Politics

  Sofia/ AFP EU member Bulgaria headed on Monday into fresh political turbulence after a former airforce commander seen as more sympathetic to Russia triumphed in presidential elections, prompting Prime Minister Boyko Borisov to quit. In his victory speech, Rumen Radev reiterated his opposition to EU sanctions on Russia and praised new US President-elect Donald Trump for “seeking more dialogue” with ...

  Beijing/ AFP Chinese President Xi Jinping and US president-elect Donald Trump agreed on Monday to meet “at an early date” to discuss the relationship between their two powers, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said on Monday. In a telephone call, Xi told Trump—who frequently savaged Beijing on the campaign trail and threatened to impose a 45-percent tariff on Chinese-made goods—that the ...

  Johannesburg / AFP Jailed Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius has been transferred to a prison adapted for disabled inmates to serve the rest of his sentence for murdering his girlfriend, a South African official said on Monday. The Department of Correctional Services said the double amputee was moved from Kgosi Mampuru II prison in the capital Pretoria to Atteridgeville Correctional ...

  Berlin /AFP Germany’s ruling coalition has backed Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier as the country’s next president, party sources said on Monday, paving the way for a sharp critic of Donald Trump to become head of state. Party leaders have been wrangling for months over whom to nominate as a potential successor to President Joachim Gauck, a 76-year-old former pastor ...

  Seoul / AFP South Korean prosecutors on Monday questioned two former key presidential aides over allegations they helped a shadowy confidant of President Park Geun-Hye meddle in state affairs and secretly visit her office. Park has been engulfed by a scandal that centres on Choi Soon-Sil, who is accused of using her personal ties with the president to coerce ...

    Baghdad /AFP Iraqi forces said on Sunday they had recaptured the Nimrud area, the site of an ancient Assyrian city blown up by the IS group, as they battled the extremists south of Mosul. Iraqi troops pushed towards Nimrud last week as they pressed an offensive launched on October 17 to recapture Iraq’s second city, which the extremists ...

  Khuzdar District / AP Survivors of a massive bomb attack on a shrine in southwest Pakistan that killed dozens spoke of their horror Sunday after families were ripped apart in a strike showing the expanding reach of the IS group. The blast, later confirmed to be the work of a teenage suicide bomber, hit male and female worshippers as they ...

  Baghdad / AFP Iraqi Kurdish forces have demolished Arab homes and buildings and in some cases entire villages in disputed areas in the country’s north, Human Rights Watch said on Sunday. Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region has gained or solidified control over swathes of territory claimed by both it and the federal government in Baghdad in the course of the ...

  Aleppo /AFP Syrian government forces clashed with rebels on the outskirts of eastern Aleppo city on Sunday, a monitor said, after residents received messages from the army giving opposition fighters 24 hours to leave. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, and an AFP correspondent in rebel-held east Aleppo reported clashes in the Karam Al-Turab neighbourhood and ...

  Yangon / AFP Hundreds of buildings in Rohingya villages in western Myanmar have been torched, according to new satellite images released on Sunday as fresh fighting flared in the strife-torn region. Northern Rakhine, which is home to the Muslim Rohingya minority and borders Bangladesh, has been under military lockdown ever since surprise raids on border posts left nine police dead ...