Politics

  Nicosia / AFP Rival Cypriot leaders can overcome their differences in stalled peace negotiations if they show “flexibility”, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Wednesday after talks with the two sides. “I welcome the progress that has been made in recent months and I salute the courage and determination that is being shown by the leaders on both ...

  Eisenstadt / AFP Campaigners for Austria’s Greens-backed presidential candidate Alexander Van der Bellen are having a hard time in Burgenland state, where the far-right has carved out a cosy alliance with the Social Democrats, one of the country’s two main parties. The SPOe, which grew out of a Marxist worker’s movement and remains close to the unions, broke a major ...

  New York / AFP Donald Trump stepped up his search on Tuesday for a secretary of state with loyalists at loggerheads over prospective candidates: erstwhile critic Mitt Romney, scandal-clad general David Petraeus and Senator Bob Corker. Trump’s quest for America’s next top diplomat, the most prestigious position in the cabinet and the statesman who will have to grapple with ...

  Manila / AFP The Philippines criticised on Tuesday as “irresponsible and alarming” a UN envoy’s warning that life sentences meted out to two ex-Khmer Rouge leaders should serve as a warning to Manila over human rights abuses. Last week, a United Nations-backed court in Cambodia upheld life sentences for crimes against humanity for two senior leaders of the Khmer ...

  Manila / AFP Seven military bodyguards of President Rodrigo Duterte and two other soldiers were wounded on Tuesday in an ambush by suspected militants on the eve of his planned visit to the southern Philippines, the military and president said. Military spokesmen said a bomb hit the soldiers’ convoy as it drove on a road in a southern region ...

  Yangon / AFP Myanmar’s Rohingya may be victims of crimes against humanity, the UN’s rights agency said Tuesday, as former UN chief Kofi Annan arrived in the country for a visit that will include a trip to northern Rakhine. The army has carried out a bloody crackdown in Rakhine, and thousands of the Muslim minority have flooded over the ...

  Kuala Lumpur / AFP Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak will take part in a rare rally to protest a bloody crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, an official from his office said on Tuesday. The gathering, which will take place in an yet-to-be announced location on Sunday, will involve politicians, NGOs and “all concerned with the issue” the official ...

  Banjul / AFP Gambia’s president once said he would govern the country for a billion years if God willed it. But voters may deliver an upset on Thursday after years of economic hardship that have pushed thousands of young people to attempt the perilous Mediterranean crossing to Europe. Yahya Jammeh will face the biggest challenge to his 22-year rule ...

  Geneva / AFP Up to 16,000 civilians have fled strife-torn parts of eastern Aleppo as the rebels lost all of the northern neighbourhoods of their stronghold, the UN said on Tuesday, describing the situation as “chilling”. “The intensity of attacks on eastern Aleppo neighbourhoods over the past few days has forced thousands of civilians to flee to other parts of ...

  Aden / AFP Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi accused Shiite rebels and their allies on Tuesday of dashing hopes for peace after they unveiled a new government in areas under their control. Hadi said that Monday’s formation by the Iran-backed rebels of a government of national salvation showed their determination to “spread chaos and destruction” and “destroys any chance ...