Seoul / AFP Tens of thousands of protestors rallied in Seoul on Saturday, for the fourth in a weekly series of mass protests urging President Park Geun-hye to resign over a corruption scandal. The demonstrations—among the largest seen in South Korea since the pro-democracy protests of the 1980s—have provided a stark challenge to Park’s authority, but the president has defied ...
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Malaysia’s Mahathir joins calls to oust ‘thief’ PM
Kuala Lumpur / AFP Former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad called for a sustained push to topple scandal-plagued Prime Minister Najib Razak as thousands rallied on Saturday to demand the premier’s resignation over the 1MDB corruption saga. Malaysians clad in the yellow of the reformist Bersih campaign flooded Kuala Lumpur for the second time in 15 months to vent anger over ...
Read More »Austria conservatives urge vote against far-right’s Hofer
Vienna / AFP Several top Austrian conservatives on Saturday urged voters to shun far-right candidate Norbert Hoffer in next month’s presidential election, highlighting fears he could take the country out of the EU. In a manifesto published on Saturday, senior conservatives including former EU agriculture commissioner Franz Fischler and ex-vice chancellor Wilhelm Molterer, both from the People’s Party (OeVP), ...
Read More »Donald Trump looms large over future of climate action
Marrakesh / AFP From across the Atlantic, Donald Trump eclipsed a UN conference which fought valiantly in Marrakesh to preserve momentum on curtailing climate change amid fears the mogul will fragment the global effort and starve it of cash. World leaders, CEOs, negotiators and activists at the two-week meeting, which closed on Friday, were clearly unsettled by the pending ...
Read More »Senior Tories urge PM May to drop Brexit appeal
London / AFP Three prominent members of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party on Saturday urged her to drop the government’s appeal against a court ruling that parliament must approve the process to trigger Brexit. Oliver Letwin, former head of the government’s Brexit preparations, former law officer Edward Garnier and former attorney general Dominic Grieve all warned that ...
Read More »Seven migrant workers dead in Russian blaze
Moscow / AFP Seven construction workers from Tajikistan died in western Siberia on Saturday when the shipping container they used as a home at a building site caught fire, officials said. “Seven people died, while three were poisoned by the fumes and hospitalised,” the emergencies ministry’s branch in the oil-rich Tyumen region said. The suspected cause was a short-circuit ...
Read More »Pacific leaders urged to defend free trade
Lima /Â AFP A summit of top world leaders was urged to fight rising protectionism after Donald Trump’s election victory stoked fears that free trade is under threat, and the global economy along with it. Trump, who triumphed in last week’s US presidential vote, successfully tapped the anger of working-class voters who feel left behind by years of globalization, vowing ...
Read More »New deaths spark fears for fragile Colombia ceasefire
Bogota / AFP The deaths of two Colombian guerrillas sparked fears this week that the country’s fragile peace process could be in peril after voters rejected an accord to end the half-century conflict. Colombian authorities said the two fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) died Sunday in a clash with the army. They were the FARC’s ...
Read More »Dalai Lama visits Mongolia over China’s objections
Ulan Bator /Â AFP The Dalai Lama met with Buddhist worshippers on Saturday during a four-day visit to Mongolia, despite Beijing’s strident demand that he be barred from entering the country. China is “firmly opposed to the anti-China separatist activities by the Dalai Lama in any country, in any name, and in any capacity”, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said. ...
Read More »Iraq forces move on 2 airports in month-old Mosul battle
Mosul /Â AFP Iraqi forces piled pressure on the IS group around Mosul on Thursday, moving closer to cutting off the extremists’ escape route west to Syria and thrusting deeper into the east of the city. Pro-government paramilitaries advancing on the town of Tal Afar, which commands the city’s west approaches, entered its airport, while troops moving up from the ...
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