Politics

  Miami / AFP Donald Trump stepped up his attacks against Hillary Clinton, seeking to exploit the FBI’s decision to reopen an investigation into her emails, as America’s bruising election campaign heads into its final stretch. Just 10 days before the country goes to the polls to elect either the former US secretary of state or the bombastic Republican billionaire, ...

  Caracas / AFP Ex-Soviet Moldova went to the polls on Sunday in its first popular presidential election since the 1990s, seen as a tug-of-war between supporters of closer relations with Russia and those seeking EU integration. The crisis-hit country of 3.5 million wedged between Ukraine and Romania is the poorest in Europe and has struggled with a string of ...

  Seoul / AFP The woman at the heart of a lurid political scandal engulfing South Korean President Park Geun-Hye returned to the country on Sunday to face accusations of influence-peddling and meddling in state affairs. With just over a year left to run, Park’s presidency has unravelled over shocking revelations that she discussed and sought advice on government policy from ...

  Manila / AFP Chinese coastguard ships are still patrolling the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea but are not stopping Filipinos from fishing there, a Philippine defence spokesman said on Sunday. The information — from fishermen who have just returned from the shoal — came despite earlier Philippine government statements that the Chinese had left the outcrop they ...

  Reykjavik / AFP Iceland on Sunday faced a wrangle over its next government after the anti-establishment Pirate Party and its allies gained ground but fell short of a majority in snap elections. Prime Minister Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson told the national broadcaster RUV he would resign on Sunday after his Progressive Party suffered a plunge in support. Polls had predicted ...

  Astana / AFP Three astronauts landed safely in Kazakhstan on Sunday following a 115-day mission aboard the the International Space Station, including US astronaut Kate Rubins, the first person to sequence DNA in space. Russian mission control confirmed the touchdown of NASA’s Rubins, Roscosmos’ Anatoly Ivanishin and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency at 0358 GMT. The ...

  Des Moines / AFP Hillary Clinton embarks this weekend on the frenetic final 10 days of her White House campaign, determined to shake off renewed controversy over the FBI probe into her private emails. The 69-year-old Democrat—vying to become America’s first female president—is still the frontrunner to win the November 8 election over her Republican rival Donald Trump. Clinton has ...

  Manila / AFP Chinese vessels have left the contested Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, a Philippine official said on Saturday, less than a week after President Rodrigo Duterte visited Beijing pledging closer ties. The firebrand leader used the trip to vaunt his move away from traditional ally the United States in favour of Beijing—which was previously at ...

  Beijing / AFP Political concerns over the North Korean regime are stopping vital relief aid from reaching the victims of a major flood there, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said on Saturday. Nearly 70,000 people are estimated to have lost their homes in disastrous flooding in North Hamgyong province in August and September ...

  Madrid / AFP Spain turns the page on a 10-month political crisis on Saturday as lawmakers ready to vote the conservatives back in power, although at the head of a government with unprecedented opposition. Aided by divisions among his rivals, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is widely expected to win a crunch parliamentary confidence vote on Saturday evening which will see ...