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by Sailendra Sil in Kolkata and Abhaya Srivastava in New Delhi Voting in one of India’s most acrimonious elections in decades entered its final day Sunday as Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi scrambled to hang on to his overall majority. The seventh and final round of voting ended the world’s biggest election with 900 million eligible voters from Goa’s beaches to Mumbai’s slums and Ladakh’s Himalayan monasteries. Long queues formed outside polling stations in […]
Each country in the European Union has its own rules for voting in the May 23-26 elections to the bloc’s parliament. Here is an overview. – Who votes when? – Twenty-one of the EU’s 28 members go to the polls on May 26, a Sunday, including France, Germany and Poland. Britain and The Netherlands vote on Thursday May 23; Ireland on the 24th; Latvia, Malta and Slovakia on the 25th. In the Czech Republic, voters […]
by Christian SPILLMANN Four days before Europe’s 400 million potential voters are called to the polls, EU leaders hope to reverse the usual low turnout to avoid opening the door to eurosceptic forces. The European Parliament, that will be elected in votes across 28 nations between Thursday and Sunday, has never been more important in framing the continent’s laws. But each such continent-wide vote since the first one in 1979 has seen a lower turnout […]
Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said Sunday he wanted snap elections to take place in September after the government collapsed over a corruption scandal. “My preference is for early elections in September, if possible the beginning of September,” he told journalists after holding talks with Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. The legal procedures to fix the date will now have to take place over the coming weeks, with Van der Bellen set to hold further talks […]
The Vatican Supreme Court has cleared a senior priest accused of making advances towards a German nun during confession, the Vatican said on Friday. The five-member Supreme Court, the Apostolic Signatura, said in a statement that after careful examination the “serious” allegation could not be proved “with the required moral certitude”. Austrian priest Hermann Geissler proclaimed his innocence but resigned in January as one of three top officials at the Congregation for the Doctrine of […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The Federal Aviation Administration has warned US airlines flying over the Gulf to exercise caution “due to heightened military activities and increased political tensions in the region.” The advisory, which also covers airspace over the Gulf of Oman, comes amid rising tensions between the US and Iran. Increased tensions in the region “present an increasing inadvertent risk to US civil aviation operations due to the potential for miscalculation or […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — The first exit polls from Australia’s climate-dominated election Saturday showed a victory for the opposition Labor party. A Nine-Galaxy poll showed Labor beating the governing Liberal coalition 52-48, which would signal a clear parliamentary majority. It would see former union leader Bill Shorten become prime minister after six years of conservative government. The poll canvased 3,300 voters in 33 seats and echo pre-vote surveys that tipped Labor to win. The […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea is experiencing its worst drought in over a century, official media reported Friday, days after the World Food Programme expressed “very serious concerns” about the situation in the country. The isolated, impoverished North — which is under several sets of sanctions over its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs — has long struggled to feed itself and suffers chronic food shortages. It recorded its worst harvest for a […]
by Omar Hasan DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — Attacks on Saudi and UAE oil assets built to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, a strategically important waterway in the Gulf, have raised fears that alternative routes could be vulnerable. Four ships including two Saudi oil tankers were damaged in mysterious sabotage attacks Sunday off Fujairah, an emirate located at the crucial entrance to the Gulf. That incident was followed by drone strikes Tuesday by Yemen’s […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — A former South Korean vice justice minister has been arrested on allegations of bribery, including being provided with prostitutes by a construction contractor. Kim Hak-ui is a former prosecutor who briefly served as the number two at the justice ministry in 2013, during the administration of ousted former president Park Geun-hye. He is accused of accepting bribes worth 130 million won ($110,000) and sexual entertainment on more than 100 occasions […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — French President Emmanuel Macron warned Thursday about the danger of a “technological war or a trade war” between the US and China as the countries clash over Chinese telecoms group Huawei. “Our perspective is not to block Huawei or any company, it is to preserve our national security and European sovereignty,” Macron told reporters at the Vivatech trade show in Paris. “But I think launching now a technological war or a […]
by Alice RITCHIE LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Theresa May’s Brexit minister said Wednesday that her EU withdrawal deal would be “dead” if parliament rejects it for a fourth time next month after the British premier set the date for what could be the final act of her leadership. May said MPs will vote on legislation to implement the Brexit deal in the week starting June 3, with the aim of getting Britain out of […]
