Politics

  Rome/ AFP With campaigning over, media silence was imposed across Italy on Saturday on the eve of a constitutional referendum seen as crucial to the future of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. In the frantic final round of campaigning which ended on Friday, Renzi’s domestic rivals vowed to knock down referendum proposals to streamline parliament and force the centre-left leader out ...

  New Delhi / AFP Britain’s former premier said on Saturday the election of France’s Marine Le Pen would be a “big body blow” for Europe, saying he hoped for the victory of a mainstream party. David Cameron said the recent rise of “anti-system, populist” and “quite extreme political parties” in western Europe did not mark the end of globalisation, but ...

  Kuala Lumpur/ AFP Relatives of missing MH370 passengers were headed to Madagascar on Saturday, harbouring hopes of finding seaborne debris, 1,001 days since the mysterious disappearance of the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines jet. Four Malaysians and two Chinese nationals left from Kuala Lumpur and will be joined in Madagascar by other MH370 next-of-kin travelling from France. The Boeing 777 jet was ...

  Bangkok / AFP A Pakistani man suspected of starting a devastating factory fire in Karachi four years ago that killed 255 people has been arrested in Bangkok, Thai police said on Saturday. Abdul Rehman, 46, was detained at a hotel in the red light district Nana area of the capital on Friday evening, said Thailand’s Interpol chief. “Thai Interpol ...

  Seoul/ AFP Hundreds of thousands of protestors marched in Seoul for the sixth-straight week on Saturday to demand the ouster and arrest of scandal-hit President Park Geun-Hye ahead of an impeachment vote in parliament. Organisers claimed a turnout of more than one million for the candlelight rally in the South Korean capital, while police put the number at just ...

  Kabul / AFP US President-elect Donald Trump has assured Afghanistan’s leader in a phone call that his administration stands ready to up support to the country if necessary, a Kabul statement said. “If Afghanistan needs more security assistance, his administration, after assessing the needs, will focus on providing more security support,” the statement released by President Ashraf Ghani’s office read. ...

  Colombo / AFP Police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse thousands of opposition-backed protestors outside parliament on Saturday as law makers debated the annual budget. Demonstrators led by loyalists of former president Mahinda Rajapakse held up traffic and blocked the main access to the parliament complex for several hours in the capital. Opposition lawmaker Ranjith Soysa said protesters ...

  Maungdaw / AFP Malaysia accused Myanmar of engaging in the “ethnic cleansing” of its Rohingya minority on Saturday, as former UN chief Kofi Annan visited a burned out village in strife-torn Rakhine state. Tens of thousands of Muslim Rohingya have fled their homes since a bloody crackdown by the Myanmar army in the western state of Rakhine sparked by a ...

  Bangkok / AFP A prominent Thai dissident was arrested under the country’s draconian royal defamation law on Saturday for sharing a BBC Thai profile of the new King Maha Vajiralongkorn on Facebook, supporters said. Thailand’s monarchy is protected from any criticism inside the kingdom by a harsh lese majeste law, use of which has skyrocketed since the military seized ...

  Banjul / AFP Opposition candidate Adama Barrow hailed a “new Gambia” after he pulled off a stunning presidential election victory, putting an end to the 22-year rule of Yahya Jammeh. Jammeh—who has been frequently accused over the years of suppressing his opponents—conceded defeat on television, accepting that Gambians had “decided that I should take the backseat”. Official results earlier showed ...