Astana / AFP Kazakhstan’s ageing President Nursultan Nazarbayev shifted longtime ally Karim Massimov from prime minister to security chief, amid speculation over the authoritarian leader’s eventual successor. Deputy Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev has temporarily assumed Massimov’s role, until a new government is formed in the Central Asian nation, a presidential decree said. The reshuffle may offer some clues as to …

  Sittwe/ AFP Four years after fleeing religious riots that emptied her Muslim Rohingya neighbourhood in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, Myee Shay yearns for the trappings of a normal life: a job, a school for her children and the chance to buy her own food. But the 35-year-old, like tens of thousands of others displaced by the violence, remains trapped in a …

Geneva / AFP The US and Russia conducted last-minute negotiations on Thursday over a fresh bid for a Syrian peace deal ahead of an expected high-level meeting in Geneva. Foreign ministers from the two powers, which support opposite sides in the five-year conflict, were poised to hold a “personal meeting” in the Swiss city to push for a peace agreement, according …