Politics

Bloomberg At least 16 Egyptian policemen were killed in clashes with militants as the government struggles to main- tain security while it undertakes economic measures aimed at creating jobs and boosting growth. Another 13 police personnel were injured when a force raiding a militant hideout in the desert southwest of Giza was attacked with heavy weaponry, the Ministry of Interior ...

Bloomberg More than 100 million voters head to the polls on Sunday in an election that may clear the way for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to become Japan’s longest-serving leader. Polls project that Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and coalition partner Komeito will maintain control of parliament while two opposition groups vie for second place. It’s unclear if Abe’s coalition ...

SULAIMANIA / BAGHDAD / Reuters A senior Iranian military commander repeatedly warned Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq to withdraw from the oil city of Kirkuk or face an onslaught by Iraqi forces and allied Iranian-backed fighters, Kurdish officials briefed on the meetings said. Major-General Qassem Soleimani, commander of foreign operations for Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, travelled to Iraq’s Kurdistan region ...

Bloomberg Catalan separatists say Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy doesn’t know what he’s getting himself into as he moves to quash their campaign for independence. As the government in Madrid prepares to deploy its most powerful legal weapons, three leading members of the movement in Barcelona said Rajoy isn’t equipped to achieve his goals and risks a damaging entanglement in ...

Bloomberg Austria’s president called on Sebastian Kurz, the 31-year-old likely to be the country’s next leader, to form a government committed to the European Union and human rights as he considers the nationalist Freedom Party as a potential partner. As President Alexander Van der Bellen mandated Kurz and his People’s Party to begin coalition talks, his comments hinted at the ...

Bloomberg President Xi Jinping warned of “severe” challenges while laying out a road map to turn China into a leading global power by 2050, as he kicked off a twice-a-decade party gathering expected to cement his influence into the next decade. In a speech that ran for more than three hours on Wednesday, Xi declared victory over “many difficult, long ...

Bloomberg Iraqi forces pressed their campaign to retake oil-rich territory from Kurdish fighters, widening a conflict that has roiled markets and could stoke tensions outside the country’s borders. Militiamen in the Popular Mobilization Forces operating alongside federal government troops captured the town of Sinjar without resistance, Rayan Al-Kildani, a spokesman, said. “The next step is to continue imposing security, order, ...

Bloomberg The top US military commander in the Pacific warned the situation in North Korea is a “recipe for disaster,” as the region prepares for Donald Trump’s first visit to the region as president. Admiral Harry Harris, head of the US Pacific Command, said in a speech in Singapore that China must do more to pressure its neighbor and ally ...

Bloomberg Angela Merkel is facing pressure to put her stamp on Germany’s next government as the chancellor begins talks on uniting four disparate parties into a coalition to govern Europe’s biggest economy. Almost a month after her Christian Democratic-led bloc emerged weakened from a national election, Merkel meets separately with the pro-market Free Democratic Party and the Greens on Wednesday ...

Bloomberg South African President Jacob Zuma’s decision to fire communist party leader Blade Nzimande from his cabinet is widening a rift with two of the African National Congress’s closest allies before a key leadership conference in December. In dismissing Nzimande as higher education minister, Zuma, 75, targeted the communist party, which along with the main labor confederation, Cosatu, has said ...