Politics

Maputo / AFP Mozambique’s arterial north-south highway has earned the moniker of a “ghost road” with former rebels staging regular raids ahead of a threatened power grab in the country’s centre this month. “We registered eight attacks by Renamo gunmen last week, which caused a total of three deaths—including a three-year-old—and 23 injured,” police spokesman Inacio Dina told a news ...

Bloomberg Hillary Clinton took a monumental step towards clinching the Democratic party’s White House nomination, while Donald Trump’s seemingly unstoppable rush to victory hit a bump in Ohio. Trump on Tuesday won key Republican primaries in Illinois, North Carolina and Florida—where he thumped home state Senator Marco Rubio, who immediately announced he was suspending his presidential campaign. “This was an ...

Washington / AFP Barack Obama has warned that the 2016 White House race is damaging America’s image abroad, sounding the alarm on harsh campaigning that risks eroding gains made during his presidency. Lashing out at “vulgar and divisive rhetoric” in the race to replace him, Obama told a bipartisan group of lawmakers: “This is also about the American brand.” “We ...

Los Angeles / AFP “Scandal” showrunner Shonda Rhimes revealed her writers had been forced to change sections of dramatic dialogue after seeing their lines spoken for real in the US presidential debates. The ABC political thriller features a presidential race which mirrors the current battle for the Republican and Democratic nominations—and a White House hopeful in upcoming episodes who bears ...

Naypyidaw / AFP Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi thanked her supporters on Wednesday and sounded a hopeful note for the future, in her first comments after lawmakers approved her chosen proxy to become the nation’s first civilian president in decades. The veteran activist said she was proud of MPs from her National League for Democracy for rallying around Htin Kyaw, ...

Brussels / AFP A vast police operation was under way in Brussels on Wednesday after a Kalashnikov-wielding assailant was killed and four officers wounded during an anti-terror search linked to the Paris attacks. Federal prosecutors were to hold a news conference at 0930 GMT amid widespread media reports that two suspects were either arrested or still on the run, possibly ...

Brussels / AFP European leaders launch a charm offensive to win backing for a migrant deal with Turkey on Wednesday, seeking to heal rifts between member states on the eve of a key summit with Ankara. EU president Donald Tusk warned that hard work lay ahead to finalise the deal, after Cyprus threatened to derail it over long-standing disagreements with ...

Sydney / AFP A second piece of debris found on the Indian Ocean island of La Reunion was “unlikely to be from an aircraft”, Australian authorities leading the search for missing flight MH370 said Wednesday. The only part of the missing Boeing 777, which vanished two years ago with 239 passengers and crew on board, that has so far been ...

Islamabad / AFP Pakistan’s top court on Wednesday ordered the government to lift a travel ban on former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, a move that could let him leave the country while awaiting trial for treason. Musharraf’s lawyers say he needs to go abroad for urgent spinal treatment not available in Pakistan. He was placed on the “Exit Control List” ...

Ankara / AFP Sunday’s suicide car bombing in Ankara has raised fears of an escalation in Turkey’s long-running Kurdish conflict, as the country grapples with the IS threat while relying on a security system weakened by a political crackdown, analysts say. No-one has claimed responsibility for the blast which killed 35 people in the heart of the Turkish capital, but ...