Politics

Calais / AfP A second week of demolition was underway on Monday in the Calais migrant camp known as the “Jungle” while France’s first international-standard refugee camp was set to open further along the coast. A group of children tried to offer white roses to the line of riot police holding back migrants and volunteers as workers resumed the dismantling ...

Zarzis / AFP Tunisian forces killed 21 extremists who attacked police and army posts near the Libyan border on Monday in a new spillover of violence that also saw four civilians killed. It was the second deadly clash in the border area in less than a week. The defence ministry said that a soldier was also killed in the fighting ...

Athens / AFP Their own wages and pensions have been slashed by the debt crisis, but thousands of Greeks are putting their own economic woes aside to help desperate refugees trapped in the country by the Balkan border blockade. People old and young, from couples with babies to pensioners and teenagers, came to Athens’ Syntagma Square on Sunday loaded with ...

Washington / AFP Senators Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders scored key victories in their White House quests, but it was Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton who outperformed their rivals to remain the race’s undisputed frontrunners. Republican Trump and Democrat Clinton did what they needed to do—dominating in the delegate-rich state of Louisiana in performance that keep them on top at ...

Berlin / AFP Germany’s Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said on Sunday that US billionaire Donald Trump, frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, poses a threat to peace, social cohesion and prosperity. Gabriel labelled the brash real estate mogul a “right-wing populist” who, like Marine Le Pen of France and Geert Wilders of the Netherlands, promises voters unsettled by globalisation a ...

Dharamsala / AFP Hundreds of grieving Tibetans on Sunday joined the funeral procession for a 16-year-old schoolboy who died after setting himself on fire to protest against Chinese rule. Dorje Tsering died from cardiac arrest on Thursday after setting himself ablaze at a housing settlement for Tibetan refugees in India’s northern city of Dehradun. Tsering’s body was Saturday brought to ...

Bratislava / AFP Slovakia’s leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Sunday he would begin difficult coalition talks after he won elections on a anti-refugee platform but lost his parliamentary majority as smaller parties, including the extreme right, scored first-time seats. A conservative party leader described the outcome as a “big earthquake” in Slovak politics, as analysts cautioned that Fico ...

Beijing / AP China’s President Xi Jinping has pledged to contain any moves by Taiwan toward formal independence in his first public remarks on the issue since the self-governing island democracy elected a president and legislature from the independence-leaning party in January. Speaking to delegates to the annual meeting of China’s ceremonial parliament, Xi said China won’t budge in its ...

Taipei / DPA Women are the most active customers in Taiwan’s online retail market, prompting local e-commerce operators to revise marketing strategies to meet the needs of female shoppers. Japan-based Rakuten’s e-commerce platform in Taiwan sees women account for 70 percent of its membership, according to the United Evening News. The paper cited the Taiwan Rakuten Ichiba as indicating that ...

Brussels / AFP European leaders will push Turkey at a summit on Monday to agree to “large-scale” deportations of economic migrants from Greece, as EU chief Donald Tusk says he sees the first hints of a resolution to the migrant crisis. With a fresh surge expected in the warmer spring weather, the European Union’s 28 leaders are pinning much of ...