped out. Early on Wednesday, ...

SRINAGAR / AP Indian authorities on Wednesday imposed a curfew in parts of Kashmir to stop fresh anti-India demonstrations following the killings of four people by Indian troops and a general strike called by separatists. The latest death occurred when a man was hit on his head by a tear gas shell fired by security forces and died in a ...

  Beijing / AP Kenyan police will deport 45 Taiwanese to mainland China where they face investigation for fraud, Chinese state media said on Wednesday after Taipei blasted Beijing for “abducting” its citizens. Taipei said this week that Beijing had “illegally” pressured authorities in Nairobi to deport eight of its citizens to the mainland after they had been cleared of ...