Politics

  Nicosia / AFP Five days of UN-sponsored talks on ending the decades-old division of Cyprus have adjourned without a breakthrough but negotiators vowed on Saturday to press on even as prospects fade for a deal this year. The much-heralded talks between Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot leaders in the Swiss resort of Mont Pelerin were supposed to produce a map of ...

  Yangon/ AFP An Asian news network on Saturday called for the release of two Myanmar media executives jailed for alleged defamation, the latest case to highlight limits on free speech under the country’s new democratic government. The CEO of Eleven Media Group and a chief editor of a newspaper it publishes were detained by police on Friday over a ...

  New York /AFP Demonstrators took to the streets of Miami, New York, Portland and other US cities for a third straight night of nationwide protests to oppose Donald Trump’s election as president. People gathered in New York’s Washington Square neighborhood in lower Manhattan on Friday, some carrying enormous red balloons and placards with hearts and the words “peace and ...

  Addis Ababa /AFP Authorities have arrested more than 11,000 people since Ethiopia declared a state of emergency in early October amid violent protests, state TV said on Saturday. Ethiopia has been in political crisis for around a year with frequent outbreaks of violence as authorities have brutally cracked down on anti-government demonstrators. “Some 11,607 individuals have so far been ...

  The Hague/ AFP The Dutch national prosecutor said on Saturday that two Rwandans living in the Netherlands accused of participating in the country’s 1994 genocide would be extradited to their homeland. “Two Rwandan residents of the Netherlands, a 40-year-old from Voorburg and a 57-year-old from Leusden, will be extradited to Rwanda today,” the prosecutor said in a statement. Rwanda had ...

  Seoul / AFP Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children joined one of the largest anti-government protests ever seen in Seoul on Saturday, demanding South Korean President Park Geun-Hye’s resignation over a snowballing corruption scandal. Police put the turnout at 260,000, while organisers said one million people took to the streets for what was the third in a series ...

  The Hague / AFP The main Paris attacks suspect, Salah Abdeslam, has become even more radicalised since being imprisoned for his presumed role in the slaughter of 130 people a year ago, his former lawyer has said. “He’s got a beard, he’s become a true fundamentalist whereas before he was a kid wearing Nike trainers,” Belgian lawyer Sven Mary ...

  Caracas /AFP Venezuela’s political rivals were expected to carry out more fraught Vatican-backed talks on Saturday as they struggle to stabilize a volatile country stricken by food shortages. The talks, which began late on Friday, could determine whether the sides maintain their fragile dialogue or the oil-rich South American country returns to antagonism and instability. “Progress was made on ...

  Hanoi / AFP Vietnam destroyed a huge stockpile of ivory and rhino horn on Saturday, urging the public to stop consuming illegal wildlife products driving several species towards extinction. The ivory and rhino horn trade is officially banned in Vietnam, but its use in traditional medicine and for decoration remains widespread, especially among the communist country’s growing elite. It ...

  BAGHDAD / AP Iraqi troops consolidated gains in their advance on the northern city of Mosul on Thursday, regrouping as they clear neighbourhoods and houses once occupied by the IS group. In Mosul proper, where troops have a foothold in a sliver of territory in the city’s east, the special forces control the Zahra neighborhood, once named after former dictator ...