World

As Cuban President Raul Castro prepares to step down next month, ending his family’s six-decade grip on power, his successor will be faced with major challenges, including the implementation of economic reforms vital for the island’s future. On Sunday, Cubans went to the polls to ratify a new National Assembly, …

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday thanked residents of Crimea for voting to annex the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, calling the move “real democracy” in a speech days ahead of Sunday’s presidential election. “With your decision you restored historical justice,” he told the crowd of supporters in the city …

Eladio Sanchez is unimpressed by the eight border wall prototypes looming over his house in Tijuana, Mexico, almost within spitting distance of where US President Donald Trump will visit Tuesday. At age 30, he has already snuck over the border several times, and doesn’t expect Trump’s wall will have much …

BEIRUT: After seven years of war in Syria, the United Nations has one thing to say: Stop the war on children. The numbers speak for themselves. Of Syria’s estimated 10 million children, 8.6 million are now in dire need of assistance, up from about half a million after the first …

Ten years after their arrests in a politically charged case that prompted accusations of police overreach, eight members of an alleged “anarchist cell” will go on trial in France on Tuesday over claims of sabotaging high-speed train lines. The “Tarnac group”, named after the village near their communal living compound …

Elements of the Taliban are open to talks with the Afghan government, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday as he arrived in Kabul on an unannounced visit. Mattis flew into the war-torn city two weeks after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani unveiled a plan to open peace talks with the …

Pressure mounted Tuesday on Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over a ballooning cronyism and cover-up scandal, as a new poll showed his support at the lowest level since his re-election in October. Abe and his finance minister Taro Aso have been on the ropes in recent days following revelations that …

In a derelict car park a stone’s throw from the centre of Rome live dozens of mostly African migrants, who sleep in tents while dreaming of escaping to northern Europe. The March 4 general election saw parties promising mass expulsions of illegal immigrants make big gains, but in reality little …

MOSCOW: Soon after Vladimir Putin is re-elected on Sunday, his thoughts will turn to the question that is likely to dominate his next term as Russia’s president: what will he do when it ends? Putin’s victory in the presidential election is not in doubt as his ratings are high and …

TOKYO: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a South Korean representative on Tuesday he wants talks with North Korea, called to dismantle Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile programmes, to resolve a dispute over past abductions of Japanese citizens as well. “A resolution of the abduction, nuclear and missile issues is Japan’s …