Astana / AFP President Barack Obama arrived in Havana for a visit that he hopes will help end a hostile US policy toward Cuba that he views as futile, lifting one of the biggest impediments to closer US alliances across Latin America. Air Force One touched down at Jose Marti International Airport at about 4:19 pm. Obama took an evening …

Donetsk / AFP A court in southern Russia on Monday found Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko guilty of murder over the killing of two Russian journalists in war-torn east Ukraine, at a trial condemned by Kiev and the West as a political sham. Savchenko “committed the premeditated murder as part of a group of people from the motives of hatred and …

Astana / AFP Energy-rich Kazakhstan’s ruling party has secured a landslide win in parliamentary polls that never threatened to trouble autocrat President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s long reign, official results confirmed Monday. According to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan party won 82 percent of votes in Sunday’s election and will share parliament with the pro-government People’s Communist Party and …