Politics

  Aden / AFP Forty-eight Yemeni soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing claimed by the IS group in the southern port city of Aden, officials said on Sunday in an updated casualty toll. “We have 48 dead and 29 wounded,” all soldiers, Abdel Nasser al-Wali, health department chief for Aden, told AFP, revising an earlier toll of 35 dead. The ...

  Istanbul / AFP Turkey observed a day of mourning on Sunday after twin bombings killed 38 people near an Istanbul football stadium in attacks authorities said were likely the work of Kurdish militants. A car bomb detonated Saturday night outside the home stadium of football giants Besiktas after a Super Lig match against Bursaspor, and less than a minute later ...

  Mogadishu / AFP More than 20 people were killed on Sunday in a suicide truck bombing in the Somali capital Mogadishu, police said, in a fresh strike claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab group. “The tally we have made so far indicates that more than 20 people, most of them civilians, were killed in the blast,” said Ibrahim Mohamed, a Somali ...

  New York / AFP President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday selected a political ally with close ties to China as ambassador to Beijing, stressed his determination to create US jobs and revealed he consulted with Barack Obama on his cabinet picks. The Republican’s election victory shocked the US establishment and alarmed the world, which is now waiting with bated breath ...

  Brussels / AFP EU negotiators said on Thursday they have resolved an internal row that had delayed visa-free travel to Europe for Ukrainians and Georgians. The European Commission and the bloc’s 28 members will be able to reimpose visa requirements more quickly and more easily under a compromise deal amid fears over immigration and terrorism. The deal struck between the ...

  Moscow / AFP Russian prosecutors on Thursday demanded a five-year jail sentence for a 21-year-old female student accused of trying to join the IS group in Syria. Varvara Karaulova is on trial in the high-profile case after she was detained last year as she tried to cross into war-torn Syria while still a philosophy undergraduate at the renowned Moscow State ...

Brussels / AFP The EU recommended on Thursday that member states resume sending asylum seekers back to Greece from March next year, after transfers were halted for five years because of poor conditions there. Brussels said it was a key step towards restoring the European Union’s migration policies and the passport-free Schengen zone, which nearly collapsed under the pressure of the ...

Athens / AFP A Greek appeals court on Thursday ruled against the extradition of two Turkish coup suspects demanded by Ankara, after electing to protect another three and send back three others. The Athens court accepted a prosecutor’s arguments that the two military officers — out of a total eight seeking asylum in Greece—would be at risk if sent back ...

  Yangon / AFP At least 11 people have died this month in northern Myanmar in escalating clashes between security forces and armed insurgents that have undercut Aung San Suu Kyi’s bid for peace. Thousands have fled their homes in northern Shan state since the fighting erupted in late November, with many crossing the border into China. In response, Beijing ...

  Accra / AFP Ghanaians faced an anxious wait on Thursday for the results of a nail-biting presidential election tainted by sporadic outbreaks of violence, with no clear favourite emerging from the early provisional results. The high-stakes race between incumbent John Mahama and rival Nana Akufo-Addo is seen as a litmus test of stability for one of Africa’s most secure democracies. ...