Munich / AFP The world has plunged into a “new Cold War”, the Russian premier said on Saturday, as East-West tensions over Ukraine and Syria took centre-stage at a gathering of world leaders in Germany. “We have slid into a new period of Cold War,” Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told the audience at the Munich Security Conference. “Almost every day …

Budapest / AFP Thousands of Hungarians angry at the state’s tight grip on public education rallied on Saturday in Budapest, in one of the biggest street protests against Prime Minister Viktor Orban in recent years. Soon after coming to power in 2010, his rightwing government launched sweeping reforms of the public education system, which it said was too liberal and …

Istanbul / AFP Turkey and Saudi Arabia could launch a ground operation against IS extremists in Syria, the Turkish foreign minister said on Saturday, adding the kingdom was already sending jets to a Turkish base to attack the extremists. The coordinated plans by Riyadh and Ankara, who are pursuing an increasingly tight alliance, add a new element to the explosive …