Washington / AFP White House candidate Donald Trump desperately needs a strong debate performance against Hillary Clinton on Sunday, with stakes sky-high following intense scrutiny of his treatment of women and damaging footage of him making lewd remarks. His unprecedented, outside-the-establishment presidential bid, and the embattled Republican Party with it, was thrown into disarray by his misogynistic comments, with ...

  ADDIS ABABA / AP The Ethiopian government has declared a state of emergency effective immediately following a week of anti-government violence that resulted in deaths and property damage across the country, especially in the restive Oromia region. In a televised address on Sunday morning, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said the state of emergency was declared because there has been ...

  Berlin / AFP A bombing targeting Shiites in Baghdad killed at least five people and wounded 21 others on Sunday, Iraqi officials said, an attack claimed by the IS extremist group. The attack struck the Baghdad Jadida area near a tent where Shiite Muslims provide refreshments to passersby as part of annual commemorations of the death of Imam Hussain, a ...

  Vilnius / AFP Lithuanians fed up with economic inequality and mass emigration voted on Sunday in round one of a tight general election, which could oust the governing Social Democrats. Russia’s latest deployment of nuclear-capable Iskander missiles to its neighbouring Kaliningrad exclave rattled nerves just a day ahead of the vote. But the reassurance provided by NATO’s beefed up presence ...

  Bloomberg Georgian Dream won parliamentary elections, retaining power by edging the party of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, according to preliminary results from the Central Elections Commission. The party received 49.3 percent of the vote in the Black Sea country with 26.5 percent for United National Movement, according to the commission website. The Alliance of Patriots of Georgia party exceeded ...

  Beirut / AFP Syrian government forces on Sunday kept up their blistering assault on rebel-held eastern Aleppo after a divided UN Security Council failed to agree on a truce to “save” the war-battered city. Regime forces and their allies were advancing street by street in the eastern sector which has been out of government hands since 2012. “Clashes on ...

  AFP The number of war-displaced civilians in Kunduz has more than doubled to 24,000, the UN said on Sunday, as street battles persisted a week after the Taliban stormed into the northern Afghan city. Terrified residents facing a growing humanitarian crisis have been fleeing explosions and gunfights to neighbouring provinces of Balkh, Takhar, Baghlan and the capital Kabul. “Initial ...

  Berlin / AFP German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday left for Mali, the first stop on a three-day Africa tour focused on security and stemming the migrant influx to Europe. Merkel later heads to Niger and then Ethiopia where she is to visit the African Union headquarters in the capital Addis Ababa. Her talks with leaders of all three ...

  Ankara / AFP Eighteen people were killed on Sunday when a van packed with five tonnes of explosives blew up in Turkey’s restive southeast in an attack blamed on Kurdish militants, the prime minister said. The bombing, which killed 10 soldiers and eight civilians, was one of the single deadliest attacks on the Turkish security forces since the attempted ...

  Seoul / AFP Analysis published on Sunday of recent satellite images fuelled concerns that North Korea may be on the brink of another nuclear test or long-range rocket launch. Speculation that Pyongyang is preparing such a show of force has been linked to Monday’s anniversary of the founding of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party. Past nuclear tests and missile ...