Politics

HAVANA / AP After two years of negotiations, Cuba and the European Union are close to sealing an agreement to normalize relations that soured two decades ago, officials said Friday. Cuban and EU negotiators said talks could be concluded for the March 10-11 visit to Havana by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. “We have covered all the chapters of ...

IDOMENI / AfP Some 13,000 refugees are crammed in unhygienic conditions on Greece’s border with Macedonia, officials said on Saturday, with all eyes on a key EU-Turkey summit on Monday that is seen as the only viable solution to the crisis. “There are 13,000 people here and nearly 20,000 in this prefecture, over 60 percent of the country’s entire refugee ...

Manila / AFP The Philippines said on Saturday it had impounded a North Korean vessel in response to tough new United Nations sanctions introduced in response to Pyongyang’s recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The 6,830-tonne cargo ship Jin Teng will not be allowed to leave Subic port, northeast of the capital Manila, where it had been docked for three ...

UNITED NATIONS / AP The United States is pressing the UN Security Council for the first time to confront the escalating problem of sexual abuse and exploitation by UN peacekeepers, which has undermined the organization’s credibility. The United States is the biggest financial contributor to UN peacekeeping operations, and US officials said the Obama administration wants the council to send ...

Seoul / AfP North Korea fired six short-range projectiles into the sea on Thursday in a show of defiance just hours after the United Nations adopted the toughest sanctions to date on Pyongyang over its fourth nuclear test and rocket launch. Limited displays of military firepower have become a routine response by North Korea to international pressure over anything from ...

Istanbul / AfP Turkish police killed two female leftist militants who hurled grenades and opened fire at an Istanbul police station on Thursday, officials said. The two women—members of the outlawed ultra-leftist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party–Front (DHKP-C)— had taken refuge in an apartment after their attack. Police then launched an assault on the apartment, and the two were “neutralised”, Istanbul ...

Calais / AFP A group of Iranian migrants sewed their mouths shut in a disturbing protest at the ongoing demolition of the “Jungle” migrant camp in the French port city of Calais on Thursday. AFP journalists said at least nine Iranians had stitched their mouths shut in the southern half of the camp, which is being gradually demolished by French ...

London / AFP Europe’s bemusement at the rise of Donald Trump has switched to concern as his presidential campaign has gained ground in what observers said was a warning to traditional parties about ignoring populists. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier this week spoke about the “politics of fear” in the US campaign in a thinly-veiled reference to Trump and drew ...

Kiev / AFP Ukraine on Thursday accused pro-Russian insurgents of firing large-calibre weapons at its forces in advance of new peace talks in Paris aimed at ending the 23-month war. The charge came one day after Kiev and rebel envoys agreed to halt live-fire exercises along the 500-kilometre front splitting eastern separatist territories from the rest of the West-leaning former ...

Tunis / AFP Government neglect in central Tunisia, where poverty and unemployment rates are several times the national average, risks undermining the gains of its revolution and creating a breeding ground for extremism, experts say. Five years after Tunisia’s popular uprising, which set the tone for the momentous Arab Spring wave of protests, the wealth gap between its impoverished interior ...