Politics

Jerusalem / AFP Israel’s state-run electricity company was set on Thursday to reduce the power supply to a Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank over a debt of $450 million, an Israeli official said. The decision by the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) applies to Jericho and comes after the Palestinian Authority and the private Palestinian Jerusalem District Electricity Company ...

Kampala / AFP Ugandan judges dismissed on Thursday a legal challenge to President Yoweri Museveni’s fifth-term election victory last month, which sparked claims of foul play. “The Election Commission nominated Museveni lawfully in accordance with the Presidential Elections Act,” Chief Justice Bart Katureebe said as he read the ruling to a packed court in the capital Kampala. “We find no ...

Tehran / AFP Iran’s defence minister has said he is “certain” the UN Security Council will not take any action over its ballistic missile tests despite calls from Western powers. Britain, France, Germany and the United States wrote a joint letter on Monday calling for action over tests they said violated last year’s landmark nuclear deal between Iran and major ...

Mogadishu / AFP Somalia’s Shebab insurgents said they carried out a suicide attack at a hotel in the central town of Galkayo on Thursday in which six people died, including a senior local government official. “There was a blast, a suicide bomber blew himself up killing several people including a senior official,” said police officer Abdiweli Adan. Witnesses said there ...

Geneva / AFP UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday called for greater global efforts to tackle the Syrian refugee crisis, as he opened a conference on securing resettlement places for nearly half a million of those displaced by the five-year conflict. “We are here to address the biggest refugee and displacement crisis of our time,” Ban told the conference in ...

Vietnam / AFP Vietnam jailed three women on Wednesday on charges of spreading anti-state propaganda after they waved the flag of the former US-backed South Vietnam regime, state media said. A court in Ho Chi Minh City found the women guilty of carrying out “propaganda against the socialist Republic of Vietnam,” the official ThanhNien newspaper reported. The trio had waved ...

Bangui / AFP France will end its military intervention in the Central African Republic this year as it has achieved its objectives of restoring security to the country after three years of communal violence, the French defence minister said Wednesday. “I can confirm to you the end of Operation Sangaris during the course of 2016,” Jean-Yves Le Drian said in ...

Naypyidaw / AFP Myanmar entered a new era on Wednesday as Aung San SuuKyi’s democracy movement took power after 50 years of military domination, with a close aide of the Nobel Laureate sworn in as president. HtinKyaw, a school friend and confidante of the democracy champion, succeeds former general TheinSein who has helmed reforms that have transformed Myanmar from hermit ...

Ankara / AFP The European Union backs the European diplomats who attended a controversial trial of two Turkish journalists charged with espionage after their appearance was bitterly attacked by Ankara, an official said on Wednesday. Turkey issued a protest on Monday over comments on social media made by some diplomats present at the trial last week of the opposition Cumhuriyet ...

Paris / AFP French President Francois Hollande said on Wednesday he was scrapping contested constitutional reforms proposed after the Paris attacks, in an embarrassing U-turn for his already beleaguered government. The reforms included a plan to strip convicted terrorists of their French nationality which led to howls of protests from the left flank of his Socialist party. Hollande also wanted ...