Politics

  Rome/ AFP Italian police launched a crackdown on illegal immigration from China, on the day President Xi Jinping was due to arrive for a stopover visit. In an operation dubbed “White Collars”, the GDF financial police said they had ordered 15 arrests and 111 raids on premises across five regions as well as placing another 83 people under formal investigation. ...

  Seoul / AFP South Korean prosecutors questioned a former vice sports minister on Wednesday as their probe into the corruption scandal engulfing President Park Geun-Hye spreads to preparations for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Park is under pressure over her shadowy confidant Choi Soon-Sil, who is accused of using her personal ties with the president to coerce local firms to donate ...

  Marrakesh/ AFP Ministers gathered at a UN conference on Wednesday to discuss the hot-button issue of finance for staving off dangerous climate change, while America’s top diplomat is expected to hammer home the perils of not acting swiftly. A day after dozens of heads of state and government addressed the annual UN climate huddle, more than 100 foreign, energy and ...

  Manila / AFP Filipino and US troops began training exercises this week, the Philippines military said on Wednesday, despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s threats to end joint war games and kick American soldiers out of his country as he edges closer to Beijing. Duterte has called for the withdrawal of American troops from his country and has branded US President ...

  France /AFP A year after extremists used weapons manufactured in Serbia to gun down victims in Paris, Balkan countries are struggling to end the scourge of illegal arms trafficking. The killers who opened fire at the Bataclan theatre, cafes and restaurants in the French capital last November used Yugoslav-era assault rifles produced by Serbia’s Zastava Arms. Months earlier the ...

  Paris / AFP French ex-economy minister Emmanuel Macron, a 38-year-old political novice, announced his bid for the presidency on Wednesday, as an alternative to the “same men and same ideas” that have guided France for decades. Macron finally ended speculation about his intentions by announcing his candidacy for his “En Marche” (“On the Move”) centrist party from a training ...

  Athens / AFP US President Barack Obama flew into Athens on Tuesday on his final foreign trip to Europe, seeking to calm the nerves of allies concerned by Donald Trump’s shock presidential election victory. With Europeans worried by Trump’s downplaying of the importance of the NATO military alliance, Obama pointedly told Greek daily Kathimerini before his visit that Washington had ...

  New York / AFP President-elect Donald Trump meets with running mate Mike Pence in New York on Tuesday to discuss cabinet appointments amid reports of intense infighting over choice posts. One source described to CNN the fierce lobbying as a “knife fight.” Trump and Pence will “be reviewing a number of names” for cabinet positions, Jason Miller, a transition ...

  Ankara/ AFP Germany’s foreign minister on Tuesday said it was up to Turkey to decide whether to advance its bid on joining the European Union, reaffirming Berlin’s “serious concern” at the crackdown after the failed July 15 coup. The purge that has seen over 35,000 people arrested and journalists as well as some MPs put in jail had raised questions ...

  Brussels / AFP NATO head Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday said he was sure Donald Trump would live up to all US commitments to the alliance, just days after urging the president-elect not to go it alone. “President-elect Donald Trump stated during the election campaign that he is a big fan of NATO,” Stoltenberg said in Brussels as he arrived ...