Aleppo / AFP Intense government air strikes and artillery fire on Saturday shook the rebel-held side of Aleppo city, where multiple hospitals have been hit and schools forced to close. The ferocious bombardment saw rockets, mortar shells and barrel bombs pound residential neighbourhoods, shaking buildings and terrifying residents, an AFP correspondent in east Aleppo said. “People went to sleep to the ...

  Sanaa / AFP A 48-hour ceasefire announced by a Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed rebels in Yemen began on Saturday, after the beleaguered government finally agreed to a US peace push. The government, which has deep reservations about a UN peace blueprint it believes undermines its authority, had previously rejected a ceasefire plan announced by US Secretary of State John Kerry ...

  Seoul / AFP Tens of thousands of protestors rallied in Seoul on Saturday, for the fourth in a weekly series of mass protests urging President Park Geun-hye to resign over a corruption scandal. The demonstrations—among the largest seen in South Korea since the pro-democracy protests of the 1980s—have provided a stark challenge to Park’s authority, but the president has defied ...

  Kuala Lumpur / AFP Former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad called for a sustained push to topple scandal-plagued Prime Minister Najib Razak as thousands rallied on Saturday to demand the premier’s resignation over the 1MDB corruption saga. Malaysians clad in the yellow of the reformist Bersih campaign flooded Kuala Lumpur for the second time in 15 months to vent anger over ...

  Vienna / AFP Several top Austrian conservatives on Saturday urged voters to shun far-right candidate Norbert Hoffer in next month’s presidential election, highlighting fears he could take the country out of the EU. In a manifesto published on Saturday, senior conservatives including former EU agriculture commissioner Franz Fischler and ex-vice chancellor Wilhelm Molterer, both from the People’s Party (OeVP), ...

  Marrakesh / AFP From across the Atlantic, Donald Trump eclipsed a UN conference which fought valiantly in Marrakesh to preserve momentum on curtailing climate change amid fears the mogul will fragment the global effort and starve it of cash. World leaders, CEOs, negotiators and activists at the two-week meeting, which closed on Friday, were clearly unsettled by the pending ...

  London / AFP Three prominent members of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party on Saturday urged her to drop the government’s appeal against a court ruling that parliament must approve the process to trigger Brexit. Oliver Letwin, former head of the government’s Brexit preparations, former law officer Edward Garnier and former attorney general Dominic Grieve all warned that ...

  Moscow / AFP Seven construction workers from Tajikistan died in western Siberia on Saturday when the shipping container they used as a home at a building site caught fire, officials said. “Seven people died, while three were poisoned by the fumes and hospitalised,” the emergencies ministry’s branch in the oil-rich Tyumen region said. The suspected cause was a short-circuit ...

  Lima / AFP A summit of top world leaders was urged to fight rising protectionism after Donald Trump’s election victory stoked fears that free trade is under threat, and the global economy along with it. Trump, who triumphed in last week’s US presidential vote, successfully tapped the anger of working-class voters who feel left behind by years of globalization, vowing ...

  Bogota / AFP The deaths of two Colombian guerrillas sparked fears this week that the country’s fragile peace process could be in peril after voters rejected an accord to end the half-century conflict. Colombian authorities said the two fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) died Sunday in a clash with the army. They were the FARC’s ...