Money, money, money: the tycoon factor in India’s electionIndia's tycoons are playing a pivotal role in the Asian giant's most expensive election ever, from funding campaigns and tacit endorsements to being hot-button issues themselves. Prime Minister Narend...
As Indonesia’s Widodo seeks a second term, rural voters have some doubtsTwo months ago, Indonesian farmer Tama harvested several tonnes of shallots from a small plot of land he had rented in the village of Grinting in central Java. In several ways, Tama had President Joko...
Cuban president calls for strengthened defenses, economy in response to Trump threatsCuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel accused the Trump administration on Saturday of dragging relations with the United States to their worst level in decades and called on Cubans to strengthen the Commu...
Cory Booker launches ‘Justice’ tour, aiming for surge in US presidential bidUS Senator Cory Booker held the first major rally of his presidential campaign on Saturday in the city that launched his political career, saying America "can't wait" any longer to address the country...
Abducted Italian, Canadian are alive, says Burkina govtAn Italian man and his Canadian companion abducted last December in Burkina Faso are alive but may have been moved to another country, a Burkinabe government spokesman said. An Italian missionary abuc...
Gay liberal Mayor expected to launch presidential bidPete Buttigieg, the gay, liberal mayor of a small American city in the conservative bastion of Indiana, was expected to officially launch his presidential bid Sunday, joining a crowded field of Democr...
Pelosi hits Trump over use of 9/11 images to criticise Muslim lawmakerUS House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticised President Donald Trump on Saturday for a Twitter post that used 9/11 imagery while suggesting Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a Muslim,...
Vultures circle Berlusconi’s Forza Italia as support ebbs awayFormer Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi could suffer mass defections from his Forza Italia group if it performs badly in next month's EU elections, putting the very future of the group at risk, party...
Democrats defend Omar after Trump retweets video against herTop Democrats on Saturday rushed to defend Rep. Ilhan Omar after President Donald Trump retweeted video that was edited to suggest she was being dismissive of the significance of the worst terrorist a...
Venezuela’s Maduro orders militia expansion as Guaido tours blackout-ravaged stateVenezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday ordered an expansion of civilian militia by nearly one million members as opposition leader Juan Guaido toured western Zulia state, which has been hard...
One dead in shooting outside Australia nightclub, three injuredA drive-by shooting outside a nightclub in the Australian city of Melbourne inflicted “horrific injuries” that killed a security guard and wounded three men, police said on Sunday, but there was no su...
Six more detained over China blast that killed 78Police have detained six more suspects linked to a chemical plant blast in eastern China last month which killed 78 and left hundreds injured, local authorities said. The explosion in Jiangsu province...
Struggle over leadership deepens divions in Tunisian president’s partyTunisia's ruling party Nidaa Tounes on Saturday elected two leaders, one of them the president's son, in two parallel congresses, deepening the division that has hit the party in recent years. The new...
Brazil president raises eyebrows saying Holocaust can be forgivenBrazilian President Jair Bolsonaro drew veiled rebukes from Israel on Saturday after saying the Nazi genocide of the Jews during World War Two could be forgiven. The far-right Bolsonaro made a solidar...
Ivanka Trump in Africa to promote women at work programmeLeaving behind the White House battles over border walls and tax returns, Ivanka Trump is visiting Ethiopia and Ivory Coast in pursuit of a very different goal - advancing a global women's program she...
Assange’s father calls on Australia to bring him homeWikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's father on Sunday called on Australia to bring his son home, saying he was shocked to see his son's condition after his arrest in London last week. John Shipton -- wh...
‘Fake news’ fuelling ethno-religious crisis in Nigeria: expertsMisinformation risks worsening ethnic and religious tensions in Nigeria, media commentators and researchers say, at a time of heightened concern about internal security and fragile community relations...
Iraq begins trial proceedings for 900 jihadist suspectsIraq has begun trial proceedings for nearly 900 Iraqi suspected members of the Islamic State group caught fleeing jihadist territory in neighbouring Syria, a judicial source told AFP on Sunday. They w...
The Hong Kong beekeeper harvesting hives barehandedHigh up in the hills above Hong Kong, Yip Ki-hok uses nothing but his bare hands to remove a honey-filled nest of swarming bees -- a remarkable skill he learned after the hardship of China's famine ye...
Zardari questions NAB’s jurisdiction in Park Lane caseAsif Ali Former president Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday submitted response to a questionnaire handed over to him by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Rawalpindi. Reports said that in his written...
Kim Jong Un open to another summit with TrumpNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he is open to a third summit with President Donald Trump, but set the year’s end as a deadline for Washington to offer mutually acceptable terms for an agreement t...
Finland populists eye election upset as anti-immigrant feeling risesIn the remote, northern Finnish town of Oulu where he has lived for seven years, Syrian-born Jabo Waleed recently started feeling that some people's behaviour towards him was becoming less welcoming....
Trump considering sending migrants to ‘sanctuary cities’US President Donald Trump said Friday he is seriously considering funneling detained illegal migrants into the self-declared sanctuary cities that oppose his tough immigration policies. Trump's announ...
Decades on, war-scarred Beirut buildings remainThey are a common sight around Beirut, but their presence barely registers with Lebanese citizens anymore. Nearly 30 years after civil war guns fell silent, dozens of bullet-scarred, shell-pocked buil...
Pedal power: India election crusader cycling for ‘real’ democracyLal Mani Das raises his voice above the morning din outside a railway station in the eastern Indian city of Patna city to make an appeal: Vote for a strong democracy. The 45-year-old from impoverished...
Migrants break border gate, force their way into MexicoMexican authorities said a group of about 350 migrants broke the locks on a gate at the Guatemalan border Friday and forced their way into southern Mexico to join a larger group of migrants trying to...
France jails ‘jihadist’ woman accused over foiled terror attackOne of three women allegedly involved in a foiled plot in 2016 to blow up a car packed with gas canisters near the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris was on Friday sentenced to eight years in prison by a F...
No official British apology for 1919 Amritsar MassacreThe Amritsar massacre, 100 years ago this Saturday in which British troops opened fire on thousands of unarmed protestors, remains one of the darkest hours of British colonial rule in India. Known in...
‘The people’s messengers’: Myanmar’s satirical poets target censorshipIn a classroom on the outskirts of Myanmar's biggest city, a thin, bespectacled university student led about a dozen peers in boisterous chants of "Censorship is a shame!" and "We don’t believe in cen...
Vietnam woman in Kim brother’s murder to be freed on May 3A Vietnamese woman accused of killing the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will walk free on May 3, her lawyer said Saturday. Following diplomatic pressure from the Vietnamese governmen...
Quake-hit Indonesians refuse to leave high ground: officialSome panicked residents of a quake-hit Indonesian island have refused to return home after the tremor triggered a brief tsunami warning and fears there was more to come, the disaster agency said Satur...
India hopes to avoid US sanctions over Russian missile dealIndia is hopeful it will avoid US sanctions over its purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile system, Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told AFP. New Delhi has been “heard and understood” by the US admini...
Qatar seeks to transform diabetes care with ‘whole nation’ projectIn an unremarkable office in a Doha hospital, a study is taking place which could transform the way Qatar deals with one of its most persistent health issues -- diabetes. A small team led by professor...
Two employees from Venezuela’s central bank arrested after meeting Guaido: lawyerTwo people who work at Venezuela's central bank were arrested on Friday after meeting opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has called on public officials to disavow President Nicolas Maduro, according t...
Colombia gets $31.5 million grant to aid Venezuelan migrantsA refugee fund set up by the World Bank, the United Nations and the Islamic Development Bank on Friday approved a $31.5 million grant for Colombia to aid Venezuelan migrants and refugees. The Global C...
Pompeo says US won’t quit fight in Venezuela, defends sanctionsUS Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday defended sanctions on Venezuela and said the United States would not "quit the fight" in the socialist-run Latin American nation which is spiralling into de...
S Africa graft scandals overshadow ruling ANC’s election bidWith less than four weeks to go until South Africans vote in a general election, corruption scandals again threaten to tear open old rivalries within the long-governing African National Congress. Afte...