Politics

  Banjul / AFP Ansu Sanyang was ready. Sick of providing so little for his parents and sisters with any work he could find, the young Gambian resolved to take the migrant route through Libya to Europe. Then on Friday, December 1, he hesitated, hanging back to cast his vote in a presidential election that felt different to previous years. “I ...

  Daraga / AFP A powerful typhoon with gusts of up to 235 kilometres (146 miles) an hour hit the Philippines late Sunday, disrupting Christmas celebrations for tens of thousands who fled its approach, officials said. Typhoon Nock-Ten made landfall in the eastern island province of Catanduanes at 6:30 pm (1030 GMT), the state weather service said. There were no ...

  Tokyo / AFP Heavy snow in northern Japan caused transport chaos over the holiday weekend, with flights and train services cancelled and thousands of passengers forced to camp out at a regional airport for three straight nights. Sapporo on Hokkaido island had up to 96 centimetres (38 inches) of snow as of Friday night, the city’s heaviest snowfall in half ...

  Sydney / AFP A Sudanese refugee held at an Australian offshore detention camp has died after a “fall and seizure”, officials said, with the incident reportedly sparking a protest at the controversial facility. The 27-year-old, named by refugee advocates as Faysal Ishak Ahmed, died in a Brisbane hospital in eastern Australia after being flown to Queensland from Papua New Guinea’s ...

  Vatican City / AFP Pope Francis urged peace in the Middle East as tens of thousands gathered to hear his Christmas address on Sunday, while offering comfort to victims of terrorism after a year of bloody extremist attacks. The 80-year-old Argentine called for guns to fall silent in Syria, saying “far too much blood has been spilled” in the nearly ...

  Washington / AFP US President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday he intends to dissolve his controversial philanthropic foundation to avoid conflicts of interest, but the move was quickly complicated by an ongoing legal probe. Trump’s sprawling portfolio of US and overseas business interests and holdings—as well as his Donald J Trump Foundation—have come under increased scrutiny in the weeks since ...

  Berlin / AFP An unwelcome Christmas surprise in southern Germany forced the evacuation of 54,000 people from their homes on Sunday after the discovery of a bomb dating from World War II, local authorities said. It was a British bomb that was found in the city of Augsburg and led to the biggest mobilisation in Germany—around 900 police officers—since ...

  Berlin / AFP Germany was hunting for possible accomplices of the suspected Berlin truck attacker on Saturday, a day after he was killed in a shoot-out with Italian police in Milan. As most of the country readied to celebrate Christmas Eve, Germany’s under-pressure authorities said hundreds of investigators would be working on the probe throughout the holiday season. Tunisian ...

  Berlin / AFP Berlin’s Christmas market truck rampage was the deadly extremist attack Germany had long feared, as security services have warned of the growth of a shadowy extremist scene. Rarely a week has gone by in past years without the arrest of a radical preacher, an extremist backing the IS or other extremist groups with money, arms or ...

  Seoul / AFP Tens of thousands of people, many in Santa Claus outfits, marched through the streets of Seoul on Saturday calling for the immediate ouster of impeached President Park Geun-Hye. Parliament voted to impeach Park earlier this month over a corruption scandal in which she allegedly colluded with her friend, Choi Soon-Sil, to strong-arm donations from large conglomerates ...