Mukalla / AFP Ten days after Gulf-backed forces drove Al-Qaeda out of the Yemeni port city of Mukalla, the signs of their harsh year-long rule are still everywhere for relieved residents to see. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula took advantage of the chaos of fighting between pro-government forces and Iran-backed rebels to expand its control in southern Yemen, seizing ...

  INDIANAPOLIS / AP Once dismissed as a fringe contender, businessman Donald Trump now is all but certain to lead the Republican Party into the fall presidential campaign against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton — a stunning political triumph for a first-time candidate whose appeal to frustrated voters was widely underestimated. Trump’s victory in Indiana on Tuesday and Ted Cruz’s abrupt ...

  Jakarta / AFP Indonesia is preparing for a new round of executions, police said on Wednesday, around a year after Jakarta sparked global outrage by putting seven foreign drug convicts to death by firing squad. Officials recently started getting ready after an order from the attorney-general’s office, which oversees executions, said Central Java police spokesman Aloysius Lilik Darmanto. He ...

  Kuala Lumpur / AFP Malaysian authorities are searching for three foreigners who went missing in waters near the Philippines where a spate of recent kidnappings have taken place, a coast guard official said on Wednesday. The official cautioned there was so far no cause to suspect the abduction of the foreigners, who went missing late Monday along with a ...

  Rio De Janeiro / AFP Brazil’s top prosecutor has asked the Supreme Court to open a probe into alleged obstruction of justice by President Dilma Rousseff, Brazilian media reported, in a potentially explosive twist to the country’s political crisis. According to reports in the Globo, Folha de Sao Paulo and Estadao dailies, chief prosecutor Rodrigo Janot has requested authority to ...

Moscow / AFP Russia’s defence minister said on Wednesday that Moscow will set up three new divisions in the west and south of the country by the end of the year to counter NATO forces close to its border. “The defence ministry is taking a range of measures with the aim of countering the build-up of NATO forces in close proximity ...

  Harare / AFP Drought-hit Zimbabwe has invited local farmers and private game rangers to buy wild animals as it destocks national game reserves to save fauna from starvation, the wildlife authority said Wednesday. Parks and wildlife authority spokeswoman Caroline Washaya said it has asked individuals and private game keepers to step in and buy wild animals “in the light ...

  London / AFP The Scottish National Party heads into regional elections on Thursday hoping to strengthen its clout and secure a mandate to demand independence if Britain leaves the European Union. Victory in the vote could allow the SNP to consolidate a historic triumph in general elections in May 2015, when it swept 56 out of Scotland’s 59 seats ...

SARI RASH, Iraq This month marks the 100th anniversary of the Sykes-Picot Agreement that formed Iraq, Syria and the other fragile nations of the modern Middle East. The past few weeks have provided dramatic new evidence, if more were needed, that the old colonial framework created by Britain and France isn’t working. Iraq and Syria are coming apart: Iraq is ...

The European Union’s deal with Turkey to control the streaming of refugees into Europe has become a bittersweet issue, as some EU member states see the pact as a blackmail from Ankara to meet its longstanding demands. Finally, the EU on Wednesday gave conditional backing to visa-free travel for Turks under a migrant deal. It also announced new asylum rules ...