Politics

Athens / AFP Some 6,500 people were stuck at the Idomeni camp on Greece’s northern border with Macedonia after four Balkan countries announced a daily cap on migrant arrivals. The build-up began in earnest last week after Macedonia started refusing entry to Afghans and imposed stricter document controls on Syrians and Iraqis, slowing the passage of migrants and refugees to ...

Damascus / AFP Key players in Syria’s war traded accusations on Sunday over violations of the first major ceasefire in the five-year conflict, but the truce remained largely intact on its second day. Aid groups hope to use the lull in fighting that has claimed 270,000 lives and displaced more than half the population to deliver desperately needed supplies. A ...

Istanbul / AFP Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said he has “no respect” for a decision by the Constitutional Court to order the release of two Turkish journalists held in jail for three months on charges of revealing state secrets. “I am not in a position to agree with this decision. I am saying this very clearly: I ...

Jerusalem / AFP Palestinians have been barred from entering one of the largest Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank for five days after an attack that critically wounded a security guard, an official said on Sunday. The Israeli police ban on entry to the Maale Adumim settlement is to last until Thursday and affects some 500 Palestinian labourers, a ...

TEHRAN / AFP Reformist allies of Hassan Rouhani swept all 30 parliamentary seats in the Iranian capital, handing the moderate president a major boost on Sunday in elections seen as vital to his government. The List of Hope, a pro-Rouhani coalition of moderates and reformists, was on course to wipe out its conservative rivals in Tehran with 90 percent of ...

Chad / AFP The nationwide strikes which brought Chad’s biggest cities to a halt this week over President Idriss Deby Itno’s planned bid for re-election are some of the most significant protests of the hardliner’s 26-year rule. The strike, which ran under the slogan “That’s Enough”, successfully locked down N’Djamena, leaving classrooms emptied and the capital’s two big markets deserted ...

Beirut / AP The deadline for a partial Syrian ceasefire negotiated by Russia and the US passed amid uncertainty over whether it would take hold and how to judge its success. The “cessation of hostilities” went into effect at 12:01 a.m Saturday local time, but Syrian regime forces continued to shell rebel areas in the Damascus suburb of Al Marj ...

Jalalabad / AFP At least 25 people were killed and over 40 injured in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Kunar on Saturday, officials said. “A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle detonated his explosives in a market in Asadabad the provincial capital, 25 people were killed and over 40 were injured,” Ghani Mosamem, spokesman for the provincial governor, ...

Loomberg At least 15 people were killed in a bomb attack by militants at a park and hotel near the presidential compound in Somalia’s capital, a police official said. A suicide car bomber rammed into the SYL hotel in Mogadishu and gunmen stormed the building, said Sharmarke Idow by phone on Friday. Another blast occurred nearby outside the gate of ...

Tehran / AFP Around 60 percent of voters cast ballots in Iran’s elections after polling stations were kept open to allow millions of latecomers to participate, Tehran’s interior ministry said on Saturday. Coming just a month after sanctions were lifted under Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, the outcome of Friday’s vote is being seen as a de-facto referendum on ...