Politics

  BEIJING /AFP A top Chinese police official was elected president of Interpol on Thursday, setting off alarm bells among rights advocates over abuses and a lack of transparency within China’s legal system, as well as the potential misuse of the police organization to attack Beijing’s political opponents. Vice Public Security Minister Meng Hongwei was named as the first Chinese ...

  Moscow/ AFP Russia’s security service said on Thursday it had detained several people in Crimea, accusing them of being saboteurs sent by Kiev to the Moscow-annexed peninsula to attack infrastructure targets. Russia’s FSB security service on Wednesday “detained members of a sabotage-terrorist group from the main intelligence directorate of the Ukrainian defence ministry,” it said in a statement. The ...

  Washington /AFP Protesters burned a giant orange-haired head of Donald Trump in effigy, lit fires in the streets and blocked traffic as rage over the billionaire’s election victory spilled onto the streets of major US cities. From New York to Los Angeles, thousands of people in around 10 cities rallied late Wednesday against the president-elect a day after his ...

  Moscow /AFP Russia on Thursday dismissed reports the Kremlin was “euphoric” about Donald Trump’s election win, saying it was not certain the US president-elect would be any friendlier to Moscow than his predecessor. Deputy Foreign Sergei Ryabkov also confirmed that members of Trump’s inner circle had “kept in contact” with Russian officials during the election campaign, in apparent contradiction ...

  Tokyo / AFP Japan’s lower house of parliament on Thursday passed the contentious Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal, a move largely viewed as an empty gesture due to opposition by US president-elect Donald Trump. President Barack Obama championed the 12-nation deal saying it would enable the United States to set the global trade agenda in the face of China’s ...

  Brussels / AFP Donald Trump’s “America first” approach has Europe worried he may cut US commitments to NATO just as it mounts its biggest military build-up since the end of the Cold War to counter a more assertive Russia. Trump caused uproar during the campaign when he suggested Washington would think twice about coming to the aid of an ...

    Vienna /AFP Donald Trump’s stunning victory is a “wake-up call” against the rise of populism ahead of Austria’s presidential election, candidate Alexander Van der Bellen said on Thursday, three weeks before the poll. The independent ecologist is running against Norbert Hofer who is striving to become the EU’s first far-right elected head of state on December 4. Opinion ...

  Washington / AFP Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the US presidential race raises new questions over Federal Reserve policy in the short run and the central bank’s vital operational independence over the longer term. How his proposed, dramatic policy shifts impact the economy could influence Fed plans to resume raising interest rates after a year’s hiatus, which was widely ...

  Seoul/ AFP North Korea on Thursday warned the incoming Donald Trump administration will have to acknowledge it as a nuclear state, as the South said the maverick billionaire had pledged to protect it. The United States maintains it cannot accept North Korea as a nuclear power, despite it conducting five nuclear tests and has pushed harsh international sanctions against ...

  Ain Issa / AFP US-backed forces pressed offensives on Wednesday on the IS group’s strongholds in Syria and Iraq, as a strike by the American-led coalition was reported to have killed 20 civilians near Raqa. Supported by coalition air raids, Iraqi forces have pushed into IS’s Mosul stronghold and a Kurdish-Arab militia alliance has been advancing on the extremists’ de ...