Bloomberg Hillary Clinton scored a dominating victory over Bernie Sanders in South Carolina’s Democratic primary with the overwhelming support of black voters, helping solidify her path to the party’s nomination heading into Tuesday’s 11-state round of contests that represent the biggest prize of the 2016 primary campaign. “Tomorrow, this campaign goes national,’’ Clinton said in her victory speech in Columbia. ...
Read More »3 Stabbed, 13 arrested at ‘KKK’ rally in California
Los Angeles / afp Three people were stabbed, one of them critically, and 13 others were arrested in California when a Ku Klux Klan (KKK) rally erupted into clashes with counter-protesters, witnesses and police said. Around midday, half a dozen members of the white hate group, whose ranks still number several thousand in the United States, arrived at the protest ...
Read More »Ireland faces uncertainty after ousting coalition
Dublin / AFP Ireland waited for the final results on Sunday of an election that has left the eurozone country in limbo, ejecting Prime Minister Enda Kenny’s governing coalition but offering no clear alternative. First results from Friday’s vote indicated Kenny’s Fine Gael party and its junior partner, Labour, will no longer have a parliamentary majority—but neither will any other ...
Read More »Refugees stuck on Greek border after ‘cap on arrival’
Athens / AFP Some 6,500 people were stuck at the Idomeni camp on Greece’s northern border with Macedonia after four Balkan countries announced a daily cap on migrant arrivals. The build-up began in earnest last week after Macedonia started refusing entry to Afghans and imposed stricter document controls on Syrians and Iraqis, slowing the passage of migrants and refugees to ...
Read More »Blame game tests Syria truce
Damascus / AFP Key players in Syria’s war traded accusations on Sunday over violations of the first major ceasefire in the five-year conflict, but the truce remained largely intact on its second day. Aid groups hope to use the lull in fighting that has claimed 270,000 lives and displaced more than half the population to deliver desperately needed supplies. A ...
Read More »Erdogan has ‘no respect’ for court releasing journalists
Istanbul / AFP Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said he has “no respect” for a decision by the Constitutional Court to order the release of two Turkish journalists held in jail for three months on charges of revealing state secrets. “I am not in a position to agree with this decision. I am saying this very clearly: I ...
Read More »Israeli settlement closed to Palestinians after attack
Jerusalem / AFP Palestinians have been barred from entering one of the largest Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank for five days after an attack that critically wounded a security guard, an official said on Sunday. The Israeli police ban on entry to the Maale Adumim settlement is to last until Thursday and affects some 500 Palestinian labourers, a ...
Read More »Iran president’s political allies make gains in Tehran
TEHRAN / AFP Reformist allies of Hassan Rouhani swept all 30 parliamentary seats in the Iranian capital, handing the moderate president a major boost on Sunday in elections seen as vital to his government. The List of Hope, a pro-Rouhani coalition of moderates and reformists, was on course to wipe out its conservative rivals in Tehran with 90 percent of ...
Read More »Chad leader facing biggest protests of his long rule
Chad / AFP The nationwide strikes which brought Chad’s biggest cities to a halt this week over President Idriss Deby Itno’s planned bid for re-election are some of the most significant protests of the hardliner’s 26-year rule. The strike, which ran under the slogan “That’s Enough”, successfully locked down N’Djamena, leaving classrooms emptied and the capital’s two big markets deserted ...
Read More »How to cool down Donald Trump
“Hell,†said Alabama’s Democratic Gov. George Wallace before roiling the 1968 presidential race, “we got too much dignity in government now, what we need is some meanness.†Twelve elections later, Wallace’s wish is approaching fulfillment as Republicans contemplate nominating someone who would run to Hillary Clinton’s left. Donald Trump, unencumbered by any ballast of convictions, would court Bernie Sanders’ disaffected ...
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