Tag Archives: politics

Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angolan state-owned oil company Sonangol rode the commodities boom that drove the country’s extraordinary growth after civil war ended in 2002, but today it symbolises a national economic crisis. The Luanda-based company has increasingly been in focus since Isabel dos Santos, the billionaire daughter of …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabweans know the risks of worthless money all too well after hyperinflation between 2007 and 2009 gave them the 100-trillion-dollar banknote that barely bought a loaf of bread. Now they fear that the government is about to create another devastating crisis by printing its own …

Istanbul, Turkey | AFP | Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said his government would ask parliament to consider reintroducing the death penalty as a punishment for the plotters behind the July coup bid. “Our government will take this (proposal on capital punishment) to parliament. I am convinced that …

Rajoy, the under-estimated survivor who wore his rivals down Madrid, Spain | AFP | Spain’s conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy won back power Saturday, at the age of 61, after a war of attrition against younger rivals who under-estimated his resistance after 35 years in politics. Just like in 2005 …

Beijing, China | AFP | Chinese Communist chief Xi Jinping’s ascension to the highest title in the party hierarchy formalises his position as its pre-eminent figure, analysts said, making him the country’s most powerful leader in a generation and inviting comparisons with Mao Zedong. The ruling party’s declaration that Xi …

Washington, United States | AFP | The US Supreme Court said Friday that it will decide which bathrooms should be used by transgender people, a highly sensitive question with national political resonance. The case involves 17-year-old Gavin Grimm, who was born a female but identifies as a male. Grimm filed …

Seoul, South Korea | AFP | South Korean prosecutors on Saturday raided the homes and offices of senior advisers to President Park Geun-Hye, as she struggled with a corruption and influence-peddling scandal involving a close family friend. The crisis centred around Park’s long-time confidante Choi Soon-Sil has rocked her presidency, …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | Britain’s former prime minister Tony Blair said Friday there was nothing preventing a second Brexit referendum and warned that the break-up would be “very, very tough” as European leaders were in an unforgiving mood. He called on fellow “Remain” supporters to “mobilise and to …

Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP |  Ivory Coast heads to the polls Sunday for a referendum on a new constitution their president insists will heal a nation beset by violent turmoil, but which the opposition says is dangerously anti-democratic. Given that President Alassane Ouattara’s political foes have called for a …

Luanda, Angola | AFP |  Leaders of the Great Lakes region called Thursday for the UN peacekeeping force in strife-torn DR Congo to be bolstered, as fears rise of an upsurge in violence linked to delayed presidential polls. At the end of two-day talks, they called for more contributions to …