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  Bloomberg Venezuela declared a two-day work week for government workers and said it was seeking international help to save its power grid amid a drought that threatens the capital’s main source of electricity. The two-day work week, after the government added Wednesdays and Thursdays as non-working days to save more power, will last at least two weeks, President Nicolas ...

  Bloomberg Mexico’s unemployment rate fell to the lowest in almost eight years in March, the latest sign of stronger growth in Latin America’s second-largest economy. The unemployment rate fell to 3.74 percent in non-seasonally adjusted terms, according to a report published on Wednesday by the nation’s statistics agency, known as Inegi. That was below the 3.9 percent median estimate ...

  Vienna/ AFP The Austrian parliament voted on Wednesday on adopting some of Europe’s toughest asylum laws, as the country’s political leaders struggle to halt the surging far-right which triumphed in a weekend presidential poll. The hotly-disputed bill would let the government declare a “state of emergency” over the migrant crisis and reject most asylum-seekers, including from war-torn countries like ...

  BEIRUT / AP Militants from the IS group seized five villages from Syrian rebels close to the Turkish border on Wednesday, further weakening the rebels’ foothold in the Aleppo area. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a network of activists monitoring the Syria conflict, said the extremist group took five villages in Azaz district, north of Aleppo, where ...

  SYDNEY/ AFP Sudanese refugee Aliir Aliir will complete an extraordinary journey when he makes his debut for the Sydney Swans against Brisbane on Sunday in Australian Rules football. The 21-year-old Aliir was born in a Kenyan refugee camp to parents who fled war-torn Sudan and arrived in Australia as a small child. He played soccer and basketball before taking ...

  Berlin / AFP Germany announced on Wednesday it is replacing the head of its foreign intelligence service, which has been rocked by revelations it helped the US National Security Agency spy on European targets. Gerhard Schindler, 63, will take early retirement from July 1, leaving the reins of the BND service to Bruno Kahl, a trained lawyer and currently high-ranking ...

  SEOUL / AP Facing mounting international pressure over its nuclear and missile ambitions, North Korea has set a date for its biggest political convention in decades next week that is expected to bolster young dictator Kim Jong un’s grip on power. The ruling Workers’ Party, led by Kim, will open its 7th congress in Pyongyang on May 6, the ...

  Tehran / AFP Nearly a quarter of Iran’s parliamentary seats are at stake on Friday in an election in which reformists want to consolidate their recent comeback and minimise the clout of hardline lawmakers. The second round run-offs were triggered because no candidate in 68 constituencies managed to win 25 percent of votes cast in the initial nationwide ballot on ...

  STEPANAKERT, Nagorno-Karabakh The military commander of this breakaway Armenian republic predicted in an interview here Monday that a fragile cease-fire could collapse within days. By that night, Azerbaijani shelling had killed two Armenian soldiers in a northern border town, amid accusations by each side that the other had violated the truce. The “frozen conflict” here, stalemated for 22 years, ...

Saudi Arabia’s ambitious strategy to restructure the Kingdom’s economy is seen as an unprecedented departure from oil dependency to diversification. In recent years, Riyadh has relied on oil revenues for about 90% of its budget. The new economic paradigm shift involves diversification, privatisation of massive state assets — including the energy giant Aramco — tax increases and subsidy cuts. Prince ...