WORLD

Sofia, Bulgaria | AFP |  Single mother-of-two Sara Faizi from Afghanistan faced a dead end when she arrived in Bulgaria in 2018: the former bank branch operations manager needed a job but neither spoke the local language nor had any contacts. An energetic Bulgarian, Iva Gumnishka, 25, and her social enterprise …

Dublin, Ireland | AFP |  Ireland’s three main parties are tied neck-and-neck following Saturday’s general election according to an exit poll, leaving the question of who will control the next government hanging in the balance. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar’s incumbent Fine Gael party, their centre-right rivals Fianna Fail and left-wingers Sinn …

Manchester, United States | AFP |  White House hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg — riding neck-and-neck in the polls ahead of the next Democratic primary contest — come under sustained attack on the debate stage from rivals seeking to challenge Donald Trump in November. Buttigieg, a former mayor of South …

Washington, United States | AFP |  US President Donald Trump on Friday fired two of the highest profile witnesses in his impeachment probe, sparking accusations that he is on a campaign of revenge. Trump recalled his ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, just hours after Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a …

Washington, United States | AFP | He said he expected to be “vehemently denounced” and it did not take long. When Republican Party veteran Mitt Romney voted for US President Donald Trump to be removed from office at his impeachment trial, the backlash was fast and furious. Trump has now lashed …

Gapyeong, South Korea | AFP | Thousands of couples — some in facemasks — tied the knot in a mass Unification Church wedding Friday, despite concerns in South Korea over the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. The church founded by Sun Myung Moon — revered as a messiah by his followers …

Thumanë, Albania | AFP |  When a powerful earthquake struck Albania more than two months ago, buildings collapsed like houses of cards atop sleeping families. As the country struggles to put the pieces back together, it is facing a structural reality that the disaster exposed: the scourge of illegal construction that …

Dubai, United Arab Emirates | AFP | Energy-addicted Gulf states must undertake much deeper reforms or risk seeing their wealth drain away in 15 years as global demand for oil slides, the IMF warned Thursday. “At the current fiscal stance, the region’s financial wealth could be depleted by 2034,” the International …

Washington, United States | AFP | The United States and its allies should take controlling stakes in Nokia, Ericsson or both to battle Chinese telecoms giant Huawei’s dominance of the 5G market, US Attorney general Bill Barr said Thursday. “There are only two companies that can compete with Huawei right now: …

BRUNSMARK, Germany | AFP |  The tiny village of Brunsmark, an hour outside Hamburg in the lush north German countryside, might seem an unlikely spot to suffer a sudden Brexit shock. But Britain’s departure from the European Union means Iain Macnab, a Scotsman comfortably settled in the area for decades, must …